SoundSplinter

Try to take care of work before play my man (though if you're workin' too hard, you'll need some play to stay sane!). You should definitely notice some increase in output with the larger enclosure, though personally, I would take a little bit of your peak SPL away, and tune down to 28 Hz for added low-frequency authority on the larger enclosure. This will also help flatten your response curve for a better listening experience IMO. Then again, if your primary goal is maximum output, stick with the higher tunings.

Uh-oh! I hope I don't make any enemies here soon, but odds are I will be announcing a new pricing structure that will lump in shipping costs this week in order to make for a flat payment. There are a couple of reasons for this, which will be described in greater detail to be forthcoming. I'm not particularly fond of these changes, but oftentimes we're hit with change without our asking and some adaptation becomes necessary! Thanks for the kind words, Myron!

Oh stop with the love fest, my ego don't need no more strokin'! But hey, I do appreciate the kind words. Glad you're diggin' those Supreme's Chad. Thanks for the repeat business

I'm not rich, I'm just lucky! I've always liked the saying, "It's better to be lucky than it is to be smart." (hopefully I have a bit of both!) And yes, Don Pisto, if you're in the area I'm sure we could work a paper for metal swap. I've PM'd you my contact number, though as I am also involved in a few other businesses and have a knack for neglecting my phone, it may be a bit difficult to catch me on there. Leave a message and your number for a return call, or just email me and I can get back to you at any odd hour of the day 'n night. On your setup, I've never really been into the SPL game as all I'm lookin' for personally is a damn fine listening experience (and going deaf ain't a part of it! ). BUT, the RL-p18 could feasibly work in your car -- Certainly sealed, and if you want a peaky ported SPL box, you could get away with that too using your entire trunk space and tuning up into the high 30's. Heck you could even come close to fitting the well-responsed 5 cu ft @ 27 Hz enclosure that I typically recommend for car audio setups using this driver.

Unfortunately, there is always going to be some variance in the T/S parameters. These drivers are assmebled from a variety of metal and soft parts, and small variances in the production of a single part can in turn create a variance in the parameters. Additionally, all our speakers are assembled by hand, and of course not everything can be placed and glued in exactly the same manner as every other piece. We try to keep our tolerances tight, and we also try to run our drivers for at least an hour or two before publishing the parameters as even the extent of usage on a specific driver will cause the parameters to change over time. To be sure, if you are seeking perfection, you had better pull your own parameters off of the driver prior to designing and building your enclosure (but after having exercised it overnight to help loosen the suspension)!

Solid

The RL-p18 features the tall surround, with a 4 layer aluminum 3" diameter voicecoil, with a winding width of 1.6". Aiming for 1000 watts RMS is a smart idea for standard applications. If you're going SPL and looking to burp, you can certainly try two or three times that power but be careful because fried coils aren't covered under warranty!

Noted in another thread on the subject: I may just amend the recommendation to state 0.4 cu ft net volume, as really anywhere just under and up to 0.5 cu ft net volume will suit this driver quite well. Sealed boxes are indeed quite forgiving to minor variances in construction.

Unfortunately half of the parts on this driver come from China, and between production leadtime, sea freight across the Pacific, and final assembly and testing in California, it's looking like October is the most realistic estimate I can give. I was hoping for September, but I received a phone call this morning indicating that we may need to retool a new basket as our supplier is no longer producing the original basket used. Interested buyers may email me requesting to be kept on a wait list, and will then be notified immediately upon availability. My apologies for the wait! The added promotion from Pete's Hellboy enclosure really picked up the demand more than I had anticipated! I suppose this is what people in the industry would consider a high quality problem

You should be fine my man. Going a little larger than the recommended net volume on the vented RL-i8 will afford you higher peak and overall output. This comes at the expense of producing a peak in your frequency response near tuning -- in otherwords, your response will not be as flat across all frequencies. This can be battled by lowering your tuning frequency a touch... But given the feedback from other car audio enthusiasts who have used similar enclosures, I expect you should be pretty well satisfied. If the box is too peaky, try lengthening your port to lower the tuning and see if that improves the situation.

So long as you can accomodate the mounting depth of 15.3cm, the side-firing configuration should pose no problems.

26 cu ft between a pair of RL-p18's... Well with that amount of space I am tending to believe that this is intended for home audio, and so I would suggest sharing the chamber and tuning to around 18.5 Hz. For in-car use, by all means tune higher to around 27 Hz, but geez man you certainly don't need that large of an enclosure in the mobile audio environment! Then again... sometimes it's not about what one needs!

Yep those recommendations in the second reply are on par. As these drivers offer a relatively small cone size, I like to suggest a slightly larger sealed box in order to help beef up the overall output and low-frequency extension. On the ported box, this is not necessary and in order to maintain a flat frequency response, that is why you see a smaller net volume recommendation. Apologies for the untimely reply! Spent a week in Oregon visiting my mother, sisters, nieces and nephews, and have been scramblin' to catch up this week. But I'm back, and as always - the quickest direct response will be had through email, though I will do my best to stop by these sweet digs as time permits!

Unfortunately there are no recone kits available for our drivers. Repairs can be made, but the driver must be shipped back to California. Please shoot over an email and explain the problem for a quote.

I got ya in PM, but for the low-down: 1. Yes 2. Not likely 3. Acceptable, though a clean 1000 - 1200 watts would be better on a relatively small sealed box! 4. There is no Four.

Kent's on it, I think I already got to your shipping question in an email, but in case anyone else is curious: Shipping on the RL-p18 to 18629 would be $41 Shipping on the RL-p15 to 18639 would be $37 Estimated transit time is 4 business days so if you can get your order in and paid for by 4pm pacific time today (in the next couple of hours), you should have the driver by the end of the week no problem, and would still likely get it by the end of the week even if your payment isn't in 'til tomorrow.

Shipping to Florida via FedEx Home Delivery will be around $35.

I'll echo the sentiments already expressed. While I've seen responsible people use amplifiers rated for over 1000 watts on a single RL-i Series driver without incident, it is certainly not recommended and could put the drivers 2" coil at risk if you are not careful. 500 watts per driver is all you're ever going to need for them to get pounding near full potential... and a measly 150 watts per driver will still get them to sound quite respectable.

Loud as fawk.. yea, you should be all set to meet your goal with that enclosure!

Thanks for the glowing review! Glad you're enjoying the RL-p

I'm not going to give my subjective opinion on the Fi Q, as I'm a very large bit biased! As for the original question, my apologies for the late reply but for what it's worth, 1300 watts used responsibly will be fine for the RL-p18.

To be brutally honest, as I've never had a personal interest in the SPL arena, I've never had a knack for marketing towards those customers - and so, I firmly believe that the majority of my customers simply don't use SoundSplinter drivers to get an SPL score metered since in making a sale, I can relate considerably better to those who are looking for solid, balanced low-frequency reinforcement in their sound stage (even though given the few reports I've seen, our drivers certainly can be used for SPL races if you are so inclined). I mean hey, if a pair of our 8's can chase 150 dB.. I imagine the 18's are no slouch by any means!

The RL-p's should not be troubled reaching up to an 80 - 100 Hz crossover point. Ideally I would suggest a sealed box, around 2.1 cu ft on the RL-p15 and 4 cu ft on the RL-p18.

Judgin' by his image, the drivers are sharing a port. To alaskanbass, I would suggest reviewing the following tutorial JL wrote up, it should help you understand what you need to know about designing a ported box: [clickey]. From there, you could use the calculator on the second half of the following page to avoid that nasty formula: [clickey]. Just make sure that you take your measurements and make your cuts carefully! Ported enclosures are not nearly as forgiving to errors in construction as a sealed box would be, so take your time. As a general recommendation, I would suggest around 0.5 - 0.75 cu ft net volume PER RL-i8, with a tuning frequency between 25 - 35 Hz. For in home use, 25 Hz... for in car, I would roll with 33 Hz. Good luck!

No, as noted these are not midbass drivers, they are subwoofers and are designed to hit the low lows! I would recommend crossing over no higher than 120 Hz, and in my personal opinion, 80 Hz 'n down for optimal performance.