If price was a pseudo object...

[psychitsu]

Hello. I am a long time reader first time poster. Please be gentle .

I am looking into drivers for my dedicated theater room and at some point I want to have an IB set-up. So I am looking at the AE-IB15's, the Fi-IB318's, the Mal-X 18' & 21's, and the LMS-Ultra 540018's (TC Sounds). I know the cost of the drivers and I am not as concerned with that as I am the sub-20 Hz performance of my system. I assume I could cross over to some PR builds and/or some MBMs for the 50-150 Hz duties, no? I am interested in the IB for the low end clean base, so I want a driver that will work well in the ULF region with very little distortion. I would appreciate your input on these drivers as far as what their pros and cons are of each (I know that there are trade-offs with every driver), and which would best suite my aims. My room now is smallish (10'x13'x8') but I will be moving in the next year or three and am set on procuring a bigger room for my theater and my even have it built. So, I want my IB set-up to either perform well or be upgradeable to a bigger room. I know I need multiple drivers for an IB and that I can add to it later.

So, to recap, I'm looking for a driver that will perform flat as far as possible below 20 Hz. with as little distortion as possible. This is more important to me that the cost. I can be a little OCD (not diagnosable ) and knowing I compromised my SQ because I was cheap would eat at me. I will save and wait if I have to. That being said I don't want to be paying thousands of dollars per driver (tho I wouldn't mind hearing or hearing of such a driver ). I don't really want to pay more per driver than the LMS-Ultra 18's. I am looking forward to your thoughts on these drivers, for this application, and if anyone has the ability to simulate or have graphs on these I would like to see them. Also, if you know of a driver that would work better for this please let me know? I figure I will probably start with about four drivers, but that is not set in stone. I was thinking about doing a line array but could do a manifold too. The placement will be on my front wall.

Thanks in advance

[ThomasW]

Hi,

Here's the decision you need to make....

Do you want to invest in drivers that can be rebuilt? Or do you want to throw away any damaged drivers?

AFAIK Kevin doesn't offer rebuild services for his subs. (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm in error)

I know for sure that Fi and AE rebuild their drivers. (Fi will also rebuild drivers from Blueprint, and Ascendent).

The massive overkill drivers from TC-Sounds/Audiopulse make no sense because their huge motors aren't needed and aren't used in an IB application.

Ultra high tech low distortion drivers make sense when one is limited to say one or two drivers in portable boxes that will be driven hard. They don't make sense for an IB where we can use multiple lower cost units.