ACI Maestro... (1 Viewer)

[Craig Chase]

Did someone mention cocktails ? (Read using your best Dean Martin voice) ...

 

[Mike Dzurko]

Mark:

Thank you. That sure brings back memories! I met Tom Perazella at a PSACS meetint that Tom Nousaine hosted at his place in Northern Illinois back in the early 90s. I was the presenter that day and it was a blast. Both Toms are great guys. I wonder is Tom is still running that same system, those BG ribbons could be amazing when setup right (and he would set them up right).

 

[Craig Chase]

Good morning, Mike... That must have been a fun meeting. I am also pretty pleased that you are both a teacher AND in the free enterprise system ... Do you get a chance to talk to students about the rigors of running a business ?

 

[Mark Seaton]

Mike-

I haven't seen Tom P. for maybe 2+ years, which was when he had hosted a PSACS meeting. His system had evolved a bit. I presume you had seen the near work-of-art BG75 dipole baffles he had constructed. At that time his midbass "link" was a couple of sealed 10s or 12s. When he had the meeting he was about to start construction on a quad-10" peerless dipole midbass system for each channel. Tom got so into seeing if it was actually worth getting better amps that he purchased one of the QSC ABX boxes, and that is what the meeting was focused on.

Tom P's ribbons and the related system Doug Stabler had assembled (haven't heard from him in a while though he lived close by) were some of my guiding DIY inspirations, and greatly formed my expectations and goals in conjunction with what I was exposed to and able to play with at the boutique retailer I slaved for. It was of course through the Bass List and then PSACS meetings that I first met Tom Danley.

 

[Mike Dzurko]

I started ACI when I was in grad school becoming a teacher, I've just never been able to really pick one over the other, love them both. When my schedule puts me in team teaching a Gov't or Computers class it's a natural to talk about running a business. Otherwise, I often get asked by other teachers to come into their business classes, principles of engineering classes, etc. to talk about various aspects of ACI. Kind of hard to schedule, but always fun.
I'm lucky to work in an outstanding school. Terrific staff and great administrators. We have a high level of students below the poverty threshold, but we also have the other parts of the "rainbow". Our big focus is on diversity and trying to work with every single student like they can be something special. It works, we've had lots of honors including a couple of years ago when President Bush and his Sec of Education came to Logan high as part of their kick off for the "no child left behind" act.

 

[Craig Chase]

Mike .... That is really wonderful to hear. You are to be lauded for the extra efforts...

And, in case anyone thinks this will make the subwoofer test easier... forget about it... Mike just raised my expectations...

Speaking of subs... two questions...

1. Did the check arrive ?
2. Any estimate as to how long it will be for your craftsmen to finish ? (that is what we call a suck up...)

 

[Brian Bunge]

Mike,

A few months ago Tom had a 2 part article in AudioXpress (formerly Speaker Builder Magazine) about the design and construction of his new dipole midrange panels. It was a great read. You should check it out sometime.

BTW, I don't know if I ever told you, but I first heard about ACI from a Speaker Builder article where the author was building a dual isobaric subwoofer using 4 of your old DV-12 drivers. It was a big sealed enclosure made of dual layers of 3/4" MDF with sand in between the two layers. IIRC, he said it weighed over 300 lbs.!

 

[Mike Dzurko]

Craig:

Not sure about the check, but did get an email from the office that your wood will be ready for pickup this coming Tuesday. The sub is already assembled and tested so I'd think we'd be able to ship the bad boy this coming week

 

[Craig Chase]

Mike... Sounds great... If you would PM/e-mail me that the check arrived, I would appreciate it.

Looks like we will get to start in about two weeks..

Thanks, Mike

 

[steve nn]

Steve ... Absolutely - Frank should run the Death By Subwoofer thread... He has done more to earn it than anyone I know... Can you imagine Frank and Mark Seaton collaborating ?
__________________________________________________ ______

A little late in replying and don't mean to break the train of thought but it's Sat Craig

Can you imagine Frank owning SVS?

A mail might read as such.

>>>Mr. Frank M.
My HT is a 8 X 8 X 8' cube with no openings. My listening habits include 70%music and 30%HT at a -25 listening level. I have been looking over your products on your site trying to ascertain just what the best approach would be in purchasing one of your products. Could you please give me your best suggestion regarding, knowing that I am on a real tight budget.

Thank you for your time.
Tom V> Mr. Tom V

Thank you for your inquiry Tom regarding using a SVS product for your bass needs. Here is what I would suggest to get you started.

I think in a room that size and considering your preferred listening level of -25> I would go with 4 25-31PC+'s and a B4+ with the K-2. You might want to add a PB2-Ultra to this present purchase or if budget doesn't permit? Down the road possibly. This setup should do very well for you and give the proper performance I think your looking for. Please let me know if I can be of any more help and please be sure to factor in shipping in calculating if you will be picking up the PB2-Ultra or not.

Frank M
SVS

 

[Craig Chase]

Steve... I think you are exaggerating... Frank would only add the PB2-Ultra in a room 10 x 10 feet...

 

[steve nn]

AH! I think only Frank can settle this then.

>>>Looks like we will get to start in about two weeks..

 

[frank manrique]

quote:

"Steve ... Absolutely - Frank should run the Death By Subwoofer thread... He has done more to earn it than anyone I know... Can you imagine Frank and Mark Seaton collaborating ?"
__________________________________________________ ______


Wow...what an honor to be put at such a lofty level!
It's too bad I can't begin to hold a candle against Mark's knowledge, tho. :frowning:

"Can you imagine Frank owning SVS?

A mail might read as such.

>>>Mr. Frank M.
My HT is a 8 X 8 X 8' cube with no openings. My listening habits include 70%music and 30%HT at a -25 listening level. I have been looking over your products on your site trying to ascertain just what the best approach would be in purchasing one of your products. Could you please give me your best suggestion regarding, knowing that I am on a real tight budget.

Thank you for your time.
Tom V> Mr. Tom V

Thank you for your inquiry Tom regarding using a SVS product for your bass needs. Here is what I would suggest to get you started.

I think in a room that size and considering your preferred listening level of -25> I would go with 4 25-31PC+'s and a B4+ with the K-2. You might want to add a PB2-Ultra to this present purchase or if budget doesn't permit? Down the road possibly. This setup should do very well for you and give the proper performance I think your looking for. Please let me know if I can be of any more help and please be sure to factor in shipping in calculating if you will be picking up the PB2-Ultra or not.

Frank M
SVS

 

[frank manrique]

quote:

"Steve... I think you are exaggerating... Frank would only add the PB2-Ultra in a room 10 x 10 feet..."

...or in the trunk of a car!...

-THTS

"...hi, my name is Frank...and am an SVS bassaholic..."

 

[Mark Seaton]

Don't worry Frank, you should see the looks and comments I get when I tell people I implemented a ContraBass and a B-DEAP-32 in a moderate size room.

The part that really gets them is when I say the system could use another ContraBass!

 

[Craig Chase]

Mark, You are an evil, evil man...

 

[frank manrique]

quote:

"Don't worry Frank, you should see the looks and comments I get when I tell people I implemented a ContraBass and a B-DEAP-32 in a moderate size room.

The part that really gets them is when I say the system could use another ContraBass!"

Worry, who...me? Nope, no worries here, mate!

By the way, Mark...what's the net low end response of the B-DEAP-32 when utilized in such fashion?
As I understand it, the unassisted "LFR" (like this terminology? ) of the B-DEAP-32s hovers the low 30s, correct?

Anyway, I bet it's something very special to aurally behold the sort of bass wavefronts generated by such a set up regardless of the size of the acoustical venue (well, within reason, of course!), but more so in a moderate sized room...

-THTS

"...hi, my name is Frank...and am an SVS bassaholic..."

 

[Mark Seaton]

Well, that started as a short response... :rolleyes

A large, well designed bass horn indeed makes for a very unique experience. I have seen 4-8 double 18" pro subs stacked up and still not deliver the clarity and head to toe impact. One major issue is in showing enough self restraint to use such power responsibly and keep it in check and balance with the rest of the system. With the beta unit mentioned above, I first demoed it with the dealers smaller 2 way, MTM mains. They lost any hope of respectfully filling in the rest of the soundtrack above -10dB in this relatively small room. The subs sounded like they were very powerful, but somewhat clunky and oversteping the mains. After swapping in 3 of our runts, the sub sounded much more balanced and less obtrusive, even at or near 0dB playback.

Even in our large prosound systems, a common problem is a poor match of midbass(~80-200Hz) capability relative to the subs. That percieved "wavefront" and huge impact is largely dependent on this range, where the sub needs this to make its power sound balanced and appropriate.

Sorry for the hijack. To bring us back to the Maestro, I myself would want 2-4 units in a confined room and an EQ to play with. The benefits of a capable sealed subwoofer in a home theater is significant, especially with respect to "room gain."

One of these days I'll be entirely content with a subwoofer system when I can get an in-room response extended to 4-8Hz with 115-125dB of peak capability at the seats.

 

[dave alan]

The reason I look forward to this evaluation of the Maestro is in the same vein as Mark's comment regarding a good sealed design in the average Home Theater.

Actually, there are many reasons.

Ported and PR subs are extremely limited below tuning, which itself is limited by size parameters.

You can shoehorn the right drivers into a tiny, sealed space, EQ and provide enough power, and excursion limits are removed from the equation.

Because of the 2nd order rolloff, what the sealed design gives away to higher order designs at 20 Hz, it takes back at 10 Hz. Add in the room gain and you literally feel the floor ripple like waves approaching the shore.

Having the equivalent of 8 Maestros, fed by 1600 watts each, it's hard to imagine being able to build a 'confined room' for them.

No, I don't use them all in my setup, but have done it to test the results.

They're in a 2X15, 3200 watt configuration and I use 1 for discrete redirected bass and 1 for discrete LFE, which ends up close to having a single 2X15 sub that is fed the single, summed signal.

That would put me at the level of using 2 Maestros stacked.

Because the Maestro is designed to have a great size/performance ratio, 2 of them shouldn't be a problem regarding placement options in a dedicated room.

Also, because it looks terrific, 2 of them would only look twice as good.

I also think that, if Craig uses the near field placement approach that his B4 sub setup is in, the Maestro will excel in listening sessions (just an opinion).

Since I agree with the overall design goals of the ACI subs in general (size, industrial design and sound), I'm really looking forward to the eval.

Adding in that Craig does such a great job at this sort of thing and really does well to make it all a fun thing to participate in...I can't wait for the show to begin.

 

[Craig Chase]

Dave, Thanks for the kind words... Yes, We will be using the Maestro nearfield as we do the B4+.

>

Then... after THAT portion of the listening is done, for, say, a couple of weeks, we will put the Maestro into a room with Ref 3's, Ref 2's, Ref 100, and Quad UFW-10's ...

It will be fun deciding how to utilize all 5 subwoofers in that system... Hopefully, the EMO "twins" will be here by then...