Yes, that is the other half of the equation. I have already sent an email to request a quote for shipping prices.
I live within a couple hours of loudspeakers.ca and I could pick an order up instead of having it shipped (but there's still gas money to consider). I desperately want to support the local guy but if that's going to cost several hundred dollars I'm not quite as enthusiastic about it.
I'm also going to email parts express to see when/if they are going to stock this particular model. They have free shipping (to continental US) and I have access to a US post office box.
I live within a couple hours of loudspeakers.ca and I could pick an order up instead of having it shipped (but there's still gas money to consider). I desperately want to support the local guy but if that's going to cost several hundred dollars I'm not quite as enthusiastic about it.
I'm also going to email parts express to see when/if they are going to stock this particular model. They have free shipping (to continental US) and I have access to a US post office box.
The prices are common in any shop that focuses on pro audio equipment. A lot of online shops overcharge. If you live in a big city the prices are not too good to be true.
Labhorn size front loaded horn (4 x 4 x 2 feet). I'll probably start with 2 but I hope to build up a stack of 8 or maybe even 12 as funds permit.
I've noticed this as well, for example parts express and loudspeakers.ca usually have the same price for the same model of driver. That's why I was wondering about the big difference in price with this specific website.
I don't mind driving to a big city (I live near Toronto) but I don't know of any shops that carry B&C raw drivers other than loudspeakers.ca. If anyone knows of any other sources in southwestern Ontario or even Michigan, I'd be happy to hear about them. Actually, I'd be happy to hear about any source in the entire countries of Canada and USA (other than the listed distributors that I already know about). If I can't drive there I can request shipping quotes.
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Sure, you can ask but I seriously doubt you are going to like the answer.
The short version is this. This (the entire stack) is the sub I want for my living room. I'll probably put them along the back wall with my couch right in front, so they would be about 2 feet behind my head. Give me 60 seconds to explain before you call me a mentally challenged idiot.
The long version goes like this. I don't have a wife or even a girlfriend. I don't drink or do drugs (much). I'm not interested in cars, motorcycles or recreational vehicles. I don't collect art or dvds or antiques. I don't travel or go to social events like concerts. I'm not into sports and I don't play with call girls. I don't pay for cable tv and until 6 months ago I paid only $2.95/month for dial up internet, the only reason I switched to high speed is because dial up was too slow to load my email without timing out. I could go on, but I think you might be getting the point. I generally live very frugally and don't indulge much.
What I do enjoy is searching the internet and forums to learn about speaker and acoustics. Horns have always been fascinating to me and I've always had an incredible infatuation with the appearance and performance of Labhorns despite their terrible lumpy frequency response due to problems with the folding. My first experience standing between a large, big mouth horn and the corner it was firing into was life changing, it's not something that can be explained, it has to be experienced.
Now that there are better drivers than Labhorn uses it makes sense to use them. And it makes sense to fold it carefully for much better (flatter) frequency response. My preliminary sims (not folded yet) show it shouldn't be hard to beat the Lab in every way in the same volume (maybe slightly larger, but no more than 4 x 4 x 2 feet). Here's an initial sim. It's a bit too big so it will lose a bit of it's magic when folded into the appropriate size and shape, but this is the idea. This is a stack of 8 cabs in 2 pi space with 2500 watts to each cab. It's within xmax but a bit past rated power handling, but it will be fine. (Power compression might be an issue but I don't think they will fail at this power level).
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I fully realize that this is capable of destroying my house and my hearing but that's not the point. It will go as loud as I could ever want with basically zero percent distortion. Besides, I could rent them out, have a party outside, or other various things but the main reason I want this is because that's what I want, simple as that. I'm sick to death of people looking at my small diy projects and smirking. I can almost hear them thinking - "You know best buy sells subs right? And they look a lot better than that mess." THIS sub will make a statement loud and clear, without having to actually say "You and best buy can go **** off."
Some people drop 5 grand in a strip club in a night, or on a single bottle of wine. This sub is what I want to do with my $5000.
I might even sell the plans one day. Liter for liter, this should easily beat Labhorn and also kick the snot out of whatever Bill Fitzmaurice sells for the same bandwidth. It seems to be very insensitive to driver selection as well, out of 10 different drivers I've simmed with this horn, 9 of them worked very well. The 18tbx100 is probably better than good enough for this horn, but I still want the tbw.
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Drive to New York City and bring cash. Small pro audio shops will always work with you once you pay by cash. If you are looking to buy quantity even better. I've purchased all my 18-inch drivers locally for I don't see any benefit purchasing new speakers on-line.
Are you sure they sell B&C raw drivers and are you sure it will be worth at least a couple hundred dollars in gas money and possibly money for a hotel room if I can't find what I'm looking for right away? I like an adventure as much as the next guy, but driving into New York City with no real idea of where I'm going doesn't sound like much fun.
Regardless if it's a legit sale or under the table, I have to pay duty to get them back to Canada anyway.
Yeah, that usually works, I got a deal on my Behringer EP4000 that way. The problem is that loudspeakers.ca does not currently stock the tbw yet, so it's special order, so that might not work.
Regardless, OMNIFEX brings up a good point - there may be good deals in pro shops (but I'm thinking Toronto, not New York). I didn't know this stuff was available from sources other than the authorized distributors listed on B&C website.
Why not give the local guys a chance? Calculate what the shipping will be from Puerto Rica, plus any duties/customs (watch UPS and FedEx on their sneaky handling fees) and show the local guys your expected cost, then see if they'll match? If they don't, c'est la vie and their loss, but at least you would have given them a shot.
I would be very cautious ordering from CelectroniUSA.com. I sent them an e-mail asking for their address and contact phone number. They replied back with a lame canned statement in broken english. I learned a long time ago, if they don't provide a physical location or phone number it very well could be a scam. I'm not saying CelectroniUSA.com is a scam, but it just doesn't feel right to me. I'll go ahead and spend the extra dollars with someone that I know is a trusted site. Just my $0.02
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