Most powerful long throw sub?

[mikehende]

As far as I know, the most powerful gut wrenching sub is the Martin Audio S215 MKIII which was made in the 70s:

Martin 215 mk 2 - Speakerplans.com Forums - Page 20

Some guys are telling me that nowadays with modern technology there should be more efficient and smaller cabs which will produce the same or better results, the S215 carries two 15" subwoofers, anyone know of anything out there which can rival the S215 whether 15" or 18" sub?

[JLH]

DANLEY | TAPPED HORN SUBWOOFER

thread/

[mikehende]

Thanks, but I don't know, the TH 115 seems close in design to the EV T18 sub? I had those EV's and no punch bass at all with those?

[woof]

TC Sounds LMS Ultra 5400 18" DVC Subwoofer 293-666

[mikehende]

That's not a cabinet?

[Ron E]

Originally Posted by mikehende

As far as I know, the most powerful gut wrenching sub is the Martin Audio S215 MKIII which was made in the 70s:

40Hz isn't really a "Sub" in my book except in PA terms. I think the mouth of these is too small to have much "throw" below 100Hz anyway unless you make an array. Model them in Hornresp and compare with more modern designs.

[m R g S r]

OT but is that DBH 218 new? or i just never noticed it on Danley's site?

Quote from Ian....

"The biggest difference-sonically- is that the DBH-218 has more "impact/punch etc" than a pair of TH118's. Assuming you are talking about the DBH218 and not the DBH218LC. The LC version walks all over a pair and probably 4 TH118s down low (say below 30Hz)."


hmmm sounds interesting....wonder what he has going on underneath that mesh grill! (to walk all over 4 TH 118's!!!)

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by mikehende

As far as I know, the most powerful gut wrenching sub is the Martin Audio S215 MKIII which was made in the 70s:

Martin 215 mk 2 - Speakerplans.com Forums - Page 20

Some guys are telling me that nowadays with modern technology there should be more efficient and smaller cabs which will produce the same or better results, the S215 carries two 15" subwoofers, anyone know of anything out there which can rival the S215 whether 15" or 18" sub?

Efficient, small and low do not go together.
That stuff is not even close to the output of the Matterhorn, is a 40-driver, 40 kW self-powered Tom Danley designed tapped horn subwoofer which can produce 105 dB of output at 250 meters, with a response -3 dB at 12 Hz.

Matterhorn

Now that is a "gut wrenching sub".

As far as commercially available subs, DSL's DBH-218 has lots of punch, but not super deep extension.
Their TH-221 has loads of output and deep extension.

McCaully's 421 which uses four B&C 21" cones in a large isobaric tapped horn (they call it by another name, of course) does not go as low as the TH-221 (the 421 does not meet the published FR specs) but above 30 Hz is a real monster.

[NEO Dan]

The M421 is a bastardized tapped horn, but it is not ISO loaded.

[weltersys]

Originally Posted by NEO Dan

The M421 is a bastardized tapped horn, but it is not ISO loaded.

The M421 is isobaricly loaded, though the term “isobaric” is a misnomer which I simply have repeated.
I’m not particularly fond of the term “tapped horn” either, but so many people use those terms it does not make sense to nitpick semantics too much.
Here is a good reveiw of the M421:

McCauley M421 Quad 21" Subwoofer

As Bennett writes “The drivers are arranged isobarically, and then coupled to an "FEA optimized acoustic transformer" or a horn to you and me.”

Anyone looking at the pictures Bennett posted who is familiar with tapped horns can recognize that the M421 is a tapped horn using an isobaric drive.

From the sound quality descriptions, the isobaric arrangement seems to have lowered the punch factor, but the M421 at around 155 dB output at one meter has no shortage of grunt.

Can’t think of anything else that has any more bass output per cubic foot in half space.

Art Welter