Question on small bass drivers in tower speakers

JohnK - I need to read through that link again, but I didn't come to the same conclusions that you did. About the only thing that I gleaned was that efficient drivers are better, at least for long term durability if pushed to their limits.

How does an efficient overall speaker relate to a speaker having efficient individual drivers? My speaker is rated around 92 dB so I know it an efficient speaker, but I'm not sure if that says anything about the individual drivers.

Any thoughts?

It depends what you mean by small driver. Without large amounts of EQ 3" or 4" drivers cannot produce deep bass (below 50Hz) without severe limitations in distortion or output level. But once you start getting into 6" to 9" drivers it becomes a different story. Multiple drivers of this size are fully capable of deep bass. If you compare similar quality drivers the math tells the story. In the example of the Venture speaker cited above, 4x 7" drivers has about the surface area of a single 14" driver. If you argue that the 14" driver is capable of quality deep bass, then the 4x 7" configuration should do just as well, again assuming we're talking about similar quality drivers.

Why use multiple smaller drivers when a single big one can do? Which ever way you go you end up with a large, heavy and presumably expensive speaker enclosure. I'm not really sure, but I speculate that it has something to do with better integration with other drivers, particularly in the cross over region. There are probably other, or even better reasons.

I’m not a fan of multiple smaller bass drivers, and I’ve had my share. Yeah, they can be OK. They seldom if ever will be great!

The only exception to this opinion of mine might be with Horns. I recently heard an 8 inch paper woofer, in tandem with a mid range horn sans wave guide, and tweeter horn too, also without a well, horn/wave guide.

The first cut played was Latin drums. Brazillian I think. Amazing!! Made my butt come off the sofa so enormous was the initial impact! Tight, resonant, full and fast. The whole box enclosure amounted to a size that contained only the 8 in paper woofer, and mid range horn…. About 9x14-16x6? On their stands they weren’t more than 24 in tall.

Driven by 25 watt active x over!

That was unique to all my former speaker experiences.

Usually the room dictates the bass depth and impact. Itty bitty drivers or big uns. Thereafter , placement. Design of the speakers and applied power play a big part too, but mostly… it’s the room…. Usually… maybe horn speakers are the exception. I ain’t ever heard a single 8 in driver make that sort of bass noise… depth… amplitude… impact.. slam.. etc. Ever…. In a medium sized room too!

I often prefer larger, though not enormous drivers… and better yet, subs.

Subs are your shortest path to bigger better bass, quicker than trying to get it only with so called full .range units. Subs will do what other speakers simply can not do.

Ever see a sub with a bunch of small drivers? Or one with only 20-50wpc? Nope. Normally they have larger drivers with long excusions and big amps inside.

It’s about the room.. then it’s about moving some decent amounts of air and pressurizing the room! Fan yourself with your pencil… then fan yourself with a sheet of paper… which one moved more air?

Sorry… I forgot … no one writes on paper any more… OK… use your stylus and then an IPad. .. or your mouse and then your keyboard. Get the picture?

Little drivers as said above is an esthetic approach more than anything else, and/or for a smaller application. Remember, like shoes, we awant to fit the speakers to the room so we can get the most out of the speakers attributes.

My VSA, MA, BW's, many had 5in to 7in drivers.. many had 2, 3, or more, 6in drivers.

for good depth and tight iimpactful bass, in an avg room, I needed a sub with them all.

I guess I would classify a "small" bass driver as anything under 8 inches in diameter. My speakers have three 6-1/2 inch drivers. You can easily find 8 inch subwoofers, but not very often do you find them small than that, but I did have a bass unit to go with some JBL small speakers that used dual 6 inch drivers, but it really wasn't a subwoofer, more similar to the bass unit that Bose has.

Let's not forget the room. In my previous listening space (fairly large), my ported monitors with 2 6.5 inch woofers had no bass - so I thought. So,I added an active subwoofer to fill in the bottom. With a recent move to a new room (with entirely different dimensions), the same rig now delivers a deep, robust bass. Who knew? The sub has yet to be turned on.