sandt38

$150-160 is great actually. I am like you and I love deep smooth midbass, and your pricerange and depth makes my favorites work well... I was thinking you were looking to spend less and my thought was the 7 inch Vifa PL mids (which is why I wanted depth and 7 inches . For the price they are really nice, but for a little more you can do better... and, if you got $160 you must use the Koda 6. Very nice off axis responce, and it needs 3 inches of space which you have. They are very smooth, and very deep. (I know, I sound like a salesman, but seriously, the price and your goals make this a great fit) :boink:

But I hit a 168.4 with 2 Solo X 12s on 500 watts Hey Polecat

What kind of money are you looking at spending, and why the 2.5 inches of depth? If you make a quick adapter plate out of 3/4 inch you would have over 3 inches room and really expand your possibilities. Also, are 7 inchers out of the question? And what component sets (typical in store sets) do you like? I hate to reccomend on my taste and find out you like MBQuarts or something. How low are you looking to cross over, and could you give me an idea of speaker placement (both mid and tweet) and install type (kick, stock door, or door pod). Oh yeah, also give me an idea of what you like in a speaker (outside of a similar set). Like, are you into strong midrange, deep smooth midbass, bright highs... you know, a strong point in the set. As far as the towers, I cannot say enough good stuff about them. To quote my friend flawlesskid who heard them just 2 days ago; "they give me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over"... Awesome, awesome, awesome... :boink:

I did all the cutting and assembleing. I have to credit Dan Wiggins with the crossover design. I am an ameture with it really. I have a few programs I am still working with and learning, but I am still learning how to properly impiment notch filters and traps like in my crossovers for these units, but my designs are quite newbish right now. I can link you to some nice software (that is freeware) still I think, but with it you do need to know how to properly impliment traps and notches as well as simple caps and inductors. While it will give you simple cap/inductor type crossovers, you need to know when other filters will benefit you, and it will properly impliment them into your design. So to make a long tale short, I could... but I would like to play a bit more with some ideas before I design any for someone else. I need to learn a bit more about implimenting off axis and on axis installs in the design.

Bose 301's Bookshelves(about 10yrs old),they're not made like these anymore,the newer models look & sound like crap My bad, 301s were what I meant, and I concur... They were nice speakers, and you need not make appologies for them B)

Personally I have never been impressed by downfiring in a car. Granted I have really only heard 3 or 4 setups but I don't ever recall a flat responce. There always seemed to be cancellation. I have heard a few audiophiles who like the Shiva in a smaller box, but I always enjoyed them best in big boxes. Dual B10s would be awesome (and we may be able to work out a deal if you are serious) but I think in a short time I may have something you will like a bit better... Just give me a bit...

If you are looking for pure SQ, I suggest much bigger. A minimum of 2 feet with 2 pounds of polyfill per driver. Bring the gains way down. You will need ~250 watts to bottom them in this big enclosure. At 1.25 you are looking at I would guess off the top of my head ~.85 QTC. They are snappy in 1.25 (as I had a pair of them upfiring in my Buick like that with ~425 apiece), butt a bit boomy I felt... They really become very warm and natural at around 1.8 or so, and develop a frightening bottom end. They get absolutely crushing. It seems to me that in a truck with an upfiring enclosure and little reflective reinforcement that extention would be important in an RTA situation. However, the comps best get down and dirty to 60-65 Hz to add that snap. Not having put them in a truck before I cannot say for sure, but in car and in home I have found them exceptional at 2 feet with right at 250-300 watts per.

Dual Brahmas I gotta get done with all my stuff around here so I can get to installing my other Brahma. I'm gonna get me the new Pioneer Premier 860 soon... maybe putting that in will motivate me into building that box... Lemme know if you wanna talk Shiva box. I have had them in many boxes in both home and in car... Also, getting some new Adire drivers soon, you may want to hold off on a decision for a week or 2 . When I get the go ahead I will be letting you guys know about what is brewing :boink:

Are those the Bose 81s? They were damn fine speakers. No apologies at all... Steve, do not take the Shivas out of the truck and do nothing with them. If they do not go in your HT, I am gonna come visit you and thump your skull (and I am a big dude too, so don't try me B) ).

Glad to hear you are learning something... there is SO much more to enclosure construction then cutting a few holes amd making 6 sides... Obviously you like to experiment, so try differant things with them... pay attention to how certain differances with the enclosure affect the sound of the drivers... Reading is one thing, but experimenting and listening tells more than a few words on a computer screen

Goodness me... I have a Rava (sealed Shiva, front firing, 250 watts) and it does an awesome job... I'll bet that is a mean MOFO. Let us know how it does when it breaks in...

I need to add something. I was starting to get tweeked by the tweeter, as I sat back and listened to Dave Matthews, so I strted to dig into my settings on the reciever. Apparently at some point I went in and bumped my mains 5.5Db . I don't know how I missed that. Anyways, I dialed them back down to 0Db (where the MCACC sets the speakers) and what a differance. I have actually gone in and EQ'd the tweets up some since, rather than leaving them flat. I have to retract my "might swap out the tweeter" comment. Gimme a bit more time to listen and I will offer some more feedback :thud:

The crossovers are complete and the trial run has begun... I put them together (without the second baffel and veneer) to be sure they were cool. I stuffed the units with 20 Oz of polyfill apiece (~8 behind the woofer, ~2 in the port section (not in the port, just that section) and 10 in the lower portion). Initially they were very bright, and very boomy. I had read this was common for the mid and tweet. I played it for a couple hours the first night (using Tool, Undertow as it covers a very broad frequency range), and have played it a bit since. The mids and tweets are starting to come around nicely. I listened through the CD once on the second day, and restarting it I could hear a huge differance in the sound of the units. Dispertion is amazingly broad. Down the hallway it is still ver tonaly correct (of course reverb is causing cancellation). The crossover is very tight, the drivers stay very accurate and well controlled throughout the spectrum. So far I am very pleased. They are continuing to mellow and after full break in I will comment further, but this is after watching Gladiator, LOTR The Two Towers, and part of The Patriot: While the tweet is still too bright on axis for music, it is very accurate, and sounds amazing while watching movies. I knew the horn loaded tweet may cause some issue for me (with music, but a large part of that is the type of music I listen to), and I may still opt to change it out. But another part of me is screaming how good it sounds while watching a film, which is really what I use my system for. The mids are brutal. For music I am running straight stereo, no subwoofer, and the impact is strong and true... actually physical when sitting a full 17 feet away in the listening position. That's right, you feel it hit. Very powerful and true. The cabinets are tuned low, 32Hz, and it is very easy to tell the units are very comfortable getting low. I only heard audible stress when I first fired them up and the suspension was tight as a snare drum. Now, I can't force this thing to stress. They are a very beautiful sounding set. The orchestral music in Gladiator, and LOTR displays so much depth and beauty with this set I cannot believe the differance. I really had no idea what I was missing. These things are actually embarasing the old speakers, and I am planning to build a new center, and surrounds just to keep up. Crossovers? Here is the schematic for you. I will comment more after a full break in, but untill then this will have to do.

They are my favorite set to date. Great for off axis installs. Unfortunately their size leads to installation difficulties.

OK, so I am more excited then everybody else about this, but hell, it is my current project. I have a few pics of the constructed cabinets. I added one next tto my TV for a demonstration of the speaker's size. They are 36 3/4 inches tall, and 9 inches wide, and 12 3/4" deep. All I have left to do is lay the second baffle on (I am doing a double baffel and flush mounting the driver/port). I included a pic of 1 of the baffels as I have veneered the baffels so the veneer is fully set when I cut out the circles. I don't want any flaking and splintering of the veneer, so I am attatching it, then adding the second baffel and cutting it. Anyways, I still need to add the eggcrate to the insides, so the wood visible through the port flare will not be visable. Also, this is just part of the port dropped in there for a visual, the actual port tube will be longer than what you are seeing now. Not too big really, a nice fit with the system overall I feel. Solid construction. Look at the braces. I have 3 internal braces in the units. A quick drop in fit so you get an idea of the final product. Here is the baffle covered in the veneer. The veneer is totally raw right now, the laquer will bring the grain out even better.

Well here are some pice. The first are the crossover components for 1 side (yes, there are 2 sets of these components). Here are the faces of the AV8 and the TM025F1 tweet (textile dome horn tweet) Here is a closeup of the tweeter, and 1 with my cell for comparison (I have a Motorola V60GI) And the nasty MASSIVE port tube. It is 3 inches ID, double flared, and currently over a foot long. Shiva AV8 motor compare... And lastly, the Shiva and the AV8 side by compare. Oh yeah, for those of you who care the link to all the cabinet pics is http://sound-foundations.us/HTcabinets/

Where ya been Stoney? Ain't seen you around my house for a while :thud:

Even in a ported app, that is not good. ported apps use a measured and specific air leak to time the inrush and outrush of air with the drivers momentum. The inrush of air occurs at the same time as the inward movement of the cone (untill we reach below tuning, and the inrush couples with the outward movement of the woofer, pushing it further than the actual signal does, hence unloading). This can up to DOUBLE the internal pressure of the enclosure and therefor make the little leak behave like an even bigger one. I can't tell you how many times a small leak in a ported box has driven people crazy. "A ported box doesn't need to be airtight" is the biggest and most common misconception out there.

Very good point 02 :boink: . Electrical sockets are not airtight and therefor create a leak in the enclosure.

Too much resistance in the connection. With 2 Tumults and a couple thousand watts it is of no issue, but for smaller output and power levels it will be a hinderance. Also, I would use multi strand wire, it is just more flexible. Also, it just looks thrown together, and cheap... unprofessional and unfinished. In light of your other outburst in the other thread I want to mention this is not a personal attack, just my personal opinion B)

The dual spider design similar to that has been tried. Unfortunately the difficulty in the motor design made the driver a short run. We need to allow for spider travel within the motor with this design. Now we are facing 3 additional points of failure (glue joint at the former, glue joint on the outside of the spider within the motor, and the extra spider), and the elimination of any possibility of a typical recone should failure occur. With the typical location of a spider we rarely see issues with lateral controll, unless a buildhouse error occured, even amoung extreme excursion drivers.

http://www.caraudio.com/vb/showthread.php?t=53706 - Steve http://acoustic-visions.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1453 I just don't see the need... I mean, I got a big den and a 100X7 reciever, with a 250 watt powered sealed Shiva and it is plenty (I have a few Brahmas and other Shivas of my own laying around, so it is not a matter of can't, it's just don't need to). The lone Shiva sealed gets very low and loud and sounds awesome. Why would you need all that subbass in the basement of an apartment? I assume SQ is not a goal .

In building my new HT mains, I wanted another major change, so I said to hell with it... I wanted a new reciever, so guess what? I pissed away a small fortune!!! Oooo, sexy!!! With a Rava, this is a huge unit. It is a Pioneer Elite VXS-45TX. Lemme tell you, this is a bad a$$ SOB. It weighs more than a Brahma, and I think it even sounds better . It is so deep and so tall I had to relocate the reciever to the top shelf of the rack. For more pics, look at the "elite45" labled pics Here. I know there are some pics of the HT cabinets and maybe some of the wood as well on that page, if you chose to look. But as stated, the pics that begin with "Elite45" are the reciever unit. Awesome unit that is so heavily featured it will take months to get through it all

The 53 is great, don't hesitate. But to be honest, your best bet is to look around for a 43 (last years 53). The differance between last years line and this years is almost nil. On the 45 and 55s the only differance was the 45 has a 5 band per channel equilizer (yes, you can adjust all 7 channels seperately) and the 55 has 7 bands. The differance in cost? $300. No need to wait, go out and buy it. I had Pioneer, Sony, Sony ES and Denon units... none of them even begin to compare with the features and amazingly smooth output of the Elites. I love their warmth... it is almost tube-like. I had a buddy come over today to hear it and he was blown away by how it ate up all my other units (I have been through them all in tthe last 4 years). He is going to get him a 43 or 53 this week. This is an amazing reciever. Anyways, at end of year the shops are trying to clear them out, so expect BIG savings if you can find a 43... maybe even look into the 45. I absolutely STOLE this unit... $700 for a $1400 reciever ain't bad... and yes it was NIB. I went there hoping for the 45, but expecting the 55, and over twice the price I paid. He has the 55s for $1500.

Thanks Dave, it has been added. Seth www.s-fs.com