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Rakesh, I moved your post to this thread as I feel it is more relevant here, I hope you do not mind. You ask yours the very same question that I ask myself. I do not have definitive answers to them:

oxric wrote:

I am presently considering an opportunity to buy some very old Aura Sound 1808 drivers, but not the Leviathan you enthused about in the quote above. My understanding is that the fairly low Qts would make the original (non Leviathan) less suitable for use in a sealed enclosure. However it also sounds as if it might work in such an enclosure if it was big enough, i.e. 14-16 cu feet. I have never liked ported enclosures but would that not be the only way the 1808 should be used?

If I use 1808 then I would never use it in ported enclosure, in fact I would not use ported enclosures for any driver in ULF channel.

oxric wrote:

I am also very tempted by the McCauleys 6174 or Maelstrom 21" but they are somewhat more expensive in Europe....

This is very legitimate concern. I have 4x1808 drivers and they might be my candidates to come up with my ULF channel but for the last 10-15 years as Aura stopped to be made there are a lot of new drivers made. How good they are comparing to Aura? I have no answer and I did not see a lot of taking about it out there. The complexity of this question is that there are a lot of variables involved:

1) Proper implementation of a given driver
2) Different people have different room condition
3) Different amps damps the bass cones differently
4) Different people have different reference points what constitute the “proper” bass.

So, in my view unless you know a person, set with him/her in the same room and compare the notes and exchange reference point about bass while listening a give reference Sound, then there is no reasons to exchange view about bass. I think the only way to learn what is “better” it to try different drivers in the different configuration and enclosures, this is how we develop the acquired taste and this is how I discovered drivers for my Macondo. I did not develop acquired taste in bass drivers. Back in 2002 I use a single 1808 driver in a large, probably 24 cu feet box. I liked the result but my objective was not 20Hz-40Hz but 9Hz. Looking back I am not sure that I would like the same result now but it was different room, different playback and the different me… I today would not trust to me 10 years back…

oxric wrote:

For what it's worth, this consideration is part of a larger question, which is what would be the ideal ULF solution for pretty much the same Macondo set-up that you have, being used in a fairly large room of 25x21 feet with a ceiling height of 8ft? I have been thinking of the line array that you are using but I am wondering whether a pair of 1808 or even a line array made out of 6 such drivers, 3 on each side stacked vertically might not prove a more versatile solution ( somewhat extreme admittedly, but with a view to the future when I will have a bigger room with higher ceilings).

Yes, this is all that I would like to know as well. Do not put too much into line array subject. You do not have a room to form proper line-array with those drivers and at that frequency. A pair of 1808 or similar drivers would be between then a single drivers but I do not think that it will be due to forming as proper cylindrical wave…

oxric wrote:

Obviously there is no question that I will be able to listen to any of these solutions so any thoughts or even considerations that I ought to keep in mind, are welcome. With regard to drving them, whilst I know that the ULF section of the Melquiades can drive the Scanspeak 10" line array, I am of course not sure whether that would be satisfactory with the Aura Sound 1808...

I use my two Scanspeak 10" towers, 8 drivers as a ready to go temporary solution. I drive them with Yamaha B2 amp, it is pure DC amp. I would not say that I like the result. It does help to my midbass horns to get reference to sonic ground but in a way it compromises the midbass lower end. My plans are find the final solution with PurePower and get my all properly working regenerators back. Then in context of a proper for bass electricity (VERY important) to tune my current 10" towers and to get best they can do. It is possible that my current towers juts do not setup up properly – I never did the final fine tuning. If in the end of my “fine bass tuning” I will not be satisfied with results then I will go for experimenting with large drivers. I have space, interests to the subject and the stupidity to do so, but it will be the final touch…

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