BFM {24 inch wide} T48 vs EAW SB 1000z

[tribal king]

Good evening guys, it's been a while . Hope all is well with all of you.
Well as the header says, has anyone done a comparison of the two?

[Seth]

Welcome back. How have you been?

How exactly would you like to compare them? Price tag?

For $4500 (us) you could have one SB1000Z or a stack of 8 T48's with cash to spare.

[Seth]

The calculated long term maximum output SLP of 132dB requires 2000 watts for the SB1000Z. That's based on an Average Sensitivity of 99dB.

Two 3015LF loaded 36" (I don't have the data for 24" T48's in the spreadsheet I created) v-plated T48's have a calculated maximum long term output of 137.6dB and would only require 1200 watts to achieve. But, that's not based on average sensitivity, which would result in a few dB more than the 40hz sensitivity figures I prefer to use. I couldn't find a response chart for the EAW to use their 40hz figure.

EAW knows their stuff and there's nothing wrong with the SB 1000Z. It's just not a very good model to compare. It's a fairly compact ported/bass reflex touring sub, primarily designed to be compact at the cost of sensitivity. Where the T48 is a large horn, primarily designed to be highly sensitive at the cost of size. A better comparison would be their BH822e.

[tribal king]

Welcome back. How have you been?

How exactly would you like to compare them? Price tag?

For $4500 (us) you could have one SB1000Z or a stack of 8 T48's with cash to spare.

Well I own a pair of T48s (JBL 2226h loaded) and recently a friend asked me to build (yes I can build cabinets) 10 SB1000z's for his sound system and I was wondering how they compare sound quality, impact and overall output-wise.

Note, I am just building, not loading them and he lives on another island so I would not be able to test/compare them myself.

Was just curious as the SB1000z's are much smaller/shorter as a matter of fact height-wise a pair is only 42 inches stacked up, which translates to 4 18's crammed into a smaller space as opposed to one of my single 15 inch T48.

Oh and his purpose is mainly for live sound and sometimes DJ's.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Don Keele long ago wrote that if you have lots of pack space but not much money build horns, if you don't have much pack space but lots of money build direct radiators. It's still true today. As for sound quality, no direct radiator comes close to the low THD of a horn.

[Strange Kevin]

I know you were asking about T48 but In size and deployment style, the SB1000z is closer to the Tuba 45.
Comparing 1v1 the max output of the dual 18" is almost always gonna beat a single 12" even horn loaded.
However it does take a good bit of power to get there. A lot of shows I'm working on we are lucky to get 1-1/2 circuits to ourselves for audio/backline power. When you're sharing with Lighting and cattering and whoever else, haveing a rig that doesn't need a lot of power can be very beneficial!

Also the sb1000z are around 200lbs. I don't remember what the weight on our T48s are but I recently picked up a couple dual 18" subs from a club remodel and they are significantly more difficult to move around the shop by myself than the T48s..

I looked around the internet a little for reviews on the SB1000z and noticed a few mention that "while powerful these may not the most musical subs on the market" your mileage may vary.

Every speaker design is a exercise in compromise it mostly comes down to what features are most important to you and what features you can live without in pursuit of that goal.