NOT: Theory on the new Schiit

Low / moderate efficiency cones that fit in narrow cabinets do not make good bass. Never have and never will. Good bass starts at 12" inches.

 

Sam, you got bixby and me mixed up.

Allow to inquire and explain:

1. Good bass is not the same as bass extension. 14Hz? 17Hz? Stroke my weener please. Bass extension should never be used as a measure of good quality bass. It's probably one of the more minor factors because bass goes from 20Hz to 250Hz with the other more important factors being transient response, lack of compression, linearity up to 250Hz, and efficiency. I probably care a bit more about 45Hz on up. Look at a spectrum analyzer for most music. There's very little material below 30Hz. This of course depends upon content.
2. What are you references and comparison points? A single JBL 15" on their K2 will destroy three or four of those overpriced B&W 8" pieces of shit. The reason audiophool companies don't make large drivers is because big wide speakers aren't stylish and housewives bitch about them being too ugly or too big. (Good quality large drivers tend to have high Vas, and thus require lots of big ass cabinets). This is the ONLY reason to go with smaller diameter designs. B&W makes skinny garbage or garbage audio jewelry anyway.
3. A 15" driver will have almost four times the surface area of a single 8". This means 1/4 the excursion. Before you can say super long excursion makes up for that, smaller diameter higher excursion designs tend to have compromises. It's harder to keep the motor force linear throughout the excursion range. Spiders and surrounds are thicker, thus lowering efficiency and reducing responsiveness to lower level inputs and they also exhibit non-linear behavior at the extremes. It's not uncommon for speaker Qts to go to shit a few mm past the middle rest point. There's simply no replacement for displacement. The larger drivers don't even need to breath hard since they barely need to move. A big secret among experienced speaker builders: low xmax speakers tend to sound better than high xmax designs.
4. I don't who is "everyone" in the "everyone says the 10" Velodyne sounds better". Personally, I think Velodyne subwoofers suck. Some people think they are good for home threatre. Personally, I'd run 2x12 or 15 pro drivers with high efficiency for HT. You know, like the ones they run in real movie threatres? By companies like JBL who can trace back their lineage doing this kind of stuff for 80 years?
5. I have never in my almost 30+ years of speaker building experience found that smaller drivers produced better bass, all things being equal with the drivers. Until you experience 2x12 or 2x15, that is 2500-3000+ square inches of cone area barely moving (properly implemented) in a typical living room, you have not heard real bass.

This is why a 6.2 liter engine is so much effortlessly powerful than a 3.0 liter engine. It's all about moving air effortlessly. The B&W is like the bitch in a 3.0 liter BMW. The 6.2 liter is Jason Stoddard in his Camaro ZL1 about to spank that bitch. (It's a Schiit thread, so I'd figure I'd throw Jason into it.)

 

Sorry, the 6" and 8" being more "tight" and "punchy" is bad advice and utter bullshit. Although it's probably true for shit consumer subwoofers. I dunno. Subwoofer means crossed over below 40Hz to me. Bass covers 20Hz to 250Hz.

 

Nonsense, as ATC themselves beg to differ. That's why they make a monitor with 15" drivers.

I'll believe you when you tell me to my face that those faint thumps at the beginning of Thriller don't sound more realistic, weighty, effortlessly authoritative, and with more gravitis on these, than your smaller ATCs monitors.

 

LOL, don't get me thinking about cutting holes in the wall of the living room.

Haha. Yeah. I saved up to buy a house in my 20s. I had a nice two channel speaker system, but barely any furniture. I slept on the floor on a tatami mat. I wish I was married to a minimalist, but my wife likes furniture.

 

I'll take that Edgarhorn sub:

 

ZOMG! That brings tears to my eyes! I'd do that if I still lived in Michigan. (No basements in California).