Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Subs: Difference between music and movies?

I thought the big attribute of a "musical" sub was supposed to be less of what some people call "overhang", ie the volume of a bass note not dropping off as quickly as the underlying electrical signal.

Without researching OR measuring any subs, and acknowledging that it has been over 25 years since I looked at any of the formulae for ported enclosures, it seems that there is an obvious tradeoff that every sub designer makes in the tuning and damping of the enclosure. If you position the resonant peak down low and have low damping you can get good bass reinforcement down to lower frequencies but any frequencies in the area of the resonant peak will tend to "overhang" more than other frequencies.

If you dampen the enclosure more (less reinforcement) you have to position the resonant peak a bit higher to keep frequency response flat (since the added peak from the enclosure is smaller) but there will be relatively less overhang since less of the sound is coming from enclosure resonance / reinforcement.

The first sub would be "better for home theater" and the second sub would be "more musical and better with fast bass", all other things being equal.

I apologize in advance if this is wrong or misleading, I'm just going on what I remember from nearly 30 years ago.

JB