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World's Most Powerful Subwoofer
dponce80 writes "This $13,000 subwoofer, the TRW 17 from Eminent Technology is billed as the world's most powerful due to its ability to reproduce sounds with frequencies as low as 1Hz. Typical subwoofers bottom out at 20Hz, and while the human ear can barely hear below that point, it is still possible to feel the sound. This particular woofer does not have an enclosure, instead relying on a fan-like design, wafting a cone of modulated air into the room, and effectively turning it into a resonating box, in its entirety!"
Audiophiles. These people spend money on the strangest things.
As a state gets corrupt, its laws multiply; the most corrupt states have the most numerous laws. (Tacitus, Annales 3:27)
Correct me if I am wrong but power is measured in Watts...and usually for speakers and subwoofers, you need to look at RMS Power Consumption. For example, the Creative Gigaworks 750 pumps out 750 Watts RMS in total - it is billed as the most powerful computer speaker set.
The article mentions that the subwoofer can bottom out at 1Hz, which is certainly amazing, but let's get our terminology right here - this is frequency range, not power.
like a $500 power cord
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Generally speaking, the examples you noted have consistent, measurable and repeatable changes. Warmth and tinny are purely in the eye of the beholder.
I can buy different pistons to change my compression which I may need for my desired power band. People have a specific need and they buy a specific piston designed to meet that need. The piston either provides the exact figure you need or it does not. Can you describe how to buy warm speakers? In fact, what the fuck is a warm speaker? Can you show me or describe how copper from Africa sounds better then copper from Mexico?
The power delivered to your house runs 100's of miles through multiple transformers , switching stations and substations. It comes off the pole and is sent into your breaker box and then to your outlet in the wall. I have a hard time believing that using a $400 power cord for the last freaking 3 ft from the wall to your actual equipment can play any role at all in the warmth and sound you hear from the equipment.
... WoW talk about one conclusion!
First the fact that your software generates low frequency is in NO way an indication of even your sound card being able to reproduce it. I have yet to see D/A converters working under 20Hz for a starter, then you would have to have a subwoofer able to reproduce it, the one mentionned in the article being the first one it seems. Not to mention you need the amplifier to reproduce something under 20Hz.
Realize that audio gear being able to work efficiently at 20Hz, is rare, expensive and usually geared toward studios, take a look at your gear spec, you'll see that most consummer, prosummer and semi-pro and even some pro gear start their frequency response range at 35Hz...
lol
This thing is dumb for other reasons. You know what you call a 100 dB signal at 0 Hz? A stiff breeze. All this thing is doing is spinning the blades like a normal fan to give you your ability to work the fluid (air). Then, the spinning shaft is vibrated axially at whatever frequency to give you the "sound" at that frequency. Looking at the response curve here:
http://www.eminent-tech.com/graphics/RWimage2.jpg
You can see that at most frequencies, the signal is fairly noisy. But as it goes down to 0 Hz, it levels out very nicely. What's going on here? Is this a good thing? Not really. While claiming a flat response down to 0 Hz might sound cool, the effect is that you are proving what this thing really is: a fan. So the ability of this thing to perform as a speaker is dependent on two abilities: how well the fan can spin the blade (and how consistent), and how well the motor can vibrate the shaft axially. A normal speaker is only subject to the second ability, how well the speaker can vibrate the speaker cone axially. So I doubt adding another degree of complexity really helps this system to perform better than traditional systems.
Looking at the noise of the response of this thing in the 10 Hz to 20 Hz range, I'm not impressed. If you are really concerned about getting low frequencies down to around 9 Hz (or further depending on the design), check out infinite baffle (IB) subwoofers. They are custom built into the wall (floor, ceiling, etc) of your sound room with the back wave of the sound going into an infinite baffle (an adjacent room, outside, attic, basement, etc - something with a large volume), and the front wave going into your sound room. Some of these systems have been able to get flat responses down to the single-digit frequency range with very little noise. And if you do the work yourself by learning the technology, it's pretty cheap (and fun). Spend $600 on 4 15" speakers, $400 on the amps, $200 on other related electronic equipment and materials, and $100 on construction materials. And for 1/10th the cost, you can get something that performs better.
Of course....we've known these are the ones that Barry White (rip) made on many of his records...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........