defying the laws of physics? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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BC Dave
05-27-2005, 12:54 PM
We bought our daughter a small computer sub and speakers for about $30 after rebates and the tiny sub has a driver that's no more than four inches in diameter. This thing also has only 15 watts of power and that's for all three speakers. The thing is, she plays rap and hiphop music on this system downstairs and sitting upstairs in the family room, I'd swear there was a massive powered sub playing. The walls are vibrating, it's too damn loud, and you'd be calling the cops if it was past midnight. It might not be impeccably clean bass, but it's incredibly loud bass.

I can't see how this little sub is producing this much deep bass. If you put your hand on the door leading down to the basement, it's vibrating like hell. So how does a sub that's not more than seven inches tall do it, especially with such a tiny driver and amp? The brand is Labtec (sp?).

Thanks in advance.

noddin0ff
05-27-2005, 01:11 PM
Resonance. The walls and floors etc. are acting like a sounding board on a guitar. Pluck a guitar string suspended in the air and you wouldn't hear much, but pluck it over a resonating cavity and it produces a full sound.

kexodusc
05-27-2005, 02:06 PM
Yup, picture your daughter's entire room down there acting like one big subwoofer cabinet - this is part of the theory behind the increasingly popular infinite baffle subwoofer designs.

It's also quite possible that it sounds louder outside the room than inside.

RGA
05-27-2005, 02:13 PM
I have a similar set-up I bought at Staples -- it has a little blue light on the right speaker and they look like little planars :p -- the sub is tiny. I think i bought it on sale for $19.99. It sure sounds loud and can thump -- innacurate as hell but hey for $20.00 they make noise.

BC Dave
05-27-2005, 02:39 PM
Yup, we got ours at Staples too. It doesn't have planar satellites, but rather, plainer ones that look like normal tiny speakers (about half the size of one of those deplorable Bozo double cubes). I would love to know how deep this Labtec sub responds. My brother, who has the same system, actually wanted to put the thing in his van as a poor man's subwoofer but I told him the cost of an inverter would make that uneconomical and that he was attempting to be too economical (cheap).