Two 12's or single 15"

[bmccord]

Well, desgined a couple new enclosures and having issues with which one to do next. Basically the first is a front firing, front ported (2-4") box using a single 15" titanic which ends up being about 6.22 ft^3 in volume. However, the other is a down firing, rear ported unit using 2 12" datyon High Fidelity subs and ending up at about 7.14 ft^3. They are both somewhat similar in size and both will be driven by the dayton 1000w plate amp. Now, my big question, which will hit harder for HT. I have a musical sub now, so now I am looking for a sub to just kill that deep down nasty stuff that make small children shreek with fear. Obviously the 15" will maintain higher spl's at extreme low Hz's but the 2 - 12's would most likely hold their own. What do you all think?

Brett

 

[Spiffyfast]

wouldn't dual 12's" have a lot more surface area and reach higher spl's than a single 15"?

 

[j_garcia]

I would think higher up, the 12s will be better. You get a gain in sensitivity by having the two drivers in a single enclosure and that should mean less work for each to achieve the same SPL as the 15.

 

[Sheep]

I think BMCcord needs his own forum.

SheepStar

 

[bmccord]

haha, and why is that. Anywho, I would assume that 2 12's would be better than a single 15 at 30Hz and up. However, I was just wondering if the ability of the single 15's depth would outweigh it. Just a thought. With that said, I would imagine with some time taken to work out the details, 2 high fidelity 12's could most likely hit just as low as that 15 with equal to if not more SPL.

Brett

 

[Methost]

Why not use 2 15's?

 

[bmccord]

Well, I would imagin an enclosure that has an internal volume of somewhere near 10 ft^3 would be rather difficult to hide Maybe I could build a sub box that doubles as a 2nd row couch tier....haha

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I'd go for the dual 12's. Out of curiosity, why didn't you go for the High Output 12's if you're going for "that deep down nasty stuff that make small children shreek with fear?" Which TS Parameter didn't you like?

BTW, excellent choice in an amp. That is one beast.

 

[gmichael]

wouldn't dual 12's" have a lot more surface area and reach higher spl's than a single 15"?

Let's see. piexRxR right?

3.14x6x6x2= about 226 sq inches for two 12"s
3.14x7.5x7.5= about 176 sq inches for one 15"

Yup, 226>176.

 

[bmccord]

well, It looked to me that the High Fidelity would be able to achieve lower frequencies than the High Output. If I can get the the same output out of two high output's, that would be awesome as they require far less volume, thus making the enclosure small...therefor hiding it better....insofacto....frightening small children more better...er
The whole purpose of this box is to absolutely shake the house in scenes such as when the machine emerges from the ground in War of the Worlds. What I have only rattles wall a little bit. The idea here is to make my neighbors feel it
Also, the high output has a much great thirst for juice, something along the lines of 700 watts RMS/11or1200 watts max. I am not sure that 1000w dayton will pull its own. I know its a beast but that seems to be pushing it and not maximizing the drivers full potental.
Basically the point of this was to see which would hit 20-22 Hz the loudest and cleanest...

Brett

 

[MacManNM]

well, It looked to me that the High Fidelity would be able to achieve lower frequencies than the High Output. If I can get the the same output out of two high output's, that would be awesome as they require far less volume, thus making the enclosure small...therefor hiding it better....insofacto....frightening small children more better...er
The whole purpose of this box is to absolutely shake the house in scenes such as when the machine emerges from the ground in War of the Worlds. What I have only rattles wall a little bit. The idea here is to make my neighbors feel it
Also, the high output has a much great thirst for juice, something along the lines of 600 watts RMS/8or900 watts max. I am not sure that 1000w dayton will pull its own. I know its a beast but that seems to be pushing it and not maximizing the drivers full potental.
Basically the point of this was to see which would hit 20-22 Hz the loudest and cleanest...

Brett

The dayton 15" is not a good match for a ported box, nor are the refrence series woofers. I think there are much better chouces out there if you want to go deep and powerfull. I have 2 MTX MZS1204's in an 8 ft^3 enclosure, and it will rattle the pictures off of the walls.

 

[bmccord]

well, I just got done looking at the specs for the MTX MZS1204 and it looks as though the dayton 12 HF handles more power and can reach 5 dB lower. I was just starting with these two drivers because many people have used them and not been dissapointed. Hell, I still have 2 Audiobahn 1000w AW1000's in the basement. I would use those but it took a 2400watt monoblock amp to run them, so I think those are out of the question. I plotted a chart last night with two 12" high output's and it was pretty dissapointing compared to 2 HF's and the single 15. Their falloff was dramatic below 28-30Hz whereas the 15 and 2 - 12's handled the low stuff with a large area under the curve. Back to the original topic, when plotting the 2 12" HF's and a single 15, they where nearly identical. As I had thought, the 15 held its own a little better at the bottom end, but the 2 12's had the flattest curve right down to about 26 and had an -3 at about 22ish.

 

[marrypoppins]

Actually the Dayton 15" is a better match for a ported box, this coming from me owning one sealed Dayton 15" and one ported Dayton 15" and talking to MANY Dayton owners.

 

[bmccord]

Something tells me that I will like the sound of a front firing 15" dayton titanic. Also, the box size will be considerably larger for 2-12's and they would end up down firing. However, I was pondering an enclosure that has one driver down firing and one front firing and front ported. That way I get the best of both worlds. Anyone ever try this. Then it would appear to be one ungodly 12" sub . That way the footprint of the would not be ruled by two side by side 12's.

Brett

 

[---k---]

The current 15" driver of choice is a SoundSplinter RL-P15d2. I'm very happy with my twin sealed 19"x24"x20" RL-P15 subs. Stevenn is very happy with his also, which are very similar. Several people have also recently built ported subs with this driver. Check out HTguide.com or the new DIY forum at AVS.

BTW, two 12" will have about the same output as one 15", and usally one 15" will be cheaper. No reason to use 12" unless size is an issue. And 15" subs being slower or not musical or whatever is a bunch of crap. A properly designed 15" driver will be just as good as a properly designed 12" driver. Again, ask some of the more experts like at HTguide or DIYAudio.

 

[steve nn]

And 15" subs being slower or not musical or whatever is a bunch of crap. A properly designed 15" driver will be just as good as a properly designed 12" driver.

I have to laugh when I see people post such things..it's just not so.

 

[bmccord]

Yeah, I laugh a bit as well. As if that extra 3" and maybe a couple oz. of extra weight causes it to be slow. If that were the cause, then movie theaters would sound terrible with all those large subwoofers