BEtter Audio Birth-day soon! Specs and prices:

Update on the company, since we are going to have the store up and running next week! B)

Well, we actually officially DO have the amp on sale right now, sale price(not a preorder, either!) price is just $325 including free shipping!
Not bad, I think (*giddy intentional heavy understatement* ) for an amp with these specs:
1580w RMS @ 1 ohm
1100w RMS @ 2ohms
550w RMS @ 4 ohms
18dB/octave low-pass crossover, continuously variable from 50-250Hz
18dB/octave high-pass RCA ouputs
24dB/octave subsonic filter, continuously variable from 15-40Hz
Remote gain control included
Phase Control
Clipping Indicator
Clipping, thermal, and short protection circuits
Dimensions: 17" x 9.75" x 2"
It's been selling well, too, despite not having the store up!

The subs are going on preorder NEXT WEEK!
I can't wait..
We are doing 12" and 15" versions to start with.
We are officially licensing the legendary and proven XBL2 technology because of it's amazing sound quality abilities.
Not surprisingly, ours will have similar 1600 watt RMS powerhandling capabilities.
Our sub offers a cooler-running direct voice coil venting, and this basket also offers us just slightly more Xsus (physical excursion capabilities) than the 4-leg Venezuelan basket offers...
Not to mention better looks, in my opinion, with the 12 spoke and polished motor.
Xmax is officially tied to the motor in this case, 27.3mm (no surprise there).
We are using a linear spider, which we feel matches up well with the XBL2's linear BL curve, compared to the progressive spider which lowers the resistive force progressively as excursion increases, as well as solves the buzzing issues that we were experiencing with our prototypes using that spider.
The suspension offers slightly higher VAS, resulting in slightly higher efficiency.

Pre-order pricing on the 12" is just $300.
Pre-order pricing on the 15" is just $325.

It's nice having a company run buy two guys with regular day jobs to pay the bills, to get this thing off the ground, isn't it?

 

thats good that it sounded better with the linear spider

as i'm sure you probably read in the infamouse XBL^2 thread on carsound , a progressive spider also keeps compliance constant throughout most of the woofers useable excursion......this keeps Fs from climbing up and shifting alignment specs during excursion...........it helps keep T/S parameters constant throughout excursion...........something a linear spider cannot do due to increasing stiffness every bit along the way.......hence this is the reason WIggins elected to use a progressive spider on the Brahma, as he has said in many of his posts

not trying to bash anyone or anything, just curious as to how this fits in together with an XBL^2 motor sounding better with a linear spider instead of a progressive one???[/b][/quote]
You've got that backwards...
And I have seen multitudes of proof of that, at my visit to DLC Designs facility this past weekend, for linear and progressive spiders that they have tested.

You will see, in any Kms curve from an actual DUMAX measurement, that a linear spider is in fact flat across it's intended excursion range...
Which would seem to match up better to the flat BL curve of an XBL2 motor.

I also feel that this better offers a real alternative to the Brahma. Since we are licensing this particular XBL2 motor basically verbatim, we used the Brahma as a logical benchmark, and made improvements relative to the basket and suspension, the non-motor related performance impactors.
The 12 spoke basket wasn't used just to offer improved cosmetics or a distinguishing appearance, it also offers a few mm more of suspension travel relative to the Brahma (the Brahma's excursion is limited at the point where the cone touches down on the spider's far outer roll, near where it mounts to the basket). It also offers better cooling than the Brahma, offering direct voice coil venting.

The progressive spider was also chosen for many reasons, not just the linear curve we feel matches up well to the XBL^2's linear BL curve...
We also anticipate another 8mm of excursion travel compared to the progressive cupped spider. The progressive spider's first roll (where the cone touches down) is about 8mm tall, while the linear spider we chose is not cupped. This spider's outer roll does not extend above the mount location more than 2mm with the sub in full rearward excursion.

All together, it should add up to another 10 or so mm of rearward excursion capabilities... which would mean that the Brahma offers about 28.5mm of suspension travel, that our sub would offer almost 40mm of suspension travel. before bottoming out hard.

But our sub won't get there easily, in reality.. which IMO is also a good thing... B)
One thing that has had me thinking hard about the Brahma isn't because it isn't well designed - because it is - but that I started to notice a lot of "I killed my Brahma on less than 1600 watts!" type threads...
Which is no fault of Adire, I'll be the first to admit... but is due to a misunderstanding of the relationship between enclosure size/type and excursion and power levels by many enthusiasts.
A hope that I have is that this spider will offer more protection against bottoming out and damage than a progressive unit... and hence more protection even against user-error type damage, as it will drop in compliance outside it's linear range!

It's a real Brahma alternative, with what I think will prove to be improvements over a tried and tested design. I don't want to be peddling a clone, after all... and you know I wouldn't pesonally be happy if I couldn't objectively explain the logic behind the improvements, after all!

PS.. sorry it took so long to reply, I was in Detroit for a really interesting meeting at DLC Designs... amazing! :blink:

 

Great questions!

Well, we have discussed having a "maximum time elapsed" date, at which point we would simply fulfil the order, purchasing any remaining quantity with our own funds, or cancelling the order if there just wasn't any interest (I can't imagine that will be the case! B))...
Somewhere around 6 weeks to 8 weeks, maximum wait time..
And most likely sooner, as we negotiated our minimum order pretty low.. only about 20 units per size.

Of course, the more word of mouth there is out there, the more people who find out about the products and this deal, and the more people who want to make orders, and the faster we hit the preorder limit! B)

Your support is really appreciated! Thank you!
We really do just want happy customers.. if they are not happy, neither am I, seriously.

As far as the class A/B amps go, we ARE planning on doing that, but we definitely have NOT established a time frame!
I am 100% with you on the matching amps thing.
That being said, I could help you plan an install (if you fire an Email to me), that at least in the interim could look really good, hiding (or even taking advantage of!) the fact that there two different kinds of amps if you like!
I wish that I could promise that the A/B amp is coming right around the corner, but so much of that lies with our OEM right now, and their progress in making it happen! I just can't even guess at a time frame, and we aren't large enough to throw money at it and say "If you build it immediately, we will place a huge order to make it worth your while"...
But won't it be damn nice when we DO get there?

I think the amp looks amazing even AFTER looking at the price tag!
(j/k.. I got what you meant..)

It is efficient enough to cause confusion already, seriously. :B

We ship the amp with three 30 amp fuses. That's enough to handle most people on most kinds of music, even bass-heads, but that actually won't satisfy full power output, true full power output.
If more is demanded from the amp, you can replace those with three 40 amp fuses, crank the gains, feed it huge input, and get monster power from it.

We haven't measured current draw yet (of course, we are trying to think our way through a good "how to measure?" scenario.. test tones? Music? Pulses? etc.. we want meaninful results, anyways, if we do!)



Hope that helps, I can't wait to kick it off...
As soon as we get our merchant account straightened out (this week), it's on!
B)

 

Oh, the pictures represent what they will look like, sans dustcap art anyways!

Testing the initial prototypes:
http://www.teamcaf.org/geolemon/BetterTesting

Pictures of a recent visit to DLC Designs in Detroit, with a few pics of our 15's and the amp:
http://www.betteraudio.com/geolemon/DLC

Also, there are more pictures if you go to www.betteraudio.com and click on "our products" (pardon our E-dust, the site is just a skeleton right now!)

 

Just wanted to update!

We have begun the preorder on the subs, if you go to www.betteraudio.com and click on "our products" you will enter the store, that we just got online!
B)