Is two 12" subwoofers better than one 15" subwoofer?

Question

I want to upgrade my car audio sytem from my current pair of 10" JL Audio W0s. I have new JL Audio 500/1 amplifier rated at 500watts @ 1.5-4ohms. I want a sytstem that will hit hard. So will 2 12s in a sealed box given 250 watts to each subwoofer hit harder than a single 15 in a sealed box given all 500 watts?

Answer 1

Oh yes.

Think air displacement.

Area of a circle is pi*r^2

(6)pi^2 times two

is greater than 7.5pi^2

Answer 2

2 12 Subwoofer

Answer 3

There are way too many variables. For one, what type of 12" subs are you looking at vs the type of 15" sub. Also the set up is very important. The 15" will no doubt hit harder when it comes to the low notes. Assuming that they are all the same type of woofer, the 2 12" subs will probably be generally louder. Again, sometimes the design of a 15" woofer enables it to play louder than 2 12" ones of the same type (manufacturer and line of woofers).
If you want your system to hit really hard, you'll need to have an enclosure that is ported. And, again, some 15" subs perform better than 2 12" subs in that design. But as I said, generally 2 12" subs will be louder.

Answer 4

The best answer for this question depends on the type of music you listen to.... Hitting hard can mean different things: you have to decide how much you want to compromise between hard/quick attack and hard bass range (IE hitting lower frequencies).

Speaker acoustics will tell you a larger woofer (IE 15 inches) will push more air than a smaller woofer but will also need MORE TIME to activate (more travel to push the woofer out then back in for the next bass hit) and bass will sound slower (IE less have less realistic, mushier sounding attack).

So if you listen to slow hip-hop (with slow/low attack bass), for example, a 15-inch will sound deeper (IE handle frequencies under 40hz well) without sounding much mushier.
On the other hand, if you listen to breakbeat, d&b, latin, techno, or any music at high tempo or with quick drums (particularly 16th notes or faster), you are going to get a more dramatic and quick/reactive sound with a 12 inch. In fact many song, particularly pop and r&b songs, rarely have bass drums that have much sound under 40hz, so they will not sound any "bassier" on larger subs anyhow. And, in fact, since the power is not being used on low frequencies, the 2 12"'s will be able to give more bass with such music (anything over 60hz or so will actually sound louder as well).

Hope this helps. :-)

Answer 5

Wow, this is just getting really sad. Please only take into account Jeff and Justins answers, as all others are just flat wrong, totally misinformed, or just spam. Sad to see so much bad information. You ask what would be better, but you did not say better for what. Nothing about space limitations if any, music you play, if you care more about sound quality or high output, and so on. If you are going for output, consider Jeff's and Justin's reply, but not a single answer in here so far has helped you at all with out knowing more information about your goals for your install.

Answer 6

the wattage is equal. but look...

2 12's push more air than 1 15. so if you want louder, get 2 12's. also, YOU MUST HAVE A BOX THAT IS THE PERFECT SIZE THAT THE SUBWOOFERS MANUFACTURER RECOMMENDS. thats the only way you can get loud and clearer. not clear, but clearer.

Answer 7

If you split the box into seperates, it will sound great depending on the box.

Answer 8

15s suck..you might as well get a kicker sub (square p.o.s)

Answer 9

heck yes