Well, my business partner was on a mission to bank some frequent flier miles off some cheap cross country air-fare. He mentioned Vegas, Grand Canyon, (YAWN) then Los Angeles. I told him if we could get up to Simi Valley to count me in!

Long story short, Grand Canyon was a big arse hole in the ground, Vegas was pretty cool...helps that my partner does a ton of traveling and gets the VIP treatment at hotels... But actually visiting Zed Audio and meeting with Stephen in person was tremendous. Picture Santa's workshop without so many migets.

JK But actually pretty cool. Mostly we just talked about politics and having some laughs, but as always when we talk, I learned some good tech stuff and got some hints about some of the other non audio related projects he is working on. Also he said he is working on a lower price/power lineup of amps as well as a line with tiny footprint. (Oh yeah, I bought a little souvenier of course Sadly economy is soft and production cost is prohibitively high so no MEGALITH in the near future

Simi Valley is a nice town and Stephen was very generous with his time and hospitality.

My life is now officially complete and I have to say I'm not a distributor or supplier or anything. Just a regular guy who buys a few of his amps and sends him blown up stuff to repair. Kudos to Stephen and his wife for being so welcoming.

I posted a review at caraudio.com . It is a very nice piece. You won't be disappointed.

Electrons in the wires move at about the speed of light. If you get a "phase difference" it is the time in which light travels 8 or 10 inches. I'd be willing to bet you couldn't hear that or measure with any conventional methods.

Series and parallel wiring makes no difference which way you do it. Electrons don't really care and will do the same work whether you series the coils and parallel the subs, or vice versa provided the final load is equal.

Jacob, emailed you some questions about 4500D, and the other things we were discussing.. Oh, and free bump for one of the best guys in the industry.

I'll be interested in a couple Megalith if that is out in time.

Picked up Ra this week. Freaking awesome!

Wow. You must be terribly patient for that kind of attention to detail....then again I redo things so often it's senseless wasting a bunch of time on pretty.

Equipment choice sounds really nice actually. I'd hardly call any of that "budget" LOL. IMHO that BOSS amp may have a hard time keeping up with 3K on a 15" x-con unless you have really good locations for your fronts. It's a great little amp, but real-world I'd say it's good for around 50X4 @ 4 ohm.

I got a sample of "audiowrap" deadener and it seemed quite nice. I have some SPL tiles in my jeep now that are falling off (Second Skin)....not too impressed. I used the protecto-wrap home flashing in my last car and the stuff stuck awesome and the audio-wrap seems just a beefier version. Worth price checking, I'd vouch for the quality of adhesive anyway.

Never heard of the Viper mids? DEI product I assume? I am using Crescendo tweets and they're quite nice. I would have high expectations of the components.

Do keep me posted as it comes together, I think you'll be really happy with a little care in the install.

System goal : sound good and pound

I am on a budget so some components I have are not the best by far but will have to do for now.

HU : Kenwwod X994

EQ/Crossover : Audiocontrol DQXS

Front stage amp : Boss REV-665

Sub amp : Crescendo 3KWP

Highs/mids : Viper Audio 650.2

Midbass : Exodus EX-Anarchy

Subwwofer : SSA XCON 15D2

DC Power 270XP and two XS Power D3400. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for my alt. I really hope Rob comes through with this!

Hidden HU install. Tweets in custom fiberglass sail panels aimed at each other. 6.5" midrange in kicks aimed at opposing glass. 6.5" midbass in custom door panels aimed at each other. XCON 15 in trunk facing rear in a 32hz ported enclosure. I have not decided on which brand and to what extent sound deadening I will have.

I eventually want better mids and highs and Soundstream Reference or Zapco amps for the front stage ran completely active. I am drastically overpowering the XCON so eventually I will have two 12's to replace it.

Ported will be awesome. I also can't wait for the MEGALITH to come out (planning to grab 4 for myself).

An extra battery will probably be needed, and a sub like that with 2KW on it will DEFINITELY want a well braced box.

Someone post cliff notes please....that thread is a disaster. What I gather is that someone paid 900$ for a 1500W amp......both buyer and seller should be ashamed of themselves right there IMO.

Someone posed the exact question to Nick in the chat the other day. None of the soft parts on the subs are fragile enough to be caused any trouble by playing hard cold, but if you feel better letting things warm up first, there's no problem doing so.

personally i think nick is wrong on the soft parts not being fragile in the cold..... for example i just reconed my BL 18's not even a month ago and was slamming on them and it was in the single digits outside and even below 0 sometimes and i cracked one of my spiders.. Nick tries saying it was cause i was playin below tuning and blah blah blah subsonic filter needs to be set higher yada yada yada when i dont EVEN play low shit on my system especially nothing below 30hz thats for damn sure.... of course thou its never the manufactures fault always the consumers... since ive owned the BL's before i reconed them for over 2 years with NO issues...

We have been using that spider since before the days of RE, we know the limitations of that spider..and exactly how it breaks and what causes it.

Here's the problem.

You do not KNOW if you are playing "low shit on my system below 30Hz"

You could have reverberations in the recording or a pop/click of the mic that is at 8-10Hz that you can't hear (granted it should be filtered out, but who knows if you even had the filter on)..it can happen so fast that you do not even know that it happened, yet you keep playing the track. The quality of the recording of a track can make things do stupid stuff. Loading in the enclosure can cause issues..if a sub is not 'behind' a port and one is 'behind' a port then you have 1 woofer that loads completely differently than another one. One will move more then the other one will...resulting in your situation with the popped spiders.

The BL only has a 1.8" tall coil, and a .9" tall top plate. (xmax of 18mm 1 way linear travel) The spiders do NOT lock up until 30mm in ONE direction...when they lock up they pop like a potato chip radially across the weave of the spider. So you are definitely playing below port tuning frequency, with too shallow of a subsonic filter...OR your tuning is off (which is more likely because resistors have a set value that is defined by mathematics..a port length has far more human error in the equation) Those spiders only pop when they 'lock up' or move past the mechanical limitations. When you move it past 30mm (or so) you begin to form right angles radially in 4-6 spots in the spider (generally 4), at that point it makes a 'crease' in the phenolic resin and when you keep hitting that same spot on that same song it eventually pops and rips all the way through at that stress point.

Sorry you feel that we should be held responsible..those spiders simply do not have issues, they have been the same spider we have been using for 12 years, with the same materials and everything. It does not have issues unless you push it past the mechanical limitations..

It is no different then a tab on a coke can. You can bend it back and forth within its limitations all day long, when you start moving it PAST the limitations it then pops and breaks at that stress point.

The temperatures here have absolutely nothing to do with it. You are not going to shred a spider in the states..it does not get cold enough. Alaska now, that could potentially be an issue as they get down to 30 and 40 below zero...but I doubt it very seriously...the spiders are made out of poly cotton, the same stuff your t-shirt is made out of...

Actually it was -28 the other night... and i wrote you an email asking you if it was myth about subs having a break in period some say yes other say no throttle on them.. i will believe it was from being cold and "NEW" cause like i stated in previous comment i had my BL's for 2 years with NO ISSUES and ive been listening to the same kinda music, basically the same songs "no joke" and they didnt rip until i put a JBL6000a GTI on them.. "2 years later" after they were beat to shit.. and WAYYY over powering them,, but i had the RF40001 on them before that for 2 years not a problem.. but hey you build them i buy em so you obviously know more than i do..

Completely unrelated. You built a box that is wrong or set your filters wrong. Break in is a farce. The sub will indeed loosen up, but there is no time frame required for power handling. If you know so much about materials and what can happen if it is "NEW" perhaps you could explain how the material properties changed? We are open to listening, but don't think for a minute since you are pissed you broke something that you can force the blame onto others by making something up. Bring some science and we are game....although I know that you won't be able to.

And yes, I've installed and played new shit at colder temps than that. Growing up in Moorhead/Fargo you get that opportunity regularly.

BAM!

My thoughts exactly, break in = bullshit and unless you're in the arctic circle, low temp = bullshit.... though in theory you may get a little more power for a little longer if the coils are cold, but I think if we're talking 4-6KW you'll still get into thermal compression pretty quick. Also can vouch than songs without "low shit" in them often have some very low sub-harminics and pops and such. Seen it in some unsuspected music.

Looks like the smallest amp isn't as small as i thought it would be. Looks like i will have to go with another brand :-(

The new PG SD line is tiny.

Looks good. I'm curious about the price. I think I'm going to shoot for that, alpine, or arc audio.

I had one of the ARC audio MINI amps this winter....thing was about the size of a carton of cigs....very tiny.

I will be on the pre-order for 4 of the big mono-blocks.

Great little amps, I've used many of these in budget builds and I actually have a couple stashed here just in case I have a small project come up.

http://www.zedaudiocorp.com/News/news.html

Stephen mentioned in an email to me that his new MEGALITH will do 1KW at 4 ohms and 1800W at 2 ohms. My guess is that it won't safely do 1 ohm.

I use dual 2 ohm coils generally on my subs so I'm in for a 4 piece of these. Any other rumors on this?

he told me the serial is no help so I am going to see if I can find the original owner.

I suspect there are very few "beta" models around. From what I've seen the pre-order guys figure out the bugs and by the time it's in normal production that's about it.

Stop by and let us know what you think when you get it in. I enjoyed mine a lot.

UPDATE it was the phase knob have no idea what it even does but turned it and the power started flowing like mad about blew my subs outa the box

so anyway what is that phase knob even for?

LULZ

Phase knob is similar to time delay. Sometimes handy blending subs into mids, also potentially useful if you run multiple amps to multiple subs in different locations.

Thanks, Jacob. Got a guy looking to trade me a few. For the record, if/when I smoke them can you hook me up with recone parts?

Butyl based. I was using the Home depot version years ago (no aluminum layer and a hair thinner butyl) Good stuff, nice guys to deal with.

Can't seem to find the info anywhere. What diameter coil do you use on the SA-10?

Z series coils take a LOT of abuse. Very nice looking stitched leads on the spiders. A good looking driver, keep up the good work!

You can most likely smoke an 18" BTL if you're abusive and don't pay attention to the warning signs that you're pushing things too much (odd smells and bottoming out noises).

I haven't even looked at your box but I highly doubt it's "too big". Really the only place you run out of x-max is below 30hz anyway and that's what a subsonic filter is for if you even get near that AND if you're tuned low to start with you likely won't run out of x-max over 20hz since the port will controll the cone down low anyway.

My bigger worry would be do you have the electrical system to run a 3KW amp? You will want minimum 1 extra battery, ideally an upgraded alternator as well. Smoke the 500$ sub and you can recone it for 125$ or so, smoke a 550$ amp and a refrub will cost you 250+ shipping.

Stetsom is very good at maiking a ton of power in a small package. This is clearly class D and "full range" Though if freq response is only to 10Khz you might want to run something else to tweets if you have any hearing left over that mark.

i am going to be Strapping 2 Saz-2000D. my question is, will i need my subwoofer to be D1? or will i be ok with D2? i was doing some research and i couldent find this answer.

thanks an advance guys

D1 or D4 (if that's an option)

You'll want to run them to 2 ohm nominal load. When amps are strapped they see HALF the total impedence each.

I recalculated a little and got it down to 31hz in a 7 cubic foot box. with 144 in of port area.

I have some 15's in a box very similar except more like 8 cube. Very loud and adequate lows. Haven't had full power to them yet but I have high expectations after I rebuild my subs.

You might build it so that you can easily remove the bend in the port to tune up around 40ish if you want to compete. Higher tuning = way better numbers.

That size port displaces 4 cubes LOL.

The chrome colored opti line:

1000.1D

500.2

200.2

100.2

I think there's a few more and a 4 channel. The newer optis have a more flat topped heatsink and the Zed ones say "designed and manufactured in the USA" the new ones say "designed in the USA"

All the older ones have great pre-amp features and a nice clean Zed board. I have some pics of my old 500.2's here:

Online Car Audio Competition OCAC - Top Installs from around the World, Best Installers and Installation Shops

Thanks very much for your response. Reason I asked is because I found one locally for sale at a good price and of course I wouldn't be interested if it "wasn't" a Zed made amp. By the way.....I was looking at your pics and man do you have a bunch of goodies. I also noticed those USX amps. I have one myself and indeed they sound LOUD and clear....but not good on the power consumption.

Actually the Korean made Opti line is pretty good by all accounts. Almost worth going that way if you want to have somewhat matching amps and get big class D power. I've heard the 1000.1D Zed made isn't terribly stable at its lowest impedence without mods.

Hey, been trying to email you, dunno if you got me on spam filter or something else wierd going on ([email protected]) You should have go that box from me last week with the shocker coil, spider, and some maple syrup.

Please get back to me ASAP with a price of at least the other recone parts we discussed and a 15" basket with appropriate shipping so I can get these things built up for this weekend 3X NESPL show!

...Maple Syrup?

Got a farm up in Maine and I produced a couple hundred gallons. Got some small glass gift sizes I'm using as gifts to cool ppl.

FS/FT Pure Maine maple syrup:

gallon 50+ shipping

half gallon 27+ shipping

quarts 15+ shipping

pints 8+ shipping

125ml glass bottles 4+ shipping (glass is expensive to package in!)

LOL