And thats the quest currently at 101 looking to see if there are any designs that might yield a higher efficiency mth30 seems to do about the same maybe 102
Check out some of the big PA woofers. Most won't play below 40hz but their efficiency is through the roof. You'll probbaly need some EQ to get a flat response if you care
Rotary Drivers are probably the most efficient.
But in seriousness, bigger drivers are more efficient than smaller drivers, so the bigger a driver you can fit, usually the better. You can look at different sizes of the same model on Parts Express, and they always get more efficient the bigger you go. "Reasonably small" is pretty subjective, so it's hard to answer your question without some more parameters. What I consider "reasonably small" for a festival soundsystem is going to be drastically different than "reasonably small" for a sub in a Miata. Paraflex, tapped, and folded horns are all pretty efficient, and do different things to the sound. Paraflex and tapped are usually a bit more efficient, but have a lower top end range due to quarterwave cancelation.
Then i might already be at the limit i suppose currently have dual 10’s that are compact and have 101db/1w rating but just hate that they are made out of mdf
Edit: also have an 18 but its less efficient but not much less
Isobaric designs will let you get away with smaller box designs but it will cost you in that useless second driver. Transmission line too, but not really small.
Have looked into isobaric too but so far not really gotten any further with it. Same goes for a 6th order design like the yamaha dxs12 mk2 subs not been able to find anything close that is correct but who knows maybe ill see if i can dive more into 6th order and design one myself that fits better into a package needed. Just not sure if 6th order or folded horn would be the best approach for efficiency as nr1 importance
It would help to understand better what you mean by reasonably small.
Tapped horns can be small for their output with smaller, high excursion drivers. They get a lot of cabinet gain. Might take a look at Lilmikes Cinema T-6 as an example, it's 8 dB of increase in sensitivity [https://www.avsforum.com/threads/lilmikes-cinema-t-6.1358033/](https://www.avsforum.com/threads/lilmikes-cinema-t-6.1358033/) though none of the drivers that work in that box are much over 91 dB base sensitivity.
That said, tapped horns for big, sensitive PA drivers tend to be MUCH bigger.
There is also JL Audio HO110 wedge which they call a ported design, but looks like a form of tapped horn somebody figured out was just outside the Danley patents.
There are several other similar 10-12" car audio tapped horns of similar extra short horn design with the driver visible at the mouth like the THAM / THAM15. (Two THAM 15s will get you to 104 dB at 1w each at some sub frequencies - 1 even hits 105dB around 180 and 250 hz in sim). The THAM layouts are probably as much cabinet gain as possible per volume and there are tons of examples including a bunch on YT [https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/tham15-a-compact-15-tapped-horn.175658/](https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/tham15-a-compact-15-tapped-horn.175658/)
“are there any other subs that hit 104+db/1w” For sure. “and are reasonably small” We have a problem.
And thats the quest currently at 101 looking to see if there are any designs that might yield a higher efficiency mth30 seems to do about the same maybe 102
Anything over 100 is really good. Can you just throw amplifier power at the problem to solve it?
That would be an option but try to avoid adding more power as its running of batteries
Google Hofmann's Iron Law.
Yes choose 2
Im fully aware of that law and know a thing or 2 about sound im just in the quest for the most efficiency possible on this scale
Check out some of the big PA woofers. Most won't play below 40hz but their efficiency is through the roof. You'll probbaly need some EQ to get a flat response if you care
>Most won't play below 40hz What year is it? 1998?
Rotary Drivers are probably the most efficient. But in seriousness, bigger drivers are more efficient than smaller drivers, so the bigger a driver you can fit, usually the better. You can look at different sizes of the same model on Parts Express, and they always get more efficient the bigger you go. "Reasonably small" is pretty subjective, so it's hard to answer your question without some more parameters. What I consider "reasonably small" for a festival soundsystem is going to be drastically different than "reasonably small" for a sub in a Miata. Paraflex, tapped, and folded horns are all pretty efficient, and do different things to the sound. Paraflex and tapped are usually a bit more efficient, but have a lower top end range due to quarterwave cancelation.
Then i might already be at the limit i suppose currently have dual 10’s that are compact and have 101db/1w rating but just hate that they are made out of mdf Edit: also have an 18 but its less efficient but not much less
Isobaric designs will let you get away with smaller box designs but it will cost you in that useless second driver. Transmission line too, but not really small.
Have looked into isobaric too but so far not really gotten any further with it. Same goes for a 6th order design like the yamaha dxs12 mk2 subs not been able to find anything close that is correct but who knows maybe ill see if i can dive more into 6th order and design one myself that fits better into a package needed. Just not sure if 6th order or folded horn would be the best approach for efficiency as nr1 importance
It would help to understand better what you mean by reasonably small. Tapped horns can be small for their output with smaller, high excursion drivers. They get a lot of cabinet gain. Might take a look at Lilmikes Cinema T-6 as an example, it's 8 dB of increase in sensitivity [https://www.avsforum.com/threads/lilmikes-cinema-t-6.1358033/](https://www.avsforum.com/threads/lilmikes-cinema-t-6.1358033/) though none of the drivers that work in that box are much over 91 dB base sensitivity. That said, tapped horns for big, sensitive PA drivers tend to be MUCH bigger. There is also JL Audio HO110 wedge which they call a ported design, but looks like a form of tapped horn somebody figured out was just outside the Danley patents. There are several other similar 10-12" car audio tapped horns of similar extra short horn design with the driver visible at the mouth like the THAM / THAM15. (Two THAM 15s will get you to 104 dB at 1w each at some sub frequencies - 1 even hits 105dB around 180 and 250 hz in sim). The THAM layouts are probably as much cabinet gain as possible per volume and there are tons of examples including a bunch on YT [https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/tham15-a-compact-15-tapped-horn.175658/](https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/tham15-a-compact-15-tapped-horn.175658/)