Which 15" drivers work well in small enclosures?

Work well for what intended purpose?

Tempest-X2 @ www.diycable.com from Exodus Audio? Power handling of 1000W, great excursion, great driver, excellent price. You need a nice amp and some eq and you'll be set!

Dayton DVC

If you're willing to go 12", you might be able to build a box with a slotport using a Shiva-X2...

Edit: Why does it have to be 15"? What will you power the sub with? Do already have the enclosure or will you build it?

The SDX will do o.k. in that size box but likes the box a little bigger, 3.5-4cf. For 2.5cf, I would go with AE AV15H sub which likes small enclosures and is a great sub, specially considering the price.

The Tempest-X is going to want an enclosure larger than 2.5 cu.ft. internal volume. At least for home theater. But I bet the Shiva-X would be OK in that? And yeah, I think a vented Shiva-X will play better down low than a typical sealed 15".
But 2.5 cu.ft. is too small for a vented Shiva-X application. It will however work for a sealed Shiva-X.

2.5 cu.ft ported is not so bad for Shiva, though 3 cu.ft is definitely better. At this enclosure I would build ported 12" rather than sealed 15". 15" seems happier in larger enclosure.

Model various drivers in the box you have and make your choice based on the results, not the driver size. A common assumption is that the larger the driver one uses the better the result. Where smaller cab sizes are concerned the opposite is true more often than not.

av15 from aespeakers.

From what I gather they will sound good in small boxes just fine. Just look at car audio. BUT most people on here want the bass to go down into the teens or lower if possible so they reccomend large boxes with big ports.

I like either or dont really matter to me.

What is "Diamensonal Information"? I don't believe that driver is in the same league as others mentioned in this thread.....

trust not subs that provide not full t/s specs. i'm no fanboy of aespeakers, but john j. provides full specs and at a great price. the image dynamics is probably okay, but without full specs, how can anybody know?

I have a tempest-X and a Shiva both in small sealed boxes I don't think you can go wrong with either one

I dont think thats a good way to judge the quality of speakers just because they dont have all the numbers and such. I would put any "car" sub against any "home" sub any day. A sub is a sub as long as you know how to get what you want from it.

The people that stick their noses up to car audio are the ones that normally want nothing to do with threads like this.

I had lots of good help almost a year ago with my "car" sub diy build. I can say that what I have is almost perfect. I would love to find another sub like I have and do it all over again 3 more times.

Now you be good or im gonna tell Santa not to bring you anything next xmas..

Let me just say that I've had three subs, CCS SDX 15", TC 3K and AV15X over the last 1.5 years. The TC is the best for low bass, but lacks some mid-bass. The SDX is a great low/mid bass sub, a little better than the AV15X for low bass. The AV15X has the best mid-bass and SQ out of the three and is the one I'm currently using. The other two subs? They are on Ebay being sold right now. You won't go wrong with the AV15H in that small sealed box. On the other hand, if your emphasis is low bass, the TC 3K also works excellent in a small box and with enough power (2,000 + watts) is a killer set-up.

"I dont think thats a good way to judge the quality of speakers just because they dont have all the numbers and such."
mikieson, most companies market their products. a company with a crummy product isn't going to report crummy specs. this is why companies that have the goods report a lot of data and those that don't, don't. not true in all cases, but as a rule of thumb, sure.

"I would put any "car" sub against any "home" sub any day. A sub is a sub as long as you know how to get what you want from it."
unless your home theater is the size of a car's cabin, the two are limited in different ways. this is why the difference in designs.

"The people that stick their noses up to car audio are the ones that normally want nothing to do with threads like this."
i don't sense any noses in the air here. all options are on the table for most folks around here.

"I had lots of good help almost a year ago with my "car" sub diy build. I can say that what I have is almost perfect. I would love to find another sub like I have and do it all over again 3 more times."
cool.

"Now you be good or im gonna tell Santa not to bring you anything next xmas.."
not sure what that means. data is amoral..neither good nor bad; it just is.

It is a perfectly reasonable way to judge a driver. If the manufacturer can't be bothered to give even the most basic data about the driver, then I wouldn't look at the driver any further. Without the T/S at a minimum, you can't design a reasonable box for a given driver. A full set of Kliipel's would be even better.
Some yes, some no. Peerless for example have two variations on some of their sub drivers, with one version having a higher Fs as the cabin gain in a car will bring the LF up to flat. Same driver/box in a home will not have the LF response that a home driver will.
Not really. Differences in motor and suspension design and implementation will determine distortion performance as well as usable Xmax and Xmech, thermal issues in getting rid of waste heat and consistency of performance over the life of the unit.

Many of the car sub drivers I have seen (not all) are obviously designed with aesthetic 'bling' appeal being the major design consideration.

Excellent point.