Eighteen Sound vs Eminence

[Bryan Cox]

I'm in the middle of a build where I'm using Eminence 3012LF drivers exclusively. Before I began I tossed around the Lab 12 but then realized there's no a lot of positive gain there considering the resistance difference. But what about the Eighteen Sound 12NLW9300? I read quite a bit about these drivers and reviewed the T/S specs but can't really figure out what the difference would be, output-wise. To be totally honest, I'm not entirely sure it'd be worth it considering it takes about double the power to drive these. But I'm curious. If I had X cabinet and swapped the 3012LF for the 12NLW9300, what would be the positive gain?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Aside from greater thermal power handling, which does not result in higher output as xmax is similar, there's no advantage to the 18Sound.

[Grant Bunter]

There is a chart in the SPL charts section showing both the 18sound and the 3012lf in the same 20" wide cab.
That's, at best, maybe a couple of dB, at some frequencies, for the 18sound.
Penalty is cost for the privilege, check out 18sound pricing.

What would gain you more output in T39's would be going wider than 20".
Check out the 30" wide cab chart compared to the 20" chart. Output is up by 4-6dB in the all important kick drum region (50-70Hz) of response.
And that would cost you about half a sheet of extra ply, but more pack space...

[Bryan Cox]

You guys reinforced exactly what I was thinking. Thanks for the info, gents.