SQ System

Hi all,

You may not know me, but I do have some inside knowledge of the Brahma, since I'm the individual who designed it.  Perhaps I can shed a bit of light here...

Aflaten, the problem was most likely the amp clipping.  You may not be aware, but the Brahma is a "bottomless" design.  The voice coil is barely over 1" long, and at rest is well within the space of the top plate.  With 2.25" of magnet below it, you'd have to push your Brahma to 60mm before you could bottom it.  Since the suspension locks up hard are ~33mm, there is zero chance you were bottoming the driver.  It's not physically possible.

Now, when you clip a typical sub, it typically sounds like a thud.  When you clip a midrange/midbass it sounds like a clack - the higher frequencies of the clip come through the midrange really well.  The Brahma is a very wideband subwoofer; with the low inductance, it has no problems reproducing frequencies up to the 3-5 kHz range.  That means clips are really well reproduced.

Some may know Marshall Joyner - he's won lots of state championships, and top 3 world finals finishes with Brahmas and Tempests.  When he first installed his Brahmas and cranked them up, he thought someone took a shot at him.  The crack from the clipping of the amp was so loud and clear, it was unlike anything he had heard before.  And Marshall has a bit of experience - he's not only state/top 3 world champ multiple times, but holds many SPL records in MECA.

As far as the ability to sound good, I'd recommend talking to Bob Beatty.  Bob is the two time reigning world champion in SLAP dBQ - SPL and SQ count equally.  He runs a Brahma 12 in 1 cubic foot sealed in his BMW, and regularly hits 141-142 dB.  And the SQ is good enough he consistently gets 10s on subbass/bass reproduction.

Additionally, there will be a couple of top-notch car audio legends coming out with systems throughout this year who have chosen to run Adire gear.  These are individuals who could ask any company for product and get it, but after listening and checking out everything, they've chosen Adire.

Lastly, about SPL...;)  Scottie Johnson is not only a multiple-time World record holder and world champ, he's done it in multiple classes.  He runs Brahma Extremes right now in his SPL van, and just won another competition and set a new MECA record with 7 stock Brahma 15s.

Brahmas are different - the flat BL curve is really something that takes some understanding to fully utilize.  The drivers are considerably more efficient than anything else out there, especially at higher excursions.  Efficiency is all BL and mass; mass doesn't change as you move in and out, but in standard drivers BL does (it rolls off as you move away from the center/rest position).  Making the BL flat over stroke means the efficiency of the driver does not change as it moves, and means you need less power than typically you would expect, to get a given output.

So, is the Brahma junk?  I'd say there is enough hard evidence out there - and thousands of happy users - that the answer would be no.  An individual install may have some issues and may need some tuning, but that is the install, not the driver.

Dan Wiggins

Thank you for your post, Mr. Wiggins.  Your input here is welcome any time!

re: the "bottomless design."  That is brilliant, and it has to be an expensive approach.  60mm of Xmax???   That's 10mm more than the Seismic 8196.  Sounds as if the Brahma might be a perfect candidate for a down-firing design.  I've used your Tumult loaded this way to great effect in a home theatre installation and measured flat response to 18Hz and -3db at 12Hz.  Amazing.  Your AV8 is one of the best midwoofers I've used, by the way.  Right up there in linearity and voicing with anything from Morel or Dynaudio or Aura.

Sorry, I guess I'm being a fan.  :)

The Brahma's Xmax is 27.5mm... that's the limit of it's [i]linear[/i] performance.

The Seismic that you quote (isn't that the same as the old Aura 1808?  Underhung driver, neo, right?) I believe has a one-way Xmax of 18mm one-way... considerably less than the 27.5 of the Brahma, and nowhere near 60mm, unless you are talking about Xmech... and using a peak-to-peak number at that? 

Wow you Adire guys are like horny bunny rabbits, your everywhere . Good to see the facts got straightened out. Aflaten,  your right this is a good site that would always welcome more people, provided it is done within reason. You have made quite an entance to this site that I am sure will not be tolerated if more come on board with the same approach. There are a lot of well respected industry professionals here on this site with many many years of experience behind them. I know for fact that if I am not available to respond, another of these professionals can take up where I left off and I am quite comfortable with them doing this. Sorry I was away guys, we in Canada had a looooong hot bikini watching weekend. Seems I missed out on a great pissing contest, damn.

Aflater, I would welcome your insight and experience to the site, many of us have almost 20 years or more behind us and still to this day continue to learn more about it, you would excel even more in this profession should you choose to take off the blinders and learn from the industry professionals that post here. The one thing that you cannot learn is experience, we have a lot of it and are more than happy to share. I 'll bet that that even though my bag of tricks is large, it will always have room for more, maybe you will offer one to me without ever knowing it. Heck, Dyohn found a new trick just last month but for me it was so old it was farting dust. If you are prepared to try and force a topic, do it with an informed and educated background before doing so, otherwise it does absolutely no good at all to anyone that may read it. FYI, Dyohn does know absolutely with no hesistation or reservations, exactly what he is talking about. His resume is written for all to see on his posts, should you want to know his or any other persons backgrounds, all you need to do is ask. Welcome to the forum.

And I'm a REALLY old fart!    Thanks for the support, Rob.  And to everyone else, too.