New subwoofers

[postman]

Im going to be ordering 2 12" brahmas soon and im just wondering if theres going to be any difference in quality (musicality wise), if i go ported instead of sealed.

Also to power them im going to get a pa amp, found 2 around the price i want to spend.

Crown XLS602 and the Crown CE1000. What difference is there between these 2 amps other than that the XLS602 has a fair bit more power, does the CE1000 sound better ? If anyone could suggest a better amp for the price please tell me

posty.

[markp]

This is like asking 'what kind of shoes are good?'. The answer is 'what will you be using them for?'. Each has its merits depending on situation.

[aaroncgi]

All other things being equal, sealed ought to sound best. However, things are rarely equal.

For starters, is this going in your home? I would assume so given choice of amplifier. I would strongly suggest looking at the other Adire drivers, if so. To get the most efficiency out of them, you will want to wire the coils in parallel, but that puts you at one ohm, a hellish load for any amplifier. Also, the Brahma series was primarily designed with the car audio environment in mind, thus they have notably higher Fs than most 'home' drivers, and as such, any kind of enclosure will have a much higher F3. In the case of the Brahma 12, lowest sealed F3 will be 46Hz. While that could work if you have a small room, in a large room, you may want more extension.

If this is for home use, I would seriously consider using a single Tumult instead. It will move slightly more air than two 12" Brahmas, but play much deeper, and cost about $250 less. If you really need stereo subs, I would consider two Tempests, unless box size is your primary concern, then the Tumult is the way to go.

Whether or not sealed or ported works best for you depends in no small amount of the room in which the sub will be playing. I am doing ported designs lately because I like how you can tailor the response curve more easily to fit your needs, and my listening room doesn't mind the extension. The last place I lived could not have handled the kind of extension my sub provides, it would have sounded boomy as hell regardless of box type, unless I had done some serious equalization.


Aaron Gilbert

[Timn8ter]

I agree with Aaron about the Brahma. There are better choices for home subs. After having built subs using the Shiva, Tempest and DPL12 there is no doubt in my mind that, of those three, the best driver for music is the DPL12. Placed in a relatively small sealed cabinet with the amp of your choice it plays nice tight balanced bass. You can buy two of them for much less than a single Tumult for stereo bass. That would be an excellent setup!

[sreten]

Qt of 0.43 indicates sealed or vented suit the driver.
IMO an overdamped vented single subwoofer is all
thats required (blue line).

sreten.

[Jimmy154]

Adidas cross training shoes are the best and so are sealed subs .

No one will be able to answer the first part of your question, it comes down to personal preference. Maybe you were referring to only those specific subs as oppose to other subs when ported vs sealed . I personally don't like to listen to ported subs, musically they sound worst than ported. And I have found that 15's almost always sound better than similar 12's to me.

[Timn8ter]

My Nike Airs have served me well for years. If it was me, and I know it's not, I would buy two DPL12s for less than the price of one Brahma and put it in separate sealed 75 liter enclosures. You can run the numbers in WinISD (or your program of choice) and draw your own conclusion. Just my $0.0261950 (converted to AUD).

[ultrachrome]

I've been needing to add a sub. Could I drive a DPL12 in Sreten's recommended enclosure with a 100W/ch amp to reasonable music levels?

[aaroncgi]

Ultrachrome,

Given that the DPL12's play 84dB with one watt, 100w will get you to 104dB. That's pretty loud, although as far as bass goes, not groundbreaking (no pun intended). Oh, I just noted you said 100w/channel. Unless your amp will handle four ohm load when bridged, you can run one channel to each voice coil. So 200w will get you to 107dB. You may start to run into excursion limits before your amp gives out, or not, depending on your tastes and your room size.


Aaron Gilbert

[Timn8ter]

Originally posted by ultrachrome
I've been needing to add a sub. Could I drive a DPL12 in Sreten's recommended enclosure with a 100W/ch amp to reasonable music levels?

sreten's recommendation is for the Brahma. Different driver, different enclosure. A vented enclosure for the DPL12 will be on the order of 145 liters tuned to 16.4 Hz. I've used the DPL12 in a sealed enclosure with a rated 100w@8ohm (the driver was wired for 4 ohm) and it's plenty loud. Given that a vented enclosure is generally more efficient it should be enough.