satwilson

One other quick thought, is that strap around the bottom of the cabinet the only thing holding that thing down? If so, hope you are never in an accident or you will be in deep shit.

3) I have 2 12" SSDs in a sealed box in a 12x15 room and can't run them at full power without rattling everything in the room, the floor in the second story, stuff in the adjoining room, etc. I assume an 18" in a ported box, in a smaller room..............more than he needs? And he is having trouble finding room for a ported box................why drive yourself crazy finding room for a larger more efficient box that won't fit in your room and you don't need the added efficiency hmmmmmm?

I don't understand how airspace fits into not being able to downfire it? Or is your concern with the room needed under the box between it and the floor if downfiring? You guys are all nuts, in a room that size a ported 18" woofer will be way overkill, and the size of the enclosure impossible to use. Put that speaker in a sealed enclosure and hope it doesn't overpower/rattle/buzz that small room to death. I am assuming you will use a plate amp that has the power that driver needs. A sealed enclosure will be alot smaller. OldSchoolSQ

Back 4 weeks ago I asked the same question in the home audio forum using Fi SSD drivers. After doing some more research into TLs I realized very few people actually know very much at all about them. If you want to do something yourself and have advanced math and building skills go to quarter- wave.com This is a forum involving mathcad worksheets and people who are on the cutting edge of TL design, mainly for home audio but also applicable to car audio.(very technical) If you are interested in pursuing this further and just need an enclosure design specifically for your vehicle and are willing to pay for it, go to pwkdesigns.com This is a very esoteric and not very well understood type of enclosure that may well be the best available in terms of efficiency, bass extension, and SQ, HOWEVER , they are physically large, complicated to build and the frequency response erratic unless active EQ is used after RTA analysis is done. Good luck, let us know if you decide to pursue this, OldSchoolSQ

I know this topic is a couple of months old but there are a few comments I would like to make. Back in the days of vinyl before CDs I had a state of the art turntable and cartridge (Rabco SL8 straight line tracking turntable and Ortofon moving coil cartridge) so I know how good/bad turntables can be as a signal source. After the CD players introduction and a few years of refinement it was obvious to me they were a superior technology, and for the most part I have never looked back. I do read The Absolute Sound sometimes and anyone who does, knows their bias towards the analog/turntable thing. Keep in mind most of the turntable/arm/cartridge systems these guys use start at 4-5K and their "reference" systems 20-50K LOL. For a little reality perspective on that google "The ten biggest Lies in Audio" by TheAudioCritic. Anyhow, about a year ago I got curious about turntables because I do have a FEW records that have not been released on CD and wanted to hear them again. I got an old Sony direct drive turntable, replaced the cartridge/needle and dragged out my old B&K preamp that has a phono input. It was nice to listen to some music I hadn't heard in years but the overall sound quality was horrrible, scratchy, hiss, reduced frequency/transient response , subsonic wow and flutter driving my subs nuts. I did turn on the SSF in my preamp and got rid of the wow and flutter, but the desire to listen to the turntable as a music source quickly faded and I regret the time and money I spent resurrecting that old technology and the turntable/preamp are now out in the garage. I have a DJ friend that offered to transfer my old records to a CD before I got the turntable gear and now I regret not going that route. As to the difference between belt drive and DD, if you have a SSF , and I think you should use one because most of the problems originate in the needle to record groove interface not in the bearings, DD usually has better speed control and less maintenance than belt drive. In my opinion SQJEEP, if you want SQ, don't bother with a turntable. Just my opinion, and before any of you turntable/analog advocates go nuts, please read the above mentioned article by TheAudioCritic thanks, OldSchoolSQ

Has anyone had any experience building transmission line enclosures for a 12" SSD. Saw a post on another forum where this person used a Fi SE, 12", to build one and everything I read about these cabinets talks about how accurate and loud they can be. Only downside is they are HUGE and heavy, but in comparison to regular sealed and ported enclosures they are superior, best match for any driver, superior SQ, and the most output. Also, this one was tuned to 25hz and would reputedly play notes an octave below that no problem. Sounds like it may be a good design for a combination music/HT enclosure. Any thoughts about these claims and or experience would be appreciated. satwilson

I 2nd the Honda B&H series motors, got a H22A4 in my Prelude, don't forget to mention that ALL INDY CARS run the 3.0 Honda V8, and it produces 900hp naturally aspirated, thats 300HP per liter, no other motor in history that I know of even comes close to this in power and reliability for its size!!!!!!!!! OldSchoolSQ

I am certainly aware of the lower frequencies that HT offers and had that in mind when using the sealed box I use. Maybe I should keep the sealed box as the output I have now is plenty for my needs. Is it possible to build a ported enclosure tuned low enough for those 10-15hz HT frequencies, using 2-12" SSDs or am I better off staying sealed. I know you probably can with 15s or 18s but I am very happy with the way my SSDs sound now and 95% of what I listen to is music, very little HT. Thanks again.

Sorry, the amp is 900 watts rms. As I turn up the gain,(amp has led output meters) towards the 1800 watts PEAK, the drivers don't seem to be close to their peak excursion(21 mm Xmax). Glad you got the PM.

Thanks guys for getting back so quickly, M5,,,,,,i guess I have always had a predisposition for sealed vs ported because most of the time I was working with my car enviroment and was restricted to smaller spaces and enclosure sizes. Also, I was never motivated by SPL rather SQ, and sealed always SEEMED to give me that tight, accurate bass I love. However now that I have an enviroment ,(ie , living room ), where space is not as important, you are right, I can explore ported enclosures to get a little more output rather than increase the wattage. In addition, I now accept the reality (unlike the person who posted " give me my 20 hz " ), that frequencies below about 25hz are mostly unusuable/listenable and waste available power, so much for that "holy grail" of sealed enclosures. WOW!!! I will plug the T/S parameters into the computer and look at the possibilities. Hope I don't lose the tight accurate response I have now. (enable SSF @ 25HZ, upper end at 80hz active to my Boston VRM 80S).

I have 2 SSD 12"D2s, copper coils, wired in series for an 8 ohm load. I am using them in my house and have them wired as such to use with my Carver PM900 amp. The Carver amp is rated at 900 watts rms bridged and while bridged will not handle less than 8 ohms, hence the series wiring for the SSDs. THIS SETUP SOUNDS FANTASTIC, loud, clean, very tight. The Carver has a power limiting switch which I have enabled that prevents the amp from going into clipping so I am not concerned with that. The subs are in a sealed box with a partition between the drivers at about 1.5 cubes each. My question is with the subs/coils wired as such does that increase the power handling beyond the rated 800rms listed in the SSDs spec sheet. I have been watching the cones of the drivers as the amp approaches 1800 watts and the drivers don't appear to be anywhere near their excursion limits( 21mm Xmax ). Thanks OldSchoolSQ

I got a couple of SSD 12D2'S for my home system and saw the Fi forum listed on their website and decided to check it out.