We plotted test data from the highest output most powerful subwoofers that we could find professionally tested by magazines . Most of the maximums are for sound level limits reached for 10% distortion.
Our goal is to extend the useful response of a home audio system to below 5Hz. With the Model 17 rotary woofer we can redefine the range of hearing and low frequency special effects.
In order to hear 10Hz you need sound pressure levels above 100dB. To hear 5Hz you need sound levels above 110dB. Existing subwoofer systems cannot do that. To create an audible 5Hz with cones you would need between 8 and 20 cone woofers 15 inches in diameter or greater with several thousand watts of amplifier power. With a single rotary woofer a couple hundred watts will do.
The hearing threshold curve suggest that even the most expensive cone subwoofers available would have barely usable output between 14 and 20Hz.
Subwoofers have significant equalization built into the electronics and will likely perform poorer than the extrapolated curve suggest below 16Hz on maximum output test. However, above 40Hz cone woofers will have more output than the model 17.
*The hearing threshold curve is the average of seven different curves found in psychoacoustic and audiology literature and is the minimum sound level required to perceive a sine wave.