Bass sensation like a loud car system in home?

Uh oh. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UU19UE4IOWg

@myjostin

Yep multiples of 10” are the quickest bass that can be had from a standard driver, but with servo control you can go larger.


To the quibblers here, I dare you to reproduce this song as it was performed at the 2002, I think, Bastille day celebration in Boston. Their entire stage sat on banks of 12” woofs, and it rattled the glass up and down the street, crossing into the subsonic. Music since the Synth is not your mommies orchestra.
https://youtu.be/Lux9J5ckKFw

OP:  Have you seen the movie "Howard Stern Private Parts"?  If you haven't, do so and find the scene where they have the giant sub in the studio.   That's what you need to do .

I don't think it is that giant. I distinctly remember hearing him say one time when he was excited, it is a full three inches.

@mijostyn --

You do not need to resort to huge drivers to get the best bass. They take up way too much room when you factor in the enclosures they require.
Today’s subwoofers are way more powerful than drivers of old. Their Xmax is much higher, up to 2 inches is not uncommon. The old drivers you were lucky to get 1/4 inch out of them. The larger drivers also tend not to move straight in and out. They wobble! I have seen it with high speed photography. In a 16 X 30 foot room four 12" drivers in corners and along the front wall (were they are most efficient) will do fine given enough power and a little EQ. Eight 12" drivers would be definite overkill.

More displacement area means less cone movement needed for the same SPL, which again is less distortion and cleaner sound. Indeed: smaller cones moving more violently to equate the SPL of larger cones moving less, sound different; you sense their effort producing bass (a bi-product of any direct radiating bass system, really, compared to horn-loaded bass) even though they mayn’t be working close to their limits. Inertia build-up in the moving parts of a driver, inevitable with prodigious excursion, IS audible - negatively, that is, as a smearing of transient ability. Ample displacement, not least combined with high efficiency and horn-loading simply creates a more effortless, smooth and relaxed bass by comparison. The cones of the 15" pro drivers (B&C) in my tapped horn subs move a few mm’s at most when making the air viscerally shake in the whole listening room (and beyond), at dB’s that’re downright scary. No wobbling of cones, I can assure you, and totally effortless at these levels.

Btw, there’s no "overkill" with bass; only an approximation of sufficient headroom ;)

The one concept I really dislike is the one that requires different bass for different functions like theater vs 2 channel. My 2 channel system doubles for theater and I do not make any adjustments between these functions. Last week I almost scared the projector tech to death with Star Wars then next I put on Dave Holland. No adjustments. Accurate bass is accurate bass regardless of what you are listening to. Maybe people like juicing the low end for theater because they think it’s cool like oversaturating the colors. Definitely, there are way more theater people than us audiophiles and you always want to buy equipment that was designed especially for your purpose which is marketing garbage. A good is a good amp regardless. Accuracy is exactly the same for theater and 2 channel. Maybe some of us audiophiles are thinking we don’t have to go down that low. You don’t have to do anything but in regards to the performance it is a vital part of projecting realism and making you think you are really in a much larger room. Many systems start dying at 100 Hz. The specs might say 28 Hz to 20 kHz but that is at one meter in an anechoic chamber not three meters in a 15 X 25 foot room. Just get a measurement microphone. Actually, don’t do that. It can be very depressing. Sh-t! I was listening to that??

Wholeheartedly agree here. What I’ve realized is that less clean bass means that you have to "negatively compensate" with less level for it not to be too conspicuous, and this really robs music (and movies) of a foundation that it should ideally have. That’s why, I gather, many feel the need to "juice up" the levels again with movies, because otherwise they don’t have proper impact and energy. With my former sub set-up that’s exactly what it lead to (re: negative compensation with music), whereas now the gain of my tapped horn subs sits at the same value, where it should, with both music and movies.

Regarding proper extension, this is where displacement and efficiency (and, ultimately, size) really matters, because hearing acuity lessens with lower frequencies, and so your sub setup needn’t only be linear down low but with progressing amplitude the lower the frequency. That’s why, with bass, headroom is so important, and for that "overkill" makes all the more sense.