Low freq. from small drivers? Is it possible


Can you get really low freq. (lets say 30 and down) from a small driver (~6 inch? What is the relationship between driver size and frequency? Most speakers today have went away from a large base driver (10 inches or more). Have we really come that far or is it really a compermize?

Any recomendations for smaller floor standers with good bass?

Thanks,

Dr. Ken
drken
Karls...As sean said, noone is comparing your speaker's sound to that of a Bose 901. (How could I...never heard yours). But, there seem to be some similarities with the design concepts of the ORIGINAL 901. Did you ever hear original Bose 901's? Not to be ridiculed, especially for 35 years ago. That's why your effort to develop the technology is of interest to us old farts.
C'mon guys, I was kidding, honest. It just struck me as funny, given the status of 901's as the reigning poster child for how not to make a high fidelity speaker.

Best Regards,
Karl Schuemann
AudioMachina
Karl: I wasn't talking about supplementing the bottom end of your design with an actively crossed sub, but about using the existing design with an active crossover and bypassing the internal series crossover. I understand that you have several different circuits ( impedance compensation, notch filters, etc... ) that would have to remain.

I also have other questions about series crossovers for you, but that is neither here nor there : ) Sean
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Sean,
I haven't tried active crossovers, no. It's not really designed for this, because as you probably know, series crossovers only use one set of binding posts. There's no such thing as biamping. So there's only one set of posts on the speaker, and no way to easily add another one.

One of the interesting things about series crossovers is that they work like sh** unless you have everything, and I mean everything, exactly right. This means both drivers flat in frequency response, impedance, and phase, along with perfect time alignment. But once you accomplish this, it's simply a matter of punching the numbers on a calculator to get the correct values for C and L, and it will work perfectly every time. This was a revelation the first time it actually happened, but it makes perfect sense when you think about it. That, in a nutshell, is why almost everyone uses parallel crossovers. They're easy to "fudge" if you haven't done your homework. Not so with a series.

This is a long way of saying that the "other stuff" is by far the most important, not the primary C and L. And as such, there isn't much benefit to making them active. All the usual problems with passive crossovers, such as impedance and phase anomalies, have already been dealt with, and since it is only a two-way with a high crossover point, it can use small, high quality C and L, which effectively eliminates (or at least minimizes) the other argument for active crossovers.

Eldartford,
The marketing side of this project really hasn't started in earnest, but hopefully next year. So there are no dealers yet, but we do make demo systems available to people if they're interested enough to pay the shipping, and offer very good pricing on the demo systems if they decide to keep them.

Best Regards,
Karl Schuemann
AudioMachina