Reproducing a 16Hz pipe organ note

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Since it came up in another thread on the subwoofer forum, has anyone actually heard the Eminent Technology TRW17 in anything approaching an audio or sound reinforcement application?
Cameron Carpenter's touring "pipe organ" system uses the Eminent Technology TRW17, you could ask those who have heard him play, or check his tour dates to hear it in a city near you.

The reviews are generally good.
 
has anyone actually heard the Eminent Technology TRW17 in anything approaching an audio or sound reinforcement application?
I heard it in a demonstration of very low frequency effects (lower than 16 Hz) in various movie and music excerpts. TRW17 excels in reproduction of frequencies lower than 10 Hz - the lower, the better. For frequencies higher than 10 Hz conventional loudspeakers are more cost-effective.
Edit: "felt it" is more precise description than "heard it".
 
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I heard it in a demonstration of very low frequency effects (lower than 16 Hz) in various movie and music excerpts. TRW17 excels in reproduction of frequencies lower than 10 Hz - the lower, the better. For frequencies higher than 10 Hz conventional loudspeakers are more cost-effective.
Edit: "felt it" is more precise description than "heard it".

At all frequencies conventional loudspeakers are more cost effective.

While the TRW is more efficient the lower it goes, it costs upward of $17000.

For the same money you could buy a whole truckload of extremely high excursion 18s and China clone amps and absolutely stomp all over the Thigpen at all frequencies.

The SI 18 driver sold for something like $150 IIRC, so you could get about 100 of them for the price of the TRW. And of course if you ordered 100 of them you could probably get enough of a discount to buy the clone amps to power them.

The TRW is an impressive and innovative (although incredibly dangerous) subwoofer, but it can't complete with 100 high excursion 18s.
 
At all frequencies conventional loudspeakers are more cost effective.
While the TRW is more efficient the lower it goes, it costs upward of $17000.
For the same money you could buy a whole truckload of extremely high excursion 18s and China clone amps and absolutely stomp all over the Thigpen at all frequencies.
The SI 18 driver sold for something like $150 IIRC, so you could get about 100 of them for the price of the TRW. And of course if you ordered 100 of them you could probably get enough of a discount to buy the clone amps to power them.
The TRW is an impressive and innovative (although incredibly dangerous) subwoofer, but it can't complete with 100 high excursion 18s.
You are comparing apples (commercial subs) and oranges (DIY subs). Of course DIY sub is more cost-effective than commercial sub.
Let compare apples and apples. Top of the line double-18" BAG END Infrasub D18E-I has declared maximum calculated SPL=96dB/1m at 10 Hz.
http://bagend.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/D18E-I.pdf
TRW17 has measured maximum SPL over 110dB/1m from from 1 Hz to 30Hz.
You need at least four double-18" subs D18E-I to match TRW17 maximum SPL at 10 Hz. What about one octave below, at 5Hz? This comparison falls apart at 5Hz because the low-frequency limit of D18E-I is declared at 8Hz. If we ignore this limit, with simple extrapolation we can calculate (purely theoreticaly) that to match TRW17 maximum SPL at 5Hz we need more than sixteen double-18" subs. And at 1Hz you need more than 100 top-of-the-line double-18" commercial subs, plus another rooms to accommodate 100 boxes.
Conclusion: conventional loudspeakers are not more cost-effective at all frequencies than rotary-woofer sub.
Of course you may find some commercial 18" sub which is better than BAG END Infrasub D18E-I, but it will not change this conclusion.
This thread is about reproducing pipe organ low notes and for this application conventional subs are the only viable solution. chrisb asked if anyone heard the TRW17, I just responded to his question.
 
Fair enough, commercial conventional subs are expensive. But there's no stipulation that the conventional driver route HAS to be commercial units.

This is a diy forum and it's assumed that anyone here is going to diy as much as possible. Unfortunately half the cost of the TRW is the mandatory installation, they have to install it so you have to pay for their time and airfare and whatever other expenses they have calculated into the price of the unit.

Just because it's not possible (or at least not easy) to diy a rotary sub doesn't mean that the commercially available unit doesn't cost upwards of $17000 and that anyone here in the diy forum could do a lot better with conventional drivers for that kind of money at all frequencies down to dc.
 
Yes Sonce, diy will cost more , he needs good amps too.

Let's take a realistic look at what diy can do for the price.

A quick look at the rotary sub site suggests pricing is even higher than I remembered.

Total $21,950-$25,950 - Eminent Technology: home

Let's stick to the low end, $21,950.

For that amount of money we could get :

$12950 - 50 of these 27 mm xmax 18s - DS4 18″ Subwoofer | Stereo Integrity
$7260 - 10 of these 14000 watt (burst) amps - Aliexpress.com : Buy FP14000 Sanway Class TD Power Amplifiers from Reliable amplifier philips suppliers on Guangzhou Sanway Audio Factory

And that leaves almost $2000 for wood and shop supplies.

Pricing above does not include shipping but does not include bulk purchase discounts either.

If we used the high end price on the TRW (another $4000) we could get another 10 of those 18s and a couple more amps.

So please explain to me how diy costs more when you can get 50 - 60 high excursion 18s, 10 - 12 very high power amps, and enough wood and shop supplies to build the boxes for the same price as a single rotary sub.
 
stacking columns of REL Gibraltar G1 is a less expensive solution and great result

This looks like a mediocre sub for an insane price. $5000 for a sealed 12 inch powered sub is your recommendation?

REL G1 Reference Subwoofer at Music Direct

See the previous post for what you can do with $4000 ($1000 less than this overpriced piece of mediocrity), 10 high excursion 18s and a couple of very high power amps.

Besides, the specs on this thing state "in room response -6 db at 15 hz" and the user manual says this sealed sub is "nominally flat from 35 - 90 hz".

This is barely a subwoofer, it's a shiny expensive toy.
 
May be, it is much simpler to build a 16 Hz pipe. And, while listening the one or two organrecords including 13 times 16 Hz tones, to drive them,-) And: It would be a real clean undistorted 16 Hz organ-tone, not a high distorted subwoofer roaring.
Rest of time use the pipe for doorbelling.-)
 
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