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
I was actually astonished at the bass quality out of my Graham Chartwell LS3/5's. Now those are small speakers! Of course it helps that they are in a small room,but I was still amazed.
Read the stereophile review of diamond 225's...6.5 inch woofer, wave guide soft dome tweeter, and an unusual port on bottom of cabinet...one reviewer was astounded to see usable bass frequency output down to about 31.5 hz! Now that's nuts. Sure it was down several decibels from its rated 45 hz, but it was there and significant....pretty close to his words. I can attest to this as mine never fail to amaze me for a lousy $449 bucks! Freaking great speakers....
For sh#ts and giggles I just grabbed a pair of vintage recoaned the smaller advents with the fried green egg tweeters and the spit ball woofer, they are 4 ohms and I will drive them with my rogue sphinx, should be a blast! Acoustic suspension speakers are special.
In my experience small woofers are not satisfying for long.  There's something wrong with the punch they produce.  Small woofer speakers that produce deep bass rely heavily on port output and that is slow and low resolution.  I don't think you need a huge woofer but 8" is the minimum for reasonably deep bass and punch that can satisfy long-term.  Surface area is very important.  
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