loudspeaker vs subwoofer. ..noobie (1 Viewer)

So I'm new in this whole audiophile world but I don't understand the difference between loudspeakers and subwoofers... I know subwoofers hit a lower frequency but is that the only difference? The reason for my question is I received a system but I can't find any specs on the 15"speaker..I've looked on the back and even online only thing I really know is it was a system built for a rent-a-way place and I feel they rated the system poorly so any help on both questions would be great. Thanks!

A speaker's name is determined by it's design. If it is designed to play just the lowest frequencies (120hz and lower) then it is a sub. If it is designed to play sort of low but still get up to 500hz or 1000hz then it's a woofer. There's also mid-bass drivers that play from about 80hz to 2000hz. Midrange drivers. Mid-tweeters. Tweeters. Super tweeters.

The application they are designed for also makes a difference. A subwoofer designed for live sound reproduction will not work well in a home theater environment. Some speakers only have a narrow sweet spot while some have a very wide sound stage. People write books on stuff like this so this is only a beginning summary.

That speaker looks like a live sound speaker. The dust cap is a clue with "Pro Studio" and a quick search on welton speakers gives a lot of links to DJ speakers. It looks like this is designed to reproduce the low frequencies in music. Look at the surround (the foam that goes around the cone and allows it to move back and forth). It's not very big.

Compare that to the picture below. This is a subwoofer designed to play from 100hz to well below 20hz. That huge surround allows the cone to move 35mm each direction. There are also thousands of different designs between this sub and yours.

That sub just looks nasty with that huge surround...nice.

Thanks Robert! That definitely helps! I have researched a little on welton I just wish I could find out the actual specs on the speaker I feel unit used to power it doesn't have enough to power that and the mid and tweeter ..I mean I could be wrong but I don't want to under power I heard that's more damaging. ..

Those look like homemade party speakers. They probably play loud with not very much power, but sound quality probably sucks. That woofer is also designed to play loud, but not very low. Not sure I'd put much effort into them.

I have researched a little on welton I just wish I could find out the actual specs on the speaker

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You can always find that information out yourself. http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dats-dayton-audio-test-system--390-806 will allow you to pull the Theile/Small parameters from that woofer.

I feel unit used to power it doesn't have enough to power that and the mid and tweeter ..I mean I could be wrong but I don't want to under power I heard that's more damaging. ..

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What signs are making you feel this way? Experience? You already said you are a noob.

Under powering a speaker is one of the oldest audio myths that will never die. Your volume knob controls how much power is sent to your speaker. If under powering it were damaging then you would either listen at full volume or there would be silence. Nothing in between. What happened is that someone in the past used cheap equipment and cranked it up to 11. Their 200w amp could not produce the necessary power to reach the expectations of the user so they pushed it beyond its limits. When amps are pushed too hard they produce distortion.

An audio signal has thousands of waves going up and down at different frequencies. As the volume goes up, the waves get taller. When an amp reaches its limit, that's it. The waves can get no taller. But if you keep turning up the volume, something has to happen. The waves try to get taller but they keep hitting the ceiling of what the amp can do. When viewed on an O-scope, the waves will have the tops cut off. That's clipping or a clipped signal.

Speakers receive an electrical signal and convert that to motion which creates sound. You can Google how does a speaker work for a more detailed explanation with videos. As the speaker receives the electrical signal, about 10% of it is converted to sound and the rest 90% is wasted as heat. The motion of the cone provides natural cooling of the speaker components (the voice coil in particular). A speaker that has is getting a clipped signal moves out and for a fraction of a cycle comes to a complete stop. It's still getting power but not moving. It will move back the other direction and stop again for a fraction of the cycle. Again, still getting power but not moving. It's happening so fast you can't see it stop but it is. All of this stopping and starting is interfering with the motion and natural cooling effect.

The longer you listen to a clipped signal, the more the heat builds up. Sooner or later, the components of the speaker will start to fail. The lacquer holding the voice coil wires will get soft and the coil will unwind. The glue holding the voice coil to the former will fail. If the former is metal, the glue holding it to the cone will fail. The tinsel leads will melt. All of these conditions are known as a "blown speaker".

You can also blow a speaker with a 100% unclipped signal. Sending more clean power to a speaker than it was designed to handle will still cause the same things but it will take longer to fail. You could also send the a 100 watt, fully clipped signal to that sub above and it would laugh at it. It's designed to handle extreme power and doesn't care about 100 watts.

Well I'm glad i joined this forum site!

Robert, you've been very helpful and very informational ...Your point on the under powering makes a lot of sense as well. I just keep running into the " underpowering" on random forums and other websites as I researching about speakers and systems. There's just so much to learn when it comes to speakers and their designs to produce a great quality system its a bit over whelming. But also the way other sites use different words and terms to describe the same term as on another site.. whether its the proper term or slang but i figure the more i read the more ill learn and be able to completely understand all of it.... but thanks again!

People go to college to study this so you are definitely just starting out. I bought the book below in 1986 and I am still learning. It's one of my two main hobbies.

Just like in my occupation. Logistcs/Suppy Chain. There are books to learn from...but till "you do and screw up"...We just hired a Michigan grad that just turned 22. Never worked a day in her life(seriously, not even fast food).It will be a good year before she's left on her own.

Great post guys well defined and difference of speaker and woofer is shown in best way guys thanks for this nice articles.