HT Sub and Watts

[FNG212]

So how many watts are actually necessary to thump a movie? I know a lot has to do with design of the sub and size of the room, but can I get people to list how many watts they are running to their subs (specifically DIY subs) and their perceived "thump" factor?

 

[TLS Guy]

So how many watts are actually necessary to thump a movie? I know a lot has to do with design of the sub and size of the room, but can I get people to list how many watts they are running to their subs (specifically DIY subs) and their perceived "thump" factor?

No, because speaker sensitivity confounds the answer to your question. Most subs are inefficient. Every 3db increase in sensitivity halves the power you need for the same spl. The speakers in my signature will produce the same ""thump" as you call it with 400 watts as most subs at 4000 watts. Matt 24 has built a horn loaded sub that will bring the house down with just a few watts.

Then we get to the area of low frequency cut off. Unless you can reproduce down to the low 20 Hz range, you won't produce thump how ever many watts you use. You will just destroy the sub.

 

[WmAx]

So how many watts are actually necessary to thump a movie? I know a lot has to do with design of the sub and size of the room, but can I get people to list how many watts they are running to their subs (specifically DIY subs) and their perceived "thump" factor?

Do you just want high SPLs or sound quality? For just raw SPL, get Kicker Solo-baric 15" or 18" driver, put a least 1000 clean watts to it, put it in a large slot ported cabinet tuned to around 20Hz and tear the walls down. For sound quality with high SPL, you will need a higher grade driver oriented towards low distortion.

As for power, pretty much any direct radiator system needs lots of power. A horn sub can make do with little power in exchange for making a MONSTROUS sized cabinet to effect horn loading into the 20's cycle range needed for HT. Though personally, I will still take very high grade direct radiator set up(TC Sounds drivers, JL W7, etc.) to a horn loading set up using lesser drivers.

-Chris