Dual box sealed 18" Mal X build begins.

**clausdk** · **07-14-09, 09:34 AM**

The EP 2500 just arrived and I fired it up. Fan is indeed very noisy. The Papst is only 12 db, but also less airflow ofc. Looking forward to recieving the driver any day!

**fackamato** · **07-14-09, 09:44 AM**

Quote:

clausdk wrote:

The EP 2500 just arrived and I fired it up. Fan is indeed very noisy. The Papst is only 12 db, but also less airflow ofc. Looking forward to recieving the driver any day!

As long as you have _any_ airflow through the amp it will be fine in my opinion. It does have an overheat protection so you won't fry it

I put a resistor in series with the fan on my EP2500's and they're dead silent now.

**clausdk** · **07-14-09, 09:47 AM**

Quote:

fackamato wrote:

As long as you have _any_ airflow through the amp it will be fine in my opinion. It does have an overheat protection so you won't fry it

I put a resistor in series with the fan on my EP2500's and they're dead silent now.

Yea ok, I have ordered the 24v papst fan though, so might as well try that first.

It's a very good thing it cools out the front as my cabinet has cloth doors in the front.

**clausdk** · **07-15-09, 09:58 AM**

Driver has arrived!!!

It's certainly heavy, thats for sure!!

I'm going to work for 5 days now so won't be able to assemble it all until beginning of next week...

Gives me a little time to research a couple of final things, such as, how to wire it correctly to the behringer ep2500 and also how to correctly adjust the behringer(jumpers and such)

Few pics!

**fackamato** · **07-15-09, 10:05 AM**

Finally some good pics of the M-X!

I wish I had a house so I could order 8 of these...

**Owen Bartley** · **07-15-09, 12:31 PM**

Claus, I'm glad you got your driver finally!! How did the cabinet turn out??

**clausdk** · **07-15-09, 05:07 PM**

Quote:

fackamato wrote:

Finally some good pics of the M-X!

I wish I had a house so I could order 8 of these...

I'll be sure to post more once I return from work abroad :=)

**clausdk** · **07-15-09, 05:10 PM**

Quote:

Owen Bartley wrote:

Claus, I'm glad you got your driver finally!! How did the cabinet turn out??

Thanks!

The cabinet is finished in high gloss white. It's still at the painters shop as he was going on holiday and I wanted it to "damp" off a little as his place before it enters the living room.

He said over the phone that the "dryer" looked awesome. I've had him paint my hifi rack also, which I think turned out nicely.

Will know next week and I'll post pics.

**clausdk** · **07-21-09, 06:19 AM**

Hi.

Can anyone tell me how to wire the maelstrom Gen II correctly?

I'll be using the EP 2500 in bridged mode.

As far as I can tell so far this is what I must do:

1) connect the + from the Behringer to the "red" on one of the voice coils.
2) from the voice coil used in above I connect a wire from "black" to "red" on voice coil nr 2.
3) from voice coil nr 2 I connect a wire from "black" to the "black on the Behringer.

they should then be in series and result in a 4 ohm load for the amp.

I found some white paper on the subject, but wanted to make certain I'm doing it right.

**fackamato** · **07-21-09, 06:46 AM**

Quote:

clausdk wrote:

Hi.

Can anyone tell me how to wire the maelstrom Gen II correctly?

I'll be using the EP 2500 in bridged mode.

As far as I can tell so far this is what I must do:

1) connect the + from the Behringer to the "red" on one of the voice coils.
2) from the voice coil used in above I connect a wire from "black" to "red" on voice coil nr 2.
3) from voice coil nr 2 I connect a wire from "black" to the "black on the Behringer.

they should then be in series and result in a 4 ohm load for the amp.

I found some white paper on the subject, but wanted to make certain I'm doing it right.

That's almost correct.

Connect the lower plus (2nd from above) terminal to red on the first voice coil. Connect a wire, as you say, from voice coil #1 black to voice coil #2 red. Connect voice coil #2 black to the 2nd terminal from the bottom.

The terminals you'll be using are marked as "BRIDGE MONO". You'll see it on the back of the EP2500. Don't forget to set the dip switches correctly for bridged operation.

**clausdk** · **07-21-09, 06:49 AM**

Thanks a bunch.

Ok so you inluded the wirering from the Behringer so plus is second from the top in bridged operation.

I actually also need to figure out the jumper settings on the behringer, however theres a post about it, getting slighty confused that you chose some of the jumpers opposite of what seems to be "right".

**clausdk** · **07-21-09, 06:06 PM**

It works!

Was 7 hours late getting home from work - because one of my flights was cancelled, so my entire timeplan was smashed.

Had to pick up the cabinet from the painter, then assemble and fire it up. Wasn't easy putting in the driver btw!!! Luckily I had my dad and brother assisting.

I think I have some problems with my radioshack meter so I might go by a shop tomorrow and pick up a new one or perhaps just get a proper mic once and for all.

I have a nasty room peak at around 35-40hz, I use 4 filters atm, and even though the REW shows the 37 hz peak is low, it isn't in real life. I always use the tone generator to actually listen to my results and I lowered it alot more than the REW wanted me to. Thats what got me thinking the SPL meter i broken.

However, when listning to my favorite DVD, CD etc I had the SPL meter running and it seemed to give me the SPL readings I'm used to so I am pretty boggled about it all right now.

Listening impressions so far are good.

I was able to energize my room in a whole new level I havent heard or felt before. My wife informing me that our doors to the living room were shaking, which she has never said so before.

I rolled through some of my favorite sceenes but I was still in the process of fine tuning, and I am not done yet at all. I realised that my reciever had set the sub signal way to weak so once I got it adjusted everything was more powerfull. I actually have to rerun alot of what I already went through.

I'd like to write more, but I would really like to adjust more on the whole setup before giving my final verdict.

So far I am not in doubt that it beats me SVS PB12+ by a lot. It's a beast and I wonder if I wan't two of these or rather spend that money on the SVS EQ.

I have alot more pics comming, but need to go to bed now, just wanted to give an update and to let you all know that I have arrived with this sub project.

SO! thanks to everyone who has answered my noob questions, it's been so helpful I doubt I would have done this without.

Here's a REW measurement, its system response at the main listening position. X over is 80 hz.

Some pics:

Calibrating hehe:

Keeping the behringer out of the cabinet until the new fan arrives:

Closeup, hard to get a good picture, but the paintjob is very nice.

**Warpdrv** · **07-22-09, 08:29 PM**

Very nice my friend.... looks like you have a small -medium room... I have that same room peak in my small bedroom setup with my F112, and I love it to death... Keep it

took me 3 Mal-X's and a 15" sub in the great room of lets say 10,000^3 to come close to what the F112 does in 1700^3...

So lets hear your impressions of the difference between ported Plus/2 and the Sealed Mal-X

On a side note, looks like you have some room treatments in there, nice - but you should consider some area rugs to kill that floor bounce in front of your speakers.... just a thought - looks like a fantastic setup and you should be very proud - congrats

**clausdk** · **08-28-09, 10:25 AM**

Quote:

Warpdrv wrote:

Very nice my friend.... looks like you have a small -medium room... I have that same room peak in my small bedroom setup with my F112, and I love it to death... Keep it

took me 3 Mal-X's and a 15" sub in the great room of lets say 10,000^3 to come close to what the F112 does in 1700^3...

So lets hear your impressions of the difference between ported Plus/2 and the Sealed Mal-X

On a side note, looks like you have some room treatments in there, nice - but you should consider some area rugs to kill that floor bounce in front of your speakers.... just a thought - looks like a fantastic setup and you should be very proud - congrats

Thank you very much. Fortunately this excellent forum helped me achieve this project

Had some time to tune and tweak. Recieved the new fan for the behringer and it's completely quiet now and doesnt even get near warm even when putting out 100 db during movies and music. I can really recommend the fan swap.

Regarding the difference between the SVS and this. Well the SVS is certainly a very capable subwoofer at a good price however this mal x is a whole different league in my opinion.

With my current setting, althought a good 3-6 db "hot" subwoofer really dissapears and I can't locate it.

When playing music the powerful bass simply grabs a hold on me with relentless effortless dynamics. Playing my favorite James Taylor various DVD concerts, that I often use as reference, is a new experience. If anyone should own the "Tribute to James Taylor - musicares" DVD concert there's a really cool passage in "fire and rain" where's there's a really powerful bass that is simply wonderful.

All in all very satisfied. Right now the priority will be new main speakers to match my awesome subwoofer system. However, down the line I will most likely build 2 new boxes at 100L.

Here's a response at the couch. 7 different measurements averaged out:

I'm having a bit of trouble with my soundcard at the moment so for some reason I get around a 5 db boost. I think a dedicated sound card for my laptop would be alot better or possibly the audio M external card.

I raised my target level alot to bring the botton end up, then EQ'd down. It's an endless tweak with those EQ's

but right now I think my system sounds awesome!

**Owen Bartley** · **08-28-09, 10:40 AM**

Looks like it came out great! It's a total match for the rest of your room, and seems to tie in really well. And I'm glad you're so impressed with how it sounds! Good to know it does so well on music and not just on explosions, gunshots, and monsters too.

**Kevin Haskins** · **08-28-09, 12:37 PM**

Yea... looks great! Every room is different but EQ is definitely a useful tool. I've said it a million times but the SMS-1 is a great tool. It makes the process much easier than cobbling together the various bits and pieces to measure and EQ. You pay a slight premium for the tool but it has extra functionality and it GREATLY simplifies the measurement EQ process.

Kevin Haskins
Exodus Audio

**clausdk** · **08-31-09, 04:07 AM**

Quote:

Owen Bartley wrote:

Looks like it came out great! It's a total match for the rest of your room, and seems to tie in really well. And I'm glad you're so impressed with how it sounds! Good to know it does so well on music and not just on explosions, gunshots, and monsters too.

Thanks alot.

Actually the biggest performance upgrade seems to be present especially with music. Extended basslines with the SVS were good, but short punchy bursts had a sort of delay to them or not as accurate. The mal x seems more agile, wether this is due to a more fortunate placement and or EQ I don't know. I just praise the fact that it's better

**clausdk** · **08-31-09, 04:11 AM**

Quote:

Kevin Haskins wrote:

Yea... looks great! Every room is different but EQ is definitely a useful tool. I've said it a million times but the SMS-1 is a great tool. It makes the process much easier than cobbling together the various bits and pieces to measure and EQ. You pay a slight premium for the tool but it has extra functionality and it GREATLY simplifies the measurement EQ process.

Kevin Haskins
Exodus Audio

Yes that might be true but I guess it all came down to cost for me. Also the REW seem to do the exact same thing and being able to make many measurements with the REW and average them out seems to work great for me at the moment. Not sure the SMS-1 can do that?

If I ever decide to build two subs I will even consider the new SVS EQ - better start saving those pennies :=)

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