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AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...

#5,801
Just a kindly word to the general populace here - not trying to put anyone down or be a 'free speech nazi',
I'm pretty sure Duke is a pretty busy guy and also a helpful & knowledgeable guy.
Put those two together with the fact that he enjoys interacting with us cellar-dwellers & I'm sure he has a struggle balancing his time working on products that customers are waiting on & answering our questions on talkbass.
He is a really nice guy and goes out of his way to help us in a lot of different ways, so let us try to not abuse (if that is not too strong of a word) his presence & participation on these forums.
I know he's a big boy & can deal with everything on his own, I just feel a bit of empathy with his dealing with how he spends his precious time.
So just be mindful if you could of the fact that we may have more time to spend online than some other people.

Duke, I hope I haven't dampened anyone's enthusiasm regarding open 'free speech' with you or you with them.
Balance in life's activities is one of the biggest challenges.

DISCLAIMER: I am not currently waiting for Duke to complete a cab for me (although I wish I was - LOL)!
 
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#5,803
5StringPocket said:
I've been seriously considering a Hathor 212 lately because of it's percussive and solid low end but am torn between 3" versus 5" mids. I play mostly rock, blues, funk, and modern country and was wondering if the slightly louder and growlier 5" mid would be a better fit. There don't seem to be many Hathor 212's out and haven't heard of one with a 5" mid yet so there is no user feedback. I don't need to hear up to 14k with a bass but like to have the mids stand out if needed. Thoughts on this?
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I've got the H212 and trust me there is more than enough mids. With the mid switch in the up position the cab is very mid forward. I usually leave the switch down unless I'm using my jazz with both pickups full on.
 
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#5,804
5string pocket, Maybe Duke could do a XX63 version. I know I liked it much more with the 3's than without them. The six just doesn't have much going on above 6k and you lose airiness and string detail. I am not just talking about the clicky squeaky sounds either. The textural quality of the entire note envelope changes from the upper mids on up.

Edit: I know the fives have a bit more extension, but I feel the difference would be similar between the 5's and 3's. The threes are just so much faster and controlled for the upper end. They really capture the stringiness of the bass.
 
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#5,805
Thanks for the comments. I know the open mid format disperses every bit of sound available but it amazes me that two tiny 3" mids could have enough presence to keep up with a pair of 3012LF. Everyone who has them seems to be very pleased with their sound though. It seems this pairing is one of the secret sauces - just use it and don't mess with the recipe. The 5" goes to 7.5 kHz but still not high enough to catch all the detail. The 1263 version sounds interesting but I know it would add weight and cost. I think the 6" can be crossed over lower which was needed for that 18" driver.
 
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#5,807
5StringPocket said:
Thanks for the comments. I know the open mid format disperses every bit of sound available but it amazes me that two tiny 3" mids could have enough presence to keep up with a pair of 3012LF. Everyone who has them seems to be very pleased with their sound though. It seems this pairing is one of the secret sauces - just use it and don't mess with the recipe. The 5" goes to 7.5 kHz but still not high enough to catch all the detail. The 1263 version sounds interesting but I know it would add weight and cost. I think the 6" can be crossed over lower which was needed for that 18" driver.
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Quoting Duke from post #4553:
"...my original plan was to use the single 5" cone. But I was getting all this feedback from people saying that the voicing of little 1203 hit the sweet spot, so I decided to go with "two 1203's shoehorned into one box". I can certainly make one with the single 5" cone, but I'm not sure what to call it, because "Hathor 212" is already taken. Maybe "Hathor 212.5"?

The 5" mid is a bit closer to the sound in my head, but I'm not a bass player."
 
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#5,808
5StringPocket said:
I've been seriously considering a Hathor 212 lately because of it's percussive and solid low end but am torn between 3" versus 5" mids. I play mostly rock, blues, funk, and modern country and was wondering if the slightly louder and growlier 5" mid would be a better fit. There don't seem to be many Hathor 212's out and haven't heard of one with a 5" mid yet so there is no user feedback. I don't need to hear up to 14k with a bass but like to have the mids stand out if needed. Thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

Whichever you decide is fine of course, but it sounds like the 5" mid would be a bit better fit.

5StringPocket said:
Thanks for the comments. I know the open mid format disperses every bit of sound available but it amazes me that two tiny 3" mids could have enough presence to keep up with a pair of 3012LF.
Click to expand...

On paper it looks like it shouldn't work, too much of a mis-match between the mighty Kappalite 12 and the little Faital 3. But the Faital's wider dispersion means that the real-world SPL gap isn't a big as the on-axis numbers imply.

* * * *

John D Harris said:
I'm pretty sure Duke is a pretty busy guy...
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Thank you for your concern! That was very thoughtful of you.

I really enjoy interacting with you guys, ya'll have become my friends, and I don't mind whatever you guys want to bring up! I might not get around to responding as quickly as I'd like, or you'd like, as you've probably noticed.

Sometimes I get behind (<- I'm sure you are all shocked to hear this) and end up trying to put water on the biggest fires first, when I'd really like to come here and talk with you guys a lot more. I keep hoping that soon as I get this and this and this behind me, then it'll be more like it was in the good old days. But I don't want to get old and be saying to myself, dangit I had this great idea and never really gave it a chance, and now it's too late.

So mixed in with building cabs, I'm working on several ideas, some of which have come up in this thread, and some of which haven't. Some of them are ideas that I've been sitting on for a long time, and I finally feel like I stand a good chance of clearing the technical hurdles. So right now I'm trying to be a laboratory and a factory, but the day will come when I can go back to being just a factory. Most of the time I'm a factory that's running behind! So squeezing in prototype cabs has been harder than expected,

But if anyone has asked a question on here and I haven't responded, please rattle my cage! I really don't mind, and would rather you do that than for your question to go unanswered.

Marial said:
And here I thought Duke was a grown ass man...
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Well that is the image I try to project! But at best it's only about half true. I'll let you decide which half!
 
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#5,809
DukeLeJeune said:
I'll let you decide which half!
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b2eb9052d44acbbd4d62497d01df51ba.gif
 
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#5,810
Duke, I'm sure you have, but I'm going to throw this out there as an awesome idea anyway... have you looked into outsourcing whatever is the most time consuming part of "being a factory" is? I imagine even just cutting wood, let alone assembling a cab, crossover etc are all time consuming steps that could be farmed out and give you a little more focus on some other aspects?

Edit: I'm not necessarily saying send this stuff to China and wash your hands of it, but perhaps there's some option available.
 
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#5,811
Selta said:
Duke, I'm sure you have, but I'm going to throw this out there as an awesome idea anyway... have you looked into outsourcing whatever is the most time consuming part of "being a factory" is? I imagine even just cutting wood, let alone assembling a cab, crossover etc are all time consuming steps that could be farmed out and give you a little more focus on some other aspects?

Edit: I'm not necessarily saying send this stuff to China and wash your hands of it, but perhaps there's some option available.
Click to expand...

That is a great idea, and I may well end up there. Thank you for jogging my thoughts! But don't worry, I don't begin to have enough money to buy a containerload of made-in-China cabinets!

Actually I took a big step backwards in this area about two years ago, when we moved to Texas. Back in Idaho, there was a cabinet-making shop with a CNC machine that cut all the wood for me. They were close enough that we could have face-to-face discussions pretty much anytime, and they were very good. That was a great situation, and I didn't realize how good I had it.

Here in the Dallas area, where the economy is booming, I had a very hard time finding anyone with a CNC machine that would even have a conversation with me. No cabinet-making shops would work with me - they'd rather build kitchens. I did have some CNC work done by an aerospace company that had some down-time in between big jobs, but that ended up being quite expensive.

So nowadays I cut all the boards myself... just the opposite of what you suggested! And everything takes me a lot longer than it used to.

Right now I have WAY too many models to outsource cabinet builds for my whole lineup. And I'm adding even more! But then hopefully two or three models will stand out as the best, and those would be the candidates for out-sourcing.

But I don't want to initiate any out-sourcing until I've given more of my ideas a chance to show their worth (or lack thereof).
 
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#5,813
tallboybass said:
Duke, is there any chance you allow factory visits and also have most of your bass cabs available to try out? Asking for a friend...
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On my "to-do" list is, to have some of my more popular models on hand. From time to time I've had a cab or two that wasn't already spoken for. Right now I have a Thunderchild 112 on hand, but that's it.

If someone wanted to try cabs, imo my house is not a good choice. The wiring is old and the fusebox looks scary. I would not want to do anything approaching full-power testing here. But my wife has a wellness center in downtown McKinney, the big nearby town, and it has industrial-grade wiring. One big room, roughly 19 feet by 42 feet, ten or twelve foot ceiling. That's where I would suggest we meet.

If your friend has a particular cab or cabs in mind, well that may help me prioritize what to have on hand. I mean I have a priority in mind, but it's not carved in stone.

Realistically, the "have cabs on hand" project is probably not going to get much attention until after I get bit further along on some product development projects.
 
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