Hey all

I have been reading lots of your posts, and get a feeling that generally you like Xtant, Velodyne and Focal Utopia subs.

I am after just the one sub - as I need the space, and I will be having the Dyn 340's up front.

Couple of Q's

Will the Xtant be similar to the 11" Focal in displacement because of its shape?

should I stick with a 10" - 11" for Focal or go the 12"s?

Would a 12" xtant and 13" Focals be to big a jump up from the 7" Dyns up front?

What do you like/dislike about these 3 subs.

PS thanks for your feed back so far, I have learnt heaps from this site.

Geoff



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2002 Black WRX STI

nah a 12/13" sub will be fine with 7's up front, any of the drivers you've mentioned will be great
P.S. this should be in SQ forum

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'96 Mirage
Rockford RFX9300
Being installed: Focal 165W3's Vrx 2.150 & 1.500
Power by: HERTZ audison OPTIMA StingerAerpro
TEAM AUDISON

i believe the general rule is that subs shouldnt be more than 2 sizes bigger than your midbass drivers.

its a general rule though...i guess it depends what you like.

I would go for a 12 inch sub personally if I had 7's upfront.

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Some little westie is probably enjoying the sound i worked so hard for >:|
PS. I only get burnt once!

Team Purps feat. T-Bro, Team CUTSIK, Team CRAIG DAVID

The Focal subs are 11" or 13" are they not? (French like to be different...)

No experience with Xtant or car Velodyne subs, so hard to form much of a view there.

You might also look at an Eclipse Titanium for that installation or an Alpine DDD.

A good QUALITY enclosure is critical at that (hi-end) level.



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Mazda SP20 - NOT yellow,Dynamat Extreme and G Spot in front doors
HU - Alpine CDA-7876RB
Audison VRx 2.150EX front stage amp
JL Audio 500/1 Class D monoblock sub amp
Front Stage - Morel HCW 6.5 woofers, Morel MT2 tweeters, Morel MX2.2 x-overs.
Rear fill - stockies with power from HU (not that they get any)
Sub - Kicker S12L72 in 75 litre 30Hz slot-ported display box.
Stinger cables and connectors etc
TEAM AUDISON

You should be pretty happy with either of those three subs. I have never heard the focal, but both the Xtant Hex's and especially the Velodynes do impress - although quite different sound characteristics in my opinion.

Other subs I would suggest you look at (and you may as well look at as many as you can if your spending those sorta $'s) are..

DLS Ultimate Reference
PHD
OZ Audio Matrix SQ

The XTANT Hex subs have 10% more surface area than the regular sound subs, so a 10" would be great.

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System Includes:
Pioneer DLS HERTZ XTANT Phoenix Gold

www.members.sounddomain.com/bodyjar

1st Place, Drag Combat 2002, 1 Woofer class

Email me at QLD_CAA_Rep@caraudioaustralia.org

OK. Decisions decisions

Thanks for the feed back.

Has anyone heard the Focal Utopia 13", Xtant X 12" and Eclipse Ti 12" to have an opinion on which the prefer? (big ask, I know)

Where would I go in Sydney to hear these?

Would the Audison LRx1.400 be able to run the single Eclipse at 1.5 Ohms? - I assume being 3 Ohms DVC this can be done?

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2002 Black WRX STI

1.5ohms is too low for the LRx, you'll need a VRx to run impedances that low.
you know you want a VRx 1.500

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'96 Mirage
Rockford RFX9300
Being installed: Focal 165W3's Vrx 2.150 & 1.500
Power by: HERTZ audison OPTIMA StingerAerpro
TEAM AUDISON

well I am sure it would be nice , but the $ are racking up

Reading their web site they say:

4Ohm + 4Ohm
but DCR 3Ohm/Coil

Small Sealed-Box Enclosure
Continuous Power Handling: 750W
Music Power Handling: 1,500W
Dual Voice Coil

DVC = DUAL VOICE COIL
Fs: 31Hz
Qts: 0.43
DCR: 3 Ohm/coil
Vas: 4.21 cuft
Xmaxone way) 1.75"


Does that mean a 2 or 1.5 ohm load in parallel? If a 2 ohm then the LRx?

What size box will they need and what other amp would you use?



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2002 Black WRX STI

I have the Xtant 12" DVC and picked that mainly due to the fact that it offered the best mix of SQ and SPL from other equivalently priced models. The focals are a very smooth sub as well tho, they have a very good reputation and a very well deserved one at that, possibly even better then the xtant for pure SQ, but if you wanna go loud, I dont think you can go past the X series Xtant. Havent heard the Eclipse so cant comment on that one.

One problem tho is that running it with a well powered set of 6.5" splits up front, the bass tends to be quite overpowering. The Auto-EQ function of my pioneer h/u actually drops the sub level to -20 to compensate, so that may give you some ideas regarding which size to buy, perhaps a 10" may have been a better option for myself in hindsight <--- Wonderful thing

Cheers
Beau.

Hmm. Good point. Thanks

I do not want to overpower the music.

How do you achieve a balance? Use a less powerfull amp for the sub? Soooo many questions.

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2002 Black WRX STI

Well, I would generally say dont skimp on power of amps, just make sure that your amps match (sorta) - or invest in a 3 or 4 channel to run your entire system, play with the gains, and use the settings on the deck (A good quality, configurable deck helps in these instances) - Alot of difference as far as leveling the soundstage can be done this way, wihtout having to sacrifice component power. In my case, I have only had my gear in the car for a week now, so I havent had time to properly tune etc, when I do, I should be able to get a good even spectrum of front stage and sub. Definately wouldnt recommend going to anything more then a single 10 or 12 if your really after SQ. Make sure you put it in the right box as well, thats very important as to how it will sound.

And if I can give only one piece of advise that you listen to, it would be this
"Do it right the first time!" - If you dont have money to do it all properly now (I.E. Buy the VRX amp you want) , do it in stages, or keep saving, Its not worth getting the wrong equipment and having to upgrade every few months because you are not happy. Been there, Done that, On my 5th Full system overhaul, and this is the first time I have taken my time with it.

Cheers and best of luck

Beau.

i can't help you with a comparison of those subs but if you wanna demo a single utopia you're more than welcome although it's the 11"

There's a cruise/meet tonight but i'm not sure if ill make it

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........................[ soarer ]....................
RF mp3 player RFX9300
focal utopia 165W driven by coustic AMPDR505
focal utopia 27WX driven by PG ZX500.2
coustic crossover and line driver
dynamat extreme, optima yellow top and of course the stinger wank factor
about to go in for front stage duties PG ZX350

Thanks for the offer Scott.

I will not be in Syd this weekend, but I would like to hear your focal - it would be a great help in the decision process.

Maybe we could get together some time? My email is gphillips@phillipsit.com.

Thanks

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2002 Black WRX STI

just a note, if the DCR is 3 ohms, then the nominal impedance of the speaker will still be around 4 ohms, so you won't really be running the amp that low

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- A proud member of Team Gates - A proud supporter of the CAA SPL project

quote:

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Originally posted by Bassaholic:
just a note, if the DCR is 3 ohms, then the nominal impedance of the speaker will still be around 4 ohms, so you won't really be running the amp that low

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yeah, i was going to clarify this too. the Re (DC resistance of the VC) is lower than the nominal impedence (with AC). so ignore the Re when determining impedence for amp matching.

the audison LRx is a 1ohm stable monobloc. however, if driving 1ohm you should add the audison cooling fan modules, or add you own external fans to cool it. 2ohm, borderline whether you should run fans; may depend on how 'open' the environment for it is.

all the subs you mentioned should be nice. critter mentioned the alpine DDDrives, and having listened to johnA's setup (2x DDDrives running of an LRx1.400) i can say this is a very sweet setup.

good luck

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