DevilDriver

Wow, I just took a look around and you weren't kidding. Lots of good product with some really good prices. The D3 is probably the best non-eBay price I have seen.

Sounds like absolutely great news.

Loving the questions so far! Beer, pretty well exclusively. I've tried wine several times in a number of different styles and found it to be consistently disgusting. I hope to try my hand at homebrewing, quite badly in the near future. I still come back to Alexander Keith's for a good India Pale Ale quite often, though it's hard to pick a favourite. I'm a big reader and a big drinker, too occasionally conflicting hobbies, heh. I have a beer collection going in my room and a large number of books as well. I collect movies and music in a big way as well (collections are beginning to get a touch ginormous). I also play a lot of ping-pong as I have a table at home and thoroughly enjoy beating guests. Not sure that I have one memory that stands out in my mind, though there are relatively few things that I am more fond of than throwing on some vinyl and listening to a good set of cans to wrap up my day. Biggest audio nightmare is easy, no contest. When I was 16 or 17, I went to BestBuy looking at an install position. I had met the bay's manager via canadiancaraudio.com and was quite excited to start at the bottom and work my way into a non-big box store with more experience. We had everything ready to go and at the last minute, I said I would pass on the opportunity because I had other plans for school. This was, in fact, true, but I was very wary of looking like a fool as my practical experience at that age was slim-to-none. I was unbelievably unfocused at that age and I still regret that decision making process. As for installs, I have seen a few wierd things, perhaps none weirder than a friend's Golf: the old head unit had 4 harnesses crimped together one after the other and they had soldered two strands of 8 gauge power wire to a single strand of 4 gauge without even the use of electrical tape to wrap the conductors. That was truly horrid. Keep em coming.

Absolutely not! To be honest, I'm not sure what half of me is, but I know that I get Irish, Scottish, and German from my mother's side. Infrequently. When I drink, I smoke like a chimney. Aside from that, I only smoke when I'm stressed or have nothing better to do. I am fortunate in that I find few things addicting, despite my rather "collective" nature. I first tried smoking at 15 or 16, something like that. There are many days where I think "Ugh, this tastes like crap and smells even worse...don't think I'll smoke again." Then a month or two goes by and I smoke a pack or two in a night.

Happy Birthday. Peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat.

"Come in here, dear boy....Have a cigar, you're gonna go far." Side Two of WYWH.

I think if you're looking for low extension (like the type necessary in home theatre), than the RL-p is likely your best bet. With that said, it is more expensive and that type of extension is (in my opinion) relatively unnecessary in a vehicle, unless you plan on competing extensively.

Denon has a few 2 chan products that are 4 ohm stable and very affordable. Off the top of my head, I think the bottom two models are the DR-27 and DR-37, but don't quote me on that.

Around 14, I got bitten badly by the music bug....really, really badly. I think the only logical next step was to understand and aim to perfect the reproduction of the recordings that I love so much. If money is not an object and I were doing a dream install, it would be something in the house. Mind you, there are some considerations in a vehicle. Call me crazy, but I have never been to keen on dropping several thousand dollars on amplifiers when I honestly cannot hear anymore of a difference than if I made adjustments with my EQ. The vehicle would probably be a van (I am drawn to customizing vans for some reason). Amps would be whatever is hot at the moment and relatively noise free. For a front stage, it would all be one off items created through a strenous R&D process, but the basis would be a 1" tweeter, 3.5" midrange, and a 10" midbass. The 3.5" midrange would be virtually full range, the 1" tweeter would take care of only the highest frequencies, and the 10" midbass would do roughly 40 Hz to 250 Hz. Throw 8 15" Adire Audio Brahma MKII's in and I'd be satisfied. I'm a firm believer that the substage should only be for the very lowest frequencies and the midrange should handle most octaves; it makes imaging very easy. For a source unit, it would obviously be a pc in the vehicle and some vinyl integration as well (can't leave that vinyl alone). The name is a bit of an interesting story. Truthfully, my internet usage started primarily in IRC, where I changed my nick every couple of weeks because it was no big deal. Perhaps this attitude led to a willy nilly method of selecting my nicks on forums, which is unfortunate because it is a bigger hassle to get them changed, particularly when you are a member of a several forums. Used to be Punk0Rama, then changed to DevilDriver on a whim. You'll also find me as xxPunk0Ramaxx, xxDevilxxDriverxx, and more frequently, Ligeia (big Poe fan here). Ideally, I would like to be Ligeia across the internet, but that presents the challenge of 1) getting it changed on all boards, and 2) throwing away the minute following I have gained with the DevilDriver nick. FYI, Jim and jntar have good taste. Turned 21 about a month ago. Boxer briefs. Boxers offer no support and briefs look stupid. Ideally, I would like to never work; I would spend the rest of my life learning and absorbing as much as possible. Barring the lottery, that is impossible, so I hope to be well paid engineering in the audio world, though sadly that is generally a lower paying field than most that I would be qualified for once my degree is done. I'm a big fan of CSS's full range drivers. I loved the Extremis (sad to see it go away but excited to see Exodus Audio's new offerings), I'm a big fan of the Peerless XLS and XXLS lines, the Aura NS subs, and the Revelator products from Scan-Speak. I would love to try some of the LAMBDA drivers and look forward to when John Janowitz has those available again. As for home audio projects, I'm a bit of a can man, as it allows for unbelievable sound on a good budget. I've tried a wide range of different cans (including some big dollar ones: Grado RS1, RS2, 325i, Sennheiser HD650, HD595, and a couple of other miscellaneous brands. I really, really want to try the Grado GS-1000, some of the Beyerdynamic stuff, and try HD650 with balanced cables as well as HeadRoom's Millet tube amp. Right now, I have Sennheiser HD457's, Grado 325i's, and a couple different towers floating around the house: Aura NS3's full range in a horn, CSS FR125's full range in a horn, and some older JBL towers. The receiver is an older Pioneer that is stable at 4 ohm, which was very critical for me. Substage has really come and gone, but lately, it's just gone. Hopefully the Icon will change that, at least for a little while.

:morning:

These guys have a ton of different hardware available. http://www.aaronsgeneralstore.com/ If you can't find what you're looking for, send them an email and they should be able to help.

Any progress on these Jim?

Not sure how I missed that, but it is some entertaining read. I have recently re-gained my smitten state of love for vinyl.

Well, knowing so much is a matter of opinion, I suppose. The funny thing about knowledge is the more you know, the more you realize you don't know, which drives me to gain more knowledge, which makes me realize how clueless I am. It's quite a vicious (and expensive!) circle. As to where knowledge comes from, it is entirely attributed to others. I like to read....a lot. Actually, my general learning process involves seeing->imagining->reading->duplicating. I find that often, my duplicating is lacking (understanding 100 things is a lot easier than implementing all of them). With that said, I still enjoy getting my hands dirty in as many things as possible, so building horns, taking distortion measurements, and fiberglassing are still activities I jump into when I have time. I am an electrical systems engineering student right now and intend to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering as well, so I try to take what I learn in class and what I read in books, then apply it to every day things. The science of sound and it's accurate reproduction has really pushed me from one thing to the next and I really look forward to that continuing. I suppose now would be a great time to acknowledge some of the great minds that I have followed. It started with Dan Wiggins and really grew from there. I'm a giant fan of Drs. Earl Geddes and Lidia Lee. Their push for a better understanding of the ear's interpretation of sound and distortion is really quite inspiring. Beranek, Thiele, Bullock, Moore, and even Dickason have many publishings that make learning quickly quite easy, although in-depth discussion of the magnetic field seems to be the least discussed topic, unfortunately. It's hard to believe that electromagnetism is really what started the electrical revolution we see everywhere we look now. As far as people on the internet, I would say there are a large number of users who have either a) helped guide me in the right direction, or b ) through slighted understanding, promoted which areas need to be better understood by myself so that I could, in turn, help pass that information on. I currently work handling Local Number Portability for the local TelCo, Sasktel. It's a good fit for me as it is a government job that pays well, including some of my education. If things go well, I will likely stay with the company till I retire, as electrical systems engineering makes for a very easy transition into the world of telephones. After I graduate, I hope to start up an audio venture where the customer base has the same drive that the owner does. Hopefully I can instill that in some. Have I mentioned I'm a bit long-winded?

Saosin - It's So Simple

Secret Lives of the Freemasons - Rather Touch than Love

Good idea for tonight. Thanks Aaron!

This is always an interesting and controversial topic. Every couple of weeks, a debate rages regarding the relevance of high Xmax and whether it is truly valuable to achieving SPL scores. Perhaps the greatest argument is that Digital Designs Audio drivers, who have a very impressive track record in SPL competition, have been routinely tested to show below average Xmax numbers. How is it possible that a driver with limited linear excursion can still be amongst the loudest? The answer is simple and complex all at once: Xmax is relevant to SPL and it's not. Now that I've confused you, let's proceed. I'll touch on how a speaker makes sound and how it's interpreted at a later time, but let's skip to some ground works. Acceleration is a critical component of creating SPL. The higher the rate of acceleration, the more pressure that can be created. Let's figure out how to get there. If you've been through any high school physics classes, you're probably very familiar with this equation. F=m*a Hey, that looks like Newton's Second Law of Motion. In short, it states that the net force of an object is equal to the product of it's mass and it's rate of acceleration. Of course, we can re-write the simple formula to better suit our needs. F/m = a After our spinning, the formula reads that the rate of acceleration is equal to the net force of an object divided by it's mass. Let's apply this to speakers for a moment, shall we? The force of an speaker is determined by the two factors: 1. BL - the combination of the magnetic field strength (B ) and the length of the voice coil in the gap (L) 2. i - the level of input current Taking that information and our above equation, we can easily translate this to a speaker relevant equation. (BL* i)/m = a Let's make some logical conclusions from this formula. 1. Increasing the magnetic field strength (B ) or the length of the voice coil in the gap (L) will increase the rate of acceleration 2. Increasing the level of input current (i) will increase the rate of acceleration 3. Increasing the mass of the driver will decrease the rate of acceleration Naturally, the inverse of these conclusions holds true as well. For example, if you decrease the moving mass of the driver, the rate of acceleration will increase. Simple stuff, me thinks. Now we have our foundation for understanding why Xmax is and is not relevant to SPL. We know what we want to have a really loud driver, don't we? Huge BL, ability to take a lot of power, with extremely low moving mass. When looking at thiele/small parameters, we are looking for something with a high BL^2/Re, high power handling, and low Mms. It's odd that Xmax isn't factored into that equation, don't you think? Ahh, but it is, in a sense. Once we apply current to the voice coil, it moves. Based on the Understanding Power Compression thread, we know that as the voice coil moves out of the gap, BL decreases. It stands to reason that as the voice coil moves out of the gap, BL decreases, and based on our previous conclusions, so does the rate of acceleration! In this sense, high Xmax is a good thing because it means the driver is capable of moving further without an alarming decrease in BL. In this sense, high Xmax is a great thing. A driver that can move great distances while keeping BL very linear can make for a very good, very loud driver. This is handy for competitions like Bass Race, where everyday music is played for longer durations. With that said, there is another aspect of SPL competitions where high Xmax may not matter so much. In DBDrag style competition, high Xmax is not always critical. Typically, a competitor plays a short burst sine wave near the resonant frequency of the port(s) used in their enclosure. This excites the air mass in the port, causing it to become the primary source of our pressure. Meanwhile, the driver that is exciting the air mass is relatively stationary; it is not excurting itself very much at all. If your driver is only moving +/- 2mm, what is the difference in BL between a driver with 16mm of Xmax and a driver with 100mm of Xmax? Not much at all. There is one more important consideration in the "high Xmax vs. SPL" equation. Again, looking back at that original equation, we know that high moving mass decreases our rate of acceleration. Let's pretend I'm engineering a driver for a client who wants high Xmax using conventional designs (more on this another day). How do I do so? Quite simple: I add length to the voice coil. There is, however, a caveat to adding length to your voice coil: more wire (be it copper, aluminum, etc) adds mass to the driver as well. This is not a good thing from an SPL standpoint. As we can clearly see, high Xmax and SPL are not necessarily mutually exclusive; in fact, sometimes they go hand in hand. At the same time, some situations call for very little Xmax. This is why companies like Fi Car Audio deserve more credit than they receive: there is no one answer for every question, but we'll allow you to customize our answer to suit your question. The point comes back to a daily engineering focal point: where can I afford to make sacrifices for the application? And that ultimately brings us to Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Cheers!

Just because we didn't reply, doesn't mean we didn't get it. I prefer Phantoms a little bit, myself. edit: Had to snap this quickly for you Aaron.

Please note that any open-ended questions are best addressed in the Advanced Discussion portion of the forum. The Technical Info & How To's sub-forum is best suited for articles or time-tested and accurate threads filled with critical information. If a thread from the Advanced Discussion forum happens to prove itself as an integral part of the SSA knowledge base, it will be moved to the Technical Info & How To's forum as a whole, or parsed if necessary. Should any questions arise about this procedure, feel free to send myself or any SSA Tech Team member a pm for further clarification. In summary, we appreciate and encourage any and all questions be asked, but please address any threads that require answers and/or responses in the Advanced Discussion forum. You can so by clicking here. Please feel free to comment in this forum though; we love some active responses and questions that promote further thinking! You stay classy San Diego. But mostly, thanks for stopping by.

Old thread, I know. So tired of hearing about how great FireFox is from people who heard it from a friend. A co-worked told me today that he uses it because it has tabbed browsing and is so much better for use of memory than IE. Too bad IE 7 has tabbed browsing and FF is a bit of a memory hog. I have a real issue with the whole premise of FF: it's only really good if you add the many extensions available to the program, but then you experience a plethora of memory leaks, particularly if you leave your computer on for long periods of time like I do. I picked up Opera maybe a year and a half ago and have never turned back. UI is not complicated, allows for some customization, but it is very feature heavy without becoming bulky and slow like FF. Seems to me like Opera has always been best at providing great usable features for the internet savvy, rather than allowing for user-submitted eye candy that negates any improvements. And to top it all off, IE7 has a more user-friendly TDI than FF, although I still prefer Opera, particularly since they switched to MDI style browsing.

Deftones - Wax and Wane (from their B-Sides and Rarities vinyl)

i dont know about you. but my idqs can play well over 100hz. i dont have the crossover set that high, but its got a low slope. but 99% of people arent purists. they want the subs to play a bit of upper frequencies. most people dont want to spend $300 on their front stage. thats life. nevermind i even asked. i was just curious about people who owned the 18 and had expierence with box types. I'm aware that many subs can play into that range. I was just curious as to why you would want you sub playing that high. I think your money would be well spent buying a driver that's made for that freq. Just trying to help and also understand whaere your coming from. That's all. Good luck. It seems clear to me: a good front stage that would be able to adequately crossover at a lower frequency is outside of his friend's budget.

i dont know about you. but my idqs can play well over 100hz. i dont have the crossover set that high, but its got a low slope. but 99% of people arent purists. they want the subs to play a bit of upper frequencies. most people dont want to spend $300 on their front stage. thats life. nevermind i even asked. i was just curious about people who owned the 18 and had expierence with box types. Let's just leave it as constructive criticism of your intents and focus on what you're asking. The enclosure will have very little to do with your upper frequency response. I think it's best to stay with a sealed enclosure with a Qtc of around 0.800, depending on the vehicle, of course, to ensure a little better integration with all higher frequencies than your lowpass filter.