Some more sub questions... (2 Viewers)

[Mark--M]

Well as some of you guys may know I have a DIY sub with an Avalanche 15 with a PE 500w plate amp. I first had this sub in a 5.5cuft box ported to 19hz and it sounded ok but the low end was overpowering. And it really didnt seem to have alot of higher frequency bass output no matter how much power I put into it.

So then I tried it in a much smaller 2.5cuft sealed box. I must say i'm much happier with it in this setup. Using the EQ on the plate amp i'm boosting it as much as possible at around 20 Hz and its fairly flat at the listening position. Has a slight hump in the middle. Upper response is MUCH much better. It sounds pretted decent to me anyway. Only complaint is that my current setup seems to run out of headroom below 30hz at higher output levels and that area starts to compress. I'm tempted to try the 1000w amp but I really dont ever want to have to worry about over excursion.

So it seems like the big ported box had too much low end, small sealed box doesnt have enough. I'm not really a fan of EQing things alot anyway. I'm just wondering if I would have been better off with a 12" ported sub? Do you think that would have given me the extended upper and lower response I was hoping for?

 

[Greg Monfort]

Greets!

First things first, did you try damping the large cab's vent or completely sealing it off or attenuate the offending low end? If so, how did it perform? Seems to me that one of these options is the way to go based on your comments. That, or tuning it lower with dual PRs.

WRT over excursion, it will take more than 1 kW to pop this driver assuming there's a good cab seal, and with an 800W rating it's not enough over to worry about.

No, going smaller just means less performance potential, the opposite of where you claim you want to be.

GM

 

[Mark--M]

Can somebody else confirm this? I think the extra headroom would probably let me boost the low end enough to keep me happy. But like I said, I really dont EVER want to worry about this thing bottoming out.

 

[ThomasW]

GM's correct. The 'published' Pmax is 800 watts, but Chad has said that the 'real' Pmax is closer to 1000watts

BTW, the motor is designed so that it's almost impossible to actually bottom the VC.

BUT it sounds like you have some room/placement issues. This thing should get louder at frequencies up to 60Hz-70Hz, then the VC inductance will start rolling things off.