What does everyone think about the Brahma on this site. It seems that I have heard a lot of good stuff about it. From what I understand it gets really loud, yet has amazing SQ as well. I was just wondering because I saw a picture of it and like the sub so much I made it my avatar. I have heard so much about the sub I am interested in buying perhaps. That would be where I would contact Sandt38.
I have heard that its an all around totaly awesome sub. Chris was saying something about it not being punchy enough for him. But I dont know totaly what it was about.
this sub is an ultra low distortion woofer with very very high linear excursion properties. This sub does sound very transparent. As for the punch have you heard the 15" I know the 10" sub is very very very transparent. I ran these when the first prototypes first came out. Personally it wasnt my cup of tea. I then got to hear the 12" in person and thought this was very transparent as well but still did not seem to be as punchy. I run the b-15's 2 of them for daily driving and I personally find them to have quite the punch that the other 2 woofers were lacking. So with this high excursion ultra low distortion you need lots of displacement to get that same effect. I know what you would think in that it seems like its not as loud but truely it is you just dont see the distorted harmonics that people usually acomidate to a true sound out of a speaker. Scott Stoner
So.. for the people that do not seem to think that it is as punchy as you would like. What kind of sub would you say is punchy enough for you? How would it compare to the Brahma in SQ?
I've always interpreted the very few comments like these "not punchy" to have been a factor of the Brahma's fairly low resonant frequency, and appeal to more SQ-oriented users, by virtue of it's truly ultra-low distortion XBL^2 motor... Meaning that even in ported applications, the users are likely to (and I know they have) tune the thing very low... ...which in-car will skew the frequency response to just about destroy you way down low, but won't hit as hard (relatively speaking) in the higher frequency range. Bear in mind, the enclosure you put it in is FULLY in your control... You could build an enclosure that did result in a more "punchy" frequency response. All in your hands. B)
OK, i've heard the B-12 in 3 different setups, 2 with 1700 watts, and one with ~500 im guessing (seth, help me out here). One was sealed at just under a cubic foot if im not mistaken. Monster. The first thing that came to mind was wow this sumbitch is a loud. It was almost unbelievable. But, i didn't care much about how loud it was. Its transient response was good, and it went super low. Transparent indeed. Clean indeed. Tonally, i'm not sure its for me. Its not bad, but i dont know, it just sounds different. The second setup i heard was ported, just under 2 cubes and tuned really low. I was suprised that it didn't loose much on transient response. It was still ungodly loud. The lowend was nothing short of sick. But, it still has that thing that rubs me a lil on the wrong side. Next i heard it critically dampened. Lifeless. Transient response wasn't much to talk about. It lost that "monster" appeal. Didn't rub me right at all. To sum it all up, the brahma has some good qualities, definately a super sub. Its quick, transparent, loud, and has a nice ass. But it just sounds different to me, not really the sound i'm looking for. If i had to choose a brahma setup, it'd be the sealed enclosure, probably a lil over a cube. I wouldn't need a lot of power to get it shaking the shit out of my car. My current amp would probably be enough to do it for me (600wrms). Its not the sound i like, but i think that if i owned one, i may be able to deal with it, for by no means is it an unimpressive woofer. I'm actually wondering if i'll get a shot at hearing Seths planned setup at 1.2 cubes sealed with same power.
To paraphrase Kephart (who I think, paraphrased someone else), you can't make a DD sound like a Brahma, but you can make a Brahma sound like a DD. Get a decent EQ, and you can make a Brahma sound like any "lesser" sub. Adding distortion is easy, removing distortion...
Flawlesskid... Sounds like the boxes you heard really were on the large / low-tuned side, and that's in keeping with what I thought. The nice thing about XBL2 is that it's transient response - by virtue of the flat BL curve - is difficult to destroy. So while it's low Fs and tiny enclosure capability make it into a low-frequency monster very, very easily (and might motivate you to tune it very low), it really doesn't lose it's realism as you tune it a bit higher, even though the anechoic curve shape starts to hump up a bit. Hell, we had one B12 in a dual-chamber ported box, with it's inherently peaky higher tuning component, and it still sounded real... even though technically the response curve did have a significant peak in it. The transient response kept it sounding quite real, and I'll attribute that to the XBL2 motor. My point with response to the "punchiness" comments is, that if you do put the Brahma in a middle-sized ported box tuned somewhere more normal compared to other subs, you'll get the response plot to a shape more to what you really were expecting ...in-car, which is what matters.
I'm speaking in reference to seths ported setup Geo. I think its 1.9 cubes tuned to 28hz or so im thinking.
The Brahma is definately a completely differant animal. XBL2 has allowed Adire to create a sound unlike any other driver out there. The driver maintains almost absolute controll almost entirely throughout it's excursion. The result is transparent, neutral, balanced, tonal perfection. If punchy, peaky bass is what you want, a Brahma is not for you. If you look to cross low, punchyness is most likely not what you are looking for in your sub. IMHO punch is the job of the midbass. Personally, I don't want my sub recreating midbass frequencies. In my opinion there is no driver on the market today that can do what the Brahma does, as well as it does it. Perfect BL and KMS graphs are a great demonstration of what Adire has accomplished through the XBL2 design and remarkable suspension selection. Truely a testament of accurate reproduction, particularly when you consider that ~80% of all distortion is caused by BL illinearity. Smooth flat BL= reduced distortion (accurate reproduction). You woln't beat the price for such a world class driver. I'm not just saying this to sell drivers either. Anyone here who knew me before I became a dealer (which is most everyone here) will tell you, I sang the same song then, before I even considered becoming an Adire dealer. I bought one of the first runs of Brahmas about 2 years ago. I was so impressed by product (I have personally owned and run Shivas, Brahmas, and Kodas all of which I bought before becoming a dealer at full price direct from the factory) and CS I decided Adire would be a great fit. You wanna get in touch with me? Either PM me here, or send me your phone # Via PM. I can give you a call some evening and we can chat for a bit
Cort, you will not hear a single in 1.2 feet. I am hoping on doing a dual sealed 1.2 feet per with about 1200 per driver (*cough* Chris did you find out about your buddies Viper2500D? *cough*). You heard 1 in .9 feet with 1700, 1 in 2.5 feet with 425, 1 in 1.9 tuned to 23.5Hz with 1700. I love the grotesque bottom end capabilities of the low ported box . It is so loud so low it will rattle the snot out of your nose .
Oh, I haven't found out about the Viper yet, sorry.. I was supposed to meet up with those guys today, but I was sick, stayed home. Try this experiment, maybe: You could take your enclosure, pull the Brahma out, cut a 2x4 into pieces and stuff it into the box, just temporarily. That'll eat up about 1/2 cu.ft. if I'm calculating right, which will also have the effect of raising your tuning frequency. So, 1.9 cu.ft. @ 23.5hz would turn into 1.4 cu.ft. @ 28hz. Or throw another 2/3 of a 2x4 in there on top of that... And that 1.4 cu.ft. @ 28hz turns into about say, 1 cu.ft. @ 32hz. Something to try, to see how the FR changes, to see if that IS the cause of the "punchiness" (or lack of) that certain people think they are observing. Because 1.9 cu.ft. tuned to 23.5hz is likely to be a good SQ box, ported to communicate with whales, but it's easy to see how it would be very low-end biased, in-car. Just something to play with! B)
I cross so low that punch should not really be evident . Also with the power I am running to the driver, and the linearity of motor strength due to XBL2, I wanna keep my tuning low. Unloading the MKI was very easy and happened VERY quickly. If I had 1200 going to it, I would not hesitate (well, maybe I would, it is hard to hold the woofer up to screw it into those t-nuts ), but pushing 1700 leaves me hesitant. I could actually just turn the driver around to take up that extra space. Remember, it is inverted . Oh and it is not low end biased Chris, it is very neutral. The point of the enclosure was initially to see how low and loud I could get it to go, it wasn't my intention to leave it in there. The tonal quality, depth, output, and ability of the design to remain so composed and linear in car led me to leave the enclosure in there. I was so impressed I can't tell you. My intention was temporary, but it wound up pretty close to permanent.
