Do you really only gain 6db when you double your sub setup?

Nicky Pass
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I've been thinking of putting 2 10"s in my truck with 300-ish watts. How does this equation work? If you have 1 10" with 150 watts, then you add another 10" with another 150 watts, you'll gain 6db in overall volume? Or is it if you have 1 10" with 150 watts and you put 300 to it you gain 6db?

Should I do 2 10"s with 150 watts a piece or 1 10" with 300 watts to it? If I can get away with buying 1 10" I could save a little money and space....which isn't a bad thing.

 
NO ITS NOT TRUE....everything has its dependencies...in this case in order to b louder they have to be put in the correct box, power has to be added and i'm guessing sealed boxes...who told you this 6 db thing?.....3 db on a meter is twice as loud to the ear....or some ish like that...

 
Double the cone area = 3 dB

Doubling only the power = 3 dB

Doubling both = 6 dB

But, you must remember this is all theoretical. It's very likely that you won't actually see that big of an increase.

 
A gain of 3dB on an SPL meter is doubling the ACOUSTICAL power. Doubling your ELECTRICAL power is NOT going to gain a pure 3dB in acoustical power because of losses while going from electrical to acoustical energy. There are always losses because nothing is 100% efficient.

To say it's "theoretical" to gain 3dB of acoustical energy from doubling cone area or power is to show an elementary knowledge of energy and physics.

When doubling cone area or power or both, it's possible to gain more or less than 6dB. Why? Because changing those variables will usually mean that you change how the electrical system is coupled to the acoustical system (your enclosure and environment). You could end up with a more efficient coupling device which means you could gain more than 6dB or you could end up with a system that's just as efficient and not gain much at all due to losses in heat.

We can't say whether two 10s would be better or not because the biggest factor is going to be the enclosure and environment.

 
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