Low frequency question (1 Viewer)

[Ryan_ S]

How low does a subwoofer has to go to reach the point where the windows start rattling or you can feel it in your guts?
I am guessing between 30hz or 25 hz, but i want to hear what the experts have to say.
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[Zane Johnson]

it depends on alot of things.....i'm definetely NO expert but the frequency at which everything rattles is mostly based on your room...and subwoofer(s) placement... my room resonates at about 45hz... that's about when i can hear the cabinets in the kitchen start to rattle......
i used to run a fischer 15" driver off of a Carver 600 watt RMS amplifier for subbass and when you were outside of the house you could hear the siding rattling against the wood in the walls...it was very intense...my room is only 17x11 feet...and the HT was on the short wall.... in the middle of the room the 45hz peak was almost unbearable...
i had the driver in a 3 cube ported enclosure tuned to 25hz...it was firing into the side wall from about 5 inches away...i was a major basshead back then and actually liked the 45hz peak... well one day i decided i was gonna see exactly how intense i could make the sound pressure in the room.. i turned off my mains and ran 45hz burp frequency i got to about 75 percent of the Carver amplifiers output capability.. the stuff on the walls were going crazy.....dishes were rattling off of the counter in the kitchen...and then the driver went pop.. the surround, which was foam...just split...
so now i have no sub... and have to run my mains full range... they go down to about 45 hz or so.....it's not as loud as the old combo but i got plenty of headroom..they get about 200 watts each from a vintage Kenwood stereo amp... i just hope i dont' get a little to courageos one day and decide to take those speakers to the limit too...

 

[Clinton McClure]

I agree that it may depend on the resonating frequency of your room, however I am thinking sound becomes inaudible at around 20Hz...
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My DVD Collection Casa del Clint

 

[Robert_J]

Zane,
You could drop in a replacement 15" sub in you box, lower the tuning freqency and have a killer sub. A Tempest from Adire Audio would be less than $150 and could easily handle 600 watts.
-Robert

 

[Dustin B]

Depending on how big the box is and how well it's built I'd be really careful just dropping a Tempest in.
Edit: oops, Zane ain't the top post, we know its a 3 cubic foot enclosure tuned to 25hz. Definately could drop a Tempest in that. But it generates one ugly curve in LspCAD. Although if you are still a bass head it could almost do 115dB at 50hz, without factoring in room gain yet :p
I haven't got around to doing some proper measurementes of my sub (mainly because I don't have the spl meter or a proper test tone disc). But a while ago I got my hands on a cheesy disk that had 100-20hz sine waves in 10hz increments. The 30hz came through loud and clear. The 20hz I could just barely hear, but you could certainly feel. Where the audibility drops off around 20hz depends on the person and the volume level the sound is being played at. But down there, with any moderate amount of volume you definately feel it. After you haved experienced bass like that, it's hard to go back to a sub that can only do 25hz and up (not so much for music, although there is some that it makes a big difference on, but definately for movies).
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Dustin
[email protected]
My Adire Tempest Sonosub
[Edited last by Dustin B on November 06, 2001 at 09:42 AM]