Feeling Horny!

[Spasticteapot]

...yes, the title of this thread is awful.

As of late, a friend-of-a-friend ended up asking me for some subwoofer advice. Turns out he's a fratboy, and his fraternity, which has a sort of makeshift club in the basement, needs a terrifically large subwoofer to go with their two Peavey PA speakers (which seem to have an 80hz rolloff.) They want to get some subwoofers, and I'm thinking that a whole new amplification setup is needed to go with them.

Frat boys are frat boys, and I'm thinking that a great big horn-loaded subwoofer - if not two - would be the ticket. If anyone can reccomend a design and driver for this purpose - preferably, an inexpensive one - that would be dandy.

Now, on to the subject of amplification. Currently, they have a rather odd setup. Their PA speakers are driven by - get this - a Nikko Alpha 220. For another pair of speakers, they have a Hafler DH-500, though it seems to be broken.

Now, there's another fun aspect to this equation: The whole frat consists pretty much of electrical engineers. They could get these amps to better-than-new condition with their eyes closed, and I hope that they'll do just that.

I figure that they can get $500-$600 from selling the Nikko and Hafler after one of the electrical engineering students goes over them. I'd like to use about $400 of this to buy two used PA amplifiers(reccomendations wanted - I hear QSC is good), and use the rest - plus a bit of extra money they pooled together for this purpose - to get one or two great big subwoofer drivers. The active crossover for the subs will likely be homemade, as this is, after all, a frat full of EEs.

So, what sort of horn-loaded subs should I go for?

[troystg]

PE # 290-570

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...TOKEN=37765843

[Spasticteapot]

How about one of these:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=264-398

In one of these:
http://www.iakn.com/enclosures/HB1805A1_i.pdf

Also, Parts Express' PF460-8-16 seems to be a nice woofer, and maybe even horn-load-able. While the power handling is not as good, it's 3db more efficient than the Selenium driver, and slightly cheaper.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=295-085

How big would the dispersion on that horn sub be? I'm thinking of just using one sub for both PA speakers, and a 90hz crossover point.

[alexmoose]

Were you thinking about something like this?

This is what the Michigan Tech. University AES whipped up

I think you'll like it...

http://audio.students.mtu.edu/pictur...carnival/2007/


-Moose

[Cal Weldon]

The Selenium cabinet is designed for that driver. Their specs and parameters are honest. They are well made. Guess what my choice is?

Don't worry about dispersion in the bass region, it happens whether you want it to or not.

[BHTX]

As far as amps go, I'd HIGHLY recommend specifically the Mackie FR series, which are QSC RMX clones (like so many others, ie: Behringer EP, Tapco Juice, Alto Mac series, etc, etc..). Except the difference between these Mackies and the rest of these similar amplifiers (including the QSC RMX!) is that they are significantly heavier, due to a much larger transformer. They also use higher value capacitors, and just seem to be better quality over all. And yes, I'm saying that the transformer is much larger in these than in the QSC RMX's that they're clones of! Forget the Behringer EP1400 and EP2500 and such..very cheap components, as to be expected. It's not even worth it when you can get so much more for so little. ..I just recently purchased 1 of each of the Mackie FR series about a month ago.. One FR-2500, one FR-1400, and one FR-800. I'll be getting more during the next big sale at Guitar Center, here in Dallas. I paid just over $900 all together with tax for ALL THREE of these amps! And yes, for your fyi, I'll be using these in the home for critical hi-fi and HT. I finally got ahold of a single pair of cheap XLR cables to use temporarily, just to try these amps out. So far, I've hooked up the FR-1400 about two weeks ago to my Eminent-Technology LFT-8A hybrids that I plan on selling soon. I was so blown away by the performance from this amplifier that I haven't even bothered to try out the others. Its sound was very similar to my $2,000 Golden Theater GTX-A 5ch amplifier (aka Golden Tube), although the Mackie had much better bass, a somewhat wider soundstage, and a very effortless sound (probably from the amount of power on reserve). As for my bright and gritty Adcom GFA-555 mkII, there was simply no comparison. The FR-1400 ate it for lunch. And how much did I pay for that FR1400 again?? Oh, yes, that's right...$299!

..Comes with 30 day no questions asked return policy from Guitar Center, and 3 year manufacturer's warranty from Mackie. I had the opportunity to spend another $140 or so for annother 2-3 years I think (can't remember) extended warranty, but I passed it up.

Oh yeah, and just so you know...
The Tapco Juice series that I mentioned are identical to these amps, just different appearance...but they're spec'd the same. Tapco is owned by Mackie. They're using the same transformers and parts in the Tapco amps as they're using in the Mackie FR's. However, the Tapco Juice's go for around $60 or so less than the identical Mackie's. But since I got the deal from Guitar Center, I got an even better deal than that on the much better looking Mackies (in my opinion, for a home audio environment anyway).

http://www.mackie.com/products/frseries/
http://www.tapcoworld.com/products/j...ies/index.html
http://www.google.com/products?q=%22...w=dd&scoring=p
http://www.google.com/products?q=%22...w=dd&scoring=p

As for the subwoofer selection, that Eminence works well for many, but I'd suggest looking for something larger (15" or 18") and much more efficient to match the Peavey's. Can't seem to think of anything off the top of my head at the moment (12:30 PM, and I still haven't gone to bed!). Regardless, there's tons of large efficient pro woofers to choose from. Have a look at usspeaker.com, just to get a small idea of what's out there, but disregard the prices! They're usually high. If I happen to think of something after I've slept, I'll post it. In the meantime, seriously consider those Mackie amps...what a bargain!

[troystg]

Comment deleted.

[BHTX]

lol..?

"In a horn-loaded configuration, a pair of these 12" drivers can produce bass output comparable to 6 or 8 conventional 18" woofers."

..Riiight. And if you'll notice, Eminence doesn't state that. I believe that extravagant statement simply came from PartsExpress' mouths. Does it help increase their sales of that LAB12 woofer? Well, I guess it might..

On the other hand, since PE doesn't sell it anymore, here it is for a bit less..if anyone cares.
http://item.express.ebay.com/Musical...mdZExpressItem

With a readily available design on hand for that Selenium, I'd guess you probably couldn't go too wrong with it.

[Spasticteapot]

Originally posted by Cal Weldon
The Selenium cabinet is designed for that driver. Their specs and parameters are honest. They are well made. Guess what my choice is?

Don't worry about dispersion in the bass region, it happens whether you want it to or not.

I'm wondering what the in-box efficiency is.

The Tapco Juice J800 looks like a nice bit of equipment - hopefully, we'll find one used.

That said, there are some excellent deals from QSC online, and I know the folks at Guitar center pretty well.

[planet10]

EEs?

How come they aren't building the amps?

dave