big woofer or not?

[ronning]

I've been tweaking around with configurations, concepts, and available drivers and I have a simple, kind of newbie, question:

Is it possible to get the same kind of bass from a multi-driver array of, say, 7" woofers in a large cabinet as 1 12" woofer?

IE how does 2 (or more) 7" compare to 1 12" woofer (other than cone area)

Thanks!

[Jim Wilson]

Cone area is key,here. 2 7's would be better than 1 10" but you would need a bigger cabinet, or at least a bigger front panel. 2 10's will out produce 1 12" but, again, you will need a bigger panel. Some prefer multiple smaller speakers because, collectively, they may push out more air and are "faster" because there is less mass in the cone and coil assembly to move. On ballance, I would go with the 12" because calculating the cubic content of the box will be more accurate, and it will cost less for the same quality of speaker.

[pelly3s]

cone area is one issue involved but there are many other things to look at like efficiency or excursion. I personally would take one good 12" over a pair of smaller drivers. My LAB12 project should be able to go to 19Hz flat and be down 3dB at 14Hz, I would love to see the day when a pair of 7" or 8" speakers do that without a box the size of my room. Im not saying it isnt possible but I havent run into a case where multiple smaller drivers would be a benifit. Also if you wanna get technical the wave length of the fequency that the box is tuned to comes into play when using multiple drivers but I cant explain that whole mess its fairly unimportant too in most cases