[kincade]

A few years ago I picked up 4 avalanche 18's from Ascendant in anticipation of finishing our theater. Fast forward to 5 years later, and there they sit on my storage shelves in their original shipping boxes, unopened and taking up a lot of space. As it's become very apparent that the HT won't be finished anytime soon (or at all) I've been kicking around the idea of selling 2 or all of them.


In any case, I'm just curious what they are worth these days? AFAIK they still hold their own against most of the current offerings but if I do sell any of them I want to list for a fair price. I can't even remember what I paid at this moment, although I do have the original receipt somewhere.


Anyway, any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.


Believe I have the specs here:


Sealed: 4.5-6cuft is optimal (excursion control, multiples) with up to 1,200w. Less power with larger (lower Qtc) enclosures.


Vented LLT: 23cuft 13hz tune with up to 600w.


Vented SBB: 16cuft 18hz tune with up to 1,200w.
Specs_Avalanche.pdf 24k .pdf file

 

[TedO]

I bought 2 of these drivers some time ago and was thinking of picking up 2 more so I have watched the market on them for awhile. The going rate on the used market is between $200 and $300 per driver. I don't think the last couple drivers that came up for sale even sold because the sellers did not want to ship them.


To give you a comparison, there was an ad for 4 brand new Aurasound NS-18 Subwoofers last year that retail for $900 each. This driver is very highly rated and similar in specs to the Avalanche. The seller was offering them for $300 local pickup and $450 shipped but was unable to sell them. I was actually interested in these but after comparing them to the Avalanche drivers, I would not be gaining anything performance wise, so I passed.


Forum member Realtight was interested in my Avalanche drivers when I was thinking of picking up those Aurasound drivers. Check with him, he may still be interested in picking up a set.


I'm not sure why the market is so soft for drivers like these but it seems people are only interested in the high power handling drivers like the LMS Ultras.

 

[DS-21]

IMO, a new Ava18 would be objectively worth less than the shipped price of a Dayton RSS460HO. The Dayton does have less throw, but it is better in every other way.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TedO  /t/1525885/value-of-ascendant-audio-avalanche-18s/0_100#post_24574744


To give you a comparison, there was an ad for 4 brand new Aurasound NS-18 Subwoofers last year that retail for $900 each. This driver is very highly rated and similar in specs to the Avalanche. The seller was offering them for $300 local pickup and $450 shipped but was unable to sell them. I was actually interested in these but after comparing them to the Avalanche drivers, I would not be gaining anything performance wise, so I passed..

You made a mistake, IMO. The Ava18 (I used to own one, sold it shortly after my preorder Maelstrom-X came in and I was able to compare them) is a very high inductance driver. It has significant peaking and energy storage in the upper bass. When I used it, I had to use a 2-way bass system (Ava18 only for the super-low stuff, like below 40Hz or something like that) because the Ava18 did not sound good in the upper bass. (It did have plenty of throw for the ULF stuff.) The Mael-X had significantly better inductance control, and I was able to use it up over an octave higher.


In most implementations the NS18 (which I currently use, almost bought a spare from that guy but didn't because Madisound now carries replacement cone/basket assemblies for ~$350 shipped) would be hard to distinguish from the Mael-X, but easy to distinguish from the Ava18. The Aurasound driver does have even lower inductance and much wider bandwidth than the Mael-X, but that's only useful for mains with 18" woofers. Nobody's going to run a separate subwoofer up to 500Hz! The main advantage of the Aurasound NS18 over the better current 18s is that IMO it just looks cooler.

 

[realtight]

I would still be interested in picking up a few if them if you're willing to ship and the price is right.

 

[TedO]

DS-21,


I plotted both the Ava18 and the ns-18 and there was not much difference between the two in my sealed cabinets. The advantage of the ns-18 is the lower distortion rating.


The upper bass performance is not an issue with me since I do cross my subs at 40hz.

 

[kincade]

Thanks to you all for the posts. These are still in the factory packed boxes for shipping, so aside from cost they are easily shippable. Without the factory packing I'm not sure how someone could ship them!

 

[noah katz]



Quote:
Originally Posted by TedO  /t/1525885/value-of-ascendant-audio-avalanche-18s/0_50#post_24577187


DS-21,

I plotted both the Ava18 and the ns-18 and there was not much difference between the two in my sealed cabinets.

Did you include inductance values?

 

[DS-21]



Quote:
Originally Posted by TedO  /t/1525885/value-of-ascendant-audio-avalanche-18s/0_100#post_24577187


DS-21,


I plotted both the Ava18 and the ns-18 and there was not much difference between the two in my sealed cabinets. The advantage of the ns-18 is the lower distortion rating.


The upper bass performance is not an issue with me since I do cross my subs at 40hz.

Below 40Hz the Ava18 should be better on paper than the NS18. That's just about the only good use for an Ava18.


But unless you're using the Ava18 as a bass pump in a multisub system with smaller/more efficient "midbass modules", that approach is not one that optimizes frequency response linearity or consistency around a seating area.

 

[cecaa850]

4 of those would make a great IB also. I've been using that set up for 6 or 7 years.

 

[kincade]



Quote:
Originally Posted by cecaa850  /t/1525885/value-of-ascendant-audio-avalanche-18s#post_24584023


4 of those would make a great IB also. I've been using that set up for 6 or 7 years.

That was actually the plan for these. They make an incredible IB.