Why don't bandpass subs get more attention on this august forum? They are easily as efficient as basshorns at the lowest frequencies where they are tuned and they are much smaller. Have they been overlooked because they aren't in vogue with the hornies? Ralph
They are a pain to tune correctly, finicky with drivers, and very peaky in response. If all you want to do is listen to the same rap beat for the life of the speaker then sure, tune it there and you could die happy. Otherwise I feel they are too limited in playing a wide range of music.
The problem is the lower you tunr them the less efficient they become.The big problem is I've built 4 and they just all have the same sound dull and muddy.I think it bacause of the high mass on the passive radiator to acheive low tuning.There are many other way that work better to reproduce low frequency.Vented box,bass horn.Regards Tim
I built 1 up using an EV 15B, when I tested it I thought the transient response sucked on them big time, so I ended up re-configureing the cabinet. All the heavy kick drum and bass material that I was putting through them sounded like a big muddy long note, even with various stuffings. Now I know why there often refered to as 1 note boxes.
sounded really good before adding mass to the passive radiator.(Pre-weighed washers and silicone caulk).In that state they were tuned very high 60Hz to 80Hz which means the effiecny was up they sound preatty good in there passband.But once you start tuning effiency drops and they start sounding muddy.All of them where compound with 2 woofers facig each other and wired out of phase to reduce size.I personally think ins high distortion that give it the muddy sound,because if you tune it low the driver takes alot of power.The effiency ends up being about 85db.I have not built any in 8 years or so.Regards Tim
It took me 20 min. max to tune each with laud.Add a washer measure and so on until you hit you desired f3.Tuning vented boxes always took me longer.Regards Tim
Tuning to get a specific frequency wasn't the hard part, it was tying to get the thing sounding good over a decent spectrum. Maybe tuning isn't the word I was looking for. I have heard that it is possible to get them sounding good over a decent range, but I haven't had any luck. The constant droning boom gets old real fast.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18786 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I wonder what something like a JBL 2226 or Eminence Magnum would sound like if tuned in the range where the driver performed well. The 2226 shorting ring is able to keep distortion down as long as the driver is used above 50Hz, but below that, it really starts to rise.
So I'm thinking maybe a 2226-based speaker designed for 40Hz to 160Hz would probably be OK. But if it were pushed down even just an octave lower, I'll bet it would lose a lot of efficiency and distortion would skyrocket. I'll bet even a good driver like that might start sounding pretty flabby if it were used 20Hz to 80Hz. It just doesn't have the specs for that range, even if used in a system that is tuned to be used down low.
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