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LDS Sealed 15/8

kringle77

kringle77

Supporting Member
Jul 30, 2004
8,880
4,290
49
Massena NY
#1
I will be recieving my new LDS cab next week and wanted to get the thread started. Many of you may have seen my thread where I modded my bergantino NV610 cab with a crossed over 8" for top end. I am so in love with this cab that I wanted to get that same type of sound at home and also to have a smaller practise/jam cab. Here is what I came up with.

-Sealed cab with a 15" eminence delta 15LFA and a Jensen mod 8-20, each in there own sealed chamber.
-the 15 can be run at full range for vintage growl or low passed at 800hz.
-The jensen 8" is high passed at 800hz and is controlled with an attenuator to add just the right amount of paper cone top end.
-18"wide, 26" tall, 14" deep (rough dimensions) about 45 lbs.
-covered in tough black tolex, black metal corners and grill, one recessed handle on the side with handle turned vertical so I can carry it like a suitcase.

Don told me that he has built many cabs using that delta 15lfa sealed and says it punches hard. Im thinking that this will cop most of the tone of my modded 6x10 and be really easy to move. Im hoping to have it by the end of next week and will post pics with a review.
 
#4
He use a 100 watt L-pad on those? That'd be my only concern really, bass still has a good deal on content/power there. As lower volume thing, maybe ok. Acme uses L-pads on their mids too and I haven't heard of them burning out, but then many other folks say don't use one on midranges, tweeters ok because there's very little power up there. I've always wondered about that.
 
#5
kringle77 said:
-The jensen 8" is high passed at 800hz
Click to expand...

I've seen the specs and response of the Jensen. I think it will sound pretty nice if you're after vintage tones and still want some detail.
The only thing that worries me is the rms rating of only 20watts. Even if you cross at 800hz there might be a possibility that you will blow it up way before the 15LFA. Are you also thinking about adding a protection circuit?
 
#7
It's fused so, the 8" is safe. Anyway, in my nv610 cab I've got the mid up to only 9 o'clock. So, it's not seeing much of the total signal. It isn't working hard and sounds great. I went through so many mids in the last 3 years and haven't found anything at any price that I like as much as this very affordable mod 8. It doesn't have the "gank" that most mids tend to have and it sounds even brighter than the frequency plot suggests but, in a smooth and pleasing way.

I've got to point something out here. I went for a solid 3 years chasing after cabs that were supposed to be correctly designed "proper" mids, crossovers, etc. I chased the neo thing too. I did learn many valuable things but when it comes right down to it, my ear was a better judge of tone than spec sheets. Im not running cabs that are somewhere between traditional and "correct". Im getting tone, dispersion, sensativity, etc that I was hunting after. So many here told me that if you have a flat cab, you can dial in any character or tonal profile with eq, overdrive pedals, etc. Well, that wasn't the case for me. I finally went with my ear and now I have cabs that sound like I want them to without any eq or pedals and just tweak to fit a room. I love to just turn the power switch on and GO.
 
#8
JGR was actually the one who turned me on to the bag end 15" cabs which showed me a 15" could be punchy. I just have way better results from room to room when using sealed cabs. I've owned many ported cabs that I loved but the sound was all over the place from club to club. My berg sounds the same no matter where I gig. I just dig the repeatability. Now, instead of sweating over a sound check, I have time to enjoy a beer and talk with people.

It was all the things that I learned on here about speakers and sound that has helped get my pa system squared away. I basically plug everything in, turn power on, un-mute the mixer channels and Im done. That is all thanks to talkbass.
 
#9
Your ear should be the final judge. I'll just note that when you're running your mid at "9 o'clock", the mid won't be seeing much power because the L-pad is soaking up most of it, hence the L-pad on mids thing. Hey, if it works, it works.
 
#10
Yeah, thats the point. I find that to get a cab to sound like a bass cab, with some growl, is to try to make the woofer reproduce the top end. Then, just alittle mid driver can be dialed in to produce some real clarity and some extra top that the woofer can't really reproduce. The woofer growls, the mid is really clean. The best of both worlds. Also, the mid isn't worked very hard so, you then can use one with a light weight coil which tends to sound sweeter anyway.
 
#11
I like this sealed 15/8 concept and the reasons you're trying it. Sounds like the modded 610 -> 8x8 fridge -> sealed 15/8 has been an interesting journey of discovery. Sealed cabs tend to have nice punch and tight, controlled lows. Perhaps this is why the sound is more consistent in different venues? It's also nice to have a rig you can just power up and dial in your sound without having to tweak it much. Especially if you have a FOH system to do the heavy lifting out front, you need a cab that sounds good on stage and doesn't fight with the FOH mix. I can see running the 15" woofer full range with no 8" mid or using the 800 Hz crossover with the 8" mid, but wouldn't there be phase issues running the 15" full range with some 8" blended in? Maybe that's part of the secret sauce. Your ears will let you know what sounds good. Looking forward to some pics and your thoughts on this cab.
 
#12
Thats just it. There won't be any cancelations in the horizontal plan because they will be lined up vertically. I have the option to low pass the 15" as well and there will not be any cancellations in either plane. But, you are right, the 15 run full range is part of the "sauce". This cab will be paired up with either a vintage svt, a shuttle 9.0 or shuttlemax 9.2. Talk about tight punch.
 
#13
That should be one sweet sounding cab, keep us posted. Me personally wouldn´t be going with single sealed 15 if it wasn´t emi definimax 4015 lf, but since you said you will be using it just for practice and jams it should hold its own.
 
#15
rogypop said:
Me personally wouldn´t be going with single sealed 15 if it wasn´t emi definimax 4015 lf,
Click to expand...

+1 on the Definimax 4015, it's probably the best performing driver for a sealed cab Eminence currently makes (at least for 15's), though it won't work for full range by itself. It's the driver I am going to use if I ever get around to building my sealed designs.
 
#16
JGR said:
+1 on the Definimax 4015, it's probably the best performing driver for a sealed cab Eminence currently makes (at least for 15's), though it won't work for full range by itself. It's the driver I am going to use if I ever get around to building my sealed designs.
Click to expand...

It would live up to 800 hz but than it should be crossed to some nice midrange.
 
#19
I checked out that 4015 and it is a SERIOUS driver. Luckily, I could trade out the 15lfa for one since the internal dimensions of the cab are agreable to the 4015. The delta will most likely fit my tonal goals better though.
 
#20
What do you think of the notion thst SS amps don't play well with sealed cabs ( this from BFM ) ? I've oftened been tempted to try a sealed cab, and, in fact, actually like the Thunderchild with both ports in.
 

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