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splxtreme

XCON First Impressions

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I have more work to do, but so far I have to say the XCON is a low end beast! I built a sealed enclosure that is 1.25 cubes and have a temp amp right now which is a RF 500.1. 

 

I have some fine tuning to do, but right off the bat, I know I will be happy with this sub. Played a couple tracks from Bass 305, some Decaf, and some Lamb of God. The presence of the sub is amazing! Completely transparent and I cannot tell where the sound is coming from most of the time, which is due to the setting I have the crossover at currently. I have the crossover set a little high right now, right around 80hz. I'll start to dial it back after I mess with my comps a bit. I haven't had a sub in a long time, so my comps have been running without the crossover active. So it will take a little time to get the system to blend.

 

I think even with 500 watts most people would be perfectly happy with the output. I'm not quite sure if it is the amp or the sub, or maybe even the crossover, but on rock and turning the volume up pretty loud the sub does make a sound that is a little hard to describe. The closest thing I can think of is "Maybe" it's the center of the dust cap flexing and making a little noise. Kind of like a snapple cap when you press it in, it makes a little pop noise. I noticed the sound free air as well, and could just very well be that the sub doesn't like higher freq. Not sure yet, but I will update if I can get the sound to either go away, or it just ends up getting masked at high volume.

 

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase.

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awesome sub!!

 

For me, I would put an 2.3k amp on that puppy, port it at like, 30hz, and be prepared to drop the ladies panties! haha

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awesome sub!!

For me, I would put an 2.3k amp on that puppy, port it at like, 30hz, and be prepared to drop the ladies panties! haha

You ain't about that life Sen. Lol

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awesome sub!!

For me, I would put an 2.3k amp on that puppy, port it at like, 30hz, and be prepared to drop the ladies panties! haha

You ain't about that life Sen. Lol

 

 

 

Yeah you right, i would really probably put an 5500 to it

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xcon is my favorite sounding woofer of all time!!! next woofer in my c4 next.

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xcon is my favorite sounding woofer of all time!!! next woofer in my c4 next.

thanx.gifbigok.gif

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So I messed around a lot this weekend fine tuning the best I can. I think I'm going to try a slightly smaller box. I don't have the best EQ to level out the freq, so a smaller box it is. This is just to flatten the low end just a tad. Some metal that I listen to, the bass is just a little off. I already know my midbass's could be better, and that would help with the kick drums, but once the freq goes lower it really comes alive. I noticed on White Zombie, there are some electronic drums that come in once in a while and they just play with more authority than the actual kick drum. 

 

I will just use up some of the space in the box right now to lower the volume, so in the future when I can beef up my front stage, I can add the volume back. However I can tell, that the sub just inherently has a strong low end, I may find that I will be forced to upgrade the fronts.

 

Overall, I'm pretty excited that I own a XCON.  

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Good to hear you're liking it. 

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I also recently purchased an xcon, in the 12" d1 variety. I have a ported box 2.75 cubes @32htz, running off a kicker zx1500.1, zero bass boost, 50htz and 1/3 gain. It does slap with the best of them, and I am extremely happy with my purchase. It hits anything I've thrown at it with quality accuracy, and the lows, are well, low!

Now I too am having the same kind of sound, also only at higher volumes. It's unexplainable almost, unless you hear it. It sounds kind of like unplugging your guitar from amp while still powered, A loud snap. If I back off volume 1, it stops. I have my settings on deck all negative on sub, -12db, loud off, set filter to 63htz etc.

I'd be interested in finding out what this is myself, and am Hoping its not damaged. I have all settings backed off, amp isnt pushing it's full potential, and via specs, I should be able to push more to it without issue. Other than that sound, I am overly pleased with my investment into ssa. If anyone has input it would be greatly appreciated.

I feel I'm ok inserting this comment here, as op is experiencing similar results. If this is not the correct area, please do whatever is necessary to relay this to the proper section...

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I also recently purchased an xcon, in the 12" d1 variety. I have a ported box 2.75 cubes @32htz, running off a kicker zx1500.1, zero bass boost, 50htz and 1/3 gain. It does slap with the best of them, and I am extremely happy with my purchase. It hits anything I've thrown at it with quality accuracy, and the lows, are well, low!

Now I too am having the same kind of sound, also only at higher volumes. It's unexplainable almost, unless you hear it. It sounds kind of like unplugging your guitar from amp while still powered, A loud snap. If I back off volume 1, it stops. I have my settings on deck all negative on sub, -12db, loud off, set filter to 63htz etc.

I'd be interested in finding out what this is myself, and am Hoping its not damaged. I have all settings backed off, amp isnt pushing it's full potential, and via specs, I should be able to push more to it without issue. Other than that sound, I am overly pleased with my investment into ssa. If anyone has input it would be greatly appreciated.

I feel I'm ok inserting this comment here, as op is experiencing similar results. If this is not the correct area, please do whatever is necessary to relay this to the proper section...

 

a loud snap? a metal on metal sound? 

 

That's probably the coil bouncing off the backplate. What is your subsonic filter set at? it should be set a few Hz below the tuning frequency of the enclosure. 

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Its a difficult sound to explain...its a very tinny sounding snap, like taking a piece of metal and hitting a piece of un-mounted aluminum. Almost like when you crush a side of a beer can, and pop out one of the kinks, that kind of a tinny snap or pop, on a larger scale. Amp is kicker zx1500.1, and the only the option is input sensitivity hi/lo, no ssf. Its set to low, which I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, is fixed at 25htz. So an inline ssf is what I need I assume? Any suggestions on style or brand that is best for my application? I appreciate the response, and help.

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Its a difficult sound to explain...its a very tinny sounding snap, like taking a piece of metal and hitting a piece of un-mounted aluminum. Almost like when you crush a side of a beer can, and pop out one of the kinks, that kind of a tinny snap or pop, on a larger scale. Amp is kicker zx1500.1, and the only the option is input sensitivity hi/lo, no ssf. Its set to low, which I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, is fixed at 25htz. So an inline ssf is what I need I assume? Any suggestions on style or brand that is best for my application? I appreciate the response, and help.

 

If it already has one built in and set at 25hz that should be fine. Is it happening while playing low end heavy music? Are you sure its the sub and not the other speakers in the car? 

 

you should probably just back the volume down and be careful. Also, check your box for any air leaks. If the sub is actually bottoming out than a leaky box could be the cause. 

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Yes, very heavy low end, and some hard bass lines, rap mostly. Its fairly odd, because I can play certain songs that the excursion is far heavier on, with no issues. Then I play a song that hits, but excursion is much less visible, and I get the pop. I will look into the rear fill speakers out of curiosity tomorrow as they are old and tired, due for an upgrade soon. I know of one minor leak in the seal along bottom of the double baffle, I will seal that also tomorrow.

So 25 isnt too low for a 32htz tuned port? I want to be able to put to the sub what I know it can handle without worry. Amps birthsheet says 1794, but not sure how accurate, Its only at a 1/3rd gain to. Maybe its time for the khaotic box I've been putting off. Local stereo king wants $450.00 plus material cost, to build me a box! So I built this box for now, to the optimal ported specs, and took my dimensions from the pdf on the ssa stores xcon specs page. I know that it is all within 1/16-1/8 on all cuts, as I burnt some mdf getting it as perfect as possible.

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Yes, very heavy low end, and some hard bass lines, rap mostly. Its fairly odd, because I can play certain songs that the excursion is far heavier on, with no issues. Then I play a song that hits, but excursion is much less visible, and I get the pop. I will look into the rear fill speakers out of curiosity tomorrow as they are old and tired, due for an upgrade soon. I know of one minor leak in the seal along bottom of the double baffle, I will seal that also tomorrow.

So 25 isnt too low for a 32htz tuned port? I want to be able to put to the sub what I know it can handle without worry. Amps birthsheet says 1794, but not sure how accurate, Its only at a 1/3rd gain to. Maybe its time for the khaotic box I've been putting off. Local stereo king wants $450.00 plus material cost, to build me a box! So I built this box for now, to the optimal ported specs, and took my dimensions from the pdf on the ssa stores xcon specs page. I know that it is all within 1/16-1/8 on all cuts, as I burnt some mdf getting it as perfect as possible.

while the sound is happening, can you try lowering the crossover and see if that helps. I'm curious on the results. 

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Yes, very heavy low end, and some hard bass lines, rap mostly. Its fairly odd, because I can play certain songs that the excursion is far heavier on, with no issues. Then I play a song that hits, but excursion is much less visible, and I get the pop. I will look into the rear fill speakers out of curiosity tomorrow as they are old and tired, due for an upgrade soon. I know of one minor leak in the seal along bottom of the double baffle, I will seal that also tomorrow.

So 25 isnt too low for a 32htz tuned port? I want to be able to put to the sub what I know it can handle without worry. Amps birthsheet says 1794, but not sure how accurate, Its only at a 1/3rd gain to. Maybe its time for the khaotic box I've been putting off. Local stereo king wants $450.00 plus material cost, to build me a box! So I built this box for now, to the optimal ported specs, and took my dimensions from the pdf on the ssa stores xcon specs page. I know that it is all within 1/16-1/8 on all cuts, as I burnt some mdf getting it as perfect as possible.

Gain at 1/3 means nothing, you could be getting full power at that position. It isnt a volume knob, it's there to match the input of your preout voltage of your radio. Birth sheets mean nothing, as they dont test every single amplifier. 

Edited by jay-cee

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Ok so I went back through all the settings. My deck is a clarion cz702, with 6 5v pre-outs, Its set on 3way mode. Rear fill off of deck and front cdt components off 2 channel arc audio, sub off kicker zx. All time alignments are set accordingly, sub -1, sp gains all at 0 on a range of 0 to -20

3way xover settings are as follows-

high hpf cut@ 2.5k slope -12db, phase normal.

Mid lpf through, slope -12db.

Mid hpf cut@ 200hz slope - 12db, phase normal.

sub lpf 63hz, slope - 12db,

sub hpf through, hpf slope - 12db, phase normal.

sub gain @ 1/3, xover @50hz, and boost @ 0.

SPL- I lowered deck xover down to 31.5hz and so far after loosening my neighbors pictures, the sound seems more pure, cleaner low end transition, and, most important so far, no more snapping sound.

Jay-cee- Yes, these are nominal items I fully understand. I Was merely relaying information on everything I had, hoping that any info could maybe help in receiving a clear answer, leaving all doubts aside. I Stated what the birthsheet from Stillwater stated, as maybe the output of the amp was higher than capability of sub. Not saying that was the case, but again, just info.

So, as I stated above, I believe the xover setting was the culprit. THANKS SPL. I played every song that has ever made it "snap," louder than I had before, and I hear nothing. Thank you to all who helped contribute to what hopefully, is the end to my issue. Again, xcon for the mf'n win.

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