Sub for a Jordan MLTL - Vifa MA26WR09?

[cheesehead]

Hello everyone,

So, I've got my Jordan JX92s MLTL's (this thread) running for a while... sweet on acoustic, bluegrass, female vocals and jazz, but they don't rock & roll. So I want bass. And I'd like to relieve the Jordans from their bass duties; their midrange sounds a little better on the "small" setting of my amp.

Has anyone had any experience yet with the Vifa MA26WR09-04's from Madisound ($118 each)? They're a metal cone 10" which models to f3=34 Hz and f10=19 Hz in a 1.5 ft^3 sealed box. (Only problem - low efficiency, since we can't have everything ) The small size is very SAF important; I don't have the room for any 5 cu ft. monsters. My hope is the metal cone will integrate well with the Jordan.

My plan is to run two of them as subs under the MLTL's from the receiver LFE with speakers set to small, either off a sub plate amp or running into a separate 100W/channel amp. Long-term goals if they work out might include going active & putting the JX92s or a Jordan JX53 with the Vifa in a 2-way - the MA26 has an almost full-range response.

Thoughts? Thanks.

mk

 

[Dave Jones]

Consider a 10" Peerless XLS with passive radiator. It works in a box of under 1 ft^3. I built one using the heavier of the two available matching PR's. At about 27"H X13"W X10"D, it makes a nice stand for a speaker or flower pot or whatever. I modified the plate amp to have some boost at 20Hz. I am very happy with the setup.

 

[paulspencer]

I was about to agree about the XLS sub idea until I looked at the thread describing those speakers - just a small fullrange driver. I'd say you will get the most musical result with something more like a woofer. The ability to cross higher (200 - 300 Hz) here would probably be of more benefit here to the music than adding a sub at 80 Hz or below.

If your speakers look like these:

then they could look good with some small cubes under them, if you can handle lifting the level of those speakers a little. Sounds like you want stereo woofers. Consider the 8" Adire Koda - high excursion but designed to cross much higher than a subwoofer will. If that's not enough, then you could then cross at say 60 Hz to a subwoofer hidden away somewhere.

 

[cheesehead]

I'd say you will get the most musical result with something more like a woofer. The ability to cross higher (200 - 300 Hz) here would probably be of more benefit here to the music than adding a sub at 80 Hz or below. If your speakers look like these:

Yes my speakers do look like that (maybe even sound like that?).. the pic's here They really are wonderful, just need a little help in the low range, and sound even better in the mids if I relieve them of their LF duties.

I'm not looking for huge SPL (the Jordans won't match it); if I want dinosaur stomping I'll get a Shiva. (And since the daugters are the ones watching movies, I'll take it out of their allowance Or even better, get them to help me build it! It's about time Dad taught them basic electronics and how to use a table saw )

Thx for the Koda suggestion, I'll check it out. I'm looking at a solution that I can do now (with my HT Sony setup) as dual subs w/bass redirect and maybe take active later with a higher xo. That's one reason I'm looking at these Vifas - they look like they could be xo'd as far as 1K (tho I don't know why you'd want to do that). I'd post a link to the specs, but Madisound only has them listed in the pdf catalog.

John Krutke (Zaph) made a brief mention on his site about trying these out, I may PM him.

mk

 

[Dave Jones]

I was about to agree about the XLS sub idea until I looked at the thread describing those speakers - just a small fullrange driver.

I'm using the 10" XLS + PR with small full range speakers. The system sounds very good. Sure, the sub would play a lot louder than the little speakers, but it sounds good at low volumes.

I have reservations about using a TL or bass reflex speaker with a sub. I built my little speakers as MLTL's using Martin's software. Stand-alone, they sound just fine, although light in the low bass. (They give up at about 65 Hz.) But when I run them with the sub, they sound much better with the ports sealed, even though I have to run the sub up to 145 Hz. The JX92S's would go significantly lower than that in the sealed box. In fact, I think my next project will be JX92S's in sealed boxes with a sub.

 

[paulspencer]

My hope is the metal cone will integrate well with the Jordan.

Visually yes, but acoustically? I see no real advantage here. In the range you are likely to use them, there isn't likely to be enough resolution for this to be the case. Metal cone drivers have less damping and tend to have more resolution, but this is only noticeable in the midrange and treble.

You might find them a good visual match though.

That's one reason I'm looking at these Vifas - they look like they could be xo'd as far as 1K (tho I don't know why you'd want to do that).

Any woofer should go high enough, it's only subwoofers you have to worry about. You can't cross to the woofer too high as the distance from the mains to the woofer will be too much.

If you biamp with an active crossover with a 4th order slope, this will also help the situation and give you more choice with drivers.