Need a little more low end in your system? Check out this woofer ..

Looks like fun ... bet the grey guys call in from Andromeda telling you to turn them down!

Might want to invest in some decent tweets to go with those. You can get these on sale right now for around 3K each ...



********

I do fine with what I got ...



Had those and the low mids refoamed a couple years back so they're good for another 30 years of punishment. The boxes tested as putting out usable SPLs down to around 22hz, which is plenty of boom for me.

With a woofer that big I bet if you recorded a video of the speaker in action and slowed down the motion you'd see the speaker look like a Tsunami wave in action. I can't believe going to sound clean or tight or even have good response time.

Speaking of big bass ... check this out ...



Watching the strings on that big fiddle is just ... mesmerizing ...

Oh, and the music is pretty fine too!  

PS ... that IS the actual recording studio at HiTone. Loving rebuilt, one tube at a time ... get's that nice fat tone just like in the bad old days.

I know a lot of us here are DIYers.

Here's a recent project that may interest those of you that are.

http://www.transcendentsound.com/Transcendent/Subwoofer.html

I made a pair of those subs, and they are excellent. I'm astounded really. Somebody measured them flat to 25hz. The forum discussion on this was essential information.

I use 2 JBL SRX 718 they each put out 95db at 1 watt or I guess that would be 98db at one watt for the pair. There max output is 133db for the pair. Suggested max continuous power each is 800 watts each. I have them hooked up to a Adcom GFA 555 with about 600 watts total. The -3db point is 34HZ. When I am playing music they sound great but when I play a blue ray move with massive sound effects I'm a little scared the neighbors are going to call the cops. I probably never use more than 2 watts of power when playing a CD but I had the Adcom setting around so I used it. I have them paired with 2 JBL SRX 725's driven with a 3 watt tube amp. My other speakers are a set of Maggie IIIa which I have owned for over 20 years. The maggies have the best highs I have ever heard but the JBLs do everything else much better.

Never understood this strange fascination with subs ... all you really need is a couple 100 pound speakers with usable SPLs down to around 22hz ...  

Bob Latino wrote:


Madisound now carrys a Fostex made 31.5 inch SUPER woofer! It will set you back $3,464 USD + shipping. It's 96 dB efficient so that you can get some serious low end without much power. Of course you will need TWO for stereo so figure on almost $7,000 for a pair + shipping on two pieces at 137.5 pounds each. You can read more about it at the link below ...

31.5 inch Super Woofer at Madisound

Bob

Yes, and this is what can happen.

A bit off topic, but while discussing speakers....I have a pair of old EV 1503's, originally a 3-way PA or a stage speaker but from what I hear super efficient and excellent close field but a little low on power handling and light on the low end. Right now I am running my Cit II through some 8" EV studio monitors and was going to make the 1503's into a home speaker, recover them etc....the specs say it is 100 db with 1 watt at 1 meter....could these be used for a home speaker using the Cit II or is it still and always will be, a PA speaker?? Thanks....

Major dropoff at the bottom, but you've already mentioned that. Main concern for me is they also roll off fast over 1200hz according to the specs. That's where all your soundstage develops. Dispersion (the cone of sound) also seems a bit restricted for the home environment, once again impacting the soundstage and relative positioning of instruments.

They're made to be part of a system, not a system in and of itself.

Not saying they couldn't do the job with a powered sub and a set of high end boxes bi-amped, but that's a lot of work and investment with no guaranteed results. Then again, this IS a hobby, so hey ... whatever blows your hair back!

Interesting driver Bob!

I built a Subwoofer using the JBL 2242H 18" woofer. Love it!

I built a knock off JBL 4645C subwoofer... Loads of Bass!

Lower right subwoofer

Hi all:
This is an interesting site and a novel DIY bass speaker design.

http://www.inlowsound.com/

sKiZo wrote:Looks like fun ... bet the grey guys call in from Andromeda telling you to turn them down!

Might want to invest in some decent tweets to go with those. You can get these on sale right now for around 3K each ...



********

I do fine with what I got ...



Had those and the low mids refoamed a couple years back so they're good for another 30 years of punishment. The boxes tested as putting out usable SPLs down to around 22hz, which is plenty of boom for me.

Those look like ML-1C drivers . . . I had a pair of those fine speaks until an errant sand amp at the hands of an inebriate guest fried their voice coils. I wasn't even home at the time.

I'm proud to say I've been the perpetrator every time these bad boys have fried ...  

Those are out of a set of XR16's ...



My babies. Got them brand new back in the early '80's and have never seen any need to switch. Shop down the road a piece from me does excellent work keeping them "factory fresh" ...

They are the primary reason I got the larger ST120 though ... efficiency is rated at 89db, which ain't bad, but I figured the ST70 might not have the punch required to keep them happy. No regrets there ...

Amazing detail ... surprising in that they work exceptionally well as near field drivers in a small listening room. The big boxes just disappear into the soundstage. Imagine sitting about six foot in front of those rascals ...

I've grown to love some subs in my system.

I built a pair of Wayne Parham 4PI speakers that are built with the JBL 2226 15" driver and B&C DE250 horn... Love em! Tubes make em sing! The do have a cut off on the low end so a sub or two helps. The sub in the lower right is a sub I built with a JBL 2242H 18" sub. I've become a JBL freak!

PS - MY latino ST120 is the 1st thing I purchased and built and got me into this mess!!! =-)

One of the big differences between audiophile and professional equipment is the way they figure what to sell it for. I have a set of JBL SRX 725s The drivers in a single cabinet are as follows. 2- 2265h 15inch woofers $424.00 each so $848.00 The horn driver is a 2451h and is $1500.00 The horn for that driver about another $300.00. So drivers alone are $2648.00 and you haven't bought a crossover or cabinet and all the related parts. They sold them at the last price for $1999.00 I paid about $1500 8 years ago. If they made it to sell to audiophiles it would $25,000 a pair. It would have a wood veneer on the cabinet and a foam grill but would that be worth the $21,000 extra dollars?

JBL does have a home theater / high end line of speakers and they do run around that 20K for a pair. The mains each run a pair of 2226 15" with a mid horn and an high horn. I toyed with doing a knock off pair of them but the drivers alone were around 7K

The Wayne Parham 4PI are excellent and perform. The B&C DE250 are solid. I'd love to have your horn drivers!!! nice

PS - sorry to take this thread on a tangent...

Someone buy that 30+" sub and build!

Electro-Voice made a speaker system about 40 years ago called the Patrician 800 that employed a 30" woofer (model 30W).  This woofer was slot loaded into a folded horn enclosure that, like the Klipschorn, took advantage of corner placement to expand the virtual mouth of the horn.  Given a large enough room (primarily in the diagonal dimension), the bass response could extend down to 16Hz.  The cone was made of a high-density Styrofoam to increase stiffness and was crossed over to a 12" mid-woofer at 100Hz.  I had a dealer friend in Dallas that had four of these giants at his home, in a recreation room made from a converted three (or four?) car garage.  I had many opportunities to listen to his system and must say that these speakers were quite impressive, especially with pipe organ.  

Best Regards,
Charlie

In the 70's when stereo became audiophile. I saw the first over the top audio system. For speakers it used 4 Quad electrostatics, 2Decca ribbon tweeters and 2 24" Hartley subs. They were tri amped, electronically crossover with Mark Levenson preamp and amps. A Sequerra turner and I don't remember the turn table, arm or Moving coil cartridge. Total over $35,000 in the mid 70's. That would be about $175,000 in today's money. It was the first time I was told I needed to financially qualify to get to listen to the system but it wasn't the last time it happened. Up til now that 24" speaker was the largest cone speaker I had ever seen. I once saw 4-18 inch speakers mounted in a wall, no cabinets as it was using the next room as an infinite baffle.
As far as the audiophile version of the JBL speakers you kind of made my point. The raw drivers professional SRX725 for a pair is about $5,400 but the finished speakers only cost $4,000 for the pair. If you applied the same pricing to the audiophile speakers raw drivers cost $7,000 The pair of finished speakers should sell for about $5,500 not $30,000. I know this does not sound logical but if you applied the same logic to say an automobile where buying the whole car is much cheaper than buying all or the parts and assembling it yourself it makes sense. Below is my speaker at $2,000 each and the audiophile at $15,000 each I think it makes for interesting reading. The SRX725 has been replaced with a new model the SRX825.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-10313992-47.html
http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/general/product.aspx?PId=117&MId=3
http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/General/Product.aspx?PId=441&MId=3

... and at the other end of the spectrum ... just picked up a pair of Gekko1114 flat panels for the rear channels on my quad ... less than 2" deep, so they're about as unobtrusive as it gets.



They only use a 5" "woofer" to fill in the bottom. Rated at 120hz, but I don't need much bass from them, as I got the big boxes up front. There's several transducers built into the rest of the panel for the mids and highs. Always wondered what these rascals sounded like. I guess I'll find out shortly ...

Interesting... Is the art a grill cloth?

Yup ... they had quite a few different selections for grills, and you could always customize your own. They're held on by tiny magnets and easy to change.

Mine are your basic off white - alright by me, as my room is your basic light almond.

Swapped them out with a couple DLK bookshelves here in the "office" and listening to them right now ... surprising fullness to the sound considering their size (11x14 inches). Real nice dispersion with no cones to narrow the field. Not what I'd call super highs, but what's there is crystal clear. Speakers are around six feet apart and I can stand to the side and still get good stereo.

I can see where these would be real pleasant for background music, and should be interesting on the rear channels. Gonna go "sexaphonic" with Bose 161's behind and high, and these mounted ear high on the side wallls and just ahead of the listening position. That would be a problem with most any other speaker due to the room layout. Both sets will be driven thru a Dynaco Quadraptor to get the Hafler Effect. The Dynaco will also allow me to adjust the balance between the speaker sets. Should be an interesting experiment.

Early '90's product. They also made a 14x18" set. I hear rumors they made a floor model that had larger woofs and also a rear firing transducer panel for omni sound. Never actually seen one. In any case, any Gekko tends toward rare as the company went away fast. Relatively unknown, so  you can probably blame that on bad marketing ... could have been the price too as they went for around $300 each with the basic grill ... the art grills were $100 a pair. For that kinda money I would have held out for hand painted velvet Elvis prints.

I come from the Land of Live Bands and PA Systems....is one sub sufficient for your home system? Do you tap off one channel or does a crossover do that for you? I know low freqs are often omnidirectional and weird but I see in these photos folks are using a single sub for very sophisticated systems. I often use a single sub for performances when limited space or transportation warrants it because lows seem to surround you anyway...just wondering.