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size of the driver

Coming from the "old school" and being a complete (or almost) novice here - in the old days back in 1970-75 we thought that the big (read - wide) driver will have better capability to produce more realistic sound, talking about lower end of the spectr at least. But nowdays I am seing 6 inch drivers stated as "bass". Just curious how well those perform or in another words what is the secret behind those if they really can perform at the same level as the 12 inch ones?

And another question which I guess is too simple and too basic around here that's why I couldn't find some point to point answer - when we speak about sensitivity - would that be a true statement to say that higher level (say 92-95 db) will allow to extract "fuller" sound spectr at a lower level of volume? My feeling is that with somewhat lower 89 db or less you need to increase the volume in order to have more visible lower end?

Thank you for your time
avs9
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Smaller bass drivers have gained in popularity for two reasons.
A) They allow the speaker designer to make the speakers smaller, so they usually "image" better.
B) they may not go quite as deep, but the bass will be tighter.

AFAIK, Sensitivity has nothing to do with the sound being "fuller". Yes, you may need to turn your amp up a bit more for less sensitive speaker to play at the same sound level, but whatever listening level you are at, 80 db, 85 db, is still 80 or 85 db no matter what the sensitivity rating of the speaker is.
sounds_real_audio
1,019 posts
 
Boy you are old. Listening to music in the 70s. Smaller drivers are trendy because they go fast. Bigger drivers can still have that old school sound. Bigger drivers move more air but tend not to be as accurate and have trouble keeping up with a 5" midrange so you can loose cohesiveness.

More efficient speakers are not necessarily toned to sound full at low volumes. My experience is that more forward sounding speakers sound better at low volume. Some very forward sounding speakers sound best at no volume.

The opinions expressed above are my own.
ngjockey
1,042 posts
 
Bigger isn't always better. I keep telling myself that.

For example, there are 12" drivers that sacrifice bass extension for efficiency and midrange performance and there are 6.5" drivers that do the opposite. A lot of the difference since the 70's is how they match drivers to the cabinet and control resonance.

Fact is that "hifi" stereo is a small fraction of the sales of home theatre and LFE subwoofers has become the defacto standard. There is, simply, very little demand for big speakers and the assosciated shipping costs.

Although bass extension is generally less with smaller drivers, some of the dynamics can be equivalent or even superior with multiple drivers.
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