Eugen, what I hear in your referenced track is compressor pumping in the bass. The level of that low frequency drone is modulated by the fairly high kick drum. Which reminds me of the disco '70s where a sub was a CV W bin that didn't really go that low and so producers found that hitting a 5 gallon ice cream carton with a tympani mallet gave a dead thump somewhere between 80 and 100Hz that would move the patrons in the discos given the system of the time.
That thump range is right where the T18s have a very strong peak. And so that setup with them will sound like that recording where they accentuate the kick sound. While the ported Yammies struggle to play the drone. Which the EV's won't reproduce barely at all.
When you say that the referenced track sounds tighter on better subs are you talking about being in the same room with the same locations of the speakers? Some of your problem may be your room. There is a great article linked in the Basement from a top pro about the LF overhang or reverberation in some venues.
But bottom line, it really sounds like you are trying to get more low frequency extension than the gear can produce. As Ivan has pointed out many time, roll off is not a brick wall. Most any system can be made to produce very low frequencies. It's just a matter of how loudly compared to the rest of the system's output. If you put those Yamahas in a living room home theater and equalized the snot out of them, you could probably get 20Hz extension at levels suitable for watching TV. But if you want to get 30-35Hz out of them at dance club levels it ain't gonna happen.
Yes you heard it well. There is a side chained compressor triggered by the upper kick, it pumps sub down at about 40-50hz. That "pumped in" short lasting sub will from some sub setups last short, be nicely in time with everyhing following it in the upper range. From some subs it will be bearely noticable and molded with the rest of the sub line, it will also sound late and sloppy. This is the main problem with the yamahas. You put that on top of the very bad reproduction in the 70-100hz area and everything below 100hz sounds as soft as a marshmallow. This also varietes depending on how loaded the sub is in the moment. This song from boddika that i linked, if you listened to it on the yamaha system, which i did many times, i use if for eq-ing subs sometimes.
You couldn't tell any of what you heard up there. Compressor pumping in sub following the kick? You' bearely notice it only if you are directly in front of the subs.
When we rented the other 2-way sub setup that i linked you a picture of a few days ago. 6 HOG horns with B&C 18-s and 6 horn loaded kickers running up to 150hz. Those things... you could tell exactly how it's produced and where the sub is pumping in.
It's now about the power, it's about the softness and the mudiness of the yamaha subs. Yes i am comparing the setup in the same place in the same club. The yamahas will definitley work better in a mono block because then when you are in front of the stage you stay in the power alley where sub is more clean. But they are still bad.
What i'm trying to do here is realise the technical explanation behind this to understand why they are bad. My opinion is that those drivers have a very bad "reactance factor" that we talked about. And i think that's what's called "transient response" in proper terms.
Yes, the T18's have a strong bump in that 80-120 hertz range which makes them really good "kickers". Especially with the rcf drivers i have inside them which are stiffer and more precise then the emminence ones. But aT18 by itself is terrible in low end extension. When you couple 4 of them together they can do some damage down to 40hz but that's about it.
So yes, they can't play the low end drone at all while the yamahas struggle to. So the setup that i mentiones where the T18's play 45-120 and the yamahas play 30-45 is basically trying to force more low end out of a system that wasn't designed for that. But it kind of works and i used to be quiet happy with the results. I just have to recone my T18's so i can do that again.
Tha yamahas will do some pressure down at 35-40hz, especially when low passed at 45 so they are not loaded with anything higher.
When you make them go only this low they play their role quiet decent because their sloppines is not that important down there. They just fill in some energy while the t18's play the upper parts with beat and transients in the sub lines. But when the yammie is a full range sub... soft soft soft and only soft. No punch, woof woof woof woof , never a bang...
Yes i understand that i can get the subs quieter and then eq them to go lower. That's quiet much what i do when i run only the yamahas. Force some 35-40hz sub out of them and get 50-60 area a bit quieter so you can hear the lower parts because the 50-60hz area is not overpowerng them. But here i was told that's a bad idea because i'm pushing them below the tunning frequency.