Avalanche 18" Owners... please answer a few ???'s

[jagman]

For those of you with Avalanche 18" drivers in an IB... I have a few questions:

1. How much power are you feeding each of the drivers?
2. Have you bottomed them (yet)?
3. How many drivers are you using?
4. How large is your room?
5. What is your maximum measured SPL at the main seated position?
6. Are you happy with the way they sound?

Obviously there are huge differences from one HT or listening room to another (and listening habits/preferences). I'm just curious how people are using the Avalanche 18's and what they think of them.

[jagman]

Since I started this thread... I'll be the fist to respond.

I'm feeding each of my two 18's with 350 watts. I've soft bottomed them twice with WOTWs. My HT Is 3000 cubic feet and with loads of passive acoustic treatments. I've only measured about 100dBs at the seated position, but I think I could get more out of it... I'm just apprehensive about bottoming the drivers. Overall I'm happy with the setup, but I'm thinking about adding a more powerful amp in conjunction with a high pass filter to get some extra clean dBs while protecting the drivers from the ultra low frequencies.

[ThomasW]

Unibox sim shows you running out of excursion at 16Hz with 700 watts input power providing 106dB output. That's excluding the effects of room gain. Frequencies 20Hz or higher are significantly louder..

[jagman]

Thanks!

[ken]

Hi jagman, yeah l run 4 of them ,

l have'nt bottomed them yet

feeding them whatever my bridged ep2500 @ 4ohm's can deliver ( roughly 500w each l guess )

my room is 3300 cubic feet

l'll have to remeasure them as l moved my seating slightly, but they go pretty hard on the few occasions l do let 'em rip

Yes l'm happy with them

cheers ken

[carl]

I'm running 4 Avalanche 18's with an EP-2500 wired for a 2 Ohm load. I guess that puts about 600 watts per driver. I've never bottomed them out. Of course I've mever maxed the amp as far as I can tell either. My room is 20'x21'. The ceiling starts at 8' and peaks at 12'. There are 2 door openings with no doors, so the room is never "sealed". I've gotten a corrected reading of 110dB at 10Hz measured 14' from the mouth of the IB and 120dB at 20Hz. Any louder than that and I start to fear for my windows. I have no idea what kind of numbers it would do right before bottoming and doubt I'll ever find out. To answer your last question, I'm ecstatic with the sound quality.

[norpus]

Just saw this

I run 2x18Ava in floor manifold.
Used to use a Behringer A500 but when changed to a true 500watt class AB SGR, the impact was much more. We measured 400watts on an oscilloscope when the amp designer was here testing. Next day I had the EPA noise inspector on my doorstep (literally) and I got my first warning, so yes it was grunty enough. ;D
I have achieved 130dB at the mouth (was quite funny, my friend was quite scared of approaching the beast with his Braun and Kreul spl meter
Never bottomed
Room is about 3500ft2

I did however cook some Tempest classics with a similar amp when running both on the 1812. Never heard the rear IB bottom but it surely must have.

Happy with the sound of the front 2 - did a rear IB in Harman alignment just because Thomas said it hadn't been done to his knowledge before

If/when I need to replace the Avas with another driver, it will be the Maelstrom X which will soon be avail in Australia

[jman]

May 11, 2008 20:48:29 GMT -7 jagman said:

1. How much power are you feeding each of the drivers?
2. Have you bottomed them (yet)?
3. How many drivers are you using?
4. How large is your room?
5. What is your maximum measured SPL at the main seated position?
6. Are you happy with the way they sound?

1. ep2500 in 2 ohm stereo (4 ohm bridged the amp refuses to work)
2. never bottomed, I heard knocking sounds but that turned out to be signal clipping into the BFD or the "hatch" into my IB space rattling
3. 4
4. 1600 cu'
5. 128db in Flight of the Phoenix, 126db in Pulse (1" of excursion )
6. Mostly. I'm getting a room-induced dip at 40hz at my listening position. I've tried everything under the sun for bass trapping to no success. But in general no box sub can even match the musical quality (they sound boxy) and for SPL it would take probably 4 JL113 or Velo DD18's to match what I'm getting.

The only thing I'm unsure of is going with a line array. I think the 10-15hz range though measuring flat, could be performing better. REW shows my IB as flat to 7hz, that's pretty amusing.

[jagman]

Thanks guys ;D. It's good to hear everyone's input. It seems like 500-600 watts per driver from a solid amp is the way to go. I'll probably upgrade my amp at some point but for the time being other things are higher on the priority list.