Meet the World's Most Insane, Intriguing and Ultimately the Biggest Subwoofer

They say size doesn't matter. Well, at least as far as subwoofer engineering is concerned, size DOES matter. And since we're on the "big-bigger-biggest" topic, it's high time we introduced the world's most fearsome subwoofer installation, a custom job made by Royal Device, an Italian company specialized in delivering the most spectacular results in the audio field. This completely amazing contraption is the property of Roberto, its designer, and is by far the most advanced and over-the-top audio room on the face of the planet... until someone thinks of surpassing it with something even more breathtaking.

Aside from the massive amount of loudspeakers placed in this godly hometheater (24 floorstanders, by the way), the magnificence of the entire engineering endeavor is the said subwoofer system: we're dealing with an older idea of having subs hidden behind walls or underneath the floor. However, due to the almost ridiculous design of the bass-machine, there was no way sixteen 20" 100mm voice coil woofers could have ever been cabinetted under the floor.

The remaining solution was to actually build special chambers below the surface of the floor, shaped like the horns of top-drawer woofers, and sporting all the constructive elements of any top-class speakers: compression chambers, tuned ports, and high-tech measurements for a massive and authoritative response. Under the floor, the Royal Device engineers have devised dual horn channels, around 1 meter (more than 3 feet) deep and with a length of 9.3 m.

One of the most innovative parts in the whole plan is that the actual subwoofers don't end where their ports are: this amazing audio room has been especially sized and furnished so it came to a 16Hz tuning, with the walls and length of the ceiling adding to the overall trace of the bass audio waves. The numbers sum up to an intriguing 20.5 meters ( around 61.5 ft), which is in this case the Total Length of the horn - far more than anything ever built by man until now!

The 2 horns form a stereo bass construction, with each channel being driven by 8 20" woofers, each with 400W peak levels, adding up to a roof-blasting 6400W power rating, highly futile in the given conditions. Yet, given the professional-grade, amazing 120d dB/1W/1m efficiency of the woofers themselves, the whole system can deploy amazing sound pressure level with little power being needed. In fact, as stated on the Royal Device website, "The real maximum power fed to both subhorn measured with an oscilloscope at the highest musical peak was 6 watts per channel when a pair of tube amps were used," while four 50W BluEye amps would usually provide more than enough juice for the system. The subs are driven with just one of these solid-state amps!

The other speakers are Laura MKII, 8 pieces per channel, 6 of them for the center channel and 1 per side for the rear channel, and deliver 100dB SPL with 1W power in the listening position, placed 6 meters in front of the speakers. Having everything in this room running at full capacity would result in an SPL exceeding 160 dB, which would most likely harm or even kill any person in the room, if not by the force of the sound then by the crumbling walls and ceiling. Having such an SPL in a 6.95m x 8.70m room would wreck everything, even if we'd go for a concrete/steel structure.

Adding in the more than 500 meters (1700 feet) of RD special-design cabling and 30-9000Hz no-crossover sonic reproduction, and the 4-20,000Hz frequency range will hopefully help you get the bigger picture regarding this one-of-a-kind theater. No prices have been talked about but I guess money is not among the interesting points in this whole business.

Have a closer look at the world's biggest and most amazing home theater/subwoofer installation here.

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