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Sealed, Ported, or Passive Radiators?

What do you use? And more importantly, why? Since my setup is made up of a Sh**load of left overs, I use all three. Do you think that would be better or worse? When I built them I tuned all of my sub boxes to cover specific frequency ranges.

For instance two 12" ported subs (in a very large box of about 18 cubes or so) handle 45Hz and below, four sealed 12" subs handle 35Hz to 80Hz, six ported 6" woofers (tuned at 50Hz) take care of the 50Hz to 120Hz range, and four ported 8" subs (tuned to 20hz) handle super low quick transitions, two 12" subs in a band pass box (tuned to about 38Hz) and a single 12" sub with a 15" passive radiator (tuned to 45Hz).

Yeah I know, overkill, but like I said I had a lot of left over equipment.... and I was bored.

I don't drive them with tons of power and only the subs in the same frequency ranges share amps. The super large two 12" ported box gets its own amp. I mean three amps just for the subs is already ridiculous.

Sure it is powerful but that wasn't my goal, I was simply doing what everybody else does with mid-bass drivers and super tweeters, just kinda in reverse.

So should we be splitting up subs like we do with the upper frequency ranges?

Shahinian's Diapason setup uses many drivers aimed at specific frequency ranges. And I have yet to hear anything as good as his design. So I tried the same with my sub woofer setup and at least in my opinion it worked. I can still refine it down to something less insane. But it is the idea that I can't help but think this would work well, even scaled way down.

I don't know maybe I'm just a little loose in the screws.

Please let me know what you think of the concept and if anyone's tried this already.
Thanks

Andrew
Synesthesia Studios
dynami28
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,159 posts
 
Ported in all cases currently because I like full range sound with lots of meat on the bone to go with good detail and all the rest and size is a problem otherwise, although a good sub integration can help alleviate that, in which case sealed/acoustic suspension can keep pace.

I have heard some vintage speakers with passive radiators that I liked in their day, like the old OHM Hs, but have not heard any newer models with passives that I know of recently. Passive radiators seem to have fallen our of favor in recent years compared to the other design approaches.

ALso I would note to pay more attention to amplifier damping factor with larger ported speakers which tend to be less naturally damped alone.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,578 posts
 
Last year I spent some time w/ Thiel 2.4 and really liked the radiator application. Very rich sound indeed.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
So, you have what, 19 subwoofers in your system? I would think you'd be better served by selling all of those woofers and getting a nice Velodyne 15" or 18" DD Series or Optimum Series subwoofer.

Not to mention how much floor space you're gonna re-claim...

-RW-
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Just curious, have you ever heard of wave cancellation?

:-)
rfogel8's avatar
rfogel8
192 posts
 
My first choice would be transmission line. Yah, they can take up some space but if done properly, they'll give you the most realistic bass(midrange too) and won't require much power.

My second choice would be sealed. You still get good clean sound with plenty of extension and weight to the music but you'll need more power to drive them. No problem, you can get that from good plate amps like those available from Rythmik Audio. They're reasonably priced, give you tons of flexibility and are, in my opinion, the best plate amps available.

Other than a few REL's, like the old Stadium or Stentor, I hate ported bass. To my ears, it always sounds flabby and ill-defined. Solid state current will tighten things up a bit but you never get realistic pitch or tone. I know, many will disagree but if you haven't heard bass done right, you don't know what you're talking about.
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