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[William R. Conturo]

Hey,

Sorry for the lengthiness
 
Ok, I am probably going to get grilled for this but here it goes
For the past 4 years I have been running two Carvin Dual 18 TRXn s in one of my rigs. I am powering each with a carvin DCM 2000 (2000 watts bridged 4ohms) bridged of course. So each sub is getting that 2000 "theoretical" watts, or how ever that is equated, when I run the amps into the red. I never do run them into clip because of the limiters in my processing is set right below red but, point made.  I have given them hell from day one with about two gigs a week since and they may not sound great, they may not make the icicles come off the roof from the building across the street but they where cheep, weigh in at like 100lbs and fit into my minivan . I can load them in alone. Carvin rates these wimps at 1600/3200/6400 rms/prog/peak @ 4ohms. Now, I know ratings like that are total bs but has anyone else ever tried these to prove otherwise? What kind of power could they handle.. Am I getting full use of them? I really just want an excuse to put some new FAITAL PRO 18HP1040 drivers in them. I know the small cabinet design kills it but they fit in the van so I would be able to keep getting mini-van driving use out of them. How bad would that sound? They would be powered by two QSC PLX3602, power distro as needed. Would the carvins do better with the QSCs powering them or would I start frying stuff?

Thanks

[Paul G. OBrien]

Once you get up around the program power rating of a speaker system you won't see any significant gains by adding more power because power compression begins to consume more and more of that additional power. If you want more output and something that will be just as reliable and abuse proof as what you seem to have now the solution is to add more drivers and power them conservatively like you're doing now. 

[William R. Conturo]

Once you get up around the program power rating of a speaker system you won't see any significant gains by adding more power because power compression begins to consume more and more of that additional power. If you want more output and something that will be just as reliable and abuse proof as what you seem to have now the solution is to add more drivers and power them conservatively like you're doing now.

Ahh, Thanks Paul,
    I did think about power compression, I was just thinking I might get a bit more punch with that extra 1000 watts at the top of the curve there, not sure how severe that curve is exactly. With such kooky ratings I really have no clue where I am on that "watt/db spl" curve which is why I popped the question.    They do get plenty loud and sound good enough so I probably will just run em like they are till they die . When I bash them it's just because I am comparing them to the really grade A stuff that I wish I had, I just can't justify buying something that cost 10 times what I have now given my current profit. Also, I don't abuse them, I use them . I take really good care of my gear. The cabs have almost no scratches or dings from the 4 years of constant load in and load out. I guess I should say live sound gives them hell, not me. I also gotta say, from the view point I have, Carvin's cab construction is surprisingly good, but how hard is it to make a template for some wood paneling, glue it all together, and spray it down with texture coat. It ain't hard, I have done it. I wish I could just demo some different drivers in these to see if it brings them to life. Maybe that is a discussion for the Sub section of the forums, thoughts?

Any other thoughts welcome..

Thanks

[Paul G. OBrien]

The sensitivity rating for these boxes(if you believe it) is in the neighborhood of what most other manufacturers post and for the most part 98-100db over the actual range in use(below 100hz) with 1w is pretty much all you can expect from reflex loaded dual 18s. Power compression differs with each driver but it's not uncommon to see 3db loss or more at the rated input, and drivers with really big power handling capacity often have much lower sensitivity, so at this level I doubt a driver swap will buy you much. It may be worth your while to demo a few different amps on these speakers though, they're not all created equal when it comes to bass reproduction in demanding environments that often do not have optimal AC mains supplies.

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