40hz ratings/speaker response

Joeb, it is not my theory. Just reporting the facts. From what I've heard about the Flanagan Neurophone, it doesn't rely on the ear at all, or the ear's neurology, but instead creates an entirely different path for the brain to interpret the sound. You may be able to find something about this on the web. The product is no longer squelched by the D.O.D. The man's name is Dr. Patrick Flanagan. I don't know if he is still alive or not. I heard the information on a radio show with Dr. Nick Begich, who was a friend and associate of Dr. Flanagan. Perhaps Dr. Begich has some info on how this device operates and how to get one.

Ursula66 wrote that her WATT/Puppy combo doesn't seem to have anything below 40 Hz. This is 100% true. Mr. Wilson's speakers have many things to commend them, bass isn't one of them. They do NOT have much output below 40 Hz, if they get there at all.

Sorry for bad news...

And, yes there is lots of information below 40 Hz.

_-_-bear

What happens when you put 20 Hz. into a speaker that rolls off at 40 Hz. is simply this: the cone moves a lot, there is some second, 4th, etc. harmonic reproduced, your amp works hard and may have reduced headroom if this coincides with a peak.

MOST speaker systems do NOT have significant output below 40 Hz. Period. In order to produce bass below 40 Hz. you need a few things that most speakers can not and do not have. That is in specific enough surface area & excursion to move the required air, which also requires a LARGE cabinet size.

It is true that you *can* make a small speaker that will have output that low, but it will NOT be able to have normal levels of sensitivity or output, or else it will have output below 40 Hz. that is WAY down from the midrange level. So, in practice, most speaker systems are not able to do much below 40 Hz. In practice, sorry to report, most have difficulty making it all the way to 40 Hz. 20 Hz is usually out of the question.

There are some exceptions in this regard, but they are rather few and far between. Many that advertise output in this region do not produce much usable bass unless they are set up in a particular manner or room postion/volume.

With the advent of the latest crop of high power handling/long linear excursion woofers we can expect to see much better bass response and lower F3 points in commercial speakers in the near future... but the price for this is the need for POWER on the amp end (and in the case of sealed cabinets, EQ AND POWER).

To a great extent, this reality is the basis for the existance of a market for what we call "subwoofers."

_-_-bear

Bear, there is only one full range speaker that I know of that can effectively go down below 40hz...
K-horns. You don't need subwoofers when using K-horns. These full range speakers can easily handle organ notes down to 32hz. Around this point you no longer hear sound, you feel it in your chest. If speakers can handle frequencies below 40hz, you will be able to tell the difference in pitch between each frequency. This can not be done with speakers rated above 40hz.

Some have raved about LaScalas' deep base that can go down to 45hz. I have both pairs of the above speakers in my system. Trust me when I say that the K-horns can run rings around the LaScalas... even though they both use exactly the same 15 inch bass driver. What makes the difference is the folded horns inside the cabinets. You can not fight the laws of physics. Larger horns will create a deeper bass than smaller horns. It is possible to have two smaller 12 inch woofers develop bass notes down into the 20s with the proper horn cabinet (much below the range of the K-horn).
This is the principle of the soon to be released Klipsch Jubilee (home version).

Because of their high efficiency, K-horns only need 100 clean watts to produce 120db of earth shattering 32hz sound. Expensive high wattage amps are not needed to produce deep clean bass.

Well, that's not quite a true statement since the K horns are a three way system... so that can't be held to be different than any other speaker system.

K horns are capable of very good bass... but they are room dependent and they are a design that was conceived when there was only mono so they can be difficult in certain situations to set up for stereo...

Also, at that time there were virtually no "high power"
amps in the home. 35 watts was considered "high power" at
that time. 60 watts was MONSTER!!

Of the few really high power amps out there back then I can only think of the McIntosh MI 200 series, which was mostly for industrial and theatre applications, and unbelievably expensive for that time.

It is true that they are horns and so have a greater efficiency than do direct radiators by quite a bit.

Today there is a new generation of very linear, very long throw, high power woofers that changes everything for the better in terms of low bass. It is fairly simple now to get a small box to reproduce <20Hz, for real. High power amps for bass are pretty cheap now, and this makes the whole thing very practical whereas a few years ago it was very difficult to do.

For example if you check my website you can see my own personal subs with a new generation driver (not even the biggest and longest throw of them) retrofitted into an already really great subwoofer system... the result is there for you to see.

One can get the same output in a smaller sealed box too...
although you might need more drivers per side to equal the total max spl of my set up, its still more than you typically need in a home system. Compared to the K horn's volume, you'd likely still be under that for the same output today.

Please keep in mind that I am not anti-horn by any stretch of the imagination, as I own several horns of rather large size.