Towers vs Bookshelf/subs

[cpp]

And as we age, we probably prefer lighter modular speakers, instead of 150-200 lbs behemoth.

I think as we age we do prefer lighter speakers since after ya reach 60 and have a back problem or a bad knee moving 60lb anything becomes a chore, not to mention the ears start going so hearing is impacted in the highs and at times the low's. Had to buy a freaking dolly to move my stuff around and told the wife, the next house we buy WILL NOT have an upstairs...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

BTW I took some photographs of my KEF & Kimber.

The KEF are atop the RBH SX-1010N (covered in black). Oh, yeah, my iPhone5 is there too.

 

[shadyJ]

Oh, good. But 18" behemoths don't have to weigh a ton.

My Funk 18.0 weighs about 60 lbs. I can actually pick it up to move it.

You can thank the Baltic Birch cabinet and Neodymium magnet for that. That is such a nice sub. Still, I am surprised it weighs only 60 lbs, are you sure about that?

 

[fuzz092888]

You can thank the Baltic Birch cabinet and Neodymium magnet for that. That is such a nice sub. Still, I am surprised it weighs only 60 lbs, are you sure about that?

Well the driver only weighs 30-35lbs, and at 22X22X20.5 it's not totally unrealistic that the cabinet could weigh 30lbs.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Well the driver only weighs 30-35lbs, and at 22X22X20.5 it's not totally unrealistic that the cabinet could weigh 30lbs.

And it's passive, there are no amps in ADTG's 18.0s either.

 

[fuzz092888]

And it's passive, there are no amps in ADTG's 18.0s either.

It's ADTG, I thought passive went without saying

 

[ImcLoud]

You realize that is basically the same picture a bunch of times, stop showing off and mail me a pair of them Kefs please... But before you do run the wire through the stand where it belongs...

 

[shadyJ]

It's ADTG, I thought passive went without saying

Yeah, those are better than the subs I used to have, which were passive-aggressive. They didn't make any sound when I was trying to use them and only made noise later on after I had turned everything off. They were real jerks.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It's ADTG, I thought passive went without saying

Damn straight.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

You can thank the Baltic Birch cabinet and Neodymium magnet for that. That is such a nice sub. Still, I am surprised it weighs only 60 lbs, are you sure about that?

Estimation. The SX-1010N weighs about 60 lbs, and the Funk feels about the same weight when I was moving them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

But before you do run the wire through the stand where it belongs...

The people who made those stands obviously don't know that audiophiles use bigger cables than 16 gauge because I don't see anything bigger coming out the bottom!

No way my 10 gauge Kimber would fit.

 

[ImcLoud]

that is why god made drills...

 

[macddmac]

that is why god made drills...

.. And Rubber grommets to give a fished appearance

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Someone asked if the bookshelf speakers would vibrate too much sitting on stands atop the subs.

Well, I've been listening to some super heavy duty mega bass energy music.

And while my seven samurai subs were shaking every bone in my body like a rag doll, there was not even the slightest diminutive quantum hint of vibration on the cabinets of my KEF bookshelf speakers.

In comparison, the midrange/tweeter cabinet areas of the Salon2 and Orion vibrated when the same mega bass music was playing.

The tweeter/midrange cabinet areas of the Phil3 & 802D2 barely vibrated as well - probably because the tweeter/midrange compartments were a bit more isolated from the bass cabinets.

 

[xyrium]

I really like where you're headed with this. I like an emphasis on bass in my music playback as well. This said, I'm using project/kit speakers for my system. They are a pair of sealed Zaph Audio ZRT sealed 2 ways and a pair of 2cu ft cabs with TC Sounds Epic 12" subs in them. The subs definitely cannot plumb the depths of the sea, but they do 40Hz with authority in my 22x15 room. Amplification is a Parasound A23 for the sats, and a Crest Audio CA6 for the subs.

Crossing subs over high can work in many systems. Just think of the crossover point of many popular 3 ways designs when they low pass their woofers. For example, the BW 800s low pass their woofer/subs at 350Hz. A sub with truly low inductance can perform that task rather well. Freeing up the magical midrange to swing with agility, and not compete with those high excursion frequencies, so to speak.

I use a dbx Driverack 260 for my speaker processing, and I bet that since your subs have some DSP built in, they are probably rocking the house at the higher frequencies if they are intended as such.

Edit: This said, I use an xover point of 96.4Hz on the sats and 81.1 on the subs with 24dB slopes. Toss in room interaction, and I get a fairly flat FR from this setup, about 4dB from 40Hz-10k or so...with PEQ.

I just dropped in Sting's "The Soul Cages" CD, and played "Why Should I Cry For You". Fantastic...

Keep experimenting, that's the great thing about this hobby!

Case to case for sure. Some people prefer more and some prefer less bass.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I really like where you're headed with this. I like an emphasis on bass in my music playback as well. This said, I'm using project/kit speakers for my system. They are a pair of sealed Zaph Audio ZRT sealed 2 ways and a pair of 2cu ft cabs with TC Sounds Epic 12" subs in them. The subs definitely cannot plumb the depths of the sea, but they do 40Hz with authority in my 22x15 room. Amplification is a Parasound A23 for the sats, and a Crest Audio CA6 for the subs.

Crossing subs over high can work in many systems. Just think of the crossover point of many popular 3 ways designs when they low pass their woofers. For example, the BW 800s low pass their woofer/subs at 350Hz. A sub with truly low inductance can perform that task rather well. Freeing up the magical midrange to swing with agility, and not compete with those high excursion frequencies, so to speak.

I use a dbx Driverack 260 for my speaker processing, and I bet that since your subs have some DSP built in, they are probably rocking the house at the higher frequencies if they are intended as such.

Edit: This said, I use an xover point of 96.4Hz on the sats and 81.1 on the subs with 24dB slopes. Toss in room interaction, and I get a fairly flat FR from this setup, about 4dB from 40Hz-10k or so...with PEQ.

I just dropped in Sting's "The Soul Cages" CD, and played "Why Should I Cry For You". Fantastic...

Keep experimenting, that's the great thing about this hobby!

The more I listen, the more I am convinced that the Sat + Sub system is the way to go.

I always tell people that the $50K/pr RBH 8T tower is really just a Sat-atop-Sub system.

I mean the Sat is 135 lbs & Sub is 175 lbs, but it's still a Sat + Sub system.

And we probably won't find a BETTER system than the 8T.

 

[Irvrobinson]

And we probably won't find a BETTER system than the 8T.

I'm not so convinced of that, because one lesson I learned in my room is that the placement of the sats and the placement of the subs might need to be different. The 8T connects them. I'm thrilled that Gene gets such awesome results from the 8Ts, but as I mentioned it's the disaggregation aspect of the sat-sub strategy that I find so compelling.

 

[gene]

I'm not so convinced of that, because one lesson I learned in my room is that the placement of the sats and the placement of the subs might need to be different. The 8T connects them. I'm thrilled that Gene gets such awesome results from the 8Ts, but as I mentioned it's the disaggregation aspect of the sat-sub strategy that I find so compelling.

Ordinarily I would agree but the 8Ts load bass into a room unlike any other speaker I've ever experienced. I wouldn't trade the 8Ts setup as a fullrange system for 8T Satellites with 2 or 4 of its bass modules properly placed in the room for anything but maybe home theater. The way the bass integrates with the satellite speaker is seamless and almost impossible to do with a separated sub/sat system. Has to be heard to really understand.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm not so convinced of that, because one lesson I learned in my room is that the placement of the sats and the placement of the subs might need to be different. The 8T connects them. I'm thrilled that Gene gets such awesome results from the 8Ts, but as I mentioned it's the disaggregation aspect of the sat-sub strategy that I find so compelling.

I agree that bass is better when we place the subs at optimal locations apart from the Sat. But when you also have multiple subs, it isn't as critical. The bass from the sub under the sat is still better than the bass from the tower.

 

[exlabdriver]

ADTG:

I couldn't agree more. After much experimenting over the past couple of decades, that is the conclusion that I've come up with.

Each to his own though...

TAM