Two subs? One chamber?

[Trepkos 10+ year member]

Is there any pros and cons to doing this and would it be better or worse then two chambers?

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[Kold_Killa 10+ year member]

Pros = easier construction.

Cons = if one sub fails then the volume for the other sub becomes doubled which may cause over excursion and again the other sub will fail.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

The con only rears its head if you routinely blow stufff up. If you don't abuse your equipment, there's no con.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

The con only rears its head if you routinely blow stufff up. If you don't abuse your equipment, there's no con.

x2.

A plus for the dual chamber is strength; With the added material in the center it significantly increases box rigidity... This can also be accomplished with a single large enclosure with sufficient bracing.

 

[James Bang 5,000+ posts]

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[Haunz 10+ year member]

A single chamber is usually more desirable from the standpoint of sound quality... the physical coupling between the drivers will null out any variences in T/S paramaters...

 

[dumpin907 10+ year member]

A single chamber is usually more desirable from the standpoint of sound quality... the physical coupling between the drivers will null out any variences in T/S paramaters...

what about a sealed box for 3 12's? one chamber?

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

I thought this was the other way around. Sure, there is the con that if one speaker goes, the other is in twice the volume. How often does that honestly happen? I really don't consider it a con.

Either way, two subs sharing the same chamber means they are sharing the air. That gives them the potential to move eachother and change the way they play. To what degree is it noticeable? Not really sure. For peace of mind, I rather have my subs in their own chambers doing what they do.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Unless they're wired wrong or something is wrong with one of them, they won't move each other since they're wired together and getting the same signal. Now if you're running them on different channels of an amp or running each driver on its own amp, it makes sense to put them in independant chambers.

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

Don't they also have a better chance of phase issues in one chamber?

I've run both with dividers and without and haven't had a hitch, but at the end of the day I just want a divider in there.

 

[Ed Lester 10+ year member]

Acoustic coupled enclosures have potential for higher output.

In my experience I have noticed that seperate chambers have the potential for better SQ.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Don't they also have a better chance of phase issues in one chamber?

Phase does not come into play unless the drivers are wired incorrectly. If the subs are wired to different channels, a difference in power or crossover point/slope is a possibility. The separate channels are identical in construction, so time delay isn't a concern.

 

[MrDave 10+ year member]

Interesting stuff.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Unless someone has done some really wierd and dumb stuff in mounting the different drivers, they should be moving in unison and presurizing and rarifying the same listening space. They should effectively couple with the effect of a single diaphragm of an Sd equal to the sum of the individual Sd (and in certain mounting configs slightly larger). With wavelengths longer than the length of the listening enviornement there should be no phasing issues at all.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

^ unless the drivers are 100% identical, then they will not move completely in unison... manufacturing variences impact each individual drivers T/S parameters, and when using multiple drivers this will impact phasing/group delay and response curves.....

when multiple drivers are in a sharred air space if one attemps to move differently from another it will attempt to influence the way the other driver is moving as Mr.Dave has summized.... but what he is missing is that the other driver will oppose this motion....

This has the effect of averaging out any differences between the drivers....