AE AV15-X or DC Audio LevelFour 15", For Sealed SQ?

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

I liked my AE AV.. as long as you don't driver it out of its linear range its fine.. they will require a very small low tuned box.. around 2.5 tuned no higher than 30hz.. i had mine in 3.2 tuned to 31 and its was horribly peaky..

they will take 1500 if your very careful..

last time i used the AV after about 28mm the surround and spider got very soft.. but if you say within the suggested guild-lines the AE is probably top 5 nicest sounding woofers you can buy right now..

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

I liked my AE AV.. as long as you don't driver it out of its linear range its fine.. they will require a very small low tuned box.. around 2.5 tuned no higher than 30hz.. i had mine in 3.2 tuned to 31 and its was horribly peaky..they will take 1500 if your very careful..

last time i used the AV after about 28mm the surround and spider got very soft.. but if you say within the suggested guild-lines the AE is probably top 5 nicest sounding woofers you can buy right now..

All true info. Only thing I can't vouch for is the surround and spider getting soft. I've never overdriven mine mechanically as I use them in an alignment that makes sense in a car, like you said small ported box lol. Xmech is only 30mm so 28 would be pushing the limits of it, especially since xmax is only 23mm. Other than that though they have great frequency response for a car in a small boxed tuned low, the low q lowish fs combo makes for basically sealed box type of sound, but with more presence on the low end and alot less distortion.

 

[Papermaker85 5,000+ posts]

that is somewhat hte basis of the drivers im working on.. the most prominent forms of distortion are from the spiders, power compression and the cones at high volume.. its hard to tell when the driver approaches xmax as is the current measurement simply because 99% of the time power compression ruins it anyways..

this is why the current trend of soft progressive roll spiders and low Q alignment are popular..

 

[AQHDC3 10+ year member]

Have you looked into a FI Q? They sound great sealed.

 

[stangman67 10+ year member]

The AE is a good woofer but the box needs to be very precise. I know two good friends who had them. the first friend could not get the sub to play in the 70-100hz worth a crap. It killed the lows (in the box suggested by the owner) but the higher frequencies were non existent. The second friend had spider issues IIRC.

With that being said, the AE can sound great, you just need to design and build your box well.

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

x2 on small box tuned low. I've found that some of my favorite setups were with that kind of box.

 

[SmoothSQ 10+ year member]

The AV will be MUCH better for what you want. Both woofers are actually better on paper in ported boxes.

Yeah, several people seem to be trying to steer me in the direction of a ported box for the AV15-X, even though I said I'm going sealed. lol.

The 15-X is the only AV model that didn't have an unacceptable F3 in a sealed enclosure. The F3 looks to be about 46 - 47hz in the sealed box I have in mind for it.

That's pretty decent. I had some Infinity 12's that had an F3 of about 36hz and the low-end was terribly exaggerated in-car. So mid-40's should be cool.

Ya know... Initially I was going to go with a Diamond d615, dual 4 ohm. It's definitely a sealed box subwoofer. But a guy told me that high-Q subs don't have the motor strength to play up to around 70-75hz with any authority. I don't want that.

I had an ED 16oV.2 (even though it's not a high-Q sub) that was like that. It was useless after about 57hz. I don't want that to happen again.

So yeah, I'm likely going to go with the AV15-X, and use it sealed -- even though it might be a better performer ported.

 

[ThatChevyGuy 5,000+ posts]

wow you dont like lows? weirdo

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

wow you dont like lows? weirdo

Haha, they're not for everyone. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[SmoothSQ 10+ year member]

wow you dont like lows? weirdo

LOL. Well, after having TOO MUCH low-end response and not enough mid-band sub frequency response, I'd much rather have a happy medium

An F3 in the mid-40s might do the trick //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

I personally like my f3 to be in the mid-upper 20's.

 

[SmoothSQ 10+ year member]

I personally like my f3 to be in the mid-upper 20's.

****, lol. That HAS to be a ported F3.

The Diamond D615 dual 4, that I was initially going to buy, has a sealed box F3 of about 40hz. I just worried that the output would wane significantly around 70hz. Because I was told high-Q subs, like the Diamond, don't have enough motor strength to play strong in the sub frequency mid-band.

I don't know if that's true, but I don't want to spend $250 and find out the hard way. lol.

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

upper end bass is all about effeciency. This is where your 1 watt/meter number actually comees into play as excursion isnt' an issue at 80hz. Higher BL does lead to a higher effeciency all things equal so there is some truth to that statement.