I think I've entertained the idea of a new amp mainly on the protection aspect of a new amp and a slight increase in SQ & SPL. It's hard to keep telling myself it won't be a huge improvement when I really want there to be one. But yes I believe I have my own expectations under control and in the realm of reality.
I think that is probably the next step for the system. More subs & new DSP.
What do you mean by this? I was under the assumption that a faster attack time would help keep the transient power surges down. Wouldn't that be good for "unmanned" -meaning I'm not there to protect gear-? How does a longer attack time help things?
What would your recommendation for DSP be then if xilica can't do what'd you want keep in mind i'm probably only wanting to spend around 500-750?
I said the xilica because I figured it was slightly better spec wise than an ashley for the same price range; though i have not done all the research required to make any claims currently.
A fast attack time can be a good thing-AS LONG AS it is not set to high.
If you "bury" the limiter-then the average power can get pretty high-but the peaks are not exceeding a certain level and the heating can get out of hand pretty quickly.
With a long attack time-set for 1/4 to 1/2 power, then the peaks will pass just fine-but when the average gets to high it will be reduced.
A typical comment would be "Well the amp never clipped"-Well yes-but your average level was way to high.
The xilica is limited to 100ms. 2 or 3 seconds would be better.
Some of the better amps have multi level limiters in them that allow for setting continuous/thermal and average or peak levels. This is MUCH better-ASSUMING the parameter are set properly.
Since we are talking about Danley TH118s here-I "assume" it would be OK to recommend the Danley SC48 processor.
It has a MUCH better limiter section than the Xilica.
It does typical limiting (that has an attack time based on the high pass filter of the particular channel. It also has an "overshoot" that is adjustable to limit how high the peaks can be above its setting.
In the advanced setting of this limiter there is also another limiter that is great for highs on multiway boxes. You can adjust how much lower the limiting to be and the freq at which it reacts. It also has an overshoot/peak adjustment.
This is great for protection of the highs. A good example would be if you get high freq feedback-the limiter set for the woofer will not protect the HF driver. But having the HF limiter kick in at some point 6 or 9 dB for example lower, the HF driver would be protected.
THere is also a thermal limiter that has and adjustable attack time (plenty long) and adjustable release time.
There is also an excursion limiter that you set the voltage and freq so that below that voltage the driver is allowed to extend as low as the crossover will allow.
But if the voltage gets to high (where the driver will be flopping around) the excursion control limits the freq and level that the driver will be exposed to-while allowing higher freq to come through.
When these are combined you have a pretty powerful limiter.
It is just a little more expensive than the xilica (I think)
It would be more money than you are looking at-but if you don't buy new amps as well, you might be fine.
It is a limiter that you could use for many years in the future. There is a lot of power available in it.
It would be a more worthwhile investments than new amps. And you could keep your current amps.
