Martin Poulin
still evaluating tweeter 4x 12" subwoofer (either Bass reflex or sealed)
triangular bass trap (ok a glorified broad midrange absorber)
still evaluating tweeter 4x 12" subwoofer (either Bass reflex or sealed)
As of December 2017 (Trenton,On house)
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Low Cost B&C DE35 tweeters next to some Transducer lab magnesium 26mm dome tweeters. I routinely swapped them out.
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Eminence cast aluminum H2EA horns loaded with an PylePRO 4" compression driver (ceramic magnet and Titanium diaphram)
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Fane Colossus 15XS Prime 15" woofer (with shorting ring)
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4 x12" S&B Acoustic subwoofer (sealed)
All active on a modified Mini DSP 4x10HD as a preamp (sold)
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Parasound T3 Tuner (modified and now sold)
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I modified this Krell Showcase 7 amplifier which drove the speakers through 6 channels. (Sold)
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Crown XLS10000 on the subwoofer (SOLD)
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Generic Ebay USB/SPDIF bridge
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HP Pro Laptop AMD chipset.
January 2018 Acoustic Update
Now that I had 4 subs in the main system, the bass got a lot better and I didn't required much acoustic absorption. Whilst removing the extra absorption left little to no detrimental effect on the main system.
After the main room change, I ended up having extra foam core acoustic panels left over, so I put them in the kitchen and it helped a lot in eliminating reverberation. Talk about a win-win situation from using only recycled materials. No cost and sound improvement.
See the main entrance on left. WAF anyone?
My second system never sounded as good as my main one but I still use it more for practical reasons. With the eighteen panels and two triangle corner traps, reverberation was more controlled and the system was more than satisfactory when I “pumped up the volume”.
Jan 2018 Partial Update
After I purchased two new Fane Colossus 15XS Primes for the main rig, to test the dual 15" bass bin concept, I went to find a replacement woofer for the kitchen.
I decided to not buy the 15XS as purchasing more Fanes quickly gets expensive. In any regard, the Fanes aren’t comfortable above 600hz, requiring a bit too much compensation. I then went on the hunt for a 15" woofer than could play clean to 1khz, and was willing to sacrifice bottom end if need be.
After researching for a few days, I decided on the Precision Device PD154’s, which were similar to the Fane. The PD is UK made.
Compared to the Fane 15XS the PD154 revealed the following:
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Had a slightly lighter cone
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Played slightly higher but not as deep
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Had a more powerful magnet (BL=29!!!)
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Had less inductance.
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Had less Xmax. Whilst maximum SPL was more limited, it still had plenty for my application, crossing at ~48hertz to four dedicated subwoofers.
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both had big 4" voice coils which was a must for me.
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It cost significantly less :)
Initial test revealed a similar frequency response, from 3” away, and slightly higher distortion for the PD154. (no shorting ring)
The burn-in was completed before posting measurements and subjective assessment.
all 4 sub are low, not good...
showing room assymetry
all 4 sub are low, not good...
March 2018 - A quick bass FR test
Unlike the main room, the kitchen system doesn’t have much acoustic treatment and the sub-woofer placement (4) isn’t optimal. The room is asymmetric with lots of reflection.
The MiniDSP 4x10HD work hard to correct all those flaw. A real-life situation here folks.
The measurements clearly revealed these limitations.
Yet… I managed a respectable 20-100 hertz at +-4.5db. (9db total deviation)
Distortion of 4 x 12" subwoofers reached 12.3% at 23 hertz. Not overly impressive, but still better than most people get in a non-dedicated and primary listening area.
The Spectogram clearly shows the lack of broadband bass frequency absorption in the room. I simply needed more panels.