Martin Poulin
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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See the main entrance on left. WAF anyone?
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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
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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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
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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.
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The measurements clearly revealed these limitations.
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Yet… I managed a respectable 20-100 hertz at +-4.5db. (9db total deviation)
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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.
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The Spectogram clearly shows the lack of broadband bass frequency absorption in the room. I simply needed more panels.
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