Posted by GarMan [ 216.13.136.38 ] on September 14, 2005 at 10:38:28:
In Reply to: Clarification posted by Wayne Parham on September 14, 2005 at 01:48:33:
Yes, the Theatre 3-PI I mention is a 2-way. I've been using mine for HT for over a year now and as mentioned in another thread, am very happy with it without augmentation with a subwoofer. I don't think it goes down all the way, but with a little bass-boost from the receiver, should satisfy a lot of users. In fact, I think the Theatre 3-PI might even go down lower than most mass marketed powered-subs you find in big-box stores.
Wayne, I think your recommendation with the LAB-12 in a BR is interesting in that it represents a great excercise to compare and contrast it with the T18.
In terms of box size, the 3.5 ft^3 you suggested for the LAB-12 is slightly larger than the 3 ft^3 of the T18, but for practical comparison, let's call them equal.
Where I see the two differ is that the LAB-12 sub relies on high quality and more expensive components (driver and amp) to perform while the T18 shifts performance responsibility to the cabinet.
LAB-12 BR = Big driver + High powered amp + simple box
T18 = Small driver + Low powered amp + complex box
If you're someone with the skills, tools and time to put together a T18 cabinet, you can save over $200 compared to the LAB-12 route. But it's not a simple cabinet to build and time is a scarce resource. For a lot of people, the extra cost of a sub like the LAB-12 BR is well worth it. I bet that if cabinets were sourced to a builder, both options would net out to approx the same amount.
Just some numbers I used for the comparison above:
T18: $50 driver, $75 amp, wood $60
LAB-12: $150 driver, $250 amp, wood $30
Gar.
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