Hey dr. Dyna what would you recommend as far as eqing for the ultimax goes. Keep in mind I know room makes a big difference on the way you eq a sub. Just asking if there are general guidelines for our subs. I have a pre pro that takes care of eqing. Give me a few hints how to make it better. Also what pro amp would you suggest for this sub? Qsc crown bheringer keep in mind I will probably want to have a second channel in the future.
I have a Behringer right now, but I'm planning on getting one of the Crowns, like a 4002 or something, because I want to play with the bass synth stuff.
As far as EQ goes, you've got it right, the room is going to play into it a bunch. A pre-pro that takes care of EQing.. O_O...do you mean that it has an EQ built in that you can mess with, or do you mean it has something like Audyssey MultiQ32?
If we're talking about manually EQing for flat response, you could be in for a world of trouble, depending on the room. The room will have "modes" that you have to deal with (or can't deal with) depending on it's dimensions. I hate to say it, but with small-ish sealed subs like the one you've built, it gets much, much easier if you've got more than two of them to play with, when you can locate them randomly and play them off of each other - for lack of a better term.
If I were you, I'd probably just hook it up and adjust the level until it seemed neutral, then run whatever calibration you've got, if that's what you mean by EQ. Diving further into equalizing room modes and such means that you should invest in a measurement mic. I bought a Dayton EMM-6 and a Blue Icicle mic pre. The pair is ~ $100. Grab REW from HomeTheaterShack for free. You can measure your room/sub response fairly easily..and after tinkering with it, you should have a pretty good idea what room modes you're dealing with, and what sort of EQ you can use to combat them.
Just bear in mind that you can EQ for some things, but some room modes...nulls for example..will be impossible to EQ for with a single subwoofer. Room dimensions will just "eat" some frequencies, and you'll drive yourself bat-sh** crazy trying to overcome them. All rooms are modal, unless you're fortunate enough to have what would be considered a "large room" ...think IMAX movie theater size.
In your position, I'd just find a spot for the sub somewhere on the same side of the room as your main speakers, cross it over a bit below the lower limit of your main speakers, run calibration if you've got it, and just enjoy it. The next level of tinkering beyond that will require measurement, multiple subwoofers, and something fairly robust for EQ, like a DCX2496 or MiniDSP, the latter only recommended if you've got a subwoofer amplifier that can reach full output with 0.6-0.7v of input.
As far as EQ goes, you've got it right, the room is going to play into it a bunch. A pre-pro that takes care of EQing.. O_O...do you mean that it has an EQ built in that you can mess with, or do you mean it has something like Audyssey MultiQ32?
If we're talking about manually EQing for flat response, you could be in for a world of trouble, depending on the room. The room will have "modes" that you have to deal with (or can't deal with) depending on it's dimensions. I hate to say it, but with small-ish sealed subs like the one you've built, it gets much, much easier if you've got more than two of them to play with, when you can locate them randomly and play them off of each other - for lack of a better term.
If I were you, I'd probably just hook it up and adjust the level until it seemed neutral, then run whatever calibration you've got, if that's what you mean by EQ. Diving further into equalizing room modes and such means that you should invest in a measurement mic. I bought a Dayton EMM-6 and a Blue Icicle mic pre. The pair is ~ $100. Grab REW from HomeTheaterShack for free. You can measure your room/sub response fairly easily..and after tinkering with it, you should have a pretty good idea what room modes you're dealing with, and what sort of EQ you can use to combat them.
Just bear in mind that you can EQ for some things, but some room modes...nulls for example..will be impossible to EQ for with a single subwoofer. Room dimensions will just "eat" some frequencies, and you'll drive yourself bat-sh** crazy trying to overcome them. All rooms are modal, unless you're fortunate enough to have what would be considered a "large room" ...think IMAX movie theater size.
In your position, I'd just find a spot for the sub somewhere on the same side of the room as your main speakers, cross it over a bit below the lower limit of your main speakers, run calibration if you've got it, and just enjoy it. The next level of tinkering beyond that will require measurement, multiple subwoofers, and something fairly robust for EQ, like a DCX2496 or MiniDSP, the latter only recommended if you've got a subwoofer amplifier that can reach full output with 0.6-0.7v of input.
The Behringer EP4000 amps seem very well-regarded, but the iNuke ones have DSP built-in.
Anything by QSC or Crown will put out its rated power, continuously, basically forever. They're solid amps.
Find something that'll do 1kW/ch @4ohm. Alternatively, something that'll bridge into 4ohm for that power would do fine, but you'll need another amp for your next sub.
I like my Peavey PV2600, though the fan is a bit noisy for your use. I bridge it into 4ohm (ie, driving 2ohm/ch) for PA use, and it just sits there and takes it. It'll do 900w/ch @4ohm, and has soft-clipping, which is handy for when things get silly.
Chris
Anything by QSC or Crown will put out its rated power, continuously, basically forever. They're solid amps.
Find something that'll do 1kW/ch @4ohm. Alternatively, something that'll bridge into 4ohm for that power would do fine, but you'll need another amp for your next sub.
I like my Peavey PV2600, though the fan is a bit noisy for your use. I bridge it into 4ohm (ie, driving 2ohm/ch) for PA use, and it just sits there and takes it. It'll do 900w/ch @4ohm, and has soft-clipping, which is handy for when things get silly.
Chris
Indeed, I disregarded your "perform better" notion, so your paraphrase is incorrect. That is why I stated in the second sentence that better is irrelevant, it's only the difference that's of interest. I would never claim that a broken in woofer is superior. It is not, it's simply undergone a natural change.
Back to the Ultimax. 🙂
So I'm using a buddies carver amp to power it right now. Pictures to come. His amp is slamming the sub really hard it sounds wonderful. So I wanted to see if my 5 channel powermaster 2000 would power it ok. Plugged it in to one of the five channels and bammmmm slamming just as hard. I think for now ill run it with my powermaster although I dont have volume control with it. Just a gain switch. The great thing about my powermaster is it has virtually no clipping. My sherbourn pre pro has built in eqing for every channel along with an auto room calibration. I heard its not as good as the audyssey setup but it sounds like a freaking theater. I was playing transformers theme song and about wet myself with how good and comparable to a movie theater it sounds like. It's only running stereo right now too. I think I'll need one more ultimax for a flatter response but for right now my next purchase will be a projector and screen
Just make sure you've got those coils in series if you're running it from a 5 channel amp, it's stability into low impedances is probably not stellar.
Nawwww the powermaster can handle anything. Down to 2 ohms. It retailed for 7000 dollars back in the day the guys at noble electronics told me its a tank dont worry about it
In that case, can you run each coil on a seperate channel?
That'll give you the most power into the sub. Maximising headroom etc etc.
That'll give you the most power into the sub. Maximising headroom etc etc.
Would I have to split the signal from the pre pro to each channel? I do have two balanced outs on my pre pro both for subs I wonder if I should just hook one to each channel on the amp and then run each coil on each channel. ohhhhh man i might blow my breaker!! is that how you guys would wire it? ill have to read the manual for the powermaster again. its a beast of an amp. 😀
You can split it, or you can use the other sub output. If there's an unused amplifier channel, by all means, use a channel for each coil. If that amplifier is as stout as they say it is, you might even consider keeping it for only subwoofer duty, later adding another sub to use two more channels.
But yes, if you have un-used channels, use em!
But yes, if you have un-used channels, use em!
here is the link to the group of guys that fix and sell them since EAD is no longer making amps.
Noble Electronics, Boelen Mods
the amp in this link is a year or 2 newer than the amp I have and has more channels but they told me the PM2000 was a SOLID amp and people have sold these 8300 to go back to the 2000. If any of you want to see the manual for it I can put up the manual for it.
Noble Electronics, Boelen Mods
the amp in this link is a year or 2 newer than the amp I have and has more channels but they told me the PM2000 was a SOLID amp and people have sold these 8300 to go back to the 2000. If any of you want to see the manual for it I can put up the manual for it.
You could use a splitter cable. That way, you can DSP the second sub seperately.
Chris
Looks like the lowest impedance is 2.5 ohm per channel on the amp. Probably cant run 2 ohm coils I'm thinking. What do you guys think
Well, you indicated that your coils were not in series, so if you had them in parallell ++/-- instead of +/-+/- then you were effectively already at half of that impedance. If you have the double 4 ohm version, you should be ok to use one channel for one coil and another channel for the other.
If you have the dual 2 ohm version instead of the dual 4 ohm version, I would definitely, definitely hook the coils up in series and use only one amplifier channel. I would never hook a 1 ohm (if they're parallel) or 2 ohm (if each one has it's own channel) subwoofer up to a multichannel home theater amplifier, no matter how much smoke they blew up my port about build quality.
My Sub has the two 2ohm coils and yes I have it in series right now running at a total of 4 ohm load to the amp. at 4 ohms my amp pushes 800 watts and gives it plenty of juice along with powering my speakers. Its kind of amazing to me.
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I wouldn't use MDF for stiffeners.
Yeah why wouldnt you use mdf as stiffeners they work wonderfully. I can pick up the whole box with just the braces.
For a sealed box, break in won't do much.
A ported speaker is sensitive to driver parameters and since it controls the driver at resonance with the resonance of the box/port combination, if you shift too much driver excursion could increase and possibly exceed x-mech.
The best case in ported speaker break in is that your alignment changes and your FR is not as flat as you designed for.
Of course, that assumes that you are measuring your driver parameters and designing your subwoofer around them. If you use published numbers or "suggested box" you are starting out of alignment.
Any way, good job.
A ported speaker is sensitive to driver parameters and since it controls the driver at resonance with the resonance of the box/port combination, if you shift too much driver excursion could increase and possibly exceed x-mech.
The best case in ported speaker break in is that your alignment changes and your FR is not as flat as you designed for.
Of course, that assumes that you are measuring your driver parameters and designing your subwoofer around them. If you use published numbers or "suggested box" you are starting out of alignment.
Any way, good job.
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