Monoprice Monolith Sealed Subwoofer Line Preview

[William Lemmerhirt]

I haven’t talked to any speaker designer, nor have I seen a reference in any speaker design book that would agree with your assertion. In general, ported boxes of any kind will require more In materials to build, thus also being heavier in shipping... and costing more. Also the design process is complicated by the addition of a port, where proper tuning of the port itself becomes more important than just adjusting for box volume at the system Q you want to operate at.
Yes, you can change parameters in a CAD program and may stumble on something that could look good in the modeling stage, and may perform well with little added fuss once built.
I would argue that is not design.

Basically all true.

 

[ryanosaur]

The closed box is the simplest of all loudspeaker designs...

Because of its highly controllable response shape, and transient characteristics, and because of the relative ease of achieving correct box parameters, the closed box design is probably the best for home construction, especially if you are a beginner.

...On the downside, vented enclosures are much more sensitive to misaligned parameters.This factor makes the vented-box loudspeakers somewhat more difficult for the inexperienced builder.

Vance Dickason, Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, 7th Edition

A closed box is the simplest speaker enclosure you can make, both in principle and in construction. One of its greatest virtues is that it forgives minor mistakes in box design. There is just one significant design problem to solve: what cubic volume is appropriate for the speaker?

David B Weems, Designing, Building, and Testing your Own Speaker System With Projects, 4th Edition

 

[dougdabbs]

Has anyone heard or has any experience with the Monolith Sealed M12-S sub yet? I’m very interested to see how this sealed version compares to its ported counterpart, the M12. I would really love to get the M12, but the thing is a beast in size and weight. If not, how do you think its measurements compare to the M12 or the M10? The graphs are on the Monoprice site now. Thanks!

 

[Filipe]

Has any of the sealed subs been released? Haven't found them anywhere and seeing that this thread is from 2019 I'm wondering what happened.

 

[ryanosaur]

They did release them.
I don't think they sold well.
They are gone.
#poof



Moral of the story: just buy a well designed Ported Sub like the regular Monoliths currently available and enjoy!

 

[Filipe]

Guess that review never happened then. Bummer.. I have a small living room and a smaller sealed sub would be a better fit. Was curious about how these would perform (was thinking something inline of a SB1000 Pro).

(p.s. sry for digging up an old thread)

 

[ryanosaur]

Guess that review never happened then. Bummer.. I have a small living room and a smaller sealed sub would be a better fit. Was curious about how these would perform (was thinking something inline of a SB1000 Pro).

(p.s. sry for digging up an old thread)

What is the open room volume you are talking about? Not just your listening space, but the whole space the Sub would be in?

You in a House, Apartment? Shared walls/close neighbors?

Primary usage for Music or HT?

 

[Filipe]

What is the open room volume you are talking about? Not just your listening space, but the whole space the Sub would be in?

You in a House, Apartment? Shared walls/close neighbors?

Primary usage for Music or HT?

Open volume should be about 250sqft. Distance from opposing walls (front/back) is about 10ft. It's an apartment with neighbours above, below and next door (but no shared walls). Walls are brick and mortar. Floor and ceiling are concrete slabs.

Usage is 50/50 music and movies. For equipment at the moment I have a Yamaha RX-V6A feeding Klipsch RP5000F towers, RP500C center, RP160M for back surrounds and RP500SA for height (Atmos).

I don't go very high on volume so output isn't much of an issue. But I'd like to have good extension on the low frequencies. Budget would be about 700EUR (above that would get me in trouble with the wife ). I live in Europe and can't really get the best prices on American speakers like SVS (I was lucky to find a promo on Klipsch). Some brands I can't even find here (like RSL). Monoprice has an EU website with free shipping (to my surprise) so I got excited about the idea of a smaller sealed sub from them.

 

[ryanosaur]

In Europe, look at XTZ and BK Elec (UK), too. Possibly Arendal.

Unless you need really low extension, maybe the monolith 10” is good, or SB 1000 or 2000 (don't know their pricing to you).

Don't be afraid of a small ported, though.

Main thing is to make certain you get what you want to do the job you have in mind. If you like Pipe Organ and want that low C you need 16Hz extension, if you want the rumble of movie LFE, 20-18Hz... If you just want to fill in below your mains, 20-23 Hz is probably good.
Even though there is not a lot of content down that low, it does exist, and knowing your expectations is important to get to where you are happy.

 

[Filipe]

I was considering the mono 10". The v1 was at a good price but it's gone now.. But 20.9" x 15.0" x 18.9" (530 x 380 x 480 mm) is still big for the WAF. The SB-1000 Pro with 342 x 330 x 375 mm is way more manageable. Just waiting on a good deal.. I'm not familiar with XTZ or BK Elec, will look into that. Unfortunately Arendal is a bit out of my pocket .

Still about the sealed monos, what happened? Where they bad? Too big? Can't really see why they wouldn't sell comparing to SVS's subs. Any actual review out there? Just curious.

 

[shadyJ]

I was considering the mono 10". The v1 was at a good price but it's gone now.. But 20.9" x 15.0" x 18.9" (530 x 380 x 480 mm) is still big for the WAF. The SB-1000 Pro with 342 x 330 x 375 mm is way more manageable. Just waiting on a good deal.. I'm not familiar with XTZ or BK Elec, will look into that. Unfortunately Arendal is a bit out of my pocket .

Still about the sealed monos, what happened? Where they bad? Too big? Can't really see why they wouldn't sell comparing to SVS's subs. Any actual review out there? Just curious.

They were discontinued because buyers overwhelmingly preferred the ported subs, so it didn't make sense for them to have an entire other line in inventory.

 

[ryanosaur]

Still about the sealed monos, what happened?

Sealed Subs really only win in the size category. They can have great output in the MidBass region, but they roll off early and thus aren't great for deeper bass. With the right Driver and DSP profile, they can be made to output lower, but then require GOBS of power to push that woofer beyond what the box is really tuned for.
For a larger box in a ported build, you get more efficient deeper bass. It rolls off faster than sealed...
But the performance aspects outweigh pretty much everything else.

Except for size.