Question on small bass drivers in tower speakers


I noticed that many speaker manufacturers have been offering tower speakers with a multiple array of smaller bass drivers in their latest designs. I understand that having a series of smaller bass drivers in a cabinet can provide very fast and accurate bass response but I often wonder how these smaller drivers fair when it comes to reproducing the lower registers of the frequency range at louder volume levels (95+db).

I've seen claims of bass response down to the low 20hz range using two 6.5" woofers from some manufacturers like Proac as an example.

My question is this, how can these small drivers be capable of reproducing such low frequency when stuffed into a box when if you look at the manufacturer website of the speaker drivers themselves and see a listed Frequency response that shows the woofer only being able to play down to 40hz at best when taking a speaker of no more then 7" in diameter into consideration?

If someone was in the market for an almost "Full Range" speaker how likely are they to be happy with a tower that only uses 6.5-7" drivers at most that claim low 20hz capabilities verses some other manufacturer who uses 8" or larger drivers with similar advertised capabilities?

Even if I take into consideration the most inert cabinet designs available for these small drivers I still find it difficult to grasp the idea that they will be able to play bass that low on the scale with any real authority.

Please add your thoughts and experiences with small driver tower speakers and if you were impressed or disappointed with their capabilities of playing low and loud despite the advertised claims ..Thanks
eniac26
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.
Based on room dimensions alone my listening space would probably be considered ideal for a monitor/sub combo at roughly 12w x 9L. The main issue I have with this type of setup is that it would require me to add a preamp into the signal path that I don't need to use now.

I haven't seen many subs nowadays that hookup like they used to where you run your main speaker wires into the sub and then a second set of wires from the sub to the main speakers. I can only guess that there are some serious compromises in SQ with that type of wiring configuration and that is the reason you don't see it used much in the high end audio realm.

Currently I run a Bel Canto DAC3 straight to my amp so the signal path is very short,clean and dead silent. If I add any type of active speaker into the mix I'm going to need to purchase a VERY transparent preamp which usually means big $$ that would probably be better spent on better speakers. I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure the DAC3 can't provide a simultaneous signal feed from both the Balanced and Pre-Amp outputs to run a separate sub setup.

Based on the informative information provided in this thread I think my safest bet is give old Bill Dudleston a call and upgrade my Legacy Sig III's to the Focus SE and call it a day. Legacy seems to be one of the very few companies out there today who still offers big driver towers that a regular slob like myself can still afford.
Various of the PBN Montana line, like the eps2, might fit what you're looking for, and are likely competitive with the Focus SE on both $ and SQ. The SE might go a bit deeper, though.

John