TAT Review and pictures

[Doug Hart]

My amp came in today, so I got the TAT installed in my work van.
Had to build it 13" wide to fit between the seats. In hindsight, I think I could have gone 14" and squeezed it in there. Oh well.

Front

TAT1_small.jpg (36.25 KiB) Viewed 1898 times

Driver Chamber

TAT2_small.jpg (33.45 KiB) Viewed 1898 times

Back

TAT3_small.jpg (39.28 KiB) Viewed 1898 times

Installed in the Van

TAT4_small.jpg (23.13 KiB) Viewed 1898 times

Closeup of driver chamber. Lit by 12 blue LEDs

TAT5_small.jpg (20.59 KiB) Viewed 1898 times

So how does it sound?
I'm running 150 watts to it. Crossed over at about 60 hz. I'm not sure what slope the crossover is, but I'm betting it's only 6db. I just set it 'till it sounded right. The amp has a bass boost, but it is turned off. Bass setting on the head unit is at "0".
I made a mix CD of: Hip Hop, R&B, Jazz, Rap, Rock, Pop, Disco, etc...
Keeping in mind, it's a full size Van, so there is a lot of cabin space to fill.
On the Rap/Hip Hop/Techno stuff... I have to turn the bass down. Luckily, I got an amp with a remote. This thing puts out so much bass, I can barely hear the full range speakers. Plus, it makes my eyes go kinda blurry. Unbelievable !!!
On the rock, pop and disco stuff, the bass is very tight and punchy. It definitely hits you in the chest.
On the way home this evening, I took the long way so I could listen some more.
It's so smooth !!! Every note is defined. Not just boom, but actual notes. OF course, having used the T48's in a live band, I wasn't surprised by this fact.

I can't believe this much bass is coming from an 8" speaker. I showed it to a few people and they were extremely impressed. One of them kept asking where the other speakers were.

I've had several car audio systems over the years and I would compare the output to a couple of 10's with 1200 watts or so. However... the TAT sounds so much better that it really can't be compared.

Bill, you are truly an audio genius.
I can't wait to get started on the OT12's and T39's.

Doug Hart, Co-Owner
dB Pro Audio - Authorized Builder
Yale, Ok

[Doug Hart]

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how much power I was actually putting into the TAT.
I turned it up to where I thought I was driving it pretty hard. Louder than is comfortable to listen to. Playing some stupid crazy bass through it from a test CD that I have.
I put the volt meter, set on AC, across the speaker leads at the amp.
I watched it for a while and the highest I saw it go was 5 volts.
Did I do this right? I understand the MCM will handle around 22v.
If what I heard was 5 volts, I don't even WANT to hear 22v.

I'm learning... but I don't know much about watts & volts yet.
Anyone?

[gilscales]

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how much power I was actually putting into the TAT.
I turned it up to where I thought I was driving it pretty hard. Louder than is comfortable to listen to. Playing some stupid crazy bass through it from a test CD that I have.
I put the volt meter, set on AC, across the speaker leads at the amp.
I watched it for a while and the highest I saw it go was 5 volts.
Did I do this right? I understand the MCM will handle around 22v.
If what I heard was 5 volts, I don't even WANT to hear 22v.

I'm learning... but I don't know much about watts & volts yet.
Anyone?

http://www.csgnetwork.com/ohmslaw2.html This is a link to a calculator you can use to do the conversion, under the heading "calculate watts" enter the voltage and the resistance to get wattage, in your case voltage is 5v and the resistance (or impedance measured in ohms) is 4 so the wattage is only 6.25, blows your mind huh? all that from a little over 6 watts!

[Sydney]

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how much power I was actually putting into the TAT.... Playing some stupid crazy bass through it from a test CD that I have.
I put the volt meter, set on AC, across the speaker leads at the amp.
I watched it for a while and the highest I saw it go was 5 volts.

What the meter shows you is being averaged by the meter action.
Peaks occur too quickly so they are averaged in much like average mile per gal.
( Unless you listen to Sine Wave Symphonies, music has more dynamic range. )

Syd

[Rickisan]

Syd,

Just wanted to say thanks for the input lately. Always nice to hear from you. Especially liked the Tweeter testing with the plumbing post. I saved it off on the other computer now cant remember the guys name (starts with a Q). Much appreciated...

Cheers!

[Sydney]

Thanks...
It's a stalling tactic...
It's real almost summer hot and I'm putting off working out in it.
The untested tweeter tester idea came to me when the difficulty of determining the polarity of tweeters came up.
With the short wavelengths above 1Khz; the spacing between tweeters becomes important.
Ex. a 2Khz wavelength is about 6.75" ( 17cm ) so a separation of half that distance would place the DUTs in a spatial cancel and reverse the test.
Sine waves would be easier to discriminate,
I figured that to set 2 identically resonant tubes next to each other would accentuate the comparison so to speak.
Anyway shouldn't cost much other than plumbing/tubing odds and ends.
Syd

[Doug Hart]

6 watts... amazing !!!

I'm going to check it again with a sine wave and see what it says.
What frequencies would you recommend checking it?

[gilscales]

I built a T18 with the tang band 8" and used true rta with a 49hz sine wave http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DF3lYm7g-4