Rapt -
I also have the legacy classics and also considering the salk ht2, I may wait until RMAF 2009 to hear some speakers not sure yet. not to hijack but I have a couple questions.
1/ can you get the ht2's with the seas nextel drivers
Not at this time. The Nextel drivers would require a new crossover design. We would not necessarily be opposed to doing it, but I don't know if there would be any real advantage. At one time we developed a version of the HT3 using Nextel drivers and the differences were so minimal we never really followed up on it. Since the frame and motor are the same, it is only the cone material that is different. There really wan't much difference in terms of sound quality between the two designs. So I have some reservations about the value of switching drivers.
2/ I was planning on using a subwoofer (jl audio f112) would it be beneficial to get a sealed cabinet vs a ported in this case. what are the benefits of a sealed cabinet.
Well, in a sense yes and in a sense no. The benefit of a sealed cabinets is a much slower roll-off (12db per octave) on the bottom end. This makes it easier to achieve a nice cross to the sub. The downside is that the bass rolls off very early (starting as high as 100Hz). So you are not taking full advantage of the W18's.
A ported or TL cabinet plays much deeper, but has a steeper roll-off on the bottom end. This is a little harder to integrate with a sub.
If you get a PERFECT cross with the sub, the sealed cabinet may exhibit slightly lower distortion levels since the W18's would not be playing deep bass. But if you don't get the integration perfect (which is very difficult for the average person to do), you would pay a performance penalty.
If it were me, I would go as low as I could with the mains and then cross to the sub. Our HT3's are a good example. The woofer is actually a subwoofer driver. But the integration is fixed in the crossover. So it is as good as it can get. You could get similar results crossing the HT1's over to a sub, but the integration would have to be perfect in order to get similar results.
So the answer to your question depends on whether or not you can get the crossover, phase and gain between the mains and the sub set up perfectly. This is not a trivial task and one that most people are not well-equipped to do.
- Jim
