quad manifold sub woofer - any experience with this

[Guest " "]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190142736817&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=009

The thing is 36X36X30 and weights almost 300 pounds. Four 18 inch sub woofers in one box.  

[BEC]

I don't know anything about it, but looks like you could perhaps do MRI's with it.

Bob

 

[mas]

Not that particular box, but with EV manifolded systems, sure. It works.

They have had manifolded systems out for almost 20 years.

[stereohermit]

yes, we had a shoot out between this unit and a klipsch mwm woofer. The mwm won, although the ev wasnt too shabby.

[Daddy Dee]

well over $2K for the first bid. Is that price about what one would expect for a pair of these subs?

The description mentions their first life was in a church. Would like to hear that system and really would like to hear what has been installed, as an improvement over the original system.

[michael hurd]

This is a subwoofer in the prosound sense of the word. Chest thumping 80 hz, but at 40 it's pretty much all done. Pretty much the same as all the other "pro" subs out there, with a few exceptions. Community markets a double 18 manifolded box as well, both woofer's are placed vertically. The rear of the woofers are open as the EV unit shown. If you were to look at a cutaway from the side of the Community box, the woofers are mounted at a 45 degree to the front face of the box.

[TeachJava]

I used 4 of these for outside dances at college w/ 12000 watts of crown behind them. We measured 121 db A Weighted at 50' away! We used a 31 band eq on them and they were insane. Solid umph and no the Klipsch W's (As much as I love them) do not do what these do for the size. We also used the EV matching Mid/Hi boxes with another 12000 watts of power. They actually imaged at that 121 db w/ NO distortion. My wife was two miles away at our house while I was doing the dance. She said, "I enjoyed the music Mike I heard every single note!"

[djk]

They really can't be compared directly to the MCM woofer section.

The EV are smaller and require special EQ or the EV crossover, the crossover point is much lower than what the MCM woofer can go up to.

Used properly, they will eat the Klipsch.

The price for the pair on eBay is reasonable as they have the flying hardware, a $500 option.

The MTL4 is discontinued. The drivers have a pretty short x-max by today's standards.

I used to build a varient of the manifold box. The size was half so they could be moved by one person. One cabinet was 8 ohms and would go to 31hz, 101dB/W1M half-space efficency. Four cabinets took up less space than the MCM woofer, went lower, and were 107dB/W. Power handling for four boxes was 3.2KW, and two 4 ohm loads (perfect for a big stereo amp). The biggest difference in mine is the push-pull loading and the distortion reduction it gives. Here is a rough (not to scale) drawing:

[colterphoto1]

Prince used to have a pile of those at his disco in Minneapolis I believe.

[Christopher W. Lawler]

Yes!

I have had plenty of memorable experiences with these cabinets back in the my days of concert sound engineering & concert touring!

We used to wire all 4 of those EV # DL-18-MT; 8 ohm 400 watt cast aluminum frame 18" woofers into a series-parallel configuration, thus yielding a total impedance of 8 ohms @ 1.6 KW power handling & connecting 2 cabinets to a Crest Audio model 8001 power amplifier (2.8 KW @ 4 ohms bridged monaural) a typical stage set-up used 2 of these cabinets on each side. We used these not only for live out-door concerts with their compannion MTH-4 tops, wich were dimensionally identical, yet closer to 300 lbs, while these MTL-4 bottoms actually weigh right around 265 lbs... This particular system is also a 4-way set-up that uses independent amplification stages for each of its 4 independent frequency bands. (3x Crest Audio 8001: LF bridged, MF bridged, MH & HF in stereo) These 3 amplifiers drove speakers on 1 side of the stage with an identical rack of amplifiers on the other side, yielding a total effective power of 20KW... Peak SPLs were typical around 115-125db @ 100 meters (330 feet) ...

This made these speakers ideal for outdoor concerts, live sound & high-level concert touring applications as they still remain an all-time favorite amongst sound companies to this day, since the first conception of Manifold Technology as patented & trademarked by Electro-Voice in 1986 ! ! !

Some of the most notorious acts used these systems: Metallica, AC/DC & Def Leppard used to tour with these rigs in the 1980s & 1990s...

In the late 1990's Electro-Voice discontinued the production & manufacture of these systems and replaced their product line with the X-Array system. (The X-Array is a line array flying system, typically used in large touring rigs that are often seen & used in large arenas, colosseums & stadiums.) The X-Array is smaller by comparrison to their Manifolded Technology predecessors, are lighter in physical weight & are also easier to deploy, set-up or install in the large-format concert touring environment...

Typical line-drive configurations used a speaker management processor/crossover with each of its 8 outputs (4 way, stereo) into 8 independent single channel DBX 160A compressor/limiters. Upstream processing was typical of the Klark Technik model DN-360 1/3 octave graphic eq, mostly to ring out the system for accoustic balancing & feedback reduction/elimination.

Electro-Voice also has a smaller sibling: the MT-2 {MTL-2/MTH-2} which uses the same Manifold Technology topology as their flagship system, the MT-4 {MTL-4/MTH-4}

I personally use the EV MTL-2 subwoofers & EV TX-1152 tops in my personal system, powered with Crown K2 amplifiers.

Manifold Technology speakers (especially the subwoofer cabinets) are still very popular as they're often "cloned" or made by 3rd party "end-users" as they're constructed out of 19mm (3/4") Baltic birch plywood & employing Electro-Voice woofer components... The MTL-2 is by far the most popular due to its compact size, weight & also, they're the easiest to build or construct using common off-the-shelf items & materials that are commonly available at any cabinet building shop, lumber-yard or hime improvement "big box store." The MTL-2 weighs in @ 165-175 lbs & contains two (2) 18" woofers... It's common to upgrade the woofers to the EVX-180-B 1,000 watt woofers, as its larger sibling, the MTL-4 cannot accommodate the larger woofer due to limited dimmensional clearances for the magnet/motor structures, without making some major modifications to the cabinets (or constructing new cabinets entirely altogether.)

Connections are utilized via multi-core cable (4-conductor 12AWG/3.307 MM2 SEOW cable) & Swiss-made Neutrik-Speakon "NL-4" connectors. (Now industry standard in the pro-sound industry.) The original wiring schematics called for each woofer to be wired to the corresponding pin-out configuration (pins 1+/- & pins 2+/- of the Neutrik Speakon Connector.)

The cabinets often were rewired to accomodate the contractor/sound company's own custom/standardized wiring schematic, where-by allowing for more than one bandwidth/amplification signal to be routed along the same cable, thus eliminating multiple cables & thereby simplifying set-up, for example: wiring pins 2+/- to lows & pins 1+/- for highs to feed both subs & tops.

[Don Richard]

In the late 1990's Electro-Voice discontinued the production & manufacture of these systems and replaced their product line with the X-Array system. (The X-Array is a line array flying system, typically used in large touring rigs that are often seen & used in large arenas, colosseums & stadiums.)

Your comments on the MTL speakers are certainly accurate, but the X Array is a point-and-shoot system, not a line array.

http://www.electrovoice.com/family.php?id=13

The EV line array you are thinking of is the X Line. I heard an X Array system used by AC/DC about a year ago on their Black Ice tour. The side fills were X Lines, however. Great sounding rig.

[Tom Mobley]

Quite the first post there Christopher. Feel free to hang out when you can, always good to get new perspectives.

[jacksonbart]

Its like its 2007 again.

[Christopher W. Lawler]

Electro-Voice ----> M a n i f o l d T e c h n o l o g y (Excerpt from a 1995 Electro-Voice sales brochure.)

Coverage limitations have always plagued audio professionals. When higher sound levels are required, often the only solution was to bring in more boxes. This created problems with lobes & nulls ("hot" spots & "dead" spots) in the coverage pattern due to interference from separate sound sources operating in the same frequency range & covering the same area. Electro-Voice pioneered a solution with their innovative MANIFOLD TECHNOLOGY, a unique way of flawlessly combining the output of multiple drivers into a single horn or LF system. With two or four times the original output from each horn with no loss in sound quality, no wonder MANIFOLD TECHNOLOGY is now an industry standard.

MTL-2B LF system

The Electro-Voice MTL-2B is a low frequency loudspeaker system designed for touring or permanent installation. With two very high output EVX-180 18-inch woofers, the MTL-2B is capable of remarkably high acoustic output from a small enclosure. Rigging hardware is available, however the MTL-2B is ideal for floor arrangements due to its rectangular shape.

(Note: The MTL-2 uses 18-inch DL18MT woofers, whereas the MTL-2B uses the 18-inch EVX-180 woofers.)

MTL-4B: LF system

The Electro-Voice MTL-4B is a low frequency loudspeaker system designed for high level sound reinforcement such as concert touring or permanent installation. With four times the sound-level potential of single-driver sub-cabinets, the MTL-4B has become a favorite with professional users & touring companies worldwide. To achieve the optimal potential of MANIFOLD TECHNOLOGY in the MTL-4B enclosure, Electro-Voice designed the DL18MT woofer. THe DL18MT has an especially long voice-coil for deep, punch bass and instantaneous output peaks. The design of the cabinet forces a large volume of air over the voice-coil area, creating lower operating temperatures than is possible with internally mounted woofers.

[Coytee]

Its like its 2007 again.

You were saying?

(welcome back Chris.... don't stay gone so long!)

[Guest " "]

someone needs to post some build pans.......