Comment

Comment by Vlad Gorcinski on December 14, 2011 at 1:47am

With subs I have a love/hate story every day, at work and at home also. I'm a fan of low frequencies. I like chest-pounding bass. And I'm here to learn how to tame this beasts. I use double 18" and double 21" subs from acousticline.de.

Thanks for this, I'll visit often.

Comment by Evan Hooton on December 10, 2011 at 11:44am

Don: First off... ABSOLUTELY with get an outlet tester and use it every time! I always meter out everything before I plug in. Especially while the Electrician is around because when he signs off then it helps your case if something blows. Metering gennies is always a must for me as well.

 

My next thing is (Don and Barry), true that single 18" does not go very low but looking at the environment, putting a single 18" in the corner of a small..ish room gets you additional low end. So what are ways that you have used the room to get you the extra oompfff that you are needing?

Comment by Don T. Williams on November 28, 2011 at 5:04pm

Barry Ober is correct that environment is very inportant, although I have heard small vented and small bandpass systems work well in the smaller spaces and in the car/mobile universe.  The driver parameters are very important in any of these applications.  Home and car usually desire physically smaller pacakges.  The trade off is usually physical size vs. effeciency and maximum output.  A typical 18" pro speaker in a 1.5 cubic foot box just can't go very low, and an 6.5" driver won't get very loud no matter how big the enclosure is.  The laws of physics always apply, and all engineering has some compromises (size and cost among them).

I also agree with Bill Le Blanc that the KW 181s work well.  I've been using 8 of them along with 6 KW 153 and a dozen K12's for events.  They have been very reliable, with no blown drivers & no over heating every.

The only problem I had was due to one incorrectly wired power outlet (out of a bank of 12) that the city assured were absolutely correct.  I even watched their electrican check and he and I both missed the problem the first time.  It popped two pwr modules.  QSC fixed them fast.

The moral: Get an outlet tester and use it every time yourself.  Even a licensed electrician can miss some problems.

Comment by Bill LeBlanc on November 28, 2011 at 3:54pm

  Want to share w/all weekend warriors-QSC powered subs work well for all closed space gigs-and QSC does back-up their 6 year warranty w/quick parts or service for the customer. I love my QSC KW-181 subs-small footprint - 83 lbs.?-gives more lowend than the price comparable jbl subs-i have not heard the new mackie or ev powered subs-the yamaha dsr118 sounds great-just a bit heavy for me-

Comment by Barry Ober - Soundoctor on November 28, 2011 at 11:10am

There are of course rather large differences between the 3 worlds:

1) Pro / outdoors / large space / movie / theater (mostly ported/bandpass)

2) Home 2-channel and Home theater (mostly sealed cabinets)

3) the car/mobile universe.

The acoustic differences are due to the closed vs open space; there are no standing waves outdoors (!) but only standing waves in the typical home environment.

Therefore the physics is really completely different, and also the listening experience has different goals.

I will have a lot to say about all this in the times to come!

Let's see who jumps into the fire.