RSd Competition 12
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:15 am
Please note that I am using a 2.2cuft sealed enclosure fully loaded with poly-fil. This is not the ideal enclosure for this driver and I have yet to go over the TS parameters to get an idea how it should perform in this box.
Also note that I am sending a very weak signal to an X600.1 so max capability can not be reached at the moment.
First look-
This driver is very simple in appearance as a great speaker should be, it has a satin black finish on the cone and has a slight texture to the semi-gloss powder coating on the cast aluminum basket. A nice logo adorns the dust cover on the front of the driver while a metallic sticker tidy’s up the back plate. The driver features a very strong single (what appears to be a Nomex) spider, I would have preferred to see two spiders on a driver of this magnitude but it is what it is. The voice coil appears to be 2 inches in diameter and the material is not discernable without factory input but it appears to be a black anodized aluminum which is a great plus in the cooling properties. At the top of the voice coil former and at the base of the cone are several vents allowing additional cooling as well as removing any possibility of a trapped pocket of air to create pressure variations while the driver is moving. The pole vent is huge, a small family of vermin could live there, the edge is smoothed over to remove the possibility of noise as the air passes over it. The motor assembly consists of a double stacked ceramic magnet with a bumped back plate. Additional information is not available at the moment without taking the driver apart, so any further info will need to be from PG themselves or at your own discovery.
There are a few firsts for PG with this driver most noticeable is the surround which catches your attention the moment the packing the is opened. You are presented very unique surround which is similar in design to what can been seen on the IDMax however the PG variation has a smoother peak to it where the ID design is more pointed, this minor detail allows the surround to extend in a more uniform manner and I would venture a guess that this lowers the possibility of noise from the surround and also keeps the cone edge more uniform while travelling. I would love to have seen this surround attached to the under side of the cone which would have aided in the above mention of reduced surround noise, but to my surprise this is not a possibility. You may ask why well, it is because PG has used a very state of the art method of production to create the cone that is used on this driver. The cone at first glance is very thick this is why the surround can not be mounted underneath, this thickness would typically mean a very heavy cone. Further inspection shows this cone is more than you would believe, the cone is similar to foam, the process used to make the cone is very unusual basically the material (in this case I would guess a mica loaded polypropylene) is mixed with a gas until a foam is created then this foam is injected into a mold and the final result is exceptionally light and very rigid. The bubbles in the matrix add to this rigidity in the same fashion cross bracing does on a bridge. I would guess this cone could support the weight of an average weight person standing on it without it crushing; additionally I would suspect the cone is lighter than the one used on the standard RSd subs.
As mentioned earlier the spider which is used on this driver is very strong this means a few hours of play time will yield the best results; I didn’t want to wait so don’t take this as a final verdict. I tossed some music at it immediately, Akon, E-40, Robb Zombie, Fatboy-Slim, Moloko, and some Aphrodite were the first artists used. In the low notes this thing is as subtle as somebody grabbing your crotch and telling you to “walk this way”. In the Overlapping notes created by Aphrodite the sub was less than happy, the notes are processed but are well finalized and the original RSd performs amazingly well on them, the RSdC was not so smooth here. Going on to a bit of E-40 who typically has 2-3 notes in repetition with very different frequency ranges, this sub performed amazing in fact I noticed a few subtlies that the original RSd did not pick up on. Moloko proved to be blissful to listen to, the sub jumped when needed and went unnoticed when not called upon. Some subtle passages in Fatboy Slims palookaville ablum proved to be very accurate and transparent. Robb Zombie’s fast attack on the low notes seemed to please this sub.
I would rate this sub very high in accuracy, the very low notes are not fully relaxed yet due to the spider still being in need of proper break in. Overall this sub performs every bit as well as it’s little brother but has a crispness to the sound which I just can’t explain. I would suggest using a smaller box than I have used in testing as I would guess the enclosure I have used may tend to create some uneven response lines near the 45-50hz region. I would also advise the use of a 12db XO at 60 HZ, I advise this shallow cut off because this sub plays very clean in the upper bass region but will be very over-powering if you run it at a higher XO point and use a sharper cutoff.
I will follow up with more once the break in has been properly completed.
Also note that I am sending a very weak signal to an X600.1 so max capability can not be reached at the moment.
First look-
This driver is very simple in appearance as a great speaker should be, it has a satin black finish on the cone and has a slight texture to the semi-gloss powder coating on the cast aluminum basket. A nice logo adorns the dust cover on the front of the driver while a metallic sticker tidy’s up the back plate. The driver features a very strong single (what appears to be a Nomex) spider, I would have preferred to see two spiders on a driver of this magnitude but it is what it is. The voice coil appears to be 2 inches in diameter and the material is not discernable without factory input but it appears to be a black anodized aluminum which is a great plus in the cooling properties. At the top of the voice coil former and at the base of the cone are several vents allowing additional cooling as well as removing any possibility of a trapped pocket of air to create pressure variations while the driver is moving. The pole vent is huge, a small family of vermin could live there, the edge is smoothed over to remove the possibility of noise as the air passes over it. The motor assembly consists of a double stacked ceramic magnet with a bumped back plate. Additional information is not available at the moment without taking the driver apart, so any further info will need to be from PG themselves or at your own discovery.
There are a few firsts for PG with this driver most noticeable is the surround which catches your attention the moment the packing the is opened. You are presented very unique surround which is similar in design to what can been seen on the IDMax however the PG variation has a smoother peak to it where the ID design is more pointed, this minor detail allows the surround to extend in a more uniform manner and I would venture a guess that this lowers the possibility of noise from the surround and also keeps the cone edge more uniform while travelling. I would love to have seen this surround attached to the under side of the cone which would have aided in the above mention of reduced surround noise, but to my surprise this is not a possibility. You may ask why well, it is because PG has used a very state of the art method of production to create the cone that is used on this driver. The cone at first glance is very thick this is why the surround can not be mounted underneath, this thickness would typically mean a very heavy cone. Further inspection shows this cone is more than you would believe, the cone is similar to foam, the process used to make the cone is very unusual basically the material (in this case I would guess a mica loaded polypropylene) is mixed with a gas until a foam is created then this foam is injected into a mold and the final result is exceptionally light and very rigid. The bubbles in the matrix add to this rigidity in the same fashion cross bracing does on a bridge. I would guess this cone could support the weight of an average weight person standing on it without it crushing; additionally I would suspect the cone is lighter than the one used on the standard RSd subs.
As mentioned earlier the spider which is used on this driver is very strong this means a few hours of play time will yield the best results; I didn’t want to wait so don’t take this as a final verdict. I tossed some music at it immediately, Akon, E-40, Robb Zombie, Fatboy-Slim, Moloko, and some Aphrodite were the first artists used. In the low notes this thing is as subtle as somebody grabbing your crotch and telling you to “walk this way”. In the Overlapping notes created by Aphrodite the sub was less than happy, the notes are processed but are well finalized and the original RSd performs amazingly well on them, the RSdC was not so smooth here. Going on to a bit of E-40 who typically has 2-3 notes in repetition with very different frequency ranges, this sub performed amazing in fact I noticed a few subtlies that the original RSd did not pick up on. Moloko proved to be blissful to listen to, the sub jumped when needed and went unnoticed when not called upon. Some subtle passages in Fatboy Slims palookaville ablum proved to be very accurate and transparent. Robb Zombie’s fast attack on the low notes seemed to please this sub.
I would rate this sub very high in accuracy, the very low notes are not fully relaxed yet due to the spider still being in need of proper break in. Overall this sub performs every bit as well as it’s little brother but has a crispness to the sound which I just can’t explain. I would suggest using a smaller box than I have used in testing as I would guess the enclosure I have used may tend to create some uneven response lines near the 45-50hz region. I would also advise the use of a 12db XO at 60 HZ, I advise this shallow cut off because this sub plays very clean in the upper bass region but will be very over-powering if you run it at a higher XO point and use a sharper cutoff.
I will follow up with more once the break in has been properly completed.
... well put.
