Review of my Black Fiday X12's

[s_carter 5]

Once again you guys at fi have raised the bar with this lineup.

I have been running one of the two subs I got so far, on my Soundstream RUB2500.1, at 8 ohm, for about 500 watts RMS to it. I will be building a new enclosure at 3.5 for the pair, tuned to 30 hertz soon.

I first ran it in an optimal (0.707) sealed box, at 1.25 cubes, and let me say, it sounded excellent! I'm not a huge fan of sealed subs, but this had me wondering if I left my 18's wired up on accident! Digs plenty low, and sounds excellent doing it. A lot more output than I was expecting for a single sealed sub... Even on oldies and stuff with really light basslines, sounds clean and clear at any volume.

Now, I have converted the box to a ported design and went with external ports, to keep the overall volume of the enclosure the same. Still at 1.25, tuned to 26 hertz, this sub gets even louder, cleaner and harder hitting. Just tons of room filling, window rattling bass. I love it! Once again, whether its classical music or a bass heavy techno song, or the most demanding action movie, the bass stay clean and clear as can be!

I would really like to see what it can do with a bit more airspace still, but even in both sealed and a super small and low tuned enclosure, it sounds excellent! I will add some more to the review as I play around with them a bit more!

Thanks again, guys, and I hope you have a safe and warm Christmas!

Sam

Edited December 17, 2010 by The SSD Madman

[rich00 4]

Damn cant wait to get my new sub new X 10". Thanks for review of this ive been looking for one.

[bcst86 5]

i wish i got some of these during the black FIday

[todd.brust 29]

Are those 18"s in an IB configuration?!?! Because if they are, that'd be awesome.

[s_carter 5]

Nope they are in a pretty regular ported box, of my own design. The build link can be found HERE!

[Bob345 39]

Those x's are awsome. I helped my friend install his fiday x 10" in his truck. The thing has amazing output in the lower frequencies!

[s_carter 5]

i have noticed that as well, and they dont need a huge box to do so, too!

[s_carter 5]

So, continuing with my review of the X 12's- Got the new box built for them, and have been listening to them for about a day now....

Box is a common chamber @ 3.5 cubes, tuned to 28 hertz with 32 inches of port area...

They get quite loud, but I am running them at 1 ohm on my Rubicon for about 2500 RMS to them, and anything can get loud at that power level... I wouldn't recommend putting this much power to them, but I have it setup this way so I can get an accurate judgement on the speakers themselves- and not be limited by a questionable amp- Headroom is your friend when it comes to power. Just don't push them beyond their limits. You should be able to hear when this happens, before they go up in smoke or flames... But don't blame me if you roast your new subs because you tried to run a few thousand watts to them. Onto my initial impressions...

These have a distinct advantage over my twins in the "upper bass" department, where the twins struggle to keep up with anything over 50 hertz or so, these subs really shine at those frequencies.

The low notes are clean and defined, but not overpowering at all, but these subs still move enough air to rattle my neighbors windows with ease if I turn them up.

Music like metal that has quick drumkicks are tight and detailed with little group delay or distortion.

Once again, music with light bass lines are very detailed and easy to discern.

I will add more in as I get to play with them some more!

I am also going to build a low tuned box, at around 15-20 hertz and see what they are capable of for HT use- it seems there is a few people asking about this.

Merry Christmas, and I hope everyone has a great New Years!

Sam

Edited December 29, 2010 by The SSD Madman

[emh9009 199]

i wish i got some of these during the black FIday

They're still available until they sell out of them.

https://ssl.perfora.net/www.ficaraudio.com/sess/utn;jsessionid=154d1b7fdf8beca/shopdata/0050_Speakers/0005_Black+FiDay/product_overview.shopscript

[bimmerboy 3]

great review! How would you say they are handling all that power? I assume its 2500 total, so that would be around 1250w to each driver correct?

kinda funny how you classify >50hz midbass

waiting for your new HT box review on these

[Bob345 39]

How do those x's handle that power? 1200 watts Is just a bit over 300

[s_carter 5]

Yep, my Rubicon is rated 2500 RMS at 1 ohm, so each is seeing about half that. I haven't pushed them very hard so far, I don't know how well they can handle this much power, thermally, I could easily delaminate a coil or desolder a tinsel lead with this much power on tap, and mechanically, I could easily smash my coils into a million pieces, or rip the spider clean off the basket... So I have to be careful not to get too knob happy.... Like I said earlier, I wouldn't recommend it, simply because you will never need to use that much power to get these subs really moving.

I guess it isn't really midbass, but it certainly isn't super low stuff either. I guess I will call it upper bass frequencies?

It will take me some time to build this next box, I have a ton of enclosures lined up for customers, so the paid jobs take priority! But it will happen eventually.

Edited December 29, 2010 by The SSD Madman

[s_carter 5]

Not really on topic, but here is a video of them playing "The Bass Will Destroy You" for shits an giggles.

[Shogen 325]

nice write up.... nice bumpin'!

[s_carter 5]

So, I was a bit leery about running these babies at 1 ohm, I could hear them breaking up when I was cranking it a bit, so I rewired them for a 4 ohm load on my amp, which is about 1000 RMS and they love it now. These woofers play very well into the full range frequencies, and this seems to be bringing out some of my boxes' resonances. Other than that, I love them! Uber bumpage for less than 200 bucks? I'm totally there dude!!!

[Cy-Gor 0]

I got a couple of these for my home theater, been messing around with them in WinISD and the look pretty promising. tuned to 20hz with 6 cuft gets them pretty flat. though doing a LLT with them might be worth looking into.

Drivers are on their way so i havent had a chance to test them out yet.

[kirill007 52]

How do you power the amp?

[s_carter 5]

I use a high amperage power converter and a battery bank in line with the amp, exact same thing you would see in a car audio shops display, if you ever got to see that part of the store... No crappy computer power supplies wired together and sketchy wiring here.... Not when I am pulling 3600 watts, I dont want to see anything catch fire.

[kirill007 52]

I've seen that, but none of them could power a lot of power.(more then 1000W.)

Can't see no 3600 watts out of that amp, especially not with that power supply.

No way you get 3600watts out of that amp with 250 amps forth of fusing.

250*14.4=3600W.

But it has about 70-75 % efficiency, so that 2700 at max before blowing fuses, and i don't think the you have 14V batteries and a 16V charger.

I'm sorry if i dissapoint u.

(I just have never seen a car amp powered correctly in house, and you can't do it without having a higher cost then using a dedicated home amplifier.)

[NDMstang65 403]

I use a high amperage power converter and a battery bank in line with the amp, exact same thing you would see in a car audio shops display, if you ever got to see that part of the store... No crappy computer power supplies wired together and sketchy wiring here.... Not when I am pulling 3600 watts, I dont want to see anything catch fire.

Why not pickup one of the europower 4000's?

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=europower+4000&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=13813361865686884331&ei=9tUdTdOGK4Sq8AbvpKWdDg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CEkQ8wIwCA#

..It would be better then breathing gas fumes from the batteries

[s_carter 5]

They are sealed batteries, so I dont have to worry about the fumes.... As for the Europower, The EP4000 is simply a re badged EP2500, and is only good for about 1950 watts continuous, according to my friend over at AVS forum who has done some extensive bench testing of just about every sub amp you can imagine, as far as home and pro audio amps go. If he hasn't tested it, he can at your request. Cool guys over there. But more simply, the biggest reason why I haven't bought one, was because I am trying to save up some money to get my license back, and I would rather put money towards it, than an amp at this point. Not being able to drive is really hurting my business right now, as things are very busy! But all this is a moot point to you guys, no?

The X12's will most likely be getting sold to a friend, who will be looking for something for a new vehicle soon. He came over to demo them yesterday, and likes them very much... Its sad to see them go, but I simply have too many speakers and gear already.

[dorian01 0]

your avatar picture reminds me of charlie from always sunny in Philadelphia

[ssh 924]

your avatar picture reminds me of charlie from always sunny in Philadelphia

HAHA, backhanded compliment?

[tommyjiggallow 0]

I recommended these to a friend of mine a few months ago during the black friday. The price was a steal. He loves them.