There's a lot more bass in a 6.5" driver than most of you think


One topic of discussion I often see new audiophiles touch on is whether to get larger speakers for more bass.

I usually suggest they tune the room first, then re-evaluate. This is based on listening and measurement in several apartments I’ve lived in. Bigger speakers can be nothing but trouble if the room is not ready.


In particular, I often claim that the right room treatment can make smaller speakers behave much larger. So, to back up my claims I’d like to submit to you my recent blog post here:

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-snr-1-room-response-and-roon.html


Look at the bass response from those little drivers! :)


I admit for a lot of listeners these speakers won’t seem as punchy as you might like, but for an apartment dweller who does 50/50 music and theater they are ideal for me. If you’d like punchy, talk to Fritz who aligns his drivers with more oomf in the bass.


erik_squires

Showing 1 response by rbstehno

You are talking about many different things in this post: smallish apartment rooms, added subwoofers, and room treatments.
Sure, smallish rooms can better support smallish speakers.
Room treatment in every room can have a dramatic effect on SQ.
Subwoofers can increase SQ of big and small loudspeakers. A sealed speaker system in a larger room will never produce low end energy by itself.

There are many speakers systems with smaller woofers but the better 1’s use multiple smaller drivers instead of 1. Also, the reason why these systems can produce low frequencies is due to the port setup, which can increase lower bass frequencies. I used to have the Usher mini dancer 2’s with multiple 7” drivers and they would produce low levels of bass energy for its size, but not the cleanest bass output. I tuned the port with acoustic fill and added 2 Rel subs. This was in a treated dedicated 27x16x15’ foot. I sold them and went with the larger Ushers with the 11” woofer, much better tighter lower end and no need for subs.