Phase 1 (tops) done on a Clair R4-III build, need sub advice, WSX vs SKRAM vs F218
Just fired up the top half of a rig I've been building for a few months. Wanted to lay out the setup and get some sub thoughts from the heads here.
Tops: Clair R4-III, bi-amped per box (LF plus a combined mid-high leg per side, four amp channels). The HF is a JBL 2446J on a CD horn and it is the standout. Even at low level the whole thing has a character I have rarely heard from newer cabinets. No regrets going old and characterful over new and convenient.
Signal chain, Dante the whole way to the amp:
Laptop running Dante Via and/or other Dante channels, into a Biamp Tesira Server-IO where all the processing lives, out over Dante to two Shure MXWANI4 units doing Dante to analogue into an FP10000Q (4x1350W) into the Clairs.
The whole audio side sits on an isolated subnet, no gateway, no DHCP, so the Dante clock stays clean and it behaves the same at home or at a venue. Laptop is dual homed, wired to the audio island and wifi for internet and control. 4x analogue inputs and 8x analogue outputs available also if required or as backup.
DSP and amp as commissioned:
The Tesira does the two way crossover, sums MF and HF with a phase corrected inverted HF path through the 1.5kHz region, plus tiered limiter presets. FP10000Q is at 32dB gain, four independent channels, Soft clip. Per channel hardware voltage clip limiter as a backstop, 47V on the mid high channels to protect the compression drivers, 83V on the lows. One channel per Clair leg, patched straight across from the Shure outputs.
Headroom is big. Amp at quarter juice, source barely up, already loud enough to get the neighbours moving.
My question. Subs.
This is a techno/trance rig, so the bottom end needs to do the heavy lifting. Hearing the tops come alive has sharpened my take on what I want out of the low end. Deep, into the 30Hz and under range. High output, enough to keep pace with tops this efficient. Fast and articulate, because the Clairs have real character and I don't want slow boomy subs fighting them.
That keeps pointing me at horn loading. Three things I'm weighing, but open wide to other suggestions:
Four Martin WSX. Folded horn, the right profile, but I need a used set to turn up. Last one sold before I could move on it. (Sydney, Australia, and not a lot of decent subs turn up secondhand here sadly.)
SKRAMs, which I'd build. Deep, efficient, fast. Ticks every box on paper, just takes a build.
Funktion One F218. Fast, punchy, clean, built like a tank, exactly the character end of the spectrum. The catch is these are punch more than deep dig. F1 even sell a separate IB218 as low end extension below them, they want to be coupled in numbers to come alive, one or two in a room just sounds dry. So it would come down to running enough of them. And getting four F1 boxes at a sane price (especially in Australia)... who am I kidding.
The ported dual 18s I've looked at do deep and loud fine but don't seem to have the transient speed to sit under these particular tops.
What I'm after from the r/soundsystem hive mind:
WSX vs SKRAM vs F218 under efficient horn tops, real-world experience? Other/better suggestions?
Anyone run tapped horns or F1 bass under vintage pro tops, how did the character match land?
Where do you actually cross your WSX? I know it wants to go low given the folded path, curious where people settle.
Sub speed is real and audible. A horn or tapped horn sits under characterful tops better than a ported box because the transient response and lower distortion actually match. Keen to hear from anyone who has A/B'd horn vs ported under tops like these and can confirm or push back either way.
Happy to answer anything on the Dante or DSP side. Cheers and thank you in advance.
https://i.postimg.cc/5Nd6rrFB/IMG-4679.jpg
