CA&E 10 best subs

[dleccord 5,000+ posts]

maybe they thought subs that has "MAX" on it is overrated?

 

[Remotia 10+ year member]

That 12" critical mass driver in detail:

Subwoofer Size: 12”

RMS Power handling: 2500 Watts (undistorted power)

Peak Power handling: 5000 Watts

Recommended Box Volume: 1.2 cuft. (Sealed)

Weight: 16.6 lbs

Motor Type: Dual Gap / Internal NEO Magnet

Voice Coil Type: Ultra-High Temp Dual Coil (Made in the USA)

Voice Coil Diameter: 3”

Voice Coil Impedance: 1.5 ohm nominal per coil

Xmax (one-way linear excursion): 36 mm (3” peak-to-peak)

Maximum Excursion (one way): 46 mm (Almost 4” peak-to-peak)

Sensitivity: 96.7 db (2.83V / 1m) (coils in parallel)

Fs (Klipple-LSI): 31 Hz

Qts (Klipple-LSI): 0.81

Vas (Klipple-LSI): 47.7 Liters

I saw the Bl curve and it’s respectable but not "linear" per say up to 36mm, it a typical 70% Bl around that number, not bad at all, but does that little 7” suspension even permit that kind of excursion? My doubts are in full effect. I have never seen an 8” spider pull past 3” p2p even with large roles with a very linear compliance past that point. Smaller 7” with give you great alignment, but there is no way it will hit 4”p2p without something breaking unless I’m missing something?

Dual gap design helps Bl linearity, but that high Q and a Vas of 50l tells me its very under motored even for neo and this driver will not work well in a ported box and my intuition is that 1.2 cubic feet sealed is far too small

The typical Enhanced Q alignment reveals 1.5 cubic feet and the Butterworth (deeper bass) yields a box size that is 29.7 cubic feet and I could not even get the Bessel to work. (these are all sealed boxes btw) There is no right or wrong box, but forget about deep bass with this driver in a small sealed box because its undermotored, low Bl and high Q. A compromise for the linear Bl if you will.

I used my pieced together T/S parameters below, they may be wrong, but are probably pretty close to the real deal because the Vas, Q and Fs and DCR are listed, we can reverse calculate the Bl product at a whopping 11 Tm. This is about on spec for a linear(esq.) motor such as this dual gap design.

Sensitivity: 96.7 db (2.83V / 1m) (coils in parallel) is actually ~10.6 watts.

Real SPL is closer to 84 dB.. Right on par with most modest 12" size subs and bested by a lot of high end drivers: Again $2000!?

Lastly, a 3" 4-layer underhung coil is not going to come anywhere close to 2500 watts true RMS. 500-600 true sustained RMS is probably closer, but I need to know the winding height first, but under hung wont be very high. Most high thermal overhung 3” coils should outgun it for power handling.

My best guess for piecing back together the T/S based on that info up there are this:

Sd 0.049 m^2 (close guess)

Bl 11Tm (reverse calculated based on Q and vas and the DCR)

Cms 139 (quoted)

Vas 47 (reverse calculated based on vas and Sd)

Mms 182 (reverse calculated based on vas and fs)

Fs 31 (quoted)

Qms 10 (total guess, this doest matter too much)

Qts (0.88) (reverse calculated based on Qms guess and Qts)

Qes(0.81) (quoted)

Revc (3 ohms) (quoted)

SPL @ 1 watt 84.1dB

This is not terribly impressive for this price ladies and gents. Granted the guy who reviewed it liked it, I’m sure the sticker price swayed some of that review as it always tends to do, but I’m sure that dual gap with the more than average linear Bl made it sound good above all those non-linear designs he tested it against. Many of those drivers should never have been compared to one another. This is a good example of why linear Bl is very important and we also strive for that, but beyond that, I’m clueless why its 2k.

Now time for the credit:

They used a Klippel analyzer, That is very a very respectable way to measure the driver…

Now time for my gripe:

WHERE IS THE KLIPPEL REPORT!??

I have rarely agreed with audio reviews, but at least we have em!

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

16lbs though, thats alot safter.

A Saftey sub

 

[ga12r 10+ year member]

Incase some of you never saw it, here is the top 10 subs for the year tested.
1. Critical Mass UL12 score of 91 $1,999

2. Alpine SWX-1242D 88 $449

3. Cerwin-Vega Stroker Pro 15 88 $1,699

4. PG RSD12 88 $169!!!

5. Earthquake Subzero-12 82 $449

6. Xtant X2.1044 81 $449

7. RF P212S4 79 $159

8. JL Audio 10W6v2-D$ 65 $400

9. RF T210D4 65 $650

10. Image Dynamics IDMax 10D4 V.4 64 $399

tie Digital Designs 3510d 64 $400

What is really crazy is in the magazine there is a * by the JL 10W6, IDMAX10 and DD 3510. If you read the fine print it says they were ranked on a 80 point scale, the other subs were ranked on a 100 point scale. So why the nuts did they even include them in the list ? It is very misleading, those subs should have scored higher.

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

The w6v2 is an awsome driver though, IMO, better than the w7 because it doesnt have the "wooshy". May not me as loud but they have awsome SQ and are reletively loud. If price was better I would run a pair. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[vetkilr 10+ year member]

I love W3's

And I got my wife one yesterday............muhahahaha

 

[IrTehL33T@DBeez 10+ year member]

Incase some of you never saw it, here is the top 10 subs for the year tested.
1. Critical Mass UL12 score of 91 $1,999

2. Alpine SWX-1242D 88 $449

3. Cerwin-Vega Stroker Pro 15 88 $1,699

4. PG RSD12 88 $169!!!

5. Earthquake Subzero-12 82 $449

6. Xtant X2.1044 81 $449

7. RF P212S4 79 $159

8. JL Audio 10W6v2-D$ 65 $400

9. RF T210D4 65 $650

10. Image Dynamics IDMax 10D4 V.4 64 $399

tie Digital Designs 3510d 64 $400

i like how you got the 2 grand critcal mass, 1700 buck stroker and then everything else is a third of the price. i realize that the best is the best or whatever, but personally i think i would take 4 of the 2nd place over 1 of the 1st place in virtually any item being ranked.

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

I think it's time for a petition and our own list of the 10 best subs of 2006. Bigbassman, you up to the challenge? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

I love W3's
And I got my wife one yesterday............muhahahaha

I dont care for them. W3 or W3v2. SQ is lacking, good street beater I geuss, just not for the money. W3v3 was sapposed to have fixed the SQ issue people where having though. I dont know, I havent heard a v3

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

The w6v2 is an awsome driver though, IMO, better than the w7 because it doesnt have the "wooshy". May not me as loud but they have awsome SQ and are reletively loud. If price was better I would run a pair. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

the w6v2 is in my top 3 for favorites. they sound great.

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

I dont care for them. W3 or W3v2. SQ is lacking, good street beater I geuss, just not for the money. W3v3 was sapposed to have fixed the SQ issue people where having though. I dont know, I havent heard a v3

the w3 was a good woofer, w3v2 ***** beyond belief, and i have yet to hear a v3, although i might go take a listen today, the dealer is on the way to a place i have to go.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

http://www.audiogroupforum.com/csforum/showthread.php?t=61667

45 pages of arguing about whether or not that CM is the "best" sub out right now.

I've "heard" good things about their LS series of subwoofers. Based on the Illusion Audio inverted magnet design....

CM is also the maker of the $259,000 electrostat setup (not a typo).

Anyways.....imperical data from magazines I enjoy. Opinion based (add an "i" before the "a" in that word) information....not so much.

 

[ilvwhtgrls 10+ year member]

t2? hhahahaha

 

[Towncar 10+ year member]

http://www.soundbuggy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3985

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

Thought Nousaine spoke higher of the W6v2 than that //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

RF, Alpine and Earthquake must have been expanding their advertising...