Any Experience with a Peavey BWX SC 18" Neo for bass?

[BillyIVbass]

I have a nice empty 1x18" sub box and was curious if anyone has ever used a Peavey BWX SC 18" Neo speaker?

I'd be powering it with my Hartke LH500, so I would not be overpowering it. My reason for this speaker is the weight and the price. I don't need a cab it's well right now a crazy 4am idea.

[Plstrns]

Very low x max., not exactly a sub spec. 1.95mm? Is it 10.95?, 9.5 mm? surely not 1.95 mm...

SPECS

18"
Impedance: 8 Ohms
Power capacity: 2600 W Peak 1300 W Program 650 W Continuous
Sensitivity: 97.5 dB / 1 W 1 m
Usable freq. range: 25 Hz ~ 500 Hz
Cone: Kevlar® impregnated cellulose
Voice coil diameter: 4.0" / 100 mm
Voice coil material: Aluminum ribbon wire Polyimide-impregnated fiberglass former Nomex® stiffener Solderless diffusion welded OFHC copper leads
Net weight lb. / kg: 12.5 lbs. / 5.68 kg
Znom (ohms) 8
Revc (ohms) 5.1
Sd (Square Meters) 0.1237
BL (T/M) 17.77
Fo (Hz) 39
Vas (liters) 281.5
Cms (uM/N) 129.6
Mms (gm) 122.6
Qms 9.954
Qes 0.497
Qts 0.473
Xmax (mm) 1.95
Le (mH) 0.32
SPL (1W 1m) 97.5
No (%) 3.5
Vd (cu. in. / ml) 29.5 / 483
Pmax (Watts pgm.) 1300
Disp (cu. in. / ml) 228 / 3737

[craig.p]

Wow. Usable to 500 Hz means it'll be useless unless it's part of a rig that crosses over to something that can actually "do midrange."

Not to mention the tuning prediction you've yet to go through (box dimensions + driver specs).

Also who's going to want this when you've grown tired of it.

Might have better luck with a baffle-cutout overlay and a smaller driver but again you'd still have to go through the tuning-prediction business.

Careful. Could be a cash sinkhole & then you'll wind up dumping it on some poor slob from CL who comes gunning for you a week later to get his twenty bucks back.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by Plstrns

Very low x max., not exactly a sub spec. 1.95mm? Is it 10.95?, 9.5 mm? surely not 1.95 mm...

The 18 and 15 both have very large Vas, high Qts and short xmax, which renders them pretty useless IMO. Very odd. The 12 is better, the 10 better still, but they still fall short of Eminence offerings.

[craig.p]

I wonder if it's one of those Chinese jobs. I have a 15" Chinese low-Xmax job brand new & still in its Peavey box. Still deciding whether to throw it into a sealed 1.1 cu ft box or into a too-small '70s-era slot-vented box that typically peaks around 70 Hz. Guess it's a question of how hard I want to laugh after I plug in & start playing.

(This is what happens when you let junk accumulate over the years.)

[greenboy]

The whole problem with the Peavey replaceable basket thing that's worked so well for them in decades past is that it constrains how much safe xmax can be used to values that were big enough then but small potatoes now. And to top it off, when they introduced bolt-on replacement neo motors, the few drivers they offer them with stock are not all so suitable.

They will fit other baskets, but still, 4.8 or maybe 5.2 mm is all you are likely to see for xmax, as I recall.

Then too, because the neo motor has to fit backwardly compatible with decades worth of drivers, the weight is higher than a unitized modern design can achieve.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by craig.p

I wonder if it's one of those Chinese jobs.

AFAIK Peavey neos are of Chinese origin, but that's of no consequence. Most drivers 'made in the USA' get many, if not all, of their parts from Asia. It's just odd that the fifteen and eighteen have xmax less than half that of the ten and twelve, rendering their high power handling moot.

[greenboy]

Originally Posted by craig.p

Wow. Usable to 500 Hz means it'll be useless unless it's part of a rig that crosses over to something that can actually "do midrange."

The thing a lot of people around talkbass fail to realize is that often for 18" drivers the upper number (in this case 500 Hz) is specified not because the driver doesn't go higher. It often does, but it's rather jagged.

All moot really, since what should matter is not ON-AXIS response but, what the driver size means to OFF-AXIS response.