Non-linearity of air?

That is absolutely soooooooo correct.  We like to call it the "WF" or Wife Factor.

Actually unfortunately it is quite the opposite.  The Home theater market is greatly gavitating toward small enclosures.   And the main reason for it is because of the WF mentioned above.   We do a lot of OEM design of speaker systems for quite a few companies, and all of them want the subs as small as possible.  A perfect example of this is the OEM sub we are selling on our E-bay store.   It is a 10" cube.  In fact we recently designed a system for one OEM consisting of 2 of our 15" Tumults and a 2400 watt Rms amplifier in a small enclosure.

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio

And you are so right.  The market wants BIG wattage numbers to brag about.  They'd rather say "I've got a 1000 watt sub!" then "I've got a 100 watt sub".  So if I were a manufacturer and produced a sub whose efficiency was 97...and put that up against a sub with an efficiency of 87...

...and both were identical in their abilities to produce the same SPL level; the only difference being in the efficiency...

increase in db = 10*log(p2/p1)

where p1 is the reference power, p2 is the new power level, and log is log base 10...)

...I would be trying to sell a 100 watt sub up against 1000 watt subs in a market that doesn't understand what efficiency is.

That is to say, the sub with a 87 db efficiency would take 1000 watts to equal the SPL my sub makes with 100 watts with its 97 db rating.  But the subs' continuous power handling numbers would, of course, reflect their efficiency.

Both would be loud, and either would be as loud as the other...but my sub is "only" a 100 watt sub.  Oh and yeah, that's not even considering the exponential increase in "peak" numbers!  The 1000 watt sub will get the buyers because we all know the buyer's knowledge is very limited.

My gosh, just think about how limited OUR knowledge is on the subject...and we digest this stuff on a daily basis!  (..."we" = me...)  The average buyer is pathetic by comparison.  They see that Volkswagon commercial where the guy and girl go to the store and buy a subwoofer that says "1000 watts" in big bold letters on the box, and they say "That's what I want!"  It's not even unusual that some of them think in the back of their minds that the subwoofer actually produces the power.

89 db/1 watt is good for me.  That's what I'm using.  Power is cheap but I like it cheaper.

(...I had to come back and edit my wattage numbers here because I originally screwed up the math part...)

Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Uh oh, trying to start another topic in this thread I see.   So I guess I will take the bait and ask you to explain this comment.  I should warn you though that we have seen many similar comments by people after making the recent changes, and it has always proven that those people are basing their opinion on very limited knowledge of the situation.

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio

Oh wow, I totally misread what you were saying then.  I'm sorry about that.

Keep in mind thought that if you want to sell product, you have to offer what is popular. 

I discussed this thread with our salesman, and he did mention that we used to have an efficienct sub with large throw but required a pretty good size enclosure.  It was our Maelstrom.  It had 13mm of throw one way which is huge for pro sound gear, and had an efficiency of over 92 dB.  However those drivers sold VERY slow because there just wasn't a market for them.  Ported enclosure requirements for it were in the 5-6 cubic feet area.  In fact, just recently a guy posted pictures of one he just put in a 14 cubic foot enclosure.  Here's the link: http://forceaudio.com/viewtopic.php?t=75

Also, our old Shiva and Tempest drivers were well known for their efficiency, but large box requirements.  They had 16 and 18mm of throw one way respectively.

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio

Well that's just the thing, high efficiency isn't necessarily something that you want to look for.  It is important in pro sound, however you have so much working for you in car audio it really isn't a necessity to market.  It's like trying to petition people to breathe less in the forest to conserve oxygen.  What is the point?  You get so much free bass from the small environment of the vehicle, and power amplifiers are so efficient and cheap it's not an issue.  I, and a majority of the consumers out there, would MUCH prefer all the same bass (and many instances much lower bass) in a much smaller enclosure.

Steven Kephart

Adire Audio