Jim G wrote:
I'm going to disagree somewhat with Tom and Walt. There are some instrument woofers that make (made) the grade for use as audio speakers. In particular,the JBL E-145 15" woofer was used in the UREI 801C coax studio monitors for many years, and used in hundreds of studios worldwide. They don't go deep, but they have very natural midrange and midbass and are just excellent woofers.
It has to be understood they are old technology of course, and come with that baggage but are completely suited to home or studio use in the right system imho.
Like everything else in this world, there are always exceptions. A few of the JBL drivers fit into that category. However even the E145 was limited by having an Xmax of only 7mm. It was about 2 to 3 times that of most of the other JBL drivers so that will tell you how limited the rest of them were. In addition, even a used E145 sells for around $300. For comparison, the Dayton Audio RSS390-HO 15 " woofer has an Xmax of 12mm which is almost double the linear output and sells new for $190. I am using two of the 12" versions in each of the pyramids for the eggs and I can tell you they do not take a back seat to any JBL driver for smooth response and low distortion. Ask David Berning how my floor shakes even when driven by one of his 6W tube amps. The fact remains that for the vast majority of guitar woofers their linear low bass output and flat frequency response suffer in comparison to equivalently priced home audio woofers.
BTW, the Fs of the E145 was 35 Hz and the VAS was 10.6 cu ft compared to an Fs of 21.5 Hz and VAS of 5.9 cu ft for the Dayton. The Dayton will produce far more low bass with less distortion in a far smaller box which is important for home use. No refrigerator sized enclosures needed for the Dayton.