Why Speaker Design Changed Over Time: Can Smaller Be Just As Good?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ค. 2024
- One of our watchers asked why speaker size changed over time. It's an interesting question. If you're too young to remember when speakers were the focal piece of your living room, or when 100 watt amplifiers cost a month's salary, then this trip through history will fascinate you.
Andrew covers changes in the function and number of speakers in a room, as well as technical changes to baffles, diffraction, driver technology and more.
Check out the changes and their effects on speaker size in this video.
0:00 Why Speaker Size Changed Over Time
1:24 Ian Colquhoun With the AX5 Vintage Speaker
2:39 It's Partly a Matter of Aesthetics
3:22 Quadrophonic Sound Marked the Beginning of the Change
4:18 TV Sizes Had An Affect On Speaker Sizes
5:08 Decreasing Power Costs Had An Effect
5:36 Larger Drive Units Make More Efficient Speakers
6:23 More Amp Power Means You Can Use Smaller Drivers
7:57 Diffraction Makes a Difference, Too
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I’m late to the conversation but I also think the subwoofer helped immensely with the smaller speaker trend. One thing that I never agreed with is when people say “the speakers are too big”. When I listen to music I want to listen to music. For me the stereo is for only music and it’s going to take up as much room as is required to produce the sound that I desire
I think you are absolutely correct, given the proliferation of the sub-sat system over the past 20+ years.
Me too, sound quality is my number one priority.
One other reason most speakers are smaller is that many people have subwoofers, so the other speakers don't need big drivers because the bass is handled by the subwoofer. Subwoofers are usually 10" or bigger, but only one driver. Bookshelf speakers don't need to go below 80 or 100 Hz. In the old days, the 2-way (or 3-way) systems had to do it all. Also, passive radiators enhance the bass without increasing size.
Interesting point, thanks for adding this to the conversation.
I still remember the sound system stack(equalizer, amplifier, tape deck) and using two large speakers for that system. It took up as much room as the TV and equipment rack does now.
The way things have changed can be truly mind boggling.
I do too.
It sounded just as good.
And the two 15" drivers in that old system made me happy.
Today's systems are better in my opinion bc they spread the sound to multiple speakers.
It is still the best
I would have expected more certainty in the reasons for the design evolution from a speaker engineer - I would like to understand more about the sonic differences between large cabinets vs small as well.
Back then the man was the man of the house and his word was king. Woman comes out through the generations and complains about the size of speakers taking up her space in the living room(make no doubt about it , those sound engineers are married to and have to hear it from their wives). Evolution , The cars back then were also big in the 60's in the 70's. Also the manufactures to make more profit, less material cost more profit . But no matter what, you just can not get a Fifteen inch woofer sound out of an 8-10" speaker subwoofer, just not the same! 🤔🤔🥱🥱😛😛🤐🤐
For me the classic speaker is the Boston Acoustics A100. It had a huge speaker box. I have a few of these large 8" woofer speakers and they all sound better than the smaller newer ones i have.
sOOOOO TRUE
Besides the use of subwoofers which was mentioned, I always thought the form change driven by the use of speakers next to a TV cabinet/stand. The cabinet was 18 inches deep anyway, so why not make use of that depth for the speaker, the volume of the enclosure stays the same and they look nicer and are less obtrusive.
Interesting point, however, most speakers that are not designed for wall mounting today are deeper than they are wide.
These educational videos have been very informative. Thanks for making a great product and educating us as well!
You're very welcome, thanks for watching!
Very informative thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for taking the time to say so!
I'm surprised there was no mention of subwoofers.
Excellent point, could be a future video on how the shape of subwoofers has changed.
@@AxiomHomeTheaters I thought we had been trending from 2 channel systems with proper large woofers to 2.1 systems where the bass was handled by a sub. So smaller speakers cuz they don't need to produce low notes.
I don't know. I found your channel a couple days ago and I LOVE it. Very accessible and super interesting. Thank you.
@@SB-pf5rc Yes, this is certainly part of it…many have moved to smaller speakers plus one or two subwoofers for stereo. Thank you for watching, it means a lot!
Modern day improvements:
1. Better materials for drivers, especially the cones
2. Computer aided designs can pretty much predict and guide the builder to achieve the sound they want based on dimensions given for the enclosure
3. Drivers are able to handle more power
4. Modern music is equalized to be loud, bassy and bright loud highs. These lead many people to think their smaller speakers sound “better”.
My dad has a 1970s speakers with 10 inch woofer, 5 inch midrange and 1.5” tweeter. It sounds good. But I also have 5 year old smaller 2 way speakers with 6 inch woofer and 1” tweeter. The bass and response from the new speaker sounds punchier. Highs are more pronounced.
His older speakers sound a little flatter but isn’t fatiguing to listen to.
Narrow baffles do not have less diffraction. In fact they might have even slightly more than wide baffles. The idea behind narrow baffles is that diffraction, and thereby phantom source, happens closer to the driver thereby reducing time difference of arrival of different sources (driver and phantom sources on baffle edges). It is thought that less time difference is less obtrusive.
You are correct…a better way of putting it would be to say that a narrower baffle will have reduced time interference from the baffle edges, and hence diffraction will be less obtrusive
Love these videos and from one of my favorite speaker designers. Yes I still do own mirage
Thanks!
as do I. Still enjoying the Mirage OMD 15 floorstanders with OMD C1 center, and two OMD 5 surrounds in a fairly compact 12 x 15 ' listening room / home theater space. They sound so much larger, with depth, imaging, and even focus than their appearance would leave one to believe they could. Just discovered this channel and after learning of Andrew's role at Mirage he became a bit of an audio hero in my mind. Look forward to learning more about the evolution of this technology at Axiom!
me and some college buddies saw the Visinik David 50 speakers demonstrated back in 1977 in Rochester, NY. they played the standard stereo test record of the time, Dark side of the moon.. we were blown away by the sound if these tiny speakers. we shortly discovered the store had a subwoofer also we didn't see at first. still, amazing sound back when the average speaker was 20 times the size...
Great subject. I appreciate the effort to educate us on this. I also wondered about this question. I am in my late 50's and I still have vintage JBL L96 and Ohm L speakers and I use them in a short stand. I like the look and the sound. I am really glad that you all make the M5HP, which is on my short list of speakers to try. I use a subwoofer for 2 channel listening, so I am happy with tall monitors 19 to 25 inches tall. I really do not need tower speakers in my 11 by 14 listening room. I use tower speakers in the living room only. Again, thank you I enjoy your videos. :-)
I just took delivery of the M5HP last week, and they're as neutral sounding as promised. And I chose them specifically to be floor standing speakers. They're temporarily on silicone speaker stands angled 15º upwards, so they hit the ear at the correct angle at the seating position. I'll eventually find a correctly sized stand at the same angle, but it works for my room and equipment layout. Now to fix the questionable auto-EQ subwoofer settings of my new Onkyo AVR...
@@status101-danielho6 Thanks!! This is excellent feedback from a audio enthusiast/consumer which I take seriously. I will definitely give them a try. Much obliged.
Thanks both of you for the great comments, and for watching!
@@roig8578 If a loudspeaker needs more than 10 words to describe its sound, it's not neutral. They earned my business because they're not promising the moon, just good engineering.
@@status101-danielho6 Thanks. I read last night that Bryston and Axiom will merge or merged already.
A smaller cabinet places absolute limitations on how low it can go in terms of bass. The laws of physics come in here. Bass reflex was really a fudge to give more bass from a smaller cabinets, but it’s distorted bass since it comes from the backwave.
Thank u sir to explain in English so everyone can understand easily Thanku
You're welcome, and thanks for watching.
This guy is great! but i had to put playback settings speed at 1.25..
Thanks for the video, very informative. I remember a few years ago almost buying a tower speaker, with 5 drivers. Looked great on pictures, but in the flesh they were just 3 or 4 inches. I tested with some bass heavy music on moderate volume, those drivers were MOVING, very funny to see but terrible sound. I was bummed, decided bigger drivers are neeeded, convinced my wife to go to 5ft8 tall slimmish speakers with 6 inch drivers, ported, and very happy with the result. Combined with two 10" subs with pr and a bigger 18" sub for movies...it looks better, as long as they are slim, the tall aspect has less impact in the room.
Thanks for commenting! Woofers still need to be big enough to give good performance, as you found.
Modern amps put out more power generally, hence smaller speaker with a powerful motor and subwoofers... But I think vintage speakers sound amazing
Bingo! Class d amps = cheap thrills…
In the car audio world it’s absolutely INSANE how much power some of the amps are putting out at benign 2 and 4 ohm situations…
I would gladly buy one of those old consoles that still sounds good. And isnt beat up
The way I see it . People's homes changed , manufacturers realised they could get the same money for less. Smaller are easier to make rigid.
Home theater is a good way to sell more and having 5 Marantz 6g's do take up room.
Then there's the latte sipping lot that don't want to live in a studio.
I still have a kriesler stereogram from 1968 that has sliding doors over the speakers. Which I do keep in the studio.
I have the book by David Weems called Designing, Building, And Testing Your Own Speaker System and he maintains that research in harmonic distortions behave better with a speaker that follows the golden ratio and also the stereo imaging is better with narrower speakers.
Interesting. The golden ratio in both cabinets and rooms can certainly minimize standing waves, and I know that narrower cabinets will result in better, more uniform off-axis response that is critical to good imaging.
His books are all that is needed, case closed
Same thing for live music. Picture The Who back in the day or Hendrix's stack of Marshalls. Juxtapose that to my experience of U2's 360° 2011 tour. You hardly noticed speakers, (and now they tour with none onstage) but it was one of the loudest, and the clearest sounding concert's I've ever attended.
Very good point that live sound has also followed that trend.
concerts are miked now. If you want to see the evolution of concert sound systems it is all because of the Grateful Dead. They revolutionized the live sound.
In my opinion large woofers sound more realistic and immediate compared to a small one flopping back and forth trying to keep up. Like the difference between a V8 and a 4 cylinder. This is especially true with horn loaded ones like the large Klipsch that have a total ease about the sound which is just there and is the only speaker in my experience that actually sounds like real musical instruments and singers when heard from the next room. Problem is they're huge with no WAF and the mids and high frequencies were never to my liking when I had them years ago.This sound limitation may have improved since though with new materials and technology but there's not much you can do about the size. They'll always be huge and not meant to fit in an ordinary sized living room. I guess the challenge is to design a moderately sized speaker that has the ease and immediacy of a large one.
I understand what you're saying, but my experience has been that well designed small drivers in a properly designed enclosure can easily mimic the performance of a larger single woofer.
Andrew. I have axiom a pair of multi directional 80 axiom speakers. Can I just used them as front firing speakers and what connections on the rear shall I use.
If you mean the LFR880s, you can run the front section alone, but it will not be ideal. In fact, it will likely perform worse than a standard pair of M80s as the passive crossover is tailored to be used with the DSP driving both the front and back sections.
Hi about 15 years ago my brother asked me to check out a sound system with him even tho he originally got me into home audio. I just got obsessed and also dabbled in car audio. Including Installs for family and friends for a carton of beer. LOL. But I have noticed bogus ratings. A pioneer system I checked out for my brother? 15 inch driver with a dust cap which looked like it was from a 6 inch driver? When the salesman turned it up? His excuse was : its a large room. It won't sound as good as in your home! My reply was: I used my system as a PA system and when the music was played in a large room with a dance floor? ( reception) area for weddings? I could Hear the bass outside when my friends were sneaking alcohol to me! Lol. I have bought multiple new smaller speakers and they just don't perform like the older ones. Any speaker can scream! But it's the sound Quality that is lacking . Just my experience! BTW. Top video on this topic.
Thank you, I appreciate you sharing your experience!
@@AxiomHomeTheaters thanks for the tutorial! You're helping me stay in touch with this era. I'm stuck in the 90s and 2000. LOL. Cheers. Highly appreciated
What is your opinion on the 'old' Klipsch speakers such as : Klipsch-horn, La Scalla, Cornwalls, Heresay, etc.
I don’t have any experience with the new “revival” heritage models and only remember the Klipschorn from years ago. It could energize a room with very little power and easily reach realistic “live” levels, but I would not call it neutral.
Good points, also I think the shipping costs of big speakers is very high. As well as the price of building big cabinets is very expensive. I still prefer the sound of a old school 12” high efficiency 3 way. Another thing is that powered subwoofers became more popular allowing for smaller satellite speakers. 👍🏻🔈
Interesting points, thanks for taking the time to comment.
Exactly. This is the main reason but don't expect to get this truth from any speaker manufacturer.
I think you over looked two big things that happened in the 80s & 90s, the tall, slim 'Tower' speaker, and the 'satellite' speakers, such as popularized by Bose. People I knew back then wanted a bigger TV, but at that time that took up a LOT of space, so the idea of a slim tower that also didn't need any stands to have the speakers at a comfortable listening level was quite attractive.
This was followed by the systems such as the Bose and others that had very small front and surround speakers, and s sub in the corner that took up little space at all, but provided what was considered to be decent sound at the time by many. This kind of system was very popular for the then new home theater systems vs having big JBL sized speakers front and rear.
I still prefer a decent mix of tower fronts and small rear speakers for my HT system.
Hmm…I _think_ I covered both of those changes in the video, but it’s been awhile! You are absolutely correct regarding the move to slim towers and sub/sat systems.
@@AxiomHomeTheaters Another thing I think is pure economics in moving from the big speakers to the slim towers, etc. I had a pair of speakers with 15" bass drivers. I'm pretty sure it was more expensive to make those, than to build the tower with a couple of 6" drivers instead. And with the right design, they sounded almost as good at those giant speakers.
@@danaj9336
It's certainly possible, but two 6 inch woofers could easily cost more than a single 15 inch driver to produce. Keep in mind that you have two motor systems, two voice coils, etc. and those parts make up a large percentage of the cost of any driver.
Most people today live in the crowded metropolis setting that have limited floor space.
I would have thought that one of the obvious reasons was the introduction of the subwoofer.
I still use my vintage Sansui 12 inch woofer, 5x9 horn loaded compression super tweeter, dome tweeter, and two 4
Inch midrange drivers. With an Lpad on the 5x9.
These speakers cannot be beat even today and they are 40 years old and still going perfect. That's for music listening.
Home theater are Jamo C93-2s and C91-2s in white with an 15 inch subwoofer. Those Jamos are among the top five speakers period.
Solid aluminum phase plugs and floating dome tweeters in specially designed cabnets that are not square.
There is no resonance.
My LP set up is a Fluance record player, Yamaha receiver amp. 100wpc.
And a pair of JBL Studio 530s.
Which is a hole different planet of speaker.
Thanks for sharing your systems, glad the Sansuis are still going strong.
My Q Acoustics 3020is not only outperform my mom’s Bose model 601 series I but also get louder.
Subs are for Home Theatre, not HiFi 🔈🔉🔊
Great vid! Keep them coming
Thanks! Will do!
I think we were more hoping for how Class D etc and materials in speaker cones have improved sound from smaller speakers....
Thank you, those are certainly topics we can add to our video list.
I still wish they had much more "old school" speakers available. I couldn't afford them when I was younger, now they aren't around. Please list some companies if you can.
I think if you look around you’ll find many companies making loudspeakers in that old form factor with modern technology. Our Axiom M5HP is like many “big bookshelf” speakers of the past.
Check the Wharfedale Heritage series. Models Linton and Denton 85th Anniversary might be exactly what you’re looking for.
Thanks but after GR-Research's review I'm kind of turned off on Warfdale. But they are close. I ended up getting the Zu's Dirty Weekend. I wish they were 3way(just for old school sake) but I can't have everything.
Also: people are now doing a ton more room rentals and house sharing… so that means they don’t want to move giant speakers several times.
These days a basic 2.1 system works wonders as a desktop computer and movies situation…
I think the younger generations want even more portability as buying a house is out of reach and good luck running multiple subs in a townhouse without Karen calling the cops….
I did not notice the change in time... I still use a 70's sound system :D
Excellent, bet it sounds great for you!
Minimum driver's size 6.5in, 2 ways or 2.5ways main channel.
If not wrong in mid 90s some manufacturers introduced satalite spkr + sub,. Bose kef, elac,magnat, mission
Yes, sub-sat systems were very popular for a time and many manufacturers made them.
Shipping cost. That's the most important factor.
With the advent of affordable powered subs....there is no point in large towers when sub bass is far superior to passive tower bass. Deeper, louder, cleaner.
Back in 1975 I bought my first Hi Fi system. I never even saw a speaker with less than an 8 inch woofer. Speakers were huge and that was the only way to get bass. I never heard of a subwoofer.
Very true…back then speakers always tended to be BIG!
The reasons I can figure out about why speakers got smaller and smaller are purely economic.
Less materials.
Curiously, as speakers got smaller, amps got more power. From 12 watts to 150, 300, or more. So to compensate the loss of bass, all companies started to boost the bass in the speakers and equipment. Then the subwoofers became a new opportunity to make even more money, while producing an extra peripheral for the household. Also the home theatres. Ugh.
Now big speakers like the Klipsch Forte cost the same as a car.
It's ridiculous, lol.
1 More logical reason and fact is that large boxes cost more to ship, so therefore adjusting speaker design was a way to maximize profit.
25 watts of pure tube power will shake the walls
I would think 50% of the reason is cheaper construction, less material, less manufacture cost and shipping.
Not true on any of those accounts, while older designs were much wider they were also much shallower. In fact, if you turn those older speakers 90 degrees you'll likely find size is similar to a modern era design.
Its about cost, im building my own 15 inch 3 ways
I want 20 of those old bangers, fill the house ❤❤❤🎉🎉
A big baffle also causes refractions and distortion.
Small baffles too, but larger baffles can make diffraction a bigger issue.
thats why i built my own full range out of solid oak its furniture quality
In a casual observation it appears that while getting narrower, speakers also increased in depth, and ports were added, perhaps so they could breathe as well as wide cabinets. Is that the case?
Not necessarily when it comes to ports, but absolutely if the cabinet gets narrower you need to do something to get back the required internal volume.
Rent to own rack systems of the 80s was the primary cause, & a new generation of kids/people who never actually heard a good system, all they saw was the sony ,Pioneer, Kenwood name on that crap, & therefore it must be good, 10 years later and nowone remembered how good the old ones were, still that way now, most people wouldn't know a good sounding system so most stuff is still crap
6” will never make as much bass as a 12-15” woofer. As a matter of fact when you spend $25k, $50k, $75k you will get multiple 12-15” woofers. In my opinion it is just making more profit for manufactures. Easier to warehouse and ship
because people had more square foot per dollar, and they had extra money to buy expensive stereo equipment, and they had a bunch of cheap wood to use, and like you said maybe they thought they needed to be bigger. it was easier for purchasers to feel like they justify their cost if they're big so the makers were building things that looked large. like everything else we never start out with a product that is perfectly designed and delivers maximum capability in the smallest possible form factor. these are just all guesses and i have very little knowledge of this subject. im mostly joking.
Nothing wrong with guessing and having fun. Cheers for joining the conversation.
I guess they just made stronger bookshelves back then...
Smal speakers is made for ppl in wall to wall appartments. You dont feel the smal speakers comp to big ones.
We have more amplifier power my ass. Vintage receivers were under rated, had big ass power supplies and capacitors
I’m more old school i like huge speakers because they just sound better
In the 90s I purchased some remote speakers for a portable CD player at an airport, Now compared to my JLB speaker they sound like cheap headphones stuck in a plastic housings.
I still do not understand why this small rectangular box sounds a 1000 x better
Why do smaller speakers output better sound?
I’m having a bit of trouble understanding what you’re saying is better here…the small remote speakers or your JBL speakers?
@@AxiomHomeTheaters
Lifestyle. Itty bitty speakers and ginormous TVs. WAF.
Am I the only one who doesn't think a sub/sat system is well suited to a music oriented system?
It doesnt sound quite right tp my ears.
Small speakers are cute but jbl 4355, klipsch jubilee, klipschorn are sexxxxy.
Time can't change the laws of physics - big speaker big sound, small speaker small sound (-:
"Can Smaller Be Just As Good?" Nope. See how easy that was? People don't care how good a speaker sounds, they care how good it looks. A popular name e.g., Bose on the front, preferably lit with blue LEDs, will make the average customer (and many audiophiles) very happy.
Can you guess why live performances don't use 5-inch drivers? It's not just SPL, it's a different physical experience.
"What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you got, say, pitiful, portable picnic players." - Alex DeLarge
Sound bars are the worst thing to happen to sound quality.
I know why 😬
The Citizens didnt ask for small speakers. The Industry merely pushed them upon the Consumers. Why? Because the entire Audio Industry became infected by ECO-RADICALS, in the 80s. Thats when they went from Audiophile grade, high quality divers, in Sealed boxes (FAR Superior accurate Bass, compared to Ported speakers) .. to multiple "Cheap" efficient (low magnet strength, low coil strength) "eco-drivers" ..in ported boxes. Then in the 90s... they infected the Studios... and compressed all of the Music to Hell, to save a few Watts of amp power. They increased compression levels, gradually each year.. thinking that nobody would notice. I stopped buying CDs, once I heard the change in quality and clarity... and have never bought a CD since.
So, the Push for smaller speakers, was for Ecological and Cost cutting reasons. They realized that Lemming Consumers, were easily Fooled into thinking that narrow small size driver'ed speakers were Superior (They are Not). This allowed them to use less wood, cheaper cuts of wood, and and very light weight drivers. This also meant, reduced shipping costs, and the ability to ship more per Crate / Cargo Container / Truck.
I have a vintage pair of 1970s era " EPI 100v " speakers. They have a very powerful and EXTREMELY accurate 8" woofer, and a special Inverted Tweeter... that makes the Widest Holographic 3d sound-field, that Ive ever heard, from any speakers / system, hands down. They completely Destroyed my 90s era Techniques 12" 3-way speakers, in every Metric (curbed them the next day, in utter Disgust). When a buddy wanted my opinion of the $3000 speakers at the local high end audio shop... I went to have a listen. They were tall and narrow speakers, with multiple 6" ish diameter drivers. The bass was Severely Anemic and Artificial sounding. The highs were way too Harsh.. and Fatiguing (like nails on a chalkboard). Even with their best and most expensive SUBs playing with them... they still sounded like utter S**T. My EPI's, completely Destroy them, in every way. From having a Vastly Super soundstage, to having FAR more accurate details.. without being Harsh. Zero distortions, even at near speaker blowing volume levels. Bass that is NATURAL sounding... Luscious and Sooth as Butter. Detailed, Full, Punchy, and Dynamic. You cant get bass like it... from a Ported speaker... and once you hear what bass is SUPPOSED to sound like... you are left in a total RAGE... hating how much Joy you have been Deprived of... due to the ECO radicals meddling.
Realize, that you cant just use a Sub, to fill in the missing deep and mid bass, from small diameter woofers. Subs basically for movie Effects... and in most music styles, only tend to Muddy the music up.
Narrow bezels generally dont mean Diddly. The reason for poor soundstage, has almost nothing to do with the bezel width... and almost everything to do with the QUALITY and design of the Tweeter itself. The issue is that many Audiophile grade speakers Opt for Planer tweeters... and while planers can be extremely accurate in details... they have an extremely NARROW listening field / sweet spot. Certain Dome tweeters, are often under-powered... and so they fail to project enough energy into the room. With Horn based tweeters... their Horn Shape seems to distort the intended 3d Image... causing the music to sound much "Flatter". Some high frequency drivers, are just very narrow in their output height and width... and if you are even a few feet off-axis from them... you will notice a huge change in the sound. Yet other tweeters... like the EPI's.. have like a 12 x 12 x12 ft area, in which... no matter where you sit / stand within that area, you get an amazing 3D Stereo image. The details are also fantastic.
Now look.. its not that you cant get excellent sound from a bunch of high-quality, small diameter, speaker drivers. But that there is always a trade off, and price to pay. You wont, for example.. be able to push smaller drivers, anywhere near as loud and dynamic... as larger diameter drivers of the same driver type / mfg. Also, Ive listened to the difference between an identical pair of 2 way speakers... with the only difference being a 6" vs 8" woofer (same tweeter, same crossover). The 8" was FAR deeper, more Full and Natural sounding, and far more Dynamic. They also could play and be pushed Far louder. That said.. Both of those speakers used audiophile grade drivers. This wasnt some cheap Chinese boom-box drivers... where, no matter what you did... would barely help the sound quality at all.
All of that said... the mere Diameter of a speaker driver... doesnt mean that it will be a good / excellent speaker. My former Techs 12" eco woofer drivers... couldnt touch the FAR super 8" woofers in the EPI's. A single EPI woofer, weighted more than two of the Techs woofers combined... because the EPIs use much stronger and heavier magnets... and likely, much stronger voice coils too. The added magnetic strength, allows them to accelerate faster, thump harder, and have SUPERIOR precision control of their movements... which equates to almost Zero distortions... which equates to being able to hear more things in the music... than you ever have heard before (due to other speakers partially distorting the intended details).
I will also add... that when the 80s hit, and the speaker MFGs started using Eco-drivers... they often put in anywhere from 4 to 5 drivers in them... to try to Dazzle prospective buyers. Some of them also used extremely larger woofers... like 15 / 16" diameter... to try to make it seem like they could handle very serious bass. But people found out the hard way... that the additional drivers didnt really make these speakers sound better... and... the large woofers were not really designed to handle heavy bass excursion levels... and so they would easily Blow themselves apart. This scammery caused a lot of Distrust... and soured a lot of people to the potentials of Superior audio products. Of course, there are also way overpriced scammery going on, in the Audiophile scene... with companies like BOSE... which use multiple cheap $3 chinese drivers... Some EQ trickery... and a lot of Deceptive Marketing, to get fools to part with their Money, for sub-par sound quality.
Don't forget that wife law lol . herd that crap thrown around back in the day. Marketing has told people that smaller speakers can sound just as good as bigger ones! And smaller speakers tend to cost less then bigger speakers. So... people buy cheaper smaller speakers at cheaper prices. Most average people these days don’t seem to have a clue or care what good speakers should or can sound like, so they buy cheap junk. Traditional two and 3 way speakers were better sound quality, as big drivers are more impactfull , Though separate
These small speakers exist because the subwoofer was developed and because it can be hidden in the living room.
we used to read more books.
So it’s Fosgate’s fault. ProLogic.
Speaker and sound research was also Fosgate. Lol. He was first to care at all about car audio and research it.
The wife? Ironically the only thing that didn’t get slimmer.
Smaller speakers came about because of WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).
Wives have been around a lot longer than speakers 😉
I am afraid I have to agree on that !
If they put out crap, your always trying to upgrade the crap and buy more expensive crap. Go diy
Wife factor
I don't think any wife would ever approve my subwoofer choices. All 18s and over.
Why women 😂
WAF ( wife acceptance factor) also less edge diffraction problems better imaging and soundstage.
I was always under the impression that the bigger the woofer the more space it needed to breath to get that punch?
Larger woofers will in many cases require large cabinets to tune them properly, but that's the majority and not the rule.