Ricci

Dave...I just tested a few things last week. Some for Audioholics...and some you may find more interesting. I will have to build something for that 24" when Nick sends it.

No plans for any open baffle or dipole testing. Maybe at some point in the future with a known driver it would make a nice comparison to testing of the driver in other cabinet alignments. I would test the Radian if someone sent it to me but myself (and others) are highly dubious of the Xmax claim. It is very likely peak to peak so cut the value in half. The depth/ weight/ back plate/ top plate/ sensitivity and type of woofer design indicate against it.

I will let Kyle decide if he wants to talk about that.

I was talking with Nick from SI and he said that he and Jake actually inquired with the surround vendor about a 24" version of the new surround and the vendor said "No we cannot make it. Regardless of the tooling costs". I asked if they asked the vendor about a 21" surround then, but he said they did not. I haven't seen the surround on the 24" yet but it is pretty darn big to begin with much wider than the ones used on 18's like the UXL or Fi stuff so it should allow some extra to begin with.

It'll be the 24" as is...

I haven't received the big 24" yet, but it will likely be a few months before i get testing done on that. I have to build an enclosure or two first.

I wonder the same thing about TC sometimes. They have been really quiet for the last few years. Other than PE selling them you wouldn't hear anything. Those same driver designs have been produced for quite a few years now. I know they are working on new drivers and amps, etc...But that was mentioned years ago. Who knows.

Correct. Existing designs of frames and surrounds are pretty much tapped out in the last few years. That's why we are starting to see deeper frames and larger surrounds getting tooled. The Sundown surround is so big it is almost comical looking.

The SI driver is their prototype of the new upper scale home theater line. It uses some of the parts developed for the Sundown ZV4 series which is targeted more at car audio but also has notable differences like a much softer suspension and lower resonance for instance. They will probably be around the $600 mark for the 18" but things aren't finalized just yet. Yes it is a big driver and the surround is absurd looking. Imagine what it looks like on a 15".

Thought I might add a bit here...Things are piling up...Seems like the same thing happened last holiday season. I have a couple more commercial powered subs to review for Audioholics that just came in... I ordered a Dayton UM-18 out of pocket for testing. There is another commercial sub on loan from a forum member that I'm not going to talk about until it gets tested but it should be interesting. I should also have a Sundown Zv4 18" on hand eventually. Stereo Integrity is sending me their wee little 24" driver. Gotta build a cab for that thing... Nick at Stereo Integrity also sent me this happy little guy...

Yep WOTW has a lot of clipping. I always notice it in the in the CC. Probably the most obvious clipping in WOTW is after the machine rises out of the ground and blasts its horn the first time.

Kevon that is not really the sort of thing that we do here. There are plenty of reviews and builds with them on the DIY forums. The flat packs are simple sealed boxes of 4 cu ft or 3 cu ft depending on the size of the drivers and throw the driver of choice in there and provide the amp of your choice. What we would test here is the drivers in a variety of boxes and there are already sealed enclosure sizes on hand that are close to the volume of the flatpack enclosures.

SOLD!!! Blown RE Audio SX18 D2... Coils rub badly...Needs reconed. If anyone wants it make me an offer.

Yeah...Agreed. Nothing against 15's but if there is a whole family of drivers I'm typically going for the biggest one. Kyle, That grille looks expensive buddy...Also you won't mind If I stuff a couple of the ports and see what happens to the tuning on that?

Yeah I am hoping Kyle gets his protoype driver with his new coil tech done soon so I can play around with it but who knows when that will be. I don't know I guess the guy is just lazy it's not like he has anything going on. This new 15" TC driver has me interested too... Here are some of the things that are definitely getting tested eventually (That I can talk about. ). Some of these have been on the agenda for years... Sealed JBL 2242HPL 25Hz vented AE TD18H+ Apollo Sealed AE TD18H+ Apollo MTX 9515-44 tiny passive radiator box with dual 15" VMP's (18 and 30Hz tunings to correspond with typical HT and car audio tunes) Extra small sealed LMS 5400 Ultra and larger sealed MTX 9515-44 tests (to collect data to have directly comparable very small sealed and medium sized sealed for each driver and use to evaluate the effects on output, distortion, sensitivity, etc...) LMS 5400 Ultra dual 18" VMP passive radiator system with 18Hz and 30Hz tunings BMS 18N862 Sealed AE TD15M Apollo sealed and vented (need to build a 15" enclosure for vented.) Additionally there are some "special" projects of mine that will be getting evaluated eventually. I also have a number of raw drivers on my want list to look at. As far as commercial stuff it is up to Mark, Tom and Jeff on the subs that everyone seems to wants to see the data for (Yes I do correspond with all of them). I would like to get something from Danley eventually. I would also like to look at one of Rythmik's sealed high power 15 systems, more of the low dollar $250-$600 range subs and I want to look at the Klipsch SW-115 eventually too as it is going for rather low prices on the net and is a bit of an unknown quantity in the $650-$900 range. A THT, F20 or other of Bill's or LilMike's bang for the buck designs would be fun also. I also have a number of investigative things I would like to do like measuring the gain of at least a few more vehicles and rooms and doing some distortion measurements with push pull drivers versus push push.

Dang Mike you don't miss much do you? Scott I believe that Kyle meant that the coil will not be his new linear design from the patent application but will still be the current variable LMT coil.

As far as the Fi drivers I would like to look at those but I suspect they will perform like the rest have. Huge inductance hump with high levels of 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion. Also makes it difficult to design accurate higher order systems with them without actual testing. They are rugged with plenty of stroke but they do not seem to like doing deep bass without a lot of HD which is also partly due to the very stiff suspensions. In car or a small room that may not be anything to worry about though. Seems to be typical of most of the heavy duty car subs not just Fi though.

Any other suggestions for commercial subs, pro subs or drivers to be tested?

Well...If you want an amplifier with zero roll off and all day long output below 20Hz you can try to score a cheap Crown M600 or AETechron 7560. These are DC coupled and will sit there and drive 2 ohms at about 1250w long term and will burst a lot more. They'll even drive 1ohm. However they are also 4 rack spaces tall and weigh 95lbs with a couple of huge fans. I had a pair I scored for like $650 years ago. Good amps just huge and back breaking.

Mike have you seen how much I use the VI Box? Hint...It is not much. It is a whole other setup and calibration from the other tests and it is yet another brutal torture session for the drivers. I still plan to use it but sparingly on certain systems. Plus it is a PITA getting it to work with REW. I really need LinearX to take better advantage of it and that is another large chunk of $$$. Overall my game plan with DIY drivers and such long term is to only test most drivers in a basic capacity with a sealed test which is enough for the easy comparison with other drivers performance. Then move on to others. For certain pro drivers which really are intended for bass reflex apps they will get tested in a standard BR box also. The goal is to identify a driver of each size that performs really well in most aspects and sets the bar. For example the LMS 18". Then this "bar" driver will be tested more thoroughly in more types or sizes of enclosures, with VI box, used for other tests not related to one system specifically, etc. That way the performance of the "bar" driver in a variety of situations can be compared and the results can be used to make well educated guesses as to how other drivers tested in only the standard sealed or vented enclosures would perform in the other alignments that the "bar" driver was tested in. So instead of having to test every driver in a 16Hz tune 9 cube dual 18" PR alignment We will be able to test just one the "bar" driver in that system and compare its change in performance in the PR enclosure vs the standard sealed enclosure and that will tell us a great deal about how the rest of the drivers would perform in the PR enclosure.

Mike, Really the major costs are in the program to run CEA which is like $750. Otherwise you need the biggest honking amp you can find and a decent spl calibrator for the mic. The rest of the components aren't too bad individually, a decent sound card, microphone, cables, dmm, dcx2496 or similar, etc...But it all adds up. If you ever wanted to format your measurements to match the ones here it wouldn't be difficult and I'd be willing to help out.

There is always more stuff coming...Commercial stuff, a couple Audioholics reviews, drivers, more sealed/ported/TH tests with various drivers and another one of my crazy projects I've been working on for over a year and a half. I would like to measure a LilWrecker or a THT but I'm not building/buying one just to do it and I don't see anyone sending me one of these.

Not the loudest scene in HL but my favorite is the 0.50 cal in the desert. Sounds awesome if your subs can reproduce bass that deep with power.

SOLD!!! 1x Fi Car Audio Q18 D2 voice coils, quad spiders, high xmax option, inductance ring, P chamfer, High Qts option(Qts still measures lower than Fi's factory specs...), Black Fi logo. Driver is in good condition with no functional issues. Purchased during the Black Friday sale 2011... 9/10 cosmetic...Functions with no issues. Tested for Data-Bass at high power once, parameter tested and listened to a few times. Mostly it has just sat unused for 2 years with a bunch of other drivers. Needs a good ride to go in or a good home... Fi pricing off of their website comes in at $394 for this driver with these options not including shipping and taxes. Estimated shipping and taxes puts the total at $438.48. Asking $300 shipped. 48 lower states only. Thanks SOLD!!!

Damn...That sounds tedious Dave. Not really worth it for what I'm attempting. Back to the drawing board.