Home Audio MAW-15

[DIYiT 0]

Well, there's a lot of interest in the car audio world for the Mach 5 drivers, however, I'm looking at a home audio application. There have been a few instances of the drivers being used for HT, but I thought I'd start a thread where more discussion could be done for home audio and SQ(L) oriented installations.

This summer, once I've acquired some money at my summer job, I'm thinking about buying 2 MAW-15s to put in my room to replace my 12" AA Assassin (that's if my parents let me...). Anyway, I've done some fiddling in WinISD, measuring spots in my room to put them, and some comparisons on what I like about my Assassin and what I don't.

What I'm looking at right now is a box of approximately 4.2 cu ft after all losses, tuned to 20 Hz. I'm looking at a slot port 1.5"x17" that is ~38" long. The box would be built from double layered 3/4" MDF with bracing throughout to further ensure the panels do not flex.

I want to upgrade my sub for multiple reasons.

The main reason being the placement. Right now, I have a 6.5 cu ft effective (around 8 cu ft external) sonosub tuned to 15 Hz, and because of my small bedroom in the basement and how things are placed, the sub is placed in such a spot that 40 hz is boosted by over 12 db (which I've cut back with a BFD, but luckily concrete walls provide pretty constant room gain down to below 15 Hz), but the transient response has suffered greatly. Because of this, I want to locate both of the new subs beneath my desk, replacing 2 filing cabinets which I am currently using to hold up the desk.

A friend has bought an MJ-18 and i had it in a sealed 4 cu ft enclosure, and it sounded better beneath my desk than my Assassin sub did because of the proximity to me which bypassed many of the crappy room modes.

Another reason I'm looking at updating is because when I designed my Assassin sub, I wanted to place the driver and port on the bottom face of the tube. Using BassBox pro, I was able to design an enclosure which I thought would work. However, Bassbox Pro underestimates excursion and port velocity by quite a bit compared to WinISD, Speaker Workshop, and other modeling programs I've looked at. Because of this, I have almost no usable output below 30 hz because of the amounts of port noise and whistling.

While I use my setup for probably 90% music, my favorite spot to watch movies is in my room because I can close my door and shut off all the extraneous noises of the house. However, I've found that I am severely SPL limited when it comes to many movie sound effects. For this reason, I would like to upgrade to at least a 15" subwoofer, and to make it all worthwhile, I might as well go for two .

I would be currently running both subs off of a single plate amp, however, if I acquire enough money, i would be looking at buying either an EP 1500 or 2500 to give the subs some more power potential.

So after all of this (I apologize for the excessively long post), I would like to hear any comments or criticisms to my design and plans.

Would people say the MAW line will show a significant difference in sound quality over my Assassin?

Let the Home audio discussion begin!

Edit: Spelling

Edited April 19, 2007 by DIYiT

[mpimm 0]

I have had first hand experience with both the MAW-15 and the AA Assassin.

I'm currently running a MAW-15 sealed for my HT sub.

I find that it is VERY clean and goes quite low considering the sealed box etc.

I also made a box for a sealed 12" Assassin for my buds car.

I was fairly impressed by it. It was pretty clean, and went fairly low. Not as low as I would have liked though.

The 2 MAW-15s should go quite a bit louder.

As far as sound quality goes, the transient response on the Assassins is comparable to that of the MAW, except for the lows (~30-35hz).

At least with the experience that I have had, and what I have noticed.

Both great drivers for the price, but I'm a huge MAW fan and I imagine that you will see an improvment in the SQ.

Good luck on the project.

Make sure to let us know how it turns out.

[mrogowski 6]

Since you had first hand experience with the MJ-18, why not go with those instead? You will sweep more air with them.

Best,

Mark

[DIYiT 0]

Mainly, I just don't have the room to put an MJ-18 in a properly sized enclosure without putting it in the same spot as my Assassin is placed, which doesn't help me avoid any of the room effects like I am aiming for. The MAWs will work in a small enough enclosure while still keeping the response range that I am aiming for. I'm also aiming to use two MAWs because it should be close to the same output a single MJ has even though there is a higher cost in buying two 15s rather than a single 18.

Edited April 19, 2007 by DIYiT