DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woofers?

[Subcenter2009]

Dear friends,
I want to make a pair of DIY 8 Ohm floorstanders, Which combination of woofers do you think will give the best bass?.. One 12 inch woofer at 8 Ohms or 2 eight inch woofers of 4 Ohms in series? Both options will include 1 six inch midrange and 1 four inch horn tweeter. Plus a tuned port. Which combo will sound the best? Which will have the most Bass? Which will be more accurate and which will have a tighter lower end bass? Will all the bass frequencies be faithfully be played back in both towers or will some frequencies be missing?
I invite your valued opinions.. Thanks in advance.
Yours,
Subcenter2009:yahoo:

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Re: DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woof

Two 8 inch woofers is going to increase the height of the speakers, whereas 12 inch woofer will increase the width of the speakers. I would personally prefer two 8 inch instead of 12 inch woofer.

But if the woofer is good single 8 incher also should be sufficient.

 

[Deleted member 45006]

Re: DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woof

One 12 inch would be bass efficient with proper enclosure, but it's space consuming, and would need a good amp to drive. If 12 inch is the woofer ,increase the siZe of the midrange, to give more insight to midrange, At least an 8 inch.

 

[grubyhalo]

Re: DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woof

Dear friends,
I want to make a pair of DIY 8 Ohm floorstanders, Which combination of woofers do you think will give the best bass?.. One 12 inch woofer at 8 Ohms or 2 eight inch woofers of 4 Ohms in series? Both options will include 1 six inch midrange and 1 four inch horn tweeter. Plus a tuned port. Which combo will sound the best? Which will have the most Bass? Which will be more accurate and which will have a tighter lower end bass? Will all the bass frequencies be faithfully be played back in both towers or will some frequencies be missing?
I invite your valued opinions.. Thanks in advance.
Yours,
Subcenter2009:yahoo:

How about a 12" 2-way with a horn-loaded CD for the highs?

 

[sarith]

Re: DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woof

Good quality 8'' woofers will be enough. I currently have two tower type subwoofers with two 8" subwoofer (Philips double magnet, rubber surround, pressed paper, 6ohms) in each box (1" mdf, with 4 mtr of high grade imported glass wool). I run them with 4 individual push-pull amps (normal 40-0-40VDC).

I also have a 4ohm Type-R subwoofer which was resting in its box for more than a decade and I started using it like a week ago (red PP cone, rubber surround) has better bass than xplod 12" red sub. I run it with a simple bridged TDA7294.

My 12" sounds good in my hall (bigger room) and the 8" sounds better in my room (smaller room).

 

[Joshsibi]

Re: DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woof

8 inch woofer with 8 ohm impedence is sufficient. When you connect 2 woofers you will only get a maximum of 3-4db increase in the output.But using 2 woofers serially may cause distortions in the 2nd one such as dips and crackles.

 

[Sumanta]

Re: DIY 3 Way speaker project: Which is better? One 12 inch woofer or two 8 inch woof

Having same two drivers for same frequency range increase SPL by 3 dB and may add (I am not much sure here) distortion too.
It is the SPL of mid and tweeter and your required gap (or match) of SPLs of drivers that will dictate your decision.
If you prioritize speaker size over driver's SPL, then I believe it will be wrong. Form should follow function, not the other way.

Do you really need a 2nd woofer driver? Check their SPLs and decide.