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Eminence Kappalite 3015

#61
billfitzmaurice said:
Why? The drivers don't care.
Click to expand...

well sometimes I like how when the drivers hit their limit they start to distort...well it's more of a combination of the amp getting pushed hard + drivers...just wanted to make sure before I shell out the money and realize I need more power to get them to sound the way I want them to sound.

Anyways I just called up Eminence they were supposed to get in touch with on Friday :hmm: cause the guy that I talked to wanted to make sure my cab would be a good fit for the drivers...but apparently they were very busy...now I have to wait an extra day...also the price went up on the speaker lol...they better give them to me at the old price ;)
 
#62
knw said:
well sometimes I like how when the drivers hit their limit they start to distort...well it's more of a combination of the amp getting pushed hard + drivers...just wanted to make sure before I shell out the money and realize I need more power to get them to sound the way I want them to sound.
Click to expand...
Will they need more power to distort? Yes. And when you give them enough to distort, in this case some 700 watts, they'll also probably be way too loud. If you're looking for drivers that will crap out at low power levels these ain't them. Eminence, and for that matter no one else, can't accurately predict what any driver will do in your cab from a standard box program as it's not a standard reflex alignment.
 
#64
Bassman62 said:
I have both the 3015 and the 2515, I find that the 2515 produces a more rounded bottom end than the 3015.
I've used both models in PA and Bass Guitar cabs.
Click to expand...

Can you explain what you mean by "more rounded bottom end"?

I'm planning to replace a bass guitar combo's driver soon. What size cabs were you using?

Thanks! Direct experience is a wonderful thing, much better than looking at the plots on the 'puter screen.

- Paul
 
#65
pbagley said:
Can you explain what you mean by "more rounded bottom end"?
Click to expand...

I just got of the phone with the guy from eminence.

He tested the Kappalites 3015 8ohm, Deltalite II 2515 8ohm and Basslite 2515 4ohm speakers to see they will match my cab.

He told me they are all a good fit but I might not get the flattest bass response but I could archive it if I was to block one of the ports.

He actaully suggested I go with the Deltalite since I'm only goin to be pushing 200 - 325 watts of power...he said the Kappalites would be a over kill.

But I mentioned that my heads are rated at 2ohms but I'v only been playing them with 4 ohm single cabs...so they lose 50 to 100 watts cuase of that.

So I told him I wouldn't mind running my cab in 2ohm he said he doesn't recommend using my heads in 2ohm cause I might kill the speakers or the head...he said that in his personal experience is better to just run a 2ohm SS head in a 4 ohm cab.

He wasn't totally against it but that's what he had to say...so I asked about the basslites he said they would be able to run at 2ohm just fine but he seem hesitant cause of his previous statement.

So on the end I just asked if he has heard the speakers and witch one would sound the best tone wise. He said if I'm looking for tone I should go for the Basslites cause they were designed for bass guitar use.

They are about 75 bucks cheaper too. I would be saving around 150 on the pair.

Now that creates another dilemma lol :confused:
 
#67
pbagley said:
Can you explain what you mean by "more rounded bottom end"?

I'm planning to replace a bass guitar combo's driver soon. What size cabs were you using?

Thanks! Direct experience is a wonderful thing, much better than looking at the plots on the 'puter screen.

- Paul
Click to expand...

Quoting myself, how novel.

Pulled the trigger on a DeltaLite 2515 at lunch today. WinISD showed a smoother plot for this, compared to the regular 2515 and the the KapaLite 3015. I plan to get it installed in a day or two, along with a few minor repairs to the cab (combo). I'll start a new thread to report my subjective opinions once I form some.

- Paul
 
#68
pbagley said:
Quoting myself, how novel.

Pulled the trigger on a DeltaLite 2515 at lunch today. WinISD showed a smoother plot for this, compared to the regular 2515 and the the KapaLite 3015. I plan to get it installed in a day or two, along with a few minor repairs to the cab (combo). I'll start a new thread to report my subjective opinions once I form some.

- Paul
Click to expand...

I've just paired up a Deltalite 2515 with an Ashdown Little Giant 1000 that I collected today, up to now I'm impressed; will use on a full rehearsal tonight.
 
#71
Subscribed.

I recently began a thread about filling an empty EV (Carvin badged) B215-N cabinet that I'm about to take ownership of. The 3015 is the front runner.

I had a question, though. Since many people here are saying the the 3015 is the more solid all-around driver, but doesn't quite go as low as the 3015LF, would it be possible to pair the 3015/3015LF in the same cabinet? This is an open, ported box with no chamber separation and no mid/hf support at all.

Would pairing two dissimilar drivers be good or bad?
 
#72
Need to seal them off from each other if they're going to be different drivers in the same box.

In a cab with no mid/highs, I would go with two 3015s - they will go low enough for most applications, require less internal volume than 3015LFs, and will cover the midrange better (although you'll still have poor off-axis, that's not a big deal for most bass tones and without a midrange speaker there's not much you can do there.
 
#73
Mo', in most cases it's not a good idea to combine dissimilar drivers in the same air chamber. But these two are close enough that you can probably get away with it in my opinion. The limiting factor will be the excursion capability of the 3015, but by the time you get there you'll be in the 130 dB ballpark.

You will have to decide whether the sum of their frequency response curves is what you are looking for. There will be some cancellation of upper frequencies off-axis in the vertical plane which will not affect the on-axis response but will affect the in-room tonal balance, such that the net result will be a bit daker tonal balance than you'd expect from simply summing the published on-axis curves.
 
#74
Anybody tried one of these ( 3015 ) in the Carvin LS1503 yet? I know the Lf version is popular with this cab, just wondering if anyone tried the non lf yet.
 
#76
Chef said:
yessir
search the three-way on a budget mega thread
Click to expand...

I did a mini search, but never really got a good review of just the 3015. I don't really want to go through the whole grill rattle thing the 3015LF users did, and I don't wnat to use individual grill covers. I think Greeny did a comparison once somewhere in that thread, but I can't find it.
 
#77
DukeLeJeune said:
Mo', in most cases it's not a good idea to combine dissimilar drivers in the same air chamber. But these two are close enough that you can probably get away with it in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Get away with it, maybe. Useful to do so? No.
You will have to decide whether the sum of their frequency response curves is what you are looking for.
Click to expand...
In the same box size the low frequency curves aren't all that different. The advantage to the LF is having twice the displacement limited power handling, but that's of zero benefit if the standard driver is farting out while the LF isn't. As is the case 99.9% of the time mixing these drivers to cover the same bandwidth is a bad idea.

Deciding between the 3015 and 3015LF, and the 3012HO and 3012LF, is mainly a matter of their displacement limited ratings, not frequency response. In the low end if you don't have enough power on tap to drive the standard model to xmax, let alone beyond, there's no benefit in going to the LF, while the higher sensitivity of the standard version will give you more output.

In the high end both versions are down 6dB at 30 degrees off-axis at the same frequency, so in direct radiating alignments both must be crossed over to a midrange at the same frequency, 1kHz for the 3012s, 800Hz for the 3015s.
 
#78
billfitzmaurice said:
Get away with it, maybe. Useful to do so? No.
In the same box size the low frequency curves aren't all that different. The advantage to the LF is having twice the displacement limited power handling, but that's of zero benefit if the standard driver is farting out while the LF isn't. As is the case 99.9% of the time mixing these drivers to cover the same bandwidth is a bad idea.

Deciding between the 3015 and 3015LF, and the 3012HO and 3012LF, is mainly a matter of their displacement limited ratings, not frequency response. In the low end if you don't have enough power on tap to drive the standard model to xmax, let alone beyond, there's no benefit in going to the LF, while the higher sensitivity of the standard version will give you more output.

In the high end both versions are down 6dB at 30 degrees off-axis at the same frequency, so in direct radiating alignments both must be crossed over to a midrange at the same frequency, 1kHz for the 3012s, 800Hz for the 3015s.
Click to expand...

So, in the Carvin LS1503, the crossover in the cab is set at 500Hz, if I remember right, so if I used the 3015, I would need a different crossover point ?
 
#79
Bill I agree that a pair of 3015LF's would have more low-end power handling, but if that's not a critical issue then the superior top end extension of the 3015 makes it a better choice if there will be no midrange driver. I think the question in this case is, would a 3015 + 3015LF sound better than a pair of 3015s in this application? I don't know, but see no obvious reason not to consider it as an alternative.
 
#80
HERE IS MY REVIEW OF THE KAPPALITE 3015 (not LF)!!!

So I've been playing a pair these in my 70's SUNN 215B cab since about a week later then starting this post.

At the time I did a lot of research on these speakers but I couldn't really get all the info that I wanted to make me really fork over $500 bucks on the pair.

Anyways I called up a Eminence reseller (loudspeakers.ca) and I talked to their speaker expert. Provided him with pictures measurements of my cab and all the info he needed. He did all the calculation and such said they were a fit he also gave me couple other choices of speakers that might sound good in my cab.

I ended up ordering the pair and I felt great about it.

They came to my house the next day. I even took the day off work. I didn't have time to waste. I had to find out what they sounded like.

I popped these 2 bad boys in my cab no problems what so ever.

Had the cab wired to 4 OHMS.

Ok NOW FOR THE SOUND PART haha

My first impression on the speakers (running a Sunn Concert Bass late 70's version red knobs pushing out 150 watts at 4 ohms with a Rickenbacker 4003 tuned to droped C.)

At low volumes around 3 the 2x15 3015 cab sounded significantly louder then my previous SVT 6x10 ampeg cab at the same volume setting.

The sound it self was very clean and well defined.

Now going to my normal volume of play 7, the 2x15 3015 sounded "alive" I could get a nice punch out of it. The clarity of the sound at this volume I was getting made me hear a different side of my amp. (in a good way) All the notes were very well defined. In comparison with my 6x10 I couldn't believe how much low end I was getting robbed by the 6x10!!

One thing for sure that everyone always talks about these speaker is the mid range and let me tell you it's very present and I was able to make this cab growl fairly easy.

Then for the final test I turned up my head to 10.

Now all you sound fans out there should have a good idea of the "Growl/Distortion" you get when you clip your sunn heads.

Well let me tell you it was ****ing awesome the foundation of my house shook a little al lthe windows started to shake faster then I've ever seen them before of course I could only do this for less the 10 second. Anyways clipping burns the voice coil on your speakers so don't clip your heads =P no matter how good they sound.

Now there is only one issue I have with these speakers, they just don't go low or deep enough. Well for me at least.

From all the review that I read no one really talked about how deep these things can really go. But then again not a lot of people play sludge/stoner/doom metal.

That's when I knew I needed 18's.

With that being said I by no means regret buying these speakers in fact it is my best sounding cab.

Anyways my current setup is 2 x 2x15" cabs and 2 x 1x18" cabs ALL SUNN powered by 3 different amps.

Just to clarify I own 7 different heads and I'v only tried 4 of them on my cab and they all sound great in the mid range department but they don't go low enough for my likings but it's still a very good all around sounding bass cab.

If I only had to use 1 cab this one would defiantly be it.

I'm sure it would fit 80% of peoples low end needs but I just be aware.

Now I'm just wondering what the comparison between the 3015 and 3015LF is in the low end department I wonder how low does the 3015LF go.

Oh I forgot to mention the weight of this cab is like none existent haha.

Anyways hope this helps!
 

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