AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › DIY Speakers and Subs › Obsidian audio 18" woofer group buy
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Obsidian audio 18" woofer group buy

post #1 of 35
6/14/12 at 6:20pm
Thread Starter 
I'm sure most of you have read this in one of the other obsidian threads, but I said I would start a new thread on the subject. I have been speaking with Nick, the co-owner of Obsidian with Jake from Sundown(Nick also owns stereo integrity and for those who don't know they were the bees knees when I was in car audio, magnum was SQ champ) and he mentioned to me that he'd be willing to do a group buy for those who have HT at heart. Right now they're on preorder at $169 plus shipping. If 25 are sold between AVS and HT Shack the price goes to $159. If 50 drivers are sold they go to $149. In the checkout where you ask where you heard about them just enter AVS (HT Shack) for those guys. You pay the $169 price and when the numbers reach 25 he'll refund you $10 after another 25 sold an additional $10.

Now I believe this driver is suited for that that want the most displacement for their money. I'm sure this is no LMS Ultra replacement. I've never heard the LMS, but my obsidian sure is clean enough for me. Plus at the lowest group buy price I'm sure the 6 obsidian drivers you could get for 1 LMS would walk all over it in output. I ran some numbers and this driver is a better displacement value than the Fi IB 18 and the MFW 15s when they were being sold for $79 each. Those are the top two displacement kings that I know of.

I have one in a 6 cu ft sealed enclosure and I does quite well in room. I have a little boost on the low end. These would do well in a IB setup or LLT. Nick is in the process of doing some ported cabs that aren't stupid big and will be doing some measurements.

If there are any questions I'll see if I can get Nick to stick his head in once in awhile.

Dan
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 35
6/14/12 at 11:06pm
Man.... I could do 16 of these and 2 Lap clones for around $5000. That is pretty strong.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 35
6/14/12 at 11:28pm
^^^^^

You can save yourself $1k by picking up a single FP10000Q. Each channel will darn near perfectly power four at a time. Nice match you intend on picking up 16 of these.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 35
6/15/12 at 7:49am
Thread Starter 
Yeah if money wasn't so tight right now I'd pick up 3 more of these guys and throw them in the closet for a future IB setup.

Dan
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 35
6/15/12 at 8:54am
your av15h is looking pretty dusty.
tongue.gif
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 35
6/15/12 at 11:01am
How long is this group buy up for? And do we have any idea how many they're at currently?
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 35
6/15/12 at 2:26pm
How low do you think this would go in on of Erich's 4.5 ft3 boxes?

Jake
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 35
6/15/12 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakedsnk View Post

How low do you think this would go in on of Erich's 4.5 ft3 boxes?
Jake

Sealed? As low as your electronic signal chain will allow for. wink.gif Possibly into the single digits.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 35
6/15/12 at 2:53pm
Nice!!!!
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 35
6/15/12 at 3:11pm
Aren't these subs still 3 months + away?
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 35
6/15/12 at 4:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jakedsnk View Post

How low do you think this would go in on of Erich's 4.5 ft3 boxes?
Jake

That's a little small for the 18, it would have a Q of .971, but you could still do it of course. F3 would be 35hz.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 35
6/15/12 at 4:34pm
Yeah. The sweet spot seems to be ~8cuft for each driver. Handles the 600w perfectly. Two with a single ep4k equivalent is perfect match.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 35
6/15/12 at 8:30pm
Anyone know how 16 of these would compare to 8 FTW-21's? I have winisd but can not find the parameters for the Obsidian driver.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 35
6/16/12 at 10:05am
ordered four and mentioned AVS
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 35
6/16/12 at 1:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by auburnu008 View Post

Anyone know how 16 of these would compare to 8 FTW-21's? I have winisd but can not find the parameters for the Obsidian driver.

just crate a new driver and enter the specs just dont enter qms and let it autofill and it should work
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 35
6/16/12 at 8:09pm
Do you have the Theta Small values for this? Does it model well in small ported enclosures?
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 35
6/16/12 at 9:23pm
This is a sealed box sub, the Qts is about .64.
Edited by Jay1 - 6/17/12 at 12:49am
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 35
6/17/12 at 7:43am
Thanks for the mention Dan. And Dan is correct about the group buy. He is also correct about us using a few in the near future in HT setups. One setup will have four 18's ported and the other will has two 18's ported. Both systems are going to be very close to the same volume of 6 ft^3 per woofer tuned to 28 or 25 Hz. I will be taking measurement sizing our XTZ analyzer and I will post the results on this forum when the systems are done. Right now there are about ten drivers sold as we only opened up ordering about three or four days ago. I will keep this forum updated with the group buy numbers as I have only agreed to the group buy discounts on the home audio forums. smile.gif I hope the woofers will arrive sooner than I have posted on our web page. Usually our build house is faster after they make their first production run.

Displacement per dollar it's a bit difficult to beat the Obsidian 18. It was/is designed to have a smooth yet plump bottom end while still sounding very good. It uses a short coil with standard topology yet still manages to maintain a respectable 20mm of Klippel verified Xmax (the same motor and coil are used in all of our 600 watt subwoofers). It is not a sealed only subwoofer as it performs well in vented enclosures. Porting it supplies even more bottom end than sealed. It is a very enjoyable subwoofer to listen to.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 35
6/17/12 at 11:20am
When does the group buy end?

Thanks,
Topp
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 35
6/17/12 at 11:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrodynamic View Post

Thanks for the mention Dan. And Dan is correct about the group buy. He is also correct about us using a few in the near future in HT setups. One setup will have four 18's ported and the other will has two 18's ported. Both systems are going to be very close to the same volume of 6 ft^3 per woofer tuned to 28 or 25 Hz. I will be taking measurement sizing our XTZ analyzer and I will post the results on this forum when the systems are done. Right now there are about ten drivers sold as we only opened up ordering about three or four days ago. I will keep this forum updated with the group buy numbers as I have only agreed to the group buy discounts on the home audio forums. smile.gif I hope the woofers will arrive sooner than I have posted on our web page. Usually our build house is faster after they make their first production run.
Displacement per dollar it's a bit difficult to beat the Obsidian 18. It was/is designed to have a smooth yet plump bottom end while still sounding very good. It uses a short coil with standard topology yet still manages to maintain a respectable 20mm of Klippel verified Xmax (the same motor and coil are used in all of our 600 watt subwoofers). It is not a sealed only subwoofer as it performs well in vented enclosures. Porting it supplies even more bottom end than sealed. It is a very enjoyable subwoofer to listen to.


309


That doesnt factor in the inductance hump the response will have on top of this.
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 35
6/17/12 at 3:13pm
That image/graph is correct and goes along with what I stated earlier. F3 in the mid to high 20's with a hump in the response above the F3 point. And Re:Le isn't staggeringly high to cause a massive hump above (or at the top end of) the passband of the woofer.
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 35
6/17/12 at 7:45pm
most here would not consider that a very good ht response, esp for an 18 that has the throw to put out proper output into the teens. Most here are prob mainly going to be interested in using these inf baffle or very large sealed (semantics I know)
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 35
6/17/12 at 8:06pm
maybe i'm not calculating things correctly, but if compliance could be raised to about 230 um/N with a softer suspension, it would seem that you could get the same frequency response as the current driver in a 10 cubic foot sealed enclosure, but using only 6 cubic feet. the driver would be protected by the air spring of the cabinet and 600 watts would take it to 19mm. f3 of 27hz and final q of 0.89, again if i calculated things correctly. people don't bang on subs in ht the way that they often do in car audio (no high tuned ported cabs often with no high pass filter), so the driver doesn't need to be as idiot proof. something to consider...
Reply
Reply
post #24 of 35
6/27/12 at 12:58pm
Bump for a status update?
Reply
Reply
post #25 of 35
6/27/12 at 1:52pm
Yes, I'm interested too! Plus, who/what are all these companies doing deals for the various forum members? I see a couple of members behind a few of them, and a couple of company names behind the offers. I've seen Obsidian Car Audio, Stereo Integrity, and SunDown Audio involved in some form, and I'm guessing their owners are behind the deals. Just hope they don't have too many coals in the fire. smile.gif
Reply
Reply
post #26 of 35
6/27/12 at 3:28pm
Hopefully i'm getting all the details right but lets go:

Saabracer asked the owners of obsidian audio if they would allow a group buy geared towards the HT crowd. The owners agreed to discounts of $10 or $20 per driver provided the numbers above are met, 25 or 50 drivers respectively. The owners of Obsidian also happen to be the owners of stereo integrity and sundown respectively. Both of which are respected brands in car audio.

The group buy is currently live and as of last update 10 drivers were sold.
Reply
Reply
post #27 of 35
6/28/12 at 7:53am
So, 2 of these, or 4 of the FiCar IB315's? That's a tough choice. These are much cheaper, but require total re-do of my IB manifold (the Fi's may require this too, not sure). I think the Fi's have more output potential, but I don't think I'll ever use an amp that will push them there. Plan is to use the Dayton SA1000. I too would like to know how much time I have to decide on these.
Reply
Reply
post #28 of 35
6/28/12 at 8:41am
What did you have previously?

Not quite as great bang for the buck displacement wise, but obsidian also has 15's at a pretty good price if you were set on 15's. You could always go 4 18's .
Reply
Reply
post #29 of 35
6/28/12 at 10:36am
I currently have 4 Dayton IB15's. You're right...I will look at the Obsidian 15's as an option. Not sure four 18's are an option though. My manifold is wide as is (had to do 2-sided), and I don't want to widen it anymore.
Reply
Reply
post #30 of 35
6/28/12 at 10:39am
In Saabracer's build thread, there was a post mentioning that Obsidian is working on a new subwoofer that is more geared towards the H-T crowd and has specs that are more suitable. Is this still taking place and when will it be available??
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DIY Speakers and Subs

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › DIY Speakers and Subs › Obsidian audio 18" woofer group buy