Mixing Subwoofers

[MickyMcD]

No worries man. Bashing on you isn't going to help you learn. My advice is to attempt to synchronize those transducers in every way possible. Same style enclosure, same tuning frequencies, same equalisation curves etc. Otherwise, many scenarios may unfold. And none of them are good.

Attempt to feed both woofers with a similar or preferably the same style of amplifier, and try to keep the signal flowing to them as similar as humanly possible. If one set of loudspeakers has a flat curve, and the others have a boost at 50hz +15db (for example), the loudspeakers with the boosted low end are going to bottom out and fail long before the loudspeakers with the flat curve. Psychologically, you see the see the loudspeaker with the boost not moving too far, and you want it to get up and go. So you put on some volume, never noticing that the other loudspeakers have already exceeded safe operating limits. Then comes the magic smoke.

Best of luck, hope it works well for you.

Cheers,

Mick

[loganuf]

No worries man. Bashing on you isn't going to help you learn. My advice is to attempt to synchronize those transducers in every way possible. Same style enclosure, same tuning frequencies, same equalisation curves etc. Otherwise, many scenarios may unfold. And none of them are good.

Attempt to feed both woofers with a similar or preferably the same style of amplifier, and try to keep the signal flowing to them as similar as humanly possible. If one set of loudspeakers has a flat curve, and the others have a boost at 50hz +15db (for example), the loudspeakers with the boosted low end are going to bottom out and fail long before the loudspeakers with the flat curve. Psychologically, you see the see the loudspeaker with the boost not moving too far, and you want it to get up and go. So you put on some volume, never noticing that the other loudspeakers have already exceeded safe operating limits. Then comes the magic smoke.

Best of luck, hope it works well for you.

Cheers,

Mick

alrite man, so how do i get them to run at the same type of waves and sound in order to prevent all that crap that you were talkin about?

[MickyMcD]

First of all, it ain't crap. If it is going to save you from burning up your loudspeakers, I would call it far from crap.

Firstly, run them in the same style of enclosure. Do not have one set of loudspeakers running in a sealed enclosure and one in a folded horn, for example. I recall reading that you have one set in a sealed enclosure, and one in a vented. Please correct me if I am misguided. Whilst the transducers in the sealed box are going to handle infra-sonics well, the transducer/s in the vented enclosure will 'bottom out' once you drop below the enclosure's tuning frequency. Do that often enough/long enough/ enough power, goodbye loudspeaker. If you are using the transducer in the sealed enclosure as a reference, you may think that all woofers are holding up to the puncishment you are dealing when in actual fact, the set housed in the vented box may be being damaged.

Secondly, run amplifiers from the same model branch. For example, the Orion woofers will not handle the same amount of power as the L7. You could use Rockford Fosgate amplifiers from the same model (such as the txxxx.xbd) series that have the same controls. One brand's eq, gain layer and sound/noise ratio will not be the same as another's, and that may cause problems for you as the listener. Ensure that both woofers are recieving the same amount of equalisation (bass boost) if applied, and both are crossed over at the same frequency relevant to the system set up. Do not have your Orion woofers handling 38hz-120hz and the L7 handling 38-55hz. It will sound terrible to you.

You may however use the L7 to take sub-bass and the Orion woofers to take bass to lower midrange. Set the L7 to handle 0-80hz and the Orion woofers to handle 75-78hz to 400hz. You will then have a bi-amplified sub bass system.

Thirdly, check your phase. Just because you hit the phase button on both amps does not mean both loudspeakers are in phase. The best method for that is to get or borrow a strobe light. Set the strobe at about 10hz, and play a test note within your woofer's safe operating parameters. Adjust the note until it appears as if the cone is slowly moving back and forth, much like in excursion video's posted on the internet. Adjust polarity until both woofers are moving in phase with each other. Just because you hit the phase button on both amps does not mean both loudspeakers are in phase. As you get better and better at this, you can adjust by ear.

Once these measures have been observed, just be mindful of the limits of your system. Know it back to front, front to back. If you know your system well enough, you can make it sound good to your ears and ensure that it survives many years of use. Know what it sounds like when the woofers are bottoming out. Know which coils smell like what when overpowered. Know how hot your coils can run.

Best of luck to you and I hope you, like all of us, enjoy your system.

Cheers,

Mick

[chesthertZ]

while this topic is still goin, my mate bought some subs, hes 1st shopping spree bought the sub and amp, 4get wat the amp is but he got a 12" pioneer thats 1000w max power, then the other day from a different store we went out and he got a 12" pioneer but a challenge series or something, its 1200w instead of 1000w, same brand sub same size, will this make cut outs, performance lack or anything?

[MickyMcD]

Different Model, different Theile/Small parameters, different....ah fuck it, I've said too much on this topic already. Yus, it will. How much will it affect it? Let your ears be the judge.

Cheers,

Mick

[chesthertZ]

Different Model, different Theile/Small parameters, different....ah fuck it, I've said too much on this topic already. Yus, it will. How much will it affect it? Let your ears be the judge.

Cheers,

Mick

my ears will do the judging tommorow then, ahah im not braggin 1 bit bout my system , but listenin 2 myn then 2 hes ahahaha, leaves hes 4 dead , well anywayz dinner is serveed

[basshead420]

ok im gona put this out here for the hell uve it. 'DONT MIX AND MATCH SUBS.' its much easier to use matching subs.

ive done it in the past as a kid and it dident work well, atleast for long. im not saying it cant work but it takes alot more time and work to get it soundin right and runing safley.