My answer to a posted question.... Re: Speakers with small drivers, bass??? It is possible, with the right combinations of speaker (what it's made of, how rigid it is, how good it can handle heat, and the length of the excursion), tuning of the enclosure (does it match the driver's resonance?), port or passive radiator (again tuning). Since computers have been designing most of the loudspeakers as of late they (the speakers) have been sounding quite good. Just look at what Bob Carver did with 2 X 8 inch drivers and an 11 inch cube in the True Sub Mark II.   That can pump out a good amount of bass at a high SPL. As far as air displacement that's still a basic law of physics, but there are ways around it.     True a 12 inch driver can move more air than an 8 inch one but if the 12 inch is placed in an inferior cabinet and underpowered the 8 inch is in a tuned cabinet and has alot of power available it might sound better and appear to produce more low bass. It's really all in the resonance of the driver, cabinet, and the amount of power feed to it. Push/Pull, transmission line, fourth order, and dampening factors can also contribute to a small driver producing good bass. Also, if the crossover point to the bass driver is set low the bass driver tends to play even lower (higher SPL also) because it's called upon to produce less of the frequencies. 2 to 3 6¼ inch drivers can compare to 1X12 inch in the the 2 to 3 6¼ inchers will work with each other and augment the others, producing (if it was designed right) more low bass. True 2 to 3 drivers with a -3 db point of 40 Hz won't go any lower than that but if the cabinet was designed well they should produce an half octave lower at the the driver's free air frequency. If the cabinet was tuned to say 30 Hz at the port and the speakers free air was at say, 30 HZ you should get a hump at 30 Hz which would also have some sound above that which would make up for the low end of the speakers themselves. This was an example off the top of my head and I've not been studying acoustic theory for a long time, hope it's still right. If not, please tell me.... I need any excuse to get back into this. :-) Placement is important also but that's not really relevant here.

 

A question I posted and my answer What was your first piece of AV gear that you bought or was given? First AV piece I ever bought for myself was a CD player in 1986. I was in Jr. High and working after school and weekends in a dive of a car wash place. One week when I was off of school I worked 60 hours. I used the money to get a CD player and a CD.   I had a 2 channel receiver, dual well tape deck and a set of Radio Shack speaker.... that CD player sounded clear! That was impressive! For HT I first, in 1991 got a LD player. My CD player died and I needed a new one. Instead of getting a ne one I sought out and bought a Pioneer CLD-990 combi. I'm still not sure why I got one.... I was just drawn to them. Later, in '92 I got a Pioneer Dolby Surround Receiver. Still only had 2 speakers. June of '92 I got a free issue of Stereo Review with a picture of a Pioneer VSXD-901S on the cover and fell in love with it. I didn't know jack about what the article said about it (a bunch of symbols, numbers and specks that I could not make any sense out of). But I just loved it.

 

Another question What was your earliest memory of being impressed with an audio or video presentation? Me? My earliest memory of an AV related experience (just audio) was when my father used to put me and my sister in the middle of his quad speaker set up on the floor and "make us" listen to Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973. I was 2½. Floyd's "Wish you were here" in 1975. I was 4½ and I used to call "Have a cigar" the gravy train song". I don't really remember him playing "Animals" in 1977.   That was the "Disco era"..... I think I blocked that part out. Disco... YUCK!    This went on until Pink Floyd's "The Wall" which we heard on December 6th 1979. Why do I remember the day? Because he had 2 turntables and "The Wall Disc 1" was permanently on one of them for the remainder of their life. I now have his copy of "The Wall" on record and will play it on occcasion on one of his turntables I got when he died.

 

Yet another question What got you into HT? May 25th 1977. Star Wars. I saw it at the Zigfield in NYC.... 1 city square block with a single panavision screen. JBL speakers and the Cerwin Vega Sensurround speaker system and Dolby Stereo. It was LOUD! It was noisy. It had a HUGE impact on me for the rest of my life! I think that is what started me without even knowing it.     I then saw Empire and Jedi (pre-release day in the same theater..... 1 of 2 that had what would be later called THX). The theater was almost finished with the specs and treatments when I saw Jedi.... I remember the sound was the BEST I've ever heard and the surround effects and the sub. really stood out. I think my goal is to build a set up that sounds like the theater I saw the Star Wars trilogy in.... that must be what I'm looking for in surround quality.