MOON TERRANCE:
Comparing 10's and 12's In real world applications, smaller subwoofers tend to be slightly more accurate while larger subwoofers tend to be slightly more loud.
Lot of people going to read that and freak out about their Q levels and dampening and speaker manufacturers etc etc. All their science is accurate - on paper. In real life speaker manufacturers have to give customers a reason to buy one speaker vs another. The way they design their products makes it so that if you want to be louder, boomier, buy a bigger sub. Physically larger. And if you want to be accurate and punchy, buy the smaller more compact sub. Its not science its marketing and it is reality.
At the end of the day you can accomplish anything with any sub if you manipulate enough variables. But if you put an 8 or 10 inch sub in your car or living room, it won't be made to go as loud as a 12 or 15(even tho yes in an annoying abstract sense it is theoretically possible, technically speaking)
If you put a 12 or 15 in your car or living room, you will have more power and loudness but the system will be slightly less accurate.
In terms of accuracy, It is slight. An audiophile will notice the difference. You probably won't. In terms of loudness, the difference is pretty obvious.
Real world example:
JL Audio 10W7 uses 500w to achieve peak performance
JL Audio 12W7 uses 750w to achieve peak performance
Both drivers use the same material for the cone, basket, magnet, voice coil and all other parts.
All speakers physically warp and distort to varying degrees during operation. No speaker cone is infinitely rigid. Compared to the matching 10, The 12 is slightly larger and will distort slightly more during operation due to the larger surface area and increased power/ load yet identical cone material composition. It will also be louder for the same reasons.
The 10 uses less power, and features a smaller cone which is less material to manage from an integrity standpoint. The unsprung mass is slightly less which means the inertia gradient accross the face of the speaker is lower as well. The manufacture gives you less power to work with which further reduces stress on the identical materials used in the 12. The result is more accurate sonic reproduction at the expense of a lower volume output.
The increase in loudness is greater and not proportional to the decrease in accuracy. Definitely a fair trade either way.
Hopefully that ties all this together in a practical and real life way. Good luck!
