Question Triad in wall 'Silver 15' passive 12" subs - views?

stripeyjoe

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Hi all,
I've spotted a couple of Triad in wall Silver 15 passive subs on sale which might go well in my movie/disco shed to replace the 2 Kef 2010's. Shed is roughly 6.5x3.5 and has a pitched ceiling, about 3m at apex. Main listening/viewing spot is around 3m from end wall.
They do not have the original amps but have an amp I can drive them with (600wpc crown xls602).

Anyone had experience of these?

I've been in touch with Triad and they said this...
These are from around 2006 or 2007 and they were sold with a separate amp for each sub. They are not meant to be passive subs to use with any amp as they will need some EQ to get them to play flat in the small enclosures. (Guessing my Denon 3313 can do the eq side of things. )

The drivers used in those was a custom built Eminence driver that is no longer available. They are really nice drivers and have great detail so they sound very natural. But over the years the suspension on the drivers loosens up making it possible to over drive them and bottom the driver out. I would keep any amp in the 250 to 300 watt range and roll it off around 35hz on the bottom end. The in room response will with natural room gain will still be boosted at 20hz over 40hz but it will help keep you from overdriving them with movie effects.

These are 4 ohm subs so you will need an amp for each sub

I was going to wire them in series and set the xls602 to bridge mode. The bit about rolling off under 35Hz has got me a little worried that they might not be able to give the eye shaking deep bass I'm after.

They're fairly cheap so thought it might be worth a punt but would appreciate any advice from people who have heard them and also what people would value them at.

Cheers
Joe
 
Well, I'm going to view them this morning so will report back on how it goes.
 
Thanks for the reply, I was thinking the same... not too sure if you can 'feel' how loose the suspension is, my kef 2010's are still both resistant when you push the woofer, certainly a lot stiffer than a regular speaker.
He's asking £180 for the pair, might be better putting that towards an svs pc 2000 or similar. Just thought 2 12" boxes would be better than one!
 
Honestly I wouldn't get involved. Yes 2 subs will be better than 1 but I would use the £180 elsewhere. You can always save for a second sub. There are often great subs for sale in the classifieds.

If you are set on getting them I would ask for a demo.
 
That's what I'm doing this morning. Going to try them out, have a freq generator/spl meter app so can check they don't start farting when fed a 20Hz sine wave, can do a sweep as well to check for cabinet rattles etc.
 
Hi, I had a similar response from Triad regards the amp for the old inwall subs. You will need an amp that can provide more eq than the Denon and the know how to apply it. So if you don't already have umik etc I would consider budgeting for it. I would say about 200 - 300 for inuke 3000, fan modes and microphone etc. I think the subwoofers in question have been advertised a
few times at 200 as he had a usc15 sub/nu3000dsp I would have tried to buy but too far to pick up (didn't sell on ebay for 550). If they are in good condition and the look is ok for your room then I am sure there is a lot of performance there considering the prices of new subs these days but a bit of risk and extra effort.
 
Not sure if its relevant, but I have a triad mini 8" subwoofer that I have liberated from its original box and built in amplifier after amp died. I built an integrated (sealed) box for it under my TV and it's powered by an Inuke 1000 amp and it gets its input signal from my Denon AVR-X4200.

I went for the triad because I have a basement flat, so whilst i can't have earth shattering bass at high volume, I did want full low end (down to the high-teens hz if possible) at reasonable volumes, for a proper home cinema sound, to match my 65" 4k screen. Most smaller subwoofers meant for smaller rooms tend to have fs values that are too high to be genuine subwoofers imo.

The triad has an fs of 20hz at -3db. I was worried that I'd need to add some sort of DSP, between the Denon receiver and the Inuke amp to really being out the 20hz range. I haven't done so thus far and to my ears it sounds great. I haven't got the whole setup fully tweaked yet though so once I have finished the flat off I'll do some proper measurements and see what I'm really hearing, but theres no question to my mind that it drops low, really low, as it is. Way, way more cinema sounding than any 5.1 type sub box that you'd normally buy.

The box I made for it is over-sized by around 30% compared to the box the mini 8 came in. Not for any reason other than aesthetics really, due to where it was to fit in the room. I thought I'd seal off the inside with a panel to make tit the same as the factory box but I tried it when the box was built at full size and liked the sound so I've left it as is.

Once I've measured it all, if it does need some DSP I'll have to add a box of some sort between the Denon receiver and the Inuke and neither has the ability to add the processing that will be needed. Obvious candidates will be something like an Ultradrive or a mini DSP HD.

In summary, the triad sub seems to work for me as a solution where I only had a limited amount of space and I wanted the low freq response that it offers. But its not been a cheap way to get it and I might not be finished spending on it yet if I decide I need a DSP. So if your room has space for a more traditional sub/amp setup that's probably the way to go.
 
I went and gave them a bit of a thrashing with Studio Six RTA+ on the iPhone and they didnt bottom out at quite eye shaking levels of 20-40Hz and the speakers themselves were still pretty resistant to being pushed in so I ended up getting them along with amp he was selling (a Crown XLi2500) as it was so quite compared to the fans in my XLS602 (soon to be on sale...). Got them in the disco shed and just plumbed them straight in to the Yammy 1065 to have up there. Just straight they sound so much better than the pair of Kef 2010s I had, just listning to music so far.
Got it all for £330 so, I think, a bit of a bargain. Shame I sold my Berri feedback destroyer as that would have sorted out the low EQ.
Thanks for the advice all. Now to keep an eye out for an SVS cylinder sub for the lounge, not too sure I can convince the better half that her life will be better with the Triads in there!
I'll try and put up a photo if I can work out how from the iPad.
Cheers!
 
A very good subwoofer will play high into the frequency range. MK subs play up to 200hz which can be a benefit in some systems.

Steinway boundary woofers will be crossed over at over 400hz. These give the best bass response I've ever heard.
 
I think I'm crossed over at 60 or 80 at the moment, the MS 908i's have side fireing 10" subs in as well so go pretty low themselves. They never meshed well with the Kefs but it all now sounds great!
Thanks for the earlier warnings, definitely made me more careful to give them a good run through.
It's very hot and I feel a cold beer coming soon!
Cheers,
Joe
 
Here's a link to a pic of he new set up on Bob's Facebook page...
Bob the Shed
 
Sounds like a bargain to me. My kind of shed :)
 
very good subwoofer will play high into the frequency range. MK subs play up to 200hz which can be a benefit in some systems.
The first thing I did to test was to play a couple of tunes straight from my phone into the power amp to get a basic level and make sure they were in phase, sounded like they were responding up to around 1k or even higher, though you would expect a paper cone 12" to extend at least that far.
 
Or was that the shed reacting?

Like the scanners? or are they the barrels? Acme lights, loved them.
 
They're the Acme mirror scanners, got three of them off eBay for about £30! A couple needed new mirrors and new bulbs but, apart from that, they work fine.
There seems to be loads of people selling off the halogen lights as they swap them for LEDs so there are bargains to be had.
 

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