Picking out Drivers

[bc]

Good morning campers, first post here. I am a non-audiophile building and IB sub for a friend. I volunteered to install in-wall speakers for home theatre in the addition he is building on his house, and for aesthetic reasons want to put the sub down in the crawl space with a floor register in the front right corner.

I want to keep things as simple as possible. I figure two drivers facing each other to lessen vibration of the floor. Dayton has always been good to me so that's where I went first, but their IB385-15's seem like overkill and more money than we'd really like to spend. I looked at Rob's Comparison Chart above and the March5 MAW-12 looks just right, but is apparently no longer available. Is there another good driver available under say $100 each?

Thanks in advance.

[ThomasW]

Jul 17, 2009 4:21:57 GMT -7 bc said:

Dayton has always been good to me so that's where I went first, but their IB385-15's seem like overkill and more money than we'd really like to spend.

I looked at Rob's Comparison Chart above and the March5 MAW-12 looks just right, but is apparently no longer available. Is there another good driver available under say $100 each?

If the budget is under $200 for drivers you need to build a ported box

[chrisbee]

bc

I'm afraid you haven't quite grasped the importance of driver displacement in IBs. Cone area x stroke (Total Sd x (2 x Xmax)) should be somewhere around 8 litres minimum to protect the cones from self destruction on the first film. In a larger room then 12 litres offers a much better margin of safety. A good action film will still try to destroy the drivers with 12 litres of displacement.

When you start looking at 12" drivers it gets more expensive! Not cheaper! You'll need at least eight 12" long throw drivers for safety. Or four long throw 15" or two long throw 18". The cheapest and safest choice we recommend is a pair of Fi IB318s. Two 18" drivers with a total of 14 litres of displacement. See Mike's Driver Comparison Chart in the blue links above.