well seeing how in theory when you double cone area you get 3 db's and when you double the power you get 3 db's, all things being equal they should get equally as loud. It also depends on what enclosure you use for both set ups. If the two 12's are sealed sharing 500 watts and the one 12 is ported getting 1000 watts, i would bet that the one 12 will be louder. If the two 12's are ported and the one 12 is sealed i would expect the two 12's to get louder. If both set ups are in a ported box, theoretically they should be equally loud.Again all this also depends on the subwoofers that are being used as well

 

u are using same amount of power in both cases so obviosly the scenario with more cone will be louder.

 

^^^exactly...essentially the same as having a 17" sub (in terms of surface area) vs a 12" sub with the same power. I don't think anyone would argue which would be louder all else being equivalent.

 

Only if the box is twice as big. It's not a fair comparison in that case. If the single sub setup is in the same cuft as the 2 sub setup, and they are identical subs, I guess it would depend more on the size of the enclosure used which system will be louder.

 

hmmm, so that means...
if one person is talking in an empty room, he will be loud by X1
but if 2 people are in same room talking at same time they will be louder than one person talking at same level.
so unless person 1 gets a gun and shoots other 2, person 1 will have to raise his voice twice as much, to be heard over the other 2..,
*looking around*

 

Feeding a driver 2x the power does not result in 2x the excursion. Possibly at very low levels, like 2watts to 4watts but you'll experience compression, heat loss, and mechanical limiting at even 10watts to 20watts.

Also, the distortion produced by a driver when plotted against excursion is logarithmic - that means that if you do indeed move the cone 2x, the distortion won't be just 2x but can be well over 10x.