Chris:
Interesting…
Thanks for the insight.
I have always enjoyed the look and performance of downward-firing subwoofers.
But, “Best performance at a price point” is my unofficial motto.
Looking forward to what you might ultimately design and launch…
Regards,
Scott
A suggestion to keep costs down, have box with Bluetooth control for arm chair people like me, that would be a chargeable upgrade.
Look at this 17” beast!
“No replacement for displacement”
I’d be curious of the woofers speed.
How much air it moves and how quickly are good indications of a sub’s performance.
Add to that a ton of other stuff, like driver and cabinet distortions, amp quality, room placement, etc., and the picture can muddy, or become clearer.
We often hear that “the best sub is no (perceived) sub at all”. Chris has established that his stand alone designs are faithful to the music and I would assume that his sub would boggie…gracefully.
A lot of marketing hyperbole on this one. I do think that SVS makes a good product especially for what they charge for it but there are some serious misstatements from this marketing guy.
When you have a dual voice coil subwoofer as described by these guys, you’re taking a 4 layer coil and splitting each sets of type layers out for separate sets of terminals. This doesn’t increase motor force (as they claim in some of the marketing). It does allow them to use two amplifiers to drive a single woofer (and the output of the two channels of amplifier (or two physical amplifiers) sum together within the woofer.
Unless you’re wiring this with 240V, you’re limited to about 1500 watts continuous on a 15 amp circuit. and 1900 watts on a 20 amp (80% of the peak). As such, you’d need to have two separate circuits you’re wiring to or 240V to get substantially higher power than this, which is pretty impractical, especially when using multiple subs in a non-dedicated room.
The use of an 8" coil is good for long term power handling but adds to the mass and limits the suspension linearity and travel a great deal versus a 3-4" coil using the same spider OD.
I found a klippel test online of the previous SVS woofer (or rather this OEM model from Tymphany its based on). This was done the lab at warkwyn at the behest of Stereo Integrity (a DIY subwoofer driver company) who makes a competing product.
It’s limited to about 20 mm of BL based Xmax and only about 15 mm of rearward travel on the suspension before hitting 50% of the compliance.
You can see how there isn’t much of spider material between the OD of the coil and spider OD.
Inductance is even but we chose to have a much lower inductance design (with fewer voice coil layers and diameter). This is what limits the “speed” and upper bass capabilities of most subs (not mass). Inductance resists changes in current and sets the upper bass limit of most subs (where the start to sound wooly and indistinct)
Overall, motor force and power handling are very high but linearity and sound quality is lower than the driver I’m working on (we have >50% more xmax etc.). Admittedly, ours is only a 12" driver and we’re not yet doing a 15" or 18" (because I think there is less of market in hifi systems for this) but I’m jsut trying to show apples to apples.
I have an SVS Ultra 16 SB. What I don’t understand is the fact that the sub stops playing when I listen to higher music levels and ex. a drummer hits hard his instrument.
Does it shut off or just limit output?
All modern active subs have limiters where the output is limited at a certain point rather than letting the amplifier clip or woofer bottom out.
It shut off
