Mach 5 IXL 10

[Puggsley456 0]

I recently had the opportunity to have an extended test session with a Mach 5 Audio IXL-10.

My original setup consits as follows:

1999 Mercury Cougar coupe/hatch

Eclipse CD7000 w/ ipod adapter

Rainbow CMX 265 Kick Bass components, Powered by a PG ti600.2(150x2)

Elemental Designs 16Ov.2(2.3 cubes @ 27hz) powered by a USAmps MD.1D(1000-1200rms @ 1 ohm)

Kicker Hyperflex 0/1 guage power/ground wiring. Electrical system is stock.

Seeing as I have never tested any driver smaller than a 12 before I was very hesitiant to proceed with this testing. Mostly because I am admittedly a self proclaimed "Bass Head". And going from a ported 15 to a 10 seemed a fairly extreme change. So I came into this testing session with a very pessimistic attitude. And I must say I was shut up in a real hurry by this driver.

The box that I tested the IXL-10 in is a .85 cubic foot box that is tuned to 38hz. We wired the driver in parallel to a 1 ohm impedance in order to take full advantage of the power my MD.1D had on tap.

First Impresseion:

I have to say that this is one of the beefiest(is that even a word?) drivers I have ever had in my possesion. The shear weight of it threw my back into spasms. I just wasnt preparred for its substantial girth. Truelly imressive.

Once everything was in place, I did my best to ease into it . I lowered my NF level from 0, which is were my gain are set at to -4. As I planned on giving it a fair amount of time to fully loosen up.

First Listening Session:

But the inital inpact that I felt playing The Eagles Hotel California Live version which is my favorite SQ demo song made me as giddy as a little girl.......

The punch and output that hit me.......I'll be honest, I wasn't prepared for. The IXL-10 had more accuracy than I had ever had in one of my own installs before. And from such a small diameter driver as compared to my previous one. Impressive! I had to resist the temptation to turn it up to my normal highest setting until it was prudent to do so.

So over the next 5 days I kept things more or less under controll. About 12-15 hours into the test I began to notice a decent increase in the output of the driver, even im my dialed back settings. So I felt that it was time to see what it can do.

So I do recommend at least a 10-12 hour break in period.....the driver will thank you for it.

Full power Testing:

Once I returned my settings to their normal state, this driver began to shine. Its a truely magnificent blend of beastly output and humble sound quality. It hit every note with efficient vigor and ferosity. To the point I had to remove my pile of coffee money change from my cup holder becasue it was rattleing to much.

Once I got a nice taste of the drivers overall ability. I wanted to throw some of the quintessential bass head music at it to see how it handeled it. So in comes Three Six Mafia - Late Night Tip. Wow! It took it like a champ and thanked me for it. The clarity that was presented was a nice change from my previous setups. Never did the bass notes become uncontrolled or over baring. The kick drums seemed to really come to life with this driver. It seemed to hit the sweet spot with my components and blended perfectly even on the real bass heavy songs. It was never too much.

Over the following week I put the IXl-10 through as much of a workout as I could. I connected my 30gb ipod and spent many of my lunch hours parked in a parking lot listening to it.

The highlite of my listening was when i played Korn - Freak on a leash. One word .....Joy-gasm!!

Extreme testing:

But I slowly started to play with my settings(HU and Amp) to see what this driver could really take. I increased the NF preout to +5 of a possible +6 on the HU and also increased the SSF point to ~32hz to limit unloading below tuning. It was at this point I noticed a slight hint of mechanical noise. But this was well beyond any normal listening levels and I believe I may very well have been cliping the setup.

I asked mark of Mach5 if we could test it on the Termlab to get some hard numbers on its output.

It did a 134.1db @ 44hz. And this was after running several sweeps to determine the burp freq. So If I had burped them with cool coils I am sure a 135-136 should be possible. But I dont recommend it for long periods as the mechanical noise was a clear indication of where the line is with this driver. But I was exceeding the rated power handling at this point.

In conclussion........

-This driver is as impressive to the ears as it is to look at.

-It can clearly hadle the rated rms ported but I wouldnt go any higher. If you dont know what to look for I may even stay slightly below rms rating to be safe.

-It loves the lows thats for sure.

-Give it time to break in

-If the 10 preforms like this .......the 12, 15 and 18 :rockwoot:

-This is one of if not my favorite driver I have ever tested.

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Its Media Time!!

This vid is during the EXTREME testing....

This shows the amount of air its moving.....and with no chuffing to boot.

Please direct any questions to my thread in the Mach 5 Audio forum.

[mpimm 0]

Beefy little driver. I'll have to try one out.

[gmilitano 0]

I was also around for the Term Lab testing and got a chance to listen to the setup. This is very a beefy unit that looks to be very well built. The sound quality was also very good. I don't know anything about car audio, so I won't add any more than that.

I took a IXL 12 home and will do something normal with it ... build a HT sub.

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

Nice review.

[///M5 2,833]

Nice, glad you are enjoying it. I love my 12.

[Puggsley456 0]

Nice, glad you are enjoying it. I love my 12.

I love my IXL-12 too.

Edited July 24, 2008 by Puggsley456