Is a midrange speaker a subwoofer?

Solution
No. A subwoofer reproduces only the lowest bass (I'd say up to 60-ish Hz max), and you need a low-pass crossover for one. You basically need a big element with a strong magnet, and after that either a big enclosure (several cubic feet) or active correction, and maximum possible sound pressure goes up as the element area or amplifier power go up. FWIW, I have a 10" Peerless XLS-10 in a 5 c.ft. enclosure and the maximum SPL is in the ball park of 104 dB, ignoring room effects which add 12 dB / octave below the lowest standing half wave (~50 Hz in my case). Granted, the -3 dB point is at 18 Hz...

The short answer to your question: no. Long answer: study and don't get fooled by marketing, you can't get low bass and high SPL in a small...

bananaforscale

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Mar 14, 2016
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No. A subwoofer reproduces only the lowest bass (I'd say up to 60-ish Hz max), and you need a low-pass crossover for one. You basically need a big element with a strong magnet, and after that either a big enclosure (several cubic feet) or active correction, and maximum possible sound pressure goes up as the element area or amplifier power go up. FWIW, I have a 10" Peerless XLS-10 in a 5 c.ft. enclosure and the maximum SPL is in the ball park of 104 dB, ignoring room effects which add 12 dB / octave below the lowest standing half wave (~50 Hz in my case). Granted, the -3 dB point is at 18 Hz...

The short answer to your question: no. Long answer: study and don't get fooled by marketing, you can't get low bass and high SPL in a small enclosure or for cheap. There are ways to circumvent physics (e.g. passive radiators) but you can't override them.
 
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