"The EAR" or any body who owns an Earthquake subwoofer

[toussi1]

I need some advise here. I was playing around with my Earthquake MKIII today and accidently played a subwoofer test song and the volume was pretty high. The sub pretty much hit its peak excursions. After this, i was a little worried and tested the subwoofer with all speakers off:

I hear noise when the subwoofer is playing at higher volumes. I don't know if this is normal. I can't here the noise when the speakers are on. Are subwoofers suppose to make noise when they are doing big excursions, besides smooth bass? I did a signal test at 15 HZ at high volume and can't detect any noise from the woofer.

- Basically, how do you know if a woofer is damaged? I also thought its difficult to hurt this subwoofer since its amp is optically controled limiting clipping. So guess the only way to hurt it if you over excurse the woofer?

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http://www.autodirectsave.com

[TheEAR]

Few things to consider here

1. Most subwoofer drivers are very hard to bottom and to damage.The voice coil would have to hit the backplate of the magnetic structure.Or too much power delivered to the voice coil(s)on a self contained sub like the Earthquake I doubt this is the case.

2. The woofer would make irritaing noises at just about any volume.If the voice coil was to rub on the magnetic structure the result is horrible distorion like sound you can hide.

3.Most(all)woofers have some degree of mechanical noise.However the output covers this noise up,I can hear some form of mechanical noise from ANY sub when the given sub is pushed to its limit and near the 25 and under range.The cleanest is the HGS18 in my sub collection,almost no mechanical noise(the limiter works charms).From SVS Ultra,Paradigm 2200,Sunfires,Revel and even the Aerial(yes even the Aerial!)all have mechanical noise(you really have to push them and play 20Hz test tones).

All in all mechanical noise should not interfere in any audible way(main speakers working).

Just push the woofer membrane in,push the center of the driver a bit in.If you hear a rubbing sound the driver is shot.If there is no rub,its probably A ok.

TheEAR(s) Now theears

[toussi1]

Thats good to hear. Like i said i cannot detect any noise when sending it 20HZ signal with large excursions. I think the noise i get is from the amplifier on the bottom which has some sort of an AIR LEAK. And the air leak starts making noise Above 30HZ for some strange reason. I first thought it was an internal wood rattling, but earthquake says their subwoofer boxes are built super tight with braces and the box could not be resonanting.

-The Magma drivers are one of the toughest looking woofers out there and i hoped they hold up as good as they look. It would be pretty sad if you could hurt the driver by using it at its MAX volume. But, Again, some guy claimed he blew up his SUNFIRE.

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http://www.autodirectsave.com

[TheEAR]

They can claim what they want,the fact is a Sunfire working properly will not "blow up".Its BS,often launched online to plant a seed of doubt in the buyer's mind.

And limiters work great on all my Sunfire subs,never had any problems.Same should be with Earthquake or any well designed and built sub.

TheEAR(s) Now theears

[Danartdis]

Hey EARs,

How does the Sunfire Signature compare to the Velo HGS 18 ?

[TheEAR]

The big Velo can dig deeper,true pipe organ sub.The Velo also is cleaner,and will play a few dB's louder.

The advantage the Sunfire Sig has over the Velo its the diminutive size,looks small next to the HGS18 and yet comes oh so close in output!The Sig is also less expensive(around $1000 less!)and still plenty for even bass freaks,unless they have very large rooms.

Both the HGS18 and Sunfire Sig. are great subs,real subs.

Another sub to look for is the Revel B15,clean sub bass with even more power then the HGS18!The EQ makes this cubed sub a keeper.Big output but starts to fall sharply below 20Hz.

TheEAR(s) Now theears