What happens to notes below a subs frequency response?

Umbra

Hobbyist & CA Tenderfoot
I'm sifting through Decaf's remixes for stuff that I like. Most of the stuff he remixes doesn't really fit my musical tastes, but I like some of it. My friends are more into rap/hip-hop than I am, so it's nice to turn it up when they're in the car.

I noticed he includes what low notes the song hits in its title. I see some in the low twenties and even lower. I'm listening on a small surround sound attached to my computer currently. It's ported, no idea at what frequency, and I think it goes down to 25Hz. My car's subs only go down to 28Hz. They're in a sealed enclosure.

What happens when I play songs with

 
Anything your sub is sensitive to you will feel some kind of bass.

But if it does not go lower then 28hz or the amp's subsonic is set to 28hz you will not hear a thing.

Notes to low that your sub does not hit clearly will cause your coil to heat up faster do to distortion/clipping.

 
in the mid to low 20's people begin to not hear these tones. some can hear or will claim to hear down in the teens but all they really hear is port noise and distortion.

 
Anything your sub is sensitive to you will feel some kind of bass.
But if it does not go lower then 28hz or the amp's subsonic is set to 28hz you will not hear a thing.

Notes to low that your sub does not hit clearly will cause your coil to heat up faster do to distortion/clipping.
I think the subsonic filter is set at 25Hz. So anything 25 or below shouldn't be sent to the sub at all, so I suppose that's a good thing. So I can play those low songs, just the really low notes will be removed safely? If the subsonic filter was off, they'd be sent to the sub and it would try to reproduce them, causing distortion, clipping, and possibly slowly damaging it? Should I be concerned with the 25-28 range?

 
I think the subsonic filter is set at 25Hz. So anything 25 or below shouldn't be sent to the sub at all, so I suppose that's a good thing. So I can play those low songs, just the really low notes will be removed safely? If the subsonic filter was off, they'd be sent to the sub and it would try to reproduce them, causing distortion, clipping, and possibly slowly damaging it? Should I be concerned with the 25-28 range?
Depends on the sub and how much power your feeding.

 
Anything your sub is sensitive to you will feel some kind of bass.
But if it does not go lower then 28hz or the amp's subsonic is set to 28hz you will not hear a thing.

Notes to low that your sub does not hit clearly will cause your coil to heat up faster do to distortion/clipping.
What?

A crossover point is not a wall or barrier to the frequency response. It is a roll off.

We used to run subsonics up into the 50s and still drop into the 30s fine because we would run close to 10kw per sub.

Notes too low that the sub doesn't hit clearly will cause coil to heat up faster due to distortion? WHAT?

IF it's too low and not clear, the subsonic filter is in play.

How can HEAT be a stress factor if the x-over has attenuated, at this point, most of the potential output?

And do you know how hard it is to hear distortion from a subwoofer?

exceeding linear values of a sub is easy to hear but not distortion and if your point is more of a failure potential than audible one, no because the signal is too heavily attentuated.

IF someone's SSF was set too low, then it could heat up quicker but that statement goes with ANY frequency range, not just below tuning.

 
But if it does not go lower then 28hz or the amp's subsonic is set to 28hz you will not hear a thing.

Notes to low that your sub does not hit clearly will cause your coil to heat up faster do to distortion/clipping.

This is so very very wrong.

OP, in a sealed box you may or may not be OK depending on the sub and how much power. As frequency gets lower and lower the cone will want to move MUCH farther in and out to get to the same level of output. This can cause mechanical damage so you need to pay attention to the woofer's mechanical limits and use subsonic filter accordingly.... or simply buy a sub that offers more excursion.

 
Didn't realize subsonic filters worked like crossovers. Thanks for clarifying.

Alright, taking all crossovers and filters out of play: what happens to notes below a sub's frequency response? Are trying to play them an audible concern, a mechanical one, both?

Edit: hispls, you got that in as I was replying

 
What?
A crossover point is not a wall or barrier to the frequency response. It is a roll off.

We used to run subsonics up into the 50s and still drop into the 30s fine because we would run close to 10kw per sub.

Notes too low that the sub doesn't hit clearly will cause coil to heat up faster due to distortion? WHAT?

IF it's too low and not clear, the subsonic filter is in play.

How can HEAT be a stress factor if the x-over has attenuated, at this point, most of the potential output?

And do you know how hard it is to hear distortion from a subwoofer?

exceeding linear values of a sub is easy to hear but not distortion and if your point is more of a failure potential than audible one, no because the signal is too heavily attentuated.

IF someone's SSF was set too low, then it could heat up quicker but that statement goes with ANY frequency range, not just below tuning.
I may have sounded ignorant as i never tried going into detail, but as far as your statement 10000 watts pretty much makes the subsonic filter useless as its way to much power for a crossover not dedicated to highs and lows to clear out.

As for notes not being played clearly was meant to say if the sub tried playing a low frequency which it could not handle it would start to mechanicly fail causing more heat from stress of going over the xmax or to be technical like YOU "farther then its excursion limits"

This is so very very wrong.

OP, in a sealed box you may or may not be OK depending on the sub and how much power. As frequency gets lower and lower the cone will want to move MUCH farther in and out to get to the same level of output. This can cause mechanical damage so you need to pay attention to the woofer's mechanical limits and use subsonic filter accordingly.... or simply buy a sub that offers more excursion.
As you clearly skimmed my posts and assumed i was ignorant you like to always seem to try to be on top of others and call people out.

I dont mean to disrupt the ops thread, but i hate when others like to call people out because we are not posting as technical as they do.

Also i was speaking soley on a ported situation as the op clearly said he has a ported and not sealed box.

 
For your ported box on your computer, it will depend on what it's tuned to to determine if you can play those low notes below 28. YES a subsonic filter is a crossover so it will still pick up some of those frequencies below 28, just not all. You might not even be able to hear it much anyway, rather feel it at that low of a frequency. Your sealed enclosure shouldn't matter too much because they tend to play even lower frequencies but at a gradual slope and starts much earlier than a ported box. Unless your sealed box is way too small then that's a different story. You should be fine playing those songs below 28 but if you hear a lot of weird mechanical noises, then put a ssf on it and move it up until you don't hear it anymore.

 
Below 28Hz is fairly low and to have the system have good low extension, you would ideally need a decent size ported enclosure tuned in the mid 30's or below. Even if your computer sub's box is tuned low, it won't matter if the box is too small - you won't get the low extension, and I've personally experienced this. There is a steep roll off below the enclosure's tuning frequency. Your sub's resonant frequency don't have as much to do with it as much as enclosure's resonant frequency. For people who seek musicality, but also the low end extension, they tune their boxes anywhere from mid 30's to high 20's. The notes below enclosure's tuning frequency play, but you lose output (volume). How much output? Depends on your filter settings, the sub itself, and size/design of the box.

 
I may have sounded ignorant as i never tried going into detail, but as far as your statement 10000 watts pretty much makes the subsonic filter useless as its way to much power for a crossover not dedicated to highs and lows to clear out.
The subsonic filter is a preamp filter meaning it filters the signal before it's amplified to 10kw.

As for notes not being played clearly was meant to say if the sub tried playing a low frequency which it could not handle it would start to mechanicly fail causing more heat from stress of going over the xmax or to be technical like YOU "farther then its excursion limits"
Excursion doesn't cause heat, mechanical and thermal failure are two separate things.

As you clearly skimmed my posts and assumed i was ignorant you like to always seem to try to be on top of others and call people out.
I dont mean to disrupt the ops thread, but i hate when others like to call people out because we are not posting as technical as they do.

Also i was speaking soley on a ported situation as the op clearly said he has a ported and not sealed box.
I don't really care for Hispls either to be honest but what you said was blatantly wrong and he called you out on it. If you don't know what you're talking about don't try to help people. You're just spreading misinformation. No need to get butthurt just learn from it and move on.

 
The subsonic filter is a preamp filter meaning it filters the signal before it's amplified to 10kw.


Excursion doesn't cause heat, mechanical and thermal failure are two separate things.

I don't really care for Hispls either to be honest but what you said was blatantly wrong and he called you out on it. If you don't know what you're talking about don't try to help people. You're just spreading misinformation. No need to get butthurt just learn from it and move on.
"You can mechanically over drive the speaker, and thermally damage it.

Thermal damage is introduced from excessive heat being presented in the driver. This can be cause from incorrect amplifier setting, clipping, long play sessions with an inadequate voice coil, just too much clean power, or amplifier failure introducing DC voltage.

Mechanical damage is caused from pushing the driver past its mechanical limits. This can be damage to the suspension which helps keep the voice coil movement linear. Suspension damage can be rips, tears, or outside influenced irregularities in the fabric suspension. The other mechanical damage can be from voice coil expansion in the magnet, causing rubbing (usually happens only with excessive amounts of heat). Another common form of mechanical damage is reaching mechanical clearance limits. This would be such as contacting the voice coil to the back of the magnet structure, spider to the top plate of the magnet structure, or cone in contact with terminals/ spider landings."

Please feel free to learn and understand mechanical damage can so cause thermal/heat damage which a low frequency that a sub cannot handle will of course heat the sub causing voice coils to melt and/or seperate.

 
"You can mechanically over drive the speaker, and thermally damage it.
Thermal damage is introduced from excessive heat being presented in the driver. This can be cause from incorrect amplifier setting, clipping, long play sessions with an inadequate voice coil, just too much clean power, or amplifier failure introducing DC voltage.

Mechanical damage is caused from pushing the driver past its mechanical limits. This can be damage to the suspension which helps keep the voice coil movement linear. Suspension damage can be rips, tears, or outside influenced irregularities in the fabric suspension. The other mechanical damage can be from voice coil expansion in the magnet, causing rubbing (usually happens only with excessive amounts of heat). Another common form of mechanical damage is reaching mechanical clearance limits. This would be such as contacting the voice coil to the back of the magnet structure, spider to the top plate of the magnet structure, or cone in contact with terminals/ spider landings."

Please feel free to learn and understand mechanical damage can so cause thermal/heat damage which a low frequency that a sub cannot handle will of course heat the sub causing voice coils to melt and/or seperate.
I'm not sure where you copied/pasted that from but it doesn't really prove your point.

 
It looks like it was copied from AVSForum which was comprehended poorly..

I'll break it down according to the person who posted it because what we are discussing is not our opinion, but fact, so it's impossible to debate it.

"You can mechanically over drive the speaker, and thermally damage it."

It should be worded as-

You can mechanically overdrive a speaker AND\OR thermally damage it.

Mechanical \ Thermal Choose your poison but those are the 2 methods of transducer failure.

 
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Umbra

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