Table Tuba

[BANNINGR]

About 6 months ago I purchased a copy of Audio Express that had an article about the table tuba in it. At that time I had an old, cheap pair of 8" woofers stored in my basement (Airborne-sold by Solen in the late 80's), and plenty of wood in the garage to build one, so I thought "why not?", and built one over the weekend. I had built a "Wicked One" bass horn years ago, and was VERY dissapointed, but I had the materials, and decided to give it another shot. Fired it up for the first time that Sunday evening, and it sounded pretty good. Nothing that seemed to defy the laws of nature, but louder and lower than an 8 should be.
As luck would have it, I was at the PE web site over Thanksgiving weekend putting together an order for crossovers and some misc. parts to finish another project, and saw the Tang Band W8-740c was on sale. Since I seem to have a low tolorance for temptation, and a nearly boundless capacity to rationalize the purchase of audio stuff, especially speakers, I was soon the proud owner of a pair.
Last night I pulled the old woofer out, and compared bolt patterns. Amazing, a perfect match. My wife and daughters had gone to the beauty shop, so I had the house to myself for some real testing. I toyed with the crossover and level adjustments for a few minutes, and decided to see what this thing could do. What I heard was amazing. Had I not built this thing myself, I would never have believed that was a single 8. Substantially louder and deeper than the closed box 15 I had been running. I was upstairs at the opposite end of the house from the garage, and could create substantial rattles in the overhead doors.
I already own 4 Eminance 12's that I had planned to use in the home theater I am building in the basement. I can't believe I am saying this, but I am scrapping that idea in favor of a pair of TT's. 2 8's to replace 4 12's??? Statements like that could really damage a mans reputation, but those 2 8's with 100watts each will destroy 4 12 direct radiators. And not only are they loud and low, but also very clean. None of that one note thump, or unmusical slop so many seem to think is good bass. Count me among the true believers.

Ryan