T39S vs. T24

[DaveK]

A buddy of mine has 4x T24-16 with BP102 drivers. I have 4x T39 with the same driver. His band was playing a casual gig today so we took advantage of the opportunity to do a side-by-side listen test.

As you can see, the T39 stack takes significantly more pack space. I wanted to find out if that extra space was worth it.

We hooked up the stacks with identical cables to identical amps and ran recorded music. The T24 stack sounded clean and bassey ... until I switched to the T39 stack. Then the T24 stack sounded anemic in comparison. Everyone who listened agreed that the T39 stack was both louder and had more bottom. A quick check with the SPL meter confirmed about 3-4 dB more output from the T39 with the same input signal. Running sine wave test tones confirmed that the T39 stack was a lot louder at 40 Hz and closer, but still perceptibly louder at 80Hz.

Conclusion? For the umpteenth time, we demonstrated that there is no substitute for cubic inches when it comes to bass. Bigger boxes make more noise. The T24 is a compact little sub and was more than adequate for the gig. The bigger bottom on the T39 is so much nicer, but you gotta pay the price and transport it.

[Haysus]

VIVE Le TITAN!

[LelandCrooks]

Nice. Useful. Good Post, good job..

[Randall Dibble]

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I wonder what the comparison would be if the tuba's and the titans had the same internal volume?

[AntonZ]

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I wonder what the comparison would be if the tuba's and the titans had the same internal volume?

Yes, I had a similar idea. Two of the T39's appear to take about as much space as the quartet of T24. How does a pair of the T39 compare with 4x T24?

[DaveK]

Good question, but I didn't think to run that test. Theory says that halving the drivers is either -3dB or -6dB (I'm never sure which because the impedence difference comes into play, too). I measured a 3-4dB difference so removing have the T39s should have made them about equal. However, the T39s probably would still have had the edge in extension. That's where the bigger box really makes the difference.

[Randall Dibble]

Well my question is if "two Tuba24's built to the same internal volume of the titians how they compare"?