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Carvin NE15-8

B

bassist5819

Sep 8, 2010
13
0
Dallas
#1
I was wondering if anybody had used the Carvin NE15-8's in their rig and what they thought of them. I ask because I'm thinking about putting them into my Kustom 3x15.

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My head right now is a Carvin Bx1200 and my current band is using just about all of its power when we practice/play so I need the wattage. I'm looking for speakers that will give me the bottom I need while still having full and clear mids and highs so if anyone knows of any other speaker that has that kind of wattage at that kind of price range let me know.
 
#2
3mm xmax and 97db sensitivity are no bargain for that price. The rest of the specs are adequate for bass guitar use (decently low fs, reasonable qts, reasonable vas) but I still don't think I would bother with them based on the xmax.

Speakerhardware has Deltalites for 115 bucks apiece, which have superior sensitivity and enough xmax to get twice the displacement limited power handling each, roughly.

Kappalite 3015's are even better, although you hardly need that much displacement even with the BX1200, they still might be worth the upgrade.
 
#3
I've used one. It's an adequate 15 but nothing special. Theres certainly better out there. rpsands is a great person for advice. I called US Speaker and got turned on to the Faital PRO 15PR400. Killer speakers. I get lots of rig compliments now? The Kappalite's I think are better bang for the buck. Pretty amazing speakers.
 
#6
BassmanPaul said:
Please read the FAQ thread. It'll answer a lot of your questions. Dropping a speaker into a box that's not designed for it is a crapshoot at best.
Click to expand...

Big +1. There is a lot of free info online to help you with this. WinISD is must have software and is free.

And the TB search function should give just about all the info you need.
 
#7
Alright thanks a lot guys, really helpful stuff. I've decided on the kappalite3015's, they seem to be exactly what I'm looking for and from what I've read they are a lot more forgiving for speaker swaps into random cabinets than the deltalite's. But now I'm not sure how exactly to wire the cabinet.

If I run it in parallel with 3 8ohm speakers the cabinets at 2.663 ohms which my bx1200 can run, but I wasn't sure if any of you knew of doing it a different way such as mixing speakers with different ohms or anything else that I'm not aware of. I know that the bx1200 can run bridged with a 4ohm cab so that would probably be the ideal impedance, I just don't know if i can get to that with the 3 speaker set up.

I've searched but I haven't found what I'm looking for, hope you guys can help.
 
#8
The best use of your rig would probably be to use two separate jacks on the cabinet -- one for the bottom two speakers in parallel and one for the top one separate. Then run one side of your amp per jack and match the volume.

That opens you to some risk (e.g. if you screw up the wiring or something) but it's probably worth the extra headroom.

3x cabs are always a pain though for exactly this reason.
 
#9
From what I've read the ideal set up for a 3 speaker cab would two 16ohm speakers and one 8ohm all in parallel to give the cab a 4ohm resistance so it could be ran in bridge mode for the full 1200 watts. But the only 16ohm speaker I could find that looks half decent is the delta 15b which, although alot cheaper, is just not even close to the kappalite.

Or

If I ran it like you said rpsands, with two of them in parallel which would give me 4ohms for the bottom 2 speakers and then an 8 ohm for the top one so the amp would give the bottom two speakers 400w and the top one 275w. If I did this would I just simply run the top speaker at close to half the volume of the bottom two or is there something I'm missing?

Or

Would it make more sense to run 2 kappalites in parallel and then get a 4ohm speaker (one with better high's and then make use of the bi-amping controls) for the top so instead of getting 675w from the amp I would be getting 800w and a bi-ampable cab?

What option sounds the best?
 
#12
The other option is to board up the bottom speaker hole, add enough port space to be ideal for two 3015's and have a kick-ass 4 ohm rig.

I really don't think you'll miss that third 15. Two Kappalites will crush the stock Kustom 3x15's.

Just a thought.

If you still opt to go with three drivers, you will still probably need to add two more ports between the bottom two drivers.
 
#14
bassist5819 said:
From what I've read the ideal set up for a 3 speaker cab would two 16ohm speakers and one 8ohm all in parallel to give the cab a 4ohm resistance so it could be ran in bridge mode for the full 1200 watts. But the only 16ohm speaker I could find that looks half decent is the delta 15b which, although alot cheaper, is just not even close to the kappalite.

Or

If I ran it like you said rpsands, with two of them in parallel which would give me 4ohms for the bottom 2 speakers and then an 8 ohm for the top one so the amp would give the bottom two speakers 400w and the top one 275w. If I did this would I just simply run the top speaker at close to half the volume of the bottom two or is there something I'm missing?

Or

Would it make more sense to run 2 kappalites in parallel and then get a 4ohm speaker (one with better high's and then make use of the bi-amping controls) for the top so instead of getting 675w from the amp I would be getting 800w and a bi-ampable cab?

What option sounds the best?
Click to expand...

A) You DO NOT want to mix impedances. If you go with two 16 ohm speakers, the tow of them combined will be getting the same power as the one 8 ohm speaker (or conversly - the 8 ohm speaker will be getting twice the power of each of the 16 ohm speakers).

B) If you run 2 speakers off of one half of the amp, and one speaker off of the other, you would actually run them at around the same volume (not half). The 2 speakers will be running at 4 ohms, so it will get more power - However, it is split between the 2 speakers (200 watts each). The lone speaker will be at 8 ohms and will get a maximum of 275 watts. Not a big difference from the 200 watts each of the other speakers.

C) You DO NOT want to Bi-Amp because it would a complete waste of the speakers capabilities, and your wattage. Getting a 4 ohm speaker for the high range, and feeding it the same watts as the lows is absolutely unnecessary. Low freq's take about 3 - 4 X the power of the highs for the same apparent volume. Lastly, a 15 for highs is a waste. To match up with a 2X15's you could get away with one or two 6" speakers and 100 or so watts.
 
#15
rpsands said:
Because you don't need to biamp woofers that all share the same bandwidth. Send all the woofers a full range signal.
Click to expand...
IMO three 3015s is silly, even two are overkill for most applications. If the amp has bi-amp capability I'd make use of it. Load 3015s into the bottom two holes, a 2510 into the top hole on an adaptor plate. Enclose the back of the ten with its own sealed chamber, as small as it can be made. Make sure the cab and ten chamber is lined with damping. Play around with the crossover frequency, anywhere from 500 to 1kHz will work well, what will work best only experimentation will reveal.
 
#16
Personally I'd suggest just going for a different cabinet as two 3015's will replace four of the Kustom drivers, almost without a doubt. But if he wants to make do with what he's got, eh...I think the solution of just plugging up one of the holes is probably best =P
 
#17
The main point of replacing the blown speakers instead of just getting a new cab is to keep my rig as ridiculous as possible. So doing anything but running all 3 15's is not an option.
So should I go with 3 16ohm speakers all ran in parallel as the cab was originally equipped and wired or with the 3 8ohm speakers with 2 in parallel and one by itself?
This speaker replacement has really turned into a can of worms.
 

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