Blueprint 10'' Sub

[dave k]

how does the blueprint sub stack up?what does it compare to?
will it out perform the peerless 10' xls and passive in a tiny box?
thanks.

[THOR]

The 12 inch is the better sub and heres a complete design with distortion figures! Its approx a 16"X16" X 16" cube, outside dims.! Now thats tiny for a sub that will go below 25 Hz! If you want a smaller face but deeper cab, then use the one shown.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~joeras/sub_index.htm

[paulspencer]

The blueprint subs are all well regarded. They have higher excursion than XLS subs, approx double which means 6db more output. This means you can probably get slightly more output out of a sealed box of the same size with the Blueprint, but probably with higher distortion.

10" subs are a bit small IMO - 12" subs are barely more expensive, they can still be quite small and move quite a bit more air.

[BAM]

The problem with the Blueprint drivers (including the original ones built by FRC Soundworks for the original Blueprint company) was that they had a realtively high Le, or voice coil inductance. Almost as high as 10mH on the 03 series. The inductance causes a resistance to change of the direction of current flow in the voice coil, with the net result being a peak in the output near the lower end of the useful output. At least that's how I've come to understand it. Also, I think it doesn't work quite so well for providing ultra-detailed bass if it has a high Le.

[paulspencer]

According to one of Adire's tech papers, LeVC is the best indicator of a driver's transient response independant of alignment. As I understand, a high inductance limits the useable upper end of the bandwidth. I believe this is part of the reason that Adire with their XBL2 technology have been able to now get high excursion AND wide bandwidth drivers, where previously high excursion meant high inductance. While I'm wary of basing too much on one parameter, such a high LeVC is probably reason enough to not use this driver.

[needtubes]

I have a Blueprint 1503 that I recently purchased and put in an unfinished vented sonotube enclosure. It is leaky and not tuned right, but still sounds pretty good considering. I haven't had time to finish it all correctly...

I didn't know these drivers had such high Le. I have not yet determined what sound characteristic this sub has... I've not spent a ton of time with it. It has a low end that doesn't stop, though. Great for home theater. I find that it is not as refined in music with lots of fast bass-drum, though. My previous sub was an Adire DPL12 in a sealed box, and I thought it was really good about keeping up with fast drum action common to Van Halen and such. I cannot decide if the 1503 does this well or not.

Sorry if I seem slightly off topic here... I've not seen many threads about these drivers and now kind of wish I'd researched more before buying one on impulse (based on the high Le).