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My Kappalite 3012HO Twin 2-Way Build
- Thread starter 5StringPocket
- Start date
...
Also, the grill finally came in. I like the 5/32" hole grill with 1" bent edges from Reliable Hardware (thanks Greenboy). I use a 1/4" wide strip of adhesive foam gasket around the edge to prevent vibration. It added 3.4 lbs but I really like the way they look and hold up. Final weight of the finished cab with grill is 58.4 lbs. Here are a couple shots of the finished product. The sun came out right when I took the shot with Streamliner 900 on top but you get the idea...
Very nice!
I bet the tone would be right up my alley!
I'd like to hear this with a Music Man SR5. I'll bet the low mid push would work well and really punch.
I'm still really digging this cab. My pairing is with the STM900 which I prefer over the SM9.2 with this cab due to its fat-but-controlled low end and smooth mids. The cab has an aggressive sound from the 3012HO drivers as you'd expect but that Patterson Audio crossover with the Selenium D202Ti redefines the mids in such a good way. The mid voicing is even with no holes and the crossover to that nice HF driver is seamless. The Streamliner provides the right amount of heft, give, and rich harmonic content to provide good touch sensitivity and make this thing sing. I think the Shuttle 9.0 or Carvin BX1500 would also work well since you can dial in a fat, warm tone. It should punch. With the 9.0 I think you'd want the LF Boost engaged.
If I were to build another one I'd just have a single jack going to the crossover. I didn't care for full range to the 3012HO's. 2-way sounds much better. I also keep the HF driver on full so the L-pad doesn't get much use. It's sensitivity is a pretty close match to the pair of 3012HO's and the trim resistors Ralf put into the crossover balance them well without further adjustment. The Streamliner treble adjustment and the vintage tone control on the bass is all I need to sculpt the treble.
I decided to mount a handle near the upper rear edge to make tiltback easier. It has a rubber roller on the handle and a strong enough spring there is no vibration. With the handle this cab weighs just under 59 lbs but its form factor makes it the easiest cab to schlep that I have.
Here is a picture of my rig. I have some other nice gear but lately the Carvin SB5000->STM900->3012HOT2 has the kind of tone that keeps me from picking anything else up. I just got some PC-based RTA software from Parts Express and hope to generate some response plots to post. I'm also toying with the idea of picking up a Zoom H2N or Q3HD recorder to get some clips into Sound Cloud.
If I were to build another one I'd just have a single jack going to the crossover. I didn't care for full range to the 3012HO's. 2-way sounds much better. I also keep the HF driver on full so the L-pad doesn't get much use. It's sensitivity is a pretty close match to the pair of 3012HO's and the trim resistors Ralf put into the crossover balance them well without further adjustment. The Streamliner treble adjustment and the vintage tone control on the bass is all I need to sculpt the treble.
I decided to mount a handle near the upper rear edge to make tiltback easier. It has a rubber roller on the handle and a strong enough spring there is no vibration. With the handle this cab weighs just under 59 lbs but its form factor makes it the easiest cab to schlep that I have.
Here is a picture of my rig. I have some other nice gear but lately the Carvin SB5000->STM900->3012HOT2 has the kind of tone that keeps me from picking anything else up. I just got some PC-based RTA software from Parts Express and hope to generate some response plots to post. I'm also toying with the idea of picking up a Zoom H2N or Q3HD recorder to get some clips into Sound Cloud.
I'd love to hear some clips of this very cool cab. This is exactly the cab I was going to build at one point.
I don't have an NV610 so I couldn't comment on that, but I do have an Uber 410. The Uber 410 has a little more low end and ultimate volume but the 3012HO twin has a little better off-axis response. Both cabs punch hard and sound more similar than you'd expect at proper EQ and volume. The form factor and lighter weight put the 3012HO twin over the top for me. I've got to climb a flight of 15 stairs to get to my practice space and that little 212 is just easier to grapple and move around. I've been so impressed with the quality of homemade sound clips lately that I ordered a Zoom H4N recorder. Once it gets here and I get the hang of it I'll post some clips.
jnewmark has yours come in yet?
jnewmark has yours come in yet?
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
- 16,860
- 278
- 76
- Disclosures
- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
If you measured the results you'd see that the first order low pass is doing very little, if anything. With a high corner frequency the crossover calculator isn't accurate, because it assumes a resistive load, and at 2kHz the woofers are very much an inductive load, so you've got two inductors in series, not an inductor and resistor. You'll find a lot less bandwidth overlap adding a cap to the low-pass filter. If you have measurement capability you can try various cap sizes to not only reduce the overlap zone but also improve the response within the woofer passband with a high Q filter.
No, not yet, but this will be my second 3012HO twin 12 cab. I've had an LDS version of this cab ( with an 18Sound xd125 horn ) for about a year now, and I love it.
Nice of you to drop in Bill. My thought with the crossover was to implement a low pass which would avoid that 2.5kHz mid spike and the upper mid hole heard in many 212 cabs with a relatively high crossover point (4kHz) and tweeter. The 3012HO is a strong driver and I figured a pair of them would sound good in a moderate sized cab when paired with the right amp and a crossover which could provide a smooth mid transition to a good HF driver. With my Carvin SB5000 5-string bass and GB streamliner 900 amp this pretty well nailed that sound with tight, solid lows and present but even-sounding mids with a little grind that I was after. I'm sure your technical assessment of the high corner frequency is correct but I didn't use a crossover calculator since I wasn't going to be designing the crossover. I just constructed a -6dB/octave attenuation curve starting at a frequency which gave me the rolloff I was looking for and contacted Patterson Audio to see if he could build me a crossover for my project which could provide the sound I was describing. Ralf has built a number of 3012HO crossovers and had some ideas on what to try so I left the details to him. He took measurements on the Selenium D202Ti driver, is familiar with the 3012HO response, and has the software to help him select the right component values for the finished crossover. If something is going into commercial production you'd want to build and test a prototype and fine tune the design before bringing it to market but this was a proof of concept cab for me. For a very modest price Ralf gave me something that did what I asked for and exceeded expectations. This was a first pass and probably could be improved on but I don't have the measurement equipment, crossover component values, or the inclination to tinker with it. I do plan on posting some sound clips and a frequency response curve. Perhaps someone with a trained ear could weigh in with their impressions. If someone has an idea on what an optimum crossover design might look like for this configuration I wouldn't mind picking one up and swapping it in to see how it sounds but what's in there sounds pretty good to my ear when playing through it.
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
- 16,860
- 278
- 76
- Disclosures
- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
My point was that a 1st order low-pass would probably have at best a cursory effect on that. You can only know for sure what's going on by measuring the result. OTOH don't discount the value of a midrange break-up mode. It's what's responsible for what many players call 'tone'. Only with a PA or hi-fi cab do I studiously avoid break-up modes.
Well, after about 4 months of waiting, Robbie of AoN will be shipping me this cab next week. Pretty close to 5Stringpocket's design, except I wanted pop out casters. Don't have a weight on it yest, but Robbie says it's very easy to schlepp. He aslo broke in the woofers for me, so it should be good to go.
Attachments
My cab's got a brother! Robbie broke in the woofers? Now that's what I call service. I think you're really going to like the easy schlepp with this. I'm using mine tomorrow to sub in a contemporary praise band. We practiced in the auditorium Thursday evening. I usually run the preamp gain fairly hot to get a good solid sound but this cab filled the room with the master at 9:30 on my STM900 amp. I had to cut it back more than expected. It can really crank if called to.
LoveThatBass
Supporting Member
I agree, here is what I put on mine (located in the middle of the top back edge of the cab).
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Those are sturdy and get the job done but require a large opening and add 1.75 lbs. Here is a smaller one which could also work.
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For my purposes that spring loaded handle works fine. The only thing I use it for is tipping the cabinet back. All lifting and grappling is done with the side handles unless you're doing a hoist onto a tall stage.
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For my purposes that spring loaded handle works fine. The only thing I use it for is tipping the cabinet back. All lifting and grappling is done with the side handles unless you're doing a hoist onto a tall stage.
Another item worth noting for this is the Fdeck HPF v3 preamp. Version 3 has one -12dB filter fixed at 35 hz, a second
-12dB filter with adjustable frequency, and adds the unity gain volume (not shown in the link below). Invalid Link Removed
I ordered one a while back to try on this bass cab and I must say it's the icing on the cake. Response down to low B is good on this cab but power handling drops sharply south of 48 Hz and group delay starts to rise a bit. On a 4-string bass tuned to low E this has no impact, but from low D down to low B with a 5-string the focus started to blur slightly at higher volume. It's subtle but there, so I ran my bass into this high pass filter and ended up with the frequency knob at 1:30 which might be around 90 hz. All notes down to low B now have the same focus, timbre, and impact; totally fixed it! I can rock this cab hard down to low B with great tone and focus. What an awsome little gadget. Kudos to Francis.
-12dB filter with adjustable frequency, and adds the unity gain volume (not shown in the link below). Invalid Link Removed
I ordered one a while back to try on this bass cab and I must say it's the icing on the cake. Response down to low B is good on this cab but power handling drops sharply south of 48 Hz and group delay starts to rise a bit. On a 4-string bass tuned to low E this has no impact, but from low D down to low B with a 5-string the focus started to blur slightly at higher volume. It's subtle but there, so I ran my bass into this high pass filter and ended up with the frequency knob at 1:30 which might be around 90 hz. All notes down to low B now have the same focus, timbre, and impact; totally fixed it! I can rock this cab hard down to low B with great tone and focus. What an awsome little gadget. Kudos to Francis.
