So I decided to pull the trigger and get started on a THTLP build for my living room / home theater project. Space is limited, so I have to be smart with my design and therefor I purchased the LP version. My goal is punchy, precise bass with as much LFE possible without running into group delay issues. I wanted to follow all the recommended steps to get maximum performance, however importing two Dayton Audio rss390hf-4 15" drivers to my home country of South Africa is incredibly expensive given import costs, duties, etc, so I'll have to choose from locally available drivers. We dont have anything like a Parts Express here, so the options are chinese made "professional" style drivers or car audio.
My design has incorporated two of the 36" versions. I'd prefer not to have them 36" wide, as that means the bottom of my tv would be at least that high off the ground. I'd prefer to get it lower. I know they should be corner loaded for best performance (and I possibly have a solution for that if I can go with a slightly narrower cabinet without losing performance) but I obviously want the most low end extension I can get without losing too much of the available space in my living room. The space in between the two horn openings in the attached image are about 500mm, which is less than the prescribed 2.8ft / 850mm as detailed in this post: viewtopic.php?t=398
When it comes to driver choice, there are many posts on this forum stating the following:
Preferred driver T/S specs are fs 17 to 30Hz, Qts 0.3 to 0.55, Vas 100 to 320L, xmax no less than 9mm.
Drivers with fs on the high end of the range work best in narrower cabs, those with low fs are better in wider cabs.
Output is determined by xmax, so the longer the better.
That 2nd line caught my attention... I cannot find a locally available driver with an FS as low as the Dayton's 19, and when it gets even close to that, the QTS (damping) is way too little. It goes far over the recommended maximum of 0.55
After much research, the locally available brand who's 15" driver specs most closely match the recommended t/s parameters is Kicker Audio. I've narrowed it down to 3 candidates in order of highest to lowest XMAX.
https://www.kicker.com/app/tsparam/50CVX152.html
50CVX152
FS 26
QTS 0.321
XMAX 20.65mm
https://www.kicker.com/app/tsparam/43CVR152.html
43CVR152
FS 26.35
QTS 0.388
XMAX 17mm
https://www.kicker.com/app/tsparam/44CWCS154.html
44CWCS154
FS 25.55
QTS 0.5305
XMAX 16.1mm
Now finally, to my questions. (I know right?!
)1: Which of the listed drivers best suit my requirements, given the FS on all of them is on the higher end of the scale
2: As the FS is high, what exactly does "work best in narrower cabs" mean, given that I dont want to sacrifice low end output?
