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Xsonics Club

#205
Kirk, outside firing in. I put a video up on my YouTube and fan page. I am just scratching the surface. It is a beastly cab. I used it last week instead of my normal dual users... And the 12 was inside. Changing it flattened the response and opened up the bottom. It is smaller than my 210s and bigger in sound. It is very clean and tight
 
#206
Nice video. The sound quality was good enough to convey a pretty good impression of that rig's voicing. Monster chops! Whew, I need to keep practicing... I would think the CF212 would spank a 115 in volume because of its high sensitivity and power handling but wouldn't have quite the low end extension. That cab is like a small piece of artillery the way it's so solid and focused. :bassist:
 
#208
Indeed, great chops and tone in both videos. Very cool cab. Someone needs to take the plunge and run a pair, or even better, three of them... come on, do it, you know you want to. ;)
 
#212
I'm interested in how the 215CF stacks up vs the 212CF. For fans of a more traditional tone (extended lows rolled off, bumped in the upper bass/low mids, gank slightly scooped, and a bit of cone breakup for character) these XSonics and Glasstone cabs seem to provide a compact and powerful format to get the job done. I ran WinISD models with a pair of Eminence 3015, Eminence 3012HO, and Faital 12PR300 drivers into small ported enclosures with the target of F3/F10 at 80/50 Hz to cop that sealed cab vib and maximize excursion limited power handling. These are also volumes which would be compatible with this one horizontal/one vertical arrangement seen in the XSonics and Glasstone cabs.

Eminence 3015: Vb=3.2 cu-ft, Fb=42.5 Hz, F3/F10=80/49 Hz, Pel=900 Wrms
Eminence 3012HO: Vb=2.4 cu-ft, Fb=54.5 Hz, F3/F10=80/49 Hz, Pel=780 Wrms
Faital 12PR300: Vb=2.3 cu-ft, Fb=53.0 Hz, F3/F10=80/50 Hz, Pel=450 Wrms
Note: This doesn't make any specific implications on construction details for either line of cabs. I just wanted to get a feel for how these 3 drivers which work well in this application compare.

First the normalized frequency response. The top two white trends are the 3015 and 12PR300; pretty much on top of each other. Bottom white trend is the 3012HO. It doesn't quite get the 100-200 Hz bump of the other two. In all three charts the yellow trend is a sealed 510 with Eminence neo Fliptop drivers. My sealed 610 uses 4 fliptop neos and 2 Weber 10FL which don't have quite the same bass response so this seemed a reasonable comparison for reference.
XSonicsDriverNormResp_zps53b9b3e2.jpg

From max to min excursion limited power is the dual 3015, 3012HO, and 12PR300 with the sealed Fliptops for reference. Those 3015's are monsters.
XSonicsDriverPower_zps8ea3a5fe.jpg

A plot of dB versus frequency up to about 500 Hz with each cab running at their rated excursion-limited max power (Pel) should give a reasonable approximation of available headroom. Max to min is the dual 3015, 3012HO, and 12PR300 with the sealed Fliptops for reference.
XSonicsDriverFreqResp_zpsc514d069.jpg

I really like what I see for the Kappalite 3015 but it would seem that drivers with strong mids are best for this type of loading. Are the 3015 mids strong enough to work well in the 215CF? I'll be interested in comments from the designer as well as Dennis review of this when he gets back from Daytona. If the 3015 mids are strong enough to provide a balanced tone and the tweeter is crossed low enough to avoid an upper mid hole, the 215CF looks like a potent single cab solution. Thoughts or comments on this?
 
#213
ImageUploadedByTalkBass1361738758.437900.jpg
5string... I really don't know the technical stuff about all that. Here is what I can tell you. This picture is a lie... I did NOT use the top cabinet because it was NOT needed. It looked like a nice stack but the 215cf was the s#*t. The harder I pushed it the more it became my old friend. It was like standing in front of my all time favorite amp... The Sunn Coliseum bass with 215B rolled bottom.
The only graph I see is a smiley face... Mine
 
#214
Very cool, 5String, thanks for posting those charts.

Wow, I would have expected a more exaggerated low "bump" with that small a box. Except for the higher f3, by design, it doesn't seem that extreme at all. Oh, and full power down to 35Hz for the 3015's. :eek:

The 215 looks like a fair match for a good 6x10. That's crazy. At 50lbs no less. My old Goliath Senior was well over 100lbs. I wonder if it really can give that fridge feel.
 
#215
Fretlessboy said:
View attachment 320282
5string... I really don't know the technical stuff about all that. Here is what I can tell you. This picture is a lie... I did NOT use the top cabinet because it was NOT needed. It looked like a nice stack but the 215cf was the s#*t. The harder I pushed it the more it became my old friend. It was like standing in front of my all time favorite amp... The Sunn Coliseum bass with 215B rolled bottom.
The only graph I see is a smiley face... Mine
Click to expand...

LOL... Touche Dennis. I've built cabs with all the 12" and 15" Eminence Kappalite drivers except the 3015 and find these graphs (along with other tech types) useful from a design standpoint and to provide some idea of the low end profile before laying out cash for a purchase. Of course there is a whole lot the tech graphs don't tell you and without the smiley face graph at the gig, the rest doesn't mean much.

I'll bet Daytona was quite the place to be except for that terrible crash. Now that you've had the chance to play both 212CF and 215CF cabs, it looks like you prefer the 215? I played through a Sunn Coliseum many moons ago but my recollection is quite foggy. Could you tell us how the tone profile and voicing of these cabs compare? Also - cool bass. What type is it? I thought you played a Smith for quite some time?
 
#217
5StringPocket said:
I'll be interested in comments from the designer as well as Dennis review of this when he gets back from Daytona. If the 3015 mids are strong enough to provide a balanced tone and the tweeter is crossed low enough to avoid an upper mid hole, the 215CF looks like a potent single cab solution. Thoughts or comments on this?
Click to expand...

Hi 5String

I'm extremely happy with the sound and response of the KappaLite 3015 in the 215CF cabinet. It is slightly less aggressive than the 212CF, which I think is a good thing as I anticipate the Xsonics 215CF to absolutely be a single cabinet soultion and played pretty loud (why bring a 2-15" to be quiet?!). I threw an Ampeg SVT-4 Pro bridged (1200 watts @ 4 ohms) at the 215CF and was able to run the amplifier wide open, which I've never done in 16 years and 2,000 gigs with the Ampeg SVT-4 Pro. The cabinet didn't even break a sweat. It's like a sledgehammer wrapped in velvet! Powerful but smooth.
 

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    Xsonics 215CF and 212CF.jpg
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#219
+2 Thanks for the comments. Very impressive. The questions about how a cab is voiced might seem to belabor the point but is helpful for virtual shoppers who have never heard one of these and want a reasonable idea of what to expect before investing. The trial period makes a decision like this easier. It sounds like the 215CF is pretty well balanced which should work with a wide variety of amps and really packs a wallop. Gig reports from players with good ears who have invested their own money and are not paid endorsers also lends this a lot of credibility. Nice! :bassist:
 

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