Brahma... Ported or sealed? A long review.

Wow. After 1 week of listening to the Brahma ported after 6 months or more sealed I have found myself in awe of this driver. I was concerned about the SQ of the driver suffering so I built a pure SQ ported enclosure. I listened to a few 13W7s and always found myself in awe of the low frequency output. I did feel the Brahma 12 bested the 13W7 in in accuracy, output (when cranked with a show off track) in both cases ever so slightly, and in it's subtle presence with regular music. The Brahma really tends to be a feeling rather than the ominous (and I felt, overbearing) presence of the 13W7 with both woofers being sealed. But damn, I wanted that low end. So what do I do? Port the Brahma and tune it low, ~24Hz in 2 feet with 20inches of port area. I did love the basket and motor of the Brahma and I wanted to display it in this enclosure as well...

I first put in Bass Mekanik, Sonic overload, Music Disk, track 11. As the bass began to hit, I found myself ducking from the tremendoud blast of air pounding from my trunk. The T-Tops started to rattle like they were going to pop out of their locks. I was surrounded by rattles in a once near perfectly deadened car. And I can't stress how I could feel the hammering of air on my head. The rumbleing of the car was almost sickening. While the enclosure was designed with SQ in mind, it had it's own mind... SPL. 1st impression... Too much.

Well, the Brahma was always an impressive beast when asked to show off it's awesome output, and was always so laid back when it was just playing normal music. So much so that Flawless said once..." I like to hear MY subwoofer". But that is how I like it, laid back. I dropped in a few differant tracks from Dave Matthews "Under the table and dreaming" (he likes to throw a fair amount of deep bass in his music), just for a goof. I set the gains of the amp to a 1:1 ratio at 2 on my sub output, typically listening to Dave at 0 on the output. I found myself putting it down to -1, yet still pleased at 0. Just a bit overbearing, almost like the W7 (with my setting at 0, not at 2 where I am pushing clipping). The Brahma now gets real low and for Dave, it was great. It did wind up coloring the music a bit, but not too bad. Overall, I love this thing.

I tried various tracks from AC/DC, Tantric, Stained, 3 Doors Down, old school Metallica, some Slayer, Pink Floyd, Rush, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and even a bit of Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit. Through all my listening I really felt the driver performed magic in the ported enclosure. This is really the first time I was stunned by the SQ of a ported driver. I mean I was flattened. This thing goes so low, and gets so loud I am still grinning like a little boy at Christmas.

All along I have stated that IMHO this is the best sounding driver I have personally heard. I really felt the 13W7 was so close, but just lacked in the things I mentioned above. However, it's superior low end did impress me. Now the Brahma makes the W7s low end sound like it is struggleing. However, I did suffer a little...

Tool, "Hooker with a penis" will trip up even a decent midbass driver, but I felt the Brahma ported lost a little of it's accuracy, bringing it closer to the 13W7. This really impressed me to say the least. I felt the ported Brahma really kept up with the 13W7 sealed. I thought I had it beat. Now, off to some Pantera... "becoming". This song is about 3 minutes long, and near the end, about 2:30 in the track, Vinnie Paul just goes off, for an easy 20 seconds, just hammering the kickdrums. The Brahma got sloppy on me, noticeably, where it was perfect sealed. Really, the W7 sealed did a better job of this track than the Brahma. Could have been that the Brahma was getting worked hard for a while beforehand, I don't know but...

I think I am going to leave the ported enclosure in there for a while. I did lose a slight bit of accuracy (both in speed and tonal) but the gains I achieved were, all in all, worth the sufferage of the things I did lose. With my Brahma ported, only 1 driver I have heard sounds slightly better, but it isn't near as low or as loud... Hey, for $600 less retail differance I'll settle for second in SQ... and most would never hear the things I listen for, so maybe it isn't second best.

 

Welcome aboard Scott. I would be glad to do some modeling for you. I had a 12HC before. Overall a nice woofer. Are you looking for more of an SPL tune, or do you prefer SQ?

 

link me. www.reaudio.com is not a working link...

 

What power is going to them?

 

Ugly ported SQ alignments. Great peaky SPL enclosure designs though. My biggest concern is the driver unloading so dramaticly below tuning, and the peaky responce the sub displays really makes for a difficult alignment. I hope you will be using a subsonic filter. Even tuning down low, where it displays massive group delay issues the driver still unloads quickly, enough so that I would worry about suggesting it to a new installer. I don't know that this is the case (that you are new I mean) but I will make that assumption. With some good Eqing a ported enclosure will be sweet, but lets skip all that...

A very nice .45 alignment (a purists SQ alignment) can be attained sealed at .9 cu ft, with a safe (actually linear, Xsus should be about 28-30 mm with that basket) peak excursion down to about 21 Hz. I think with less power we could definately do more with the driver in a sealed enclosure, heck even a ported enclosure.

Lemme know, I will leave my models open if you wish to persue a ported box...

 

With less power the driver wouldn't unload as hard as with the extra power you have, making ported a realistic possibility, as well as making for a better "daily driver" sealed box. While .45 is an SQ competitors dream, I find it a bit flat... almost empty. Unfortunately, thanks to driver excursion, that is as big as we can go safely. Make sense? I like sealed. If you can decide for sure which amp you will choose, we can design an enclosure to that amp, and fill the space up in the enclosure with some specifically sized wood blocks!!! When you reduce the power, we take the blocks out and bam, you have a dual pourpose, prebuilt enclosure, ready for both amps.

 

I am going to be talking with a guy hooked up with RE, and he seems to think the SEs will do better, and is willing to give me a KILLER deal on them. I will model up the SEs this weekend and drop those HCs in for you and let you know what I think...

 

I just shot you a PM, gimme a few minutes

 

1.2 feet. Unfortunately, no matter how you play with it, it is still a bit weak down low. This is as clean and loud as I realisticly see it getting. The driver just has little low end without porting... This should satisfy your whims . If you want more low end output, we can do some work ported, but the drivers massive unloading is frightening... Do you have a subsonic?

See, the QTS of the driver screams ported, but I am concerned about playing that game with the peaks the driver exhibits, and the loss of cone controll down low, at least from an SQ perspective.

 

BRAHMA

No, the HC is designed for the SPL enthusiast... Just built for something other than what you were looking for.