Two 12s vs. a 15 & Two 10s

[w00tah 10+ year member]

The enclosure or tuning frequency would have LITTLE to do with that...... having a 10 tuned at 80hz and a 12 tuned at 30hz would still cause cancellation because that 10 is still playing exactly what that 12 is. What you mean is with an extreamly complex crossover network you MIGHT be able to create good sound. But then again, why?

Truth. No need to spend far more time and money than needed to get the same, if not better, results.

Kef

 

[DePratt 10+ year member]

Sorry a little harsh,

i would recommend a monoblock (1 chan) amp for sub usage

 

[spentfromnz 10+ year member]

Why? Because it could have amazing clarity, you never know. There are 4-way mid speakers, why not a 4 way sub. Of course there would be a crossover network involved, but it wouldn't exactly be complex, just the right size cap and coil wired to each cone. Off the top of my head i would say you would probably split it something like 0-44 on the 15, 45-70 on the 12, 71-200 on the 10 and 201-500 on the 8. Having said this, any such system along those lines would be better suited to a gallery installation than a car.

 

[spentfromnz 10+ year member]

Anyway back to reality, three tens or two twelves. I worked out the cone surface area for the Kenwood W3011 and W2511 that I'm thinking of using, and the 2 12s come in at around 846cm2 while 3 10s are around 798cm2. Don't know what that is in inches, but anyway it's pretty close. The tens however would be running at 1.33ohm vs the 12s at 2ohm so they would be drawing a bit more current than the 12s from an identical amp. Would this more than compensate for the lesser cone area I wonder.

If I went pure SQ, I could get away with like one really good 10 yeah?

 

[Lil Poot 5,000+ posts]

i actually have heard a mixed size setup, the first system i had consisted of 2 jl 10w3s and 2 12w3s all sealed in my 1990 camaro. at the time, i thought it was awesome, but i was 16 and it was the loudest system i'd heard.

can't really comment on the sq, because again, i was 16 and ignorant, but i doubt it sounded very good. i had 2 soundsplinter rl-p 12s sealed in my 87 ***** am that were much louder and cleaner.

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

1) with that number of watts it is not going to be F'in loud

2) mixing subs causes cancellation

3)having 3 or 4 different tuning frequencies would give you a really screwy EQ curve

4)people have tried this and they all get laughed at

But by all means.......go for it. Will be one more setup that gives me more pride in my own.

 

[spentfromnz 10+ year member]

Not f'n loud to you of course being a car audio enthusiest. But f'n loud to the average person, in comparison to what a stock car stereo would sound like.

I think we have established already that a 15 and 10s is no good. But haven't heard anyone weighing in yet on 3 10s vs 2 12s

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

Why? Because it could have amazing clarity, you never know. There are 4-way mid speakers, why not a 4 way sub. Of course there would be a crossover network involved, but it wouldn't exactly be complex, just the right size cap and coil wired to each cone. Off the top of my head i would say you would probably split it something like 0-44 on the 15, 45-70 on the 12, 71-200 on the 10 and 201-500 on the 8. Having said this, any such system along those lines would be better suited to a gallery installation than a car.

It's really clear you don't know what you're talking about, so it'd just be best to stop while you're still...here, I guess. My question to you would be, why split up two octaves worth of sound into 4 different speakers?

Anything above ~80hz isn't subwoofer territory anymore. Generally speaking, anything above 80hz "should" be playing in front of you since music becomes directional above that point in the frequency response.

You're arguing a winless side of this argument. Doing multiple sized setups with each size playing diferent frequencies is pointless, especially in car audio. You say that all that would be needed is a simple cap and coil wired to each one...which would result in just a 6db/oct slope for the crossover. With a crossover that shallow, do you really think you're going to have good separation of the audio signal from one speaker to the other? I was thinking something along the lines of a 36db/oct slope to be more appropriate for a situation like that...a useless/pointless situation.

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

Not f'n loud to you of course being a car audio enthusiest. But f'n loud to the average person, in comparison to what a stock car stereo would sound like.
I think we have established already that a 15 and 10s is no good. But haven't heard anyone weighing in yet on 3 10s vs 2 12s

like I said.....you have all the right to continue to be ignorant and blind to other people's knowledge but...if you want a system you will be happy with you may want to take some advice.

The fact that you want to power subwoofer with a 4 channel is enough for me to know that you have no clue what you are doing

 

[rickymac21 10+ year member]

OP(Original Poster)
Do not mix-match woofers nor woofer sizes. It's not for the best.

My advice to you, in order to receive the best advice, is to tell us what you want and a price range in which to stay - from there we can further help you.

x2... mixmatching subs im my opinions is useless. plus with the wattage you plan on running you wont be able to run 2 10's a 15 without getting some cheapo crappy set of subs... my advice get 1 15" and a decent amp.

 

[its_bacon12 10+ year member]

An 8 inch subwoofer can reproduce the same frequencies a 15 can. Maybe not with the authority, but it still can play 20 hz.

What you're suggesting is far more complex than needed. Not to mention, if you had each one ported, you'd have an extremely peaky response at some notes and almost nothing at other notes.

Sure you could do a passive crossover but to do it the right way and sound good with that many drivers on the low end, you would definitely need more than just a cap and a coil between each speaker to smooth out the response and correct phase variation if necessary.

Just stick with 2 12's or something along the lines of that. I have 1 10" subwoofer and it's more than enough for me from 20-75 hz. My midbass drivers pick it up at 60 hz.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

I think we have established already that a 15 and 10s is no good. But haven't heard anyone weighing in yet on 3 10s vs 2 12s

Do whichever you want. There's no right or wrong choice.

 

[rickymac21 10+ year member]

like I said.....you have all the right to continue to be ignorant and blind to other people's knowledge but...if you want a system you will be happy with you may want to take some advice.
The fact that you want to power subwoofer with a 4 channel is enough for me to know that you have no clue what you are doing

agreed... he needs some type of mono amp... 4 channels were not made to power subs, only components and other speakers..

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

Can you see the difference

1 quality 12" >3 garbage 10"s

 

[spentfromnz 10+ year member]

But ok why 400, well I can't see myself running the system much at obnoxiously intense levels of RMS. So I figure why spring for all that extra amp wattage then run the thing at 10% gain 90% of the time. Dumb move when I can just get a cheaper compact amp and run it balls to the wall most of the time I'm in the car. Plus I don't really want to replace the battery and alternator.