'98 Explorer Sound

[Turntablist]

Anything below the point where you start to hear the driver is fine IMO.

The break-in is supposed to give the surround some exercise and if you do a frequency sweep the drivers excursion will vary with frequency so you'd have to set the maximum voltage to the driver when the driver has it's longest excursion, which will be at the lowest frequency, all frequencys above that wont make the driver move as far and then you'd have to increase the amplitude along with the frequency increase to maintain the same excursion.. As you see, it get's problematic to try to make a break-in frequency sweep.

Just settle for a frequency that you can barely hear that the amp can produce and crank it up until you barely reach X-max, and you'll be golden.

[Drey Chennells]

I'm able to get 10v out of a $40 T chip amp. Your amp will do more than break in. Wire them both up and get a good half inch excursion out of each at 20-30hz for 24hours, that's plenty.

That's exactly what I just discovered breaking in a driver. I forgot to get my antique heathkit from the shop, I had the t amp around from piezo testing so I though why not. Those little things are amazing.

Man no kidding Leland. Sounds way better than anything should for that $. Handles 4ohms, battery or wall powered. Even get a cool led,heh. I use mine with an ipod loaded with test tones and sweeps.

[wr_anders]

How long do most of your orders take from PE?

The subs have been sitting in Independence, KY since Thursday (via FedEx). The ETA has been bumped over a week. Is this normal?

[ben.in.salzburg]

Cut sheets:
make your own by cutting up pieces of squared paper to scale - I use 5mm squared paper. Scale is 1 inch per 5mm square. Cut out all the pieces e.g. side of a T 36 - 36 by 36 little squares
Prepare sheets to represent your initial uncut sheet - e.g. a 48 x 98 inch sheet becomes a 48 x 98 square sheet of paper.
see how many of your pieces fit on the sheet... Play time!

This was particularly useful for me because we have different sheet sizes at my lumber yard.

[wr_anders]

I tried all the complicated methods, but not the 1st grade methods. lol

Thanks Ben! I was too busy drawing the layouts on the paper to think to actually use the paper.
Thanks again!

[ben.in.salzburg]

My inner child also chooses sound levels

[wr_anders]

Something else has occurred to me.
Say, at some point, we would want only a portion of the sound that would be difficult to get with both drivers pumping.
Could a switch, such as this 125V SPST switch, be used to engage/disengage the load lead to one of the drivers?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3165064

Maybe not this exact one (I detest Radioshack), but for lack of an example and it's too early to be browsing Mouser and Digikey. (Too many numbers and those swirly things called letters.)

I was only curious if this could be used to add the other half of the 'ommph' from what would be considered "normal" listening.
(No music playing during switching of course.)

[LelandCrooks]

How long do most of your orders take from PE?

The subs have been sitting in Independence, KY since Thursday (via FedEx). The ETA has been bumped over a week. Is this normal?

Fedex should be 3-4 days anywhere in the US.

[wr_anders]

Fedex should be 3-4 days anywhere in the US.

That's what I thought.
I ordered everything last Wednesday, and initially, on Thursday, FedEx said ETA was today or tomorrow. I look at it now and its up to the 8th. I was hoping to get the drivers broken in, but if they get here then, I won't have time.

[Drey Chennells]

On the cut sheet/graph paper method, I think ben meant 48x96? I'd hate to see you cut wrong!!

[jcmbowman]

Something else has occurred to me.
Say, at some point, we would want only a portion of the sound that would be difficult to get with both drivers pumping.
Could a switch, such as this 125V SPST switch, be used to engage/disengage the load lead to one of the drivers?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3165064

Maybe not this exact one (I detest Radioshack), but for lack of an example and it's too early to be browsing Mouser and Digikey. (Too many numbers and those swirly things called letters.)

I was only curious if this could be used to add the other half of the 'ommph' from what would be considered "normal" listening.
(No music playing during switching of course.)

Running with only one driver active may cause some weirdness with the sound, since you'll have one driver creating sound, and the other one passively absorbing it. The inactive driver will act against the active one, since the pressure in the driver chamber (and throat) will cause it to move opposite the active one, dampening the response. In addition, without current supplied to the voice coil it's much easier to hit the Xmax of a driver. If you push the active driver hard you could potentially cause mechanical damage to the inactive driver.

If you want lower volume levels in a dual-loaded enclosure, just turn the levels down. That's my advice.

[Drey Chennells]

Something else has occurred to me.
Say, at some point, we would want only a portion of the sound that would be difficult to get with both drivers pumping.
Could a switch, such as this 125V SPST switch, be used to engage/disengage the load lead to one of the drivers?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3165064

Maybe not this exact one (I detest Radioshack), but for lack of an example and it's too early to be browsing Mouser and Digikey. (Too many numbers and those swirly things called letters.)

I was only curious if this could be used to add the other half of the 'ommph' from what would be considered "normal" listening.
(No music playing during switching of course.)

Running with only one driver active may cause some weirdness with the sound, since you'll have one driver creating sound, and the other one passively absorbing it. The inactive driver will act against the active one, since the pressure in the driver chamber (and throat) will cause it to move opposite the active one, dampening the response. In addition, without current supplied to the voice coil it's much easier to hit the Xmax of a driver. If you push the active driver hard you could potentially cause mechanical damage to the inactive driver.

If you want lower volume levels in a dual-loaded enclosure, just turn the levels down. That's my advice.

Definitely. You'd create a badly tuned PR system. Don't do it man : )

[wr_anders]

Alright, cool. It was just a thought. I was thinking about it acting like a passive radiator and thought it would be counter productive. Ah well, didn't think it'd work anyways.

I've been looking a lot into amps with remotes and 3rd party remotes too. Just haven't been sure as to if it's better to attenuate the signal coming in, as 3rd party switches do, or is it better to actually control the gain on the amp.
I was thinking gain on the amp because if I was just cutting the signal, the amp gain would already have to be turned up to max listening levels, right? and if for a moment, we just wanted it slightly on, say, at the drive-through, then wouldn't that create an awful lot of crosstalk noise? All the RF interference would be amplified at what the amp gain is at, or are the folds in the horn enough to filter out the noise?

[jcmbowman]

Alright, cool. It was just a thought. I was thinking about it acting like a passive radiator and thought it would be counter productive. Ah well, didn't think it'd work anyways.

I've been looking a lot into amps with remotes and 3rd party remotes too. Just haven't been sure as to if it's better to attenuate the signal coming in, as 3rd party switches do, or is it better to actually control the gain on the amp.
I was thinking gain on the amp because if I was just cutting the signal, the amp gain would already have to be turned up to max listening levels, right? and if for a moment, we just wanted it slightly on, say, at the drive-through, then wouldn't that create an awful lot of crosstalk noise? All the RF interference would be amplified at what the amp gain is at, or are the folds in the horn enough to filter out the noise?

I'd make sure to get and amp with a remote gain knob. There are plenty out there that will handle your proposed sub.

Also - because of the way the human ear hears bass compared to other frequencies, you're going to want quick access to that knob to adjust the bass to different listening levels. I regularly find myself turning the bass down as I turn the volume up just to keep things balanced.

[Drey Chennells]

[/quote]I'd make sure to get and amp with a remote gain knob. There are plenty out there that will handle your proposed sub.
Also - because of the way the human ear hears bass compared to other frequencies, you're going to want quick access to that knob to adjust the bass to different listening levels. I regularly find myself turning the bass down as I turn the volume up just to keep things balanced.[/quote]

Most definitely, same here in every system. I just picked up a hifonics titan mono 500 w remote level for 3 TAT19-10" and a hifonics titan 4x125 w remote level for midbass, J110s. Both amps refurbed for 2 sumthin shipped. Very nice for the $.