OT12s

[88h88]

My first experience with the OT12s was in a large hall when we'd finished assembling a pair of them alongside a pair of Titan39s. Due to our impatience and slight phobia of electronics we'd purchased some off-the-shelf crossovers with the thinking 'they'll work'. Turns out that thought was entirely true as in they made sound but myself having at least somewhat of an ear for music ended up a little disappointed, I mean they sounded good, so much so that everyone who heard them was impressed but not quite 'Wow!' for me.

Eventually I got around to buying up all the individual components and on my second try ended up with a set of filters that worked. They were lovingly placed inside the 12s and fired up. Oh THIS is what what they're supposed to sound like! It was unreal the difference they made even in the small room I was playing with them in.

Over the past few weekends I've been outside doing the garden, the house was previously inhabited by students and we all know that students are horrible messy bastards that can't be trusted with nice things. As such, the garden is/was a complete state and has to date required a good 72hrs of digging/hauling/weeding/de-rooting and all the rest.

The Sunday just gone was actually living up to its name and was absolutely glorious so once again I put on my old clothes and went to work outside. However if I'm going to spend time outside I should probably entertain my brain by putting on some tunes, right? Yeah. Luckily my play room overlooks the garden so it was speaker cables out the window and OT12s sat out back. <<Before anyone gets their back up I was running them full range but with the garden being 25ft long they weren't playing at any significant volume>> Outside they sound totally different, getting away from the tweeters helped them immensely and they sound absolutely wonderful. They were just running off my PC through a Peavey IPR1600 lazily, barely above 'on' and that was more than enough to cover the garden with some background music.

As an AV nerd at one of the universities in town I get to play with a lot of PA speakers and have yet to have heard any of our install speakers do justice to vocals like these do. I'd like to think I'm hard to impress but the OT12s are just sublime. It's fair to say that building these was a fine fine idea and hopefully when the garden is finished being dug out I can get to work on building myself a clay oven at which point the speakers will become a main feature at garden parties when the weather allows.

Question is, do I now build some speakers for permanent install under the planned awning outside? A pair of subs in a welded steel cage secured deep into the earth?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

A pair of subs in a welded steel cage secured deep into the earth?

Steel cage not required, but yes, this is feasible. You only need to have the mouth of a horn exposed to the air, with a weatherproof cover, with the body of the cab underground, painted with a waterproof coating. Perhaps T39 or T48 buried halfway, the exposed section doubling as a bench. Or a T39 fully above ground lying down.

[88h88]

The cage was more for keeping them safe from the local scumbags though now I reckon a stack of slims would be a better idea for hauling in and out easily.

[djtecthreat]

Thieves would literally dig up your subs in your backyard to steal them?? I live in a somewhat tough neighborhood and I have never had someone so much as look at my BBQ grill in my backyard let alone dig up a wooden box I've buried beneath the earth.

That must be tough living!

EDIT: Ah, I just re-read and I realized you were going to leave them outside. In that case, yeah, maybe lock them up.

I had this idea recently for my own backyard and I'm currently building a small seat/bench/storage box to put on my deck for firewood, so I figure I'll make 2 of them and have a 6" lip on the bottom. Slip a T39 inside one and have it firing downward out of the bottom. It would look as inconspicuous as my firewood box.

[88h88]

I have little faith in this town at the best of times, this particular area isn't exactly the best either but since some c*nt broke into my house last month I'm all out of trust. If I were to make some to sit in the garden I'd put them in a cage for sure but probably disguise it like you said as a firewood box or something. We're having some decking built at some point but it's pretty much in the centre of the garden which isn't really ideal for subs but there's a large section of flat wall which would be perfect for loading so we could turn them into a nice bench. Have to think about this one.

[osse]

Ive just tried the ipr for sub duty.. how does it handle fullrange situations?

[88h88]

I don't have a pair of PA full rangers yet, a set of Jacks is on the cards at some point but I've used the IPR with my floorstanders at home and it's fantastic. It was loud, clear and laughed at the volumes I cranked it to. No issue with it at all. Obviously at silly volumes this may be another matter entirely but I doubt it.

This test used the OTs full range but they weren't cranking at all, the gain on the amp was under -30 (about two notches up) and the volume on the mixer wasn't even half.