New Products in the pipeline.

Kevin P · « **on:** 30 Dec 2002, 09:43 pm »

Just to get the forum moving and start off with some juicy details I'll devulge some details of a couple new products arriving over the next couple months.

#1. Tumult based sealed sub.

If you don't know what the Tumult is just head over to the Adire site:

http://www.adireaudio.com/diy_audio/drivers/adire/tumult.htm

We are going to build a couple complete subs based on the Tumult. One version is going to be a bang/$ type of product using a small 2.5 cu. ft. plain black box and using a 1000W Class D plate amplifier. I may sell these as kits and a complete version, depending on how difficult the installation of a 60lb driver becomes. We are shooting for a mid-Q type of alignment of about Q=.7 or there abouts. The transient response should be excellent due to the sealed enclosure, low voice coil inductance etc... The distortion characteristics should be lower than any commercial sub made.......period. The output should equal two Tempest in a sealed box. Or for another frame of reference the output should equal 3.4 Shiva based Ravas (considered a great bang/$) and fit into less space than a single RAVA. Cost?? We are aiming for $1485.00 on the basic version. We will also develop a slightly larger Mark Pascke version with the Hypex HS-500 amplifer and a custom Baltic Birch box. Should come in under the $2000 mark with the custom box.

#2 Headphone Amplifier.

We are working on a kit based headphone amplifier. Would be a single tube design (Sovtek 6C45) with Sowter transformer coupling for outputs. Tube rectified and the overall product phyilosophy is the use of simple good quality parts. This isn't a cheap project (estimated kit cost $500) but it should be a great headphone amp that will run with the big dollar commercial products.

#3 Silver Superlative

We are going to offer the Superlative with a silver option using the Cardas 23AWG silver in place of the Vampire CCC. I've been using a pair for months now and a couple people have built them in silver with great results.

#4 Expanded Cardas section.

We are aiming to carry all of the Cardas parts. Everything! We are also going to revise the Cardas section for easier navigation and so you can see the product better.

#5 New Cable Kits:

This goes along with the Cardas section. We are going to have some kits based on the Cardas Crosslink speaker and interconnect cable. I'll also do some kits for tonearm rewiring and such to help people with those tricky little 30AWG wires.

#6 New options for the HE series of speakers.

I'll leave some of this news for Adire to announce but we will have a few different upgrade kits for the Adire speaker kits. Maybe a few twist on the basic HE10.1 (bi-amp project, HE10.2 etc...)

Obviously all these things are not going to happen at once. Most of these will trickle out over 2003 in an incremental fashion. Just thought I'd throw out the teaser to get the forum moving!

MaxCast · « **Reply #1 on:** 30 Dec 2002, 10:06 pm »

Sounds good Kevin...all the more reason to attend MAF

Ferdi · « **Reply #2 on:** 30 Dec 2002, 10:36 pm »

That looks like an interesting set of products!

BTW, MAF means weird, wacko in Dutch.....

MaxCast · « **Reply #3 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:07 am »

Quote from: Ferdi

BTW, MAF means weird, wacko in Dutch.....

I suppose that is one way to look at some of those guys from the Chicago Horn Club

Tyson · « **Reply #4 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:26 am »

Will the sealed cab tumult have an LT circuit in it? Or is there no enough power to be able to use one? Any chance of selling the box, woofer and LT together and letting the buyer get their own amp (like a crown k2)?

Jay S · « **Reply #5 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:39 am »

The Tumult-based sealed sub sounds interesting. What dimensions do you have in mind? I am a bit floor space constrained. Given that the Tumult is a 15" wide driver, I guess the sub wouldn't have a smaller footprint than the Rava?

Tyson · « **Reply #6 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 03:04 am »

2.5 cubic feet is pretty small for a "monster" sub like this one will be. Taking driver size in to account, you're probably looking at 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 foot box. If your very lucky you might get it to 1.5 in 2 dimenstions and 1 foot for the other, but that depends on wall thickness and how much volume the driver takes up.

Jay S · « **Reply #7 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 03:16 am »

Very true, 2.5 ft3 is small for a sub of this caliber.

Given the way my living room is laid out, there are only 2 spots along the front wall where I could place a sub -- either to the right of the right speaker in a corner next to a dining table, or to the left of the left speaker along the long wall but crowded next to a chaise lounge. So, the less floor space consumed, the better.

The Adire Dhruva sub (which is 14" x 14" x 22") is a great size (physical packaging-wise) for my room, but I'm bugged that it has "just" an 8" driver and "just" a 150 watt amp. I wonder if it would have the extension or room filling ability (my room is about 28 x 11) needed to give the sheer slam that the nOrh 9.0 lacks.

Tyson · « **Reply #8 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 03:21 am »

Sorry, it won't. Your room is way too big (IMO). Of course, that's my opinion, and it will depend largely on how loud you listen to music. If you listen in the 70-80 db range, you might be OK. Louder, and you should get a sub with more overhead to deal with loud transients.

markC · « **Reply #9 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 03:47 am »

We are going to offer the Superlative with a silver option using the Cardas 23AWG silver in place of the Vampire CCC. I've been using a pair for months now and a couple people have built them in silver with great results.

Hi Kevin, do you recommend the silver Cardas RCA's with this build?

Kevin P · « **Reply #10 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 05:32 am »

Wow... a load of questions.

In order...

#1 MaxCast: We are really hurting on cash over the next 6-12 months. My wife and I are looking to start another adoption and that is going to take a chunk of change. Also my family has been through a lot in the last year and I promised the wife that I wouldn't go crazy working tons of hours at the business. One of the consequences of that is that I have to pick my priorities and I'm not sure a trip to MAF is going to be one of them.

And hey... those Chicago guys are my kind of weird.

#2 Tyson: No... we are leaving it out unless needed. I've a protype box that is pretty small and should still get us a Q of .7 so that is good enough in my book. Dan and I have been consulting about the project and we can go with a smaller box (1.5 cu.ft) with the LT but the size of the driver is such that it is damn hard to fit it into a box that size. The prototype I'm working with is about 18" cube using 3/4" material. It is downfiring design at the moment.... having a grill with this sort of displacement presented some problems and I'm fond of downfiring subs. We have 1000W clean with the amp we are sourcing and peak 1200W levels. Dan has assured me that is far more than needed to get clean output at full excursion. If we decide to use a LT we may have to look at another solution but I'm aiming at staying away from the need to EQ the sub. And to your other questions... Dan says the driver itself takes up about 0.4 cu. ft so that is built into our assumptions.

#3 Jay S: Yes... it will be smaller than the RAVA. I'm looking at 18" maximum size in all dimensions but height. It should be no more than 20-21" tall at max. Those are my outside design goals so it should end up even smaller than the RAVA. Of course it is going to weight about 140lbs so it will be a little heavier.

I'm afraid the 14" x 14" size of the Dhruva isn't realistic since the driver is 15" alone! And I'd agree with Typson... your going to need more output for that size room. This sub would certainly be overkill for any sane person but hey.... how many of us are sane?

#4 Mark C: Kind of... the Cardas SLVR RCA is a eutectic brass with silver plate. That is great for the properties silver brings to signal path but they oxidize and start to look like crap after 6 months or so.... I've been using the Cardas GSMO for the Superlative since the entire body is silver but the outside barrel is gold plated.

Jay S · « **Reply #11 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:24 pm »

Tyson and Kevin,

Thanks for the advice. I am thinking that a single Rava would be about the minimum I should go for in terms of power/extension/volume. Question is, what to go for. I'll be looking forward to reading more about the Tumult-based sealed sub when its finished and released. I agree that it will likely be overkill. Another interesting sub is the Monitor Audio FB212 (2x12", isobaric) but it does cost $1995!!!

I have to admit that I have been thinking about a sub for quite a while. It had been lower priority since the mids and highs of my system had some issues that I felt were more pressing. Now that my system is sounding pretty good from perhaps the 2nd octave up, I am starting to wonder about first octave bass and some visceral slam.

Besides a reasonable footprint (height is not as big a deal for me), a furniture-grade finish is also important to me, as is enough control (level, low pass freq, phase) and a steep XO slope to blend the subs with my mains. Finally, I hope whatever sub I choose can be shipped to Hong Kong for a reasonable price!! This search is part of the fun!

Kevin P · « **Reply #12 on:** 1 Jan 2003, 10:34 pm »

Jay S: I'd say none of the finished subs will be cheap to ship. The best bet is to find a good local cabinet maker and have just the parts shipped. That way you can get the exact finish/size you want. Buy a Shiva and a HS200 and you get your 4th order crossover and control functions your looking for and have a sealed box built to your specifications. It will cost more than the RAVA SE but once you figure up the shipping cost it should balance out. You would also get exactly what you want in terms of size, shape and output. If you want more output you can get the Tempest but you will need a bigger box.

calsaint · « **Reply #13 on:** 3 Jan 2003, 04:24 am »

hmm. Looks like yet again I will not be able to resist throwing money at you. You say you've been trying out the Silver Superlatives and that other's have come back with good reports. What do you think about Foreplay to Paramours?

Jay S · « **Reply #14 on:** 3 Jan 2003, 06:11 am »

Kevin,

Thanks. I will look around for a cabinet builder that has experience with subs. I'll try asking Brian Cherry as well.

I'll still keep an eye on the new Tumult-based sub, as well as the tube sub that Adire hinted on the website would be launched at CES.

Kevin P · « **Reply #15 on:** 3 Jan 2003, 09:32 pm »

calsaint: My general rule is that I try not to give cable advice that is specific in nature.

For one cable differences are usually subtle unless your comparing something that is really bad. Also subjective opinions are just that.... subjective. I prefer to comment on either quantifiable properties or talk about general design principles. That way I don't get too deep in audio voodoo and B.S.

What I can say about the Superlative is that it is a basic twisted pair design with a shield. The twisted pair is spaced in such a way to keep capacitance low and the shield is spaced far enough not to interfere with the magnetic field of the signal carriers. We use quality materials (Vampire CCC, Teflon, Cardas etc...) with a proven design and try to keep the kit price reasonable.

The difference between using Silver or Copper is more of a seasoning thing than saying that one is better than the other. The price difference will be about an extra $20 for the Silver version. The price doesn't reflect that one version is better than the other... just that different materials are used and one is more expensive than the other.

calsaint · « **Reply #16 on:** 4 Jan 2003, 08:42 pm »

thank you Kevin. I know exactly what you're talking about.
I frequent your site (nice site by the way), so I'll check out when you've got your new stuff available.
Good luck.
Hope your move was a relatively easy one.