A good speaker doesn't much care what frequency range it reproduces. Of course, the reason why woofers are so much larger than tweeters is that they handle the bulk of the energy. In a two way system designed to reproduce music about 85% of the amps putput in terms of power goes to the woofer and the remaining 15% to the tweeter. In a 3-way design it is typically 80-15-5%. Bass players must remember that the speakers they use must be able to handle a lot of energy. Hence, large diameter voice coils, proper venting of the pole piece and long throw are important. My preference, after a lot of experimentation, is that E/V drivers are the best for any sound re-enforcement app. Some of the JBL D and E series are reasonable comparable. Both of those designs incorporate the best technology available; they are more efficient, made to exacting tolerances, fitted with the best voice coils ever made and so well designed that they resist abuse better than anything else. Still, an over driven amp, especially a solid state one, will hard clip if abused and those square waves will destroy any speaker. The other conundrum is that larger speaker diameters become direction as soon as the wavelength of the reproduced frequency becomes shorter than the diameter of the cone. That is why so many bass players prefer 12" or even 10" drivers. I like 15" speakers for bass and the E/V-15B is my favorite. No matter what you decide on, use the largest amp you can get. That is safer than an amp that is too small. Simply put, it isn't power that damages speakers, it is the lack of power. Jim
Topic: Bass speakers (Read 4248 times)