The C18 that replaces my 9 year old Motif arrived yesterday!
There's so little info about this speaker that I though I'd relate my experience with it from brand new to forward into the future (some time travel is expected).
It weighs 50lbs, which isn't super heavy, but being long and narrow it's awkward for one person to handle. It's only finished on the top and sides. The bottom is metal. Both the Flat and Angled speaker brackets allow for quite a bit of extra tilt if needed. The wall bracket is well designed and super strong.
I've had the Motif mounted on the wall above the tv for several years. With the C18 being 2-1/2 times the weight, and being awkward to handle, I'm not considering mounting it in the same location. So I first tried putting the C18 on the console table I've been using for my sources, but the speaker hides the bottom edge of the tv. Next I put it on a petrified tree stump I have as a "side table" for the sofa. Height wise it's great. So I used this all day yesterday.
I began the break-in process using music and listening to only the C18 setup as Large so it can run full range. Started at a moderate volume for the first few hours, then upping the volume to 85-90dB SPL measured 1 meter from the speaker, which is about 80-85dB at the MLP. The sound was better than I thought it would be, albeit a bit "squawky" with some instruments like clarinet and harmonica. It was bass-shy at first, but that settled in pretty nicely after some more hours. Played quite a lot of Jaco Pastorius because the bass was so good, and this is with a speaker that only goes down to 50Hz.
I watched drag racing today and the commentator's voices were so much easier to hear and understand. Everything in the center channel is better.
I'll show some measurements later, but I did an initial measurement at first turn on, then again a couple hours later and more a few hours after that. Measuring with the mic just a meter away from the speaker shows that the speaker itself is fine, no problems like my Motif. But with the mic at the MLP, it shows that there's mainly a problem with a null below the crossover that only seems to affect the cone woofers and not the stat panel, so it's gotta be SBIR. I moved the stump and speaker back and forth to see how the null is affected and the closer to the wall it got, the better things looked. So I decided that the C18 should be mounted on the wall, which I did today.
Next up is to play with absorption to find out what's going to work better to reduce the null. When I stack some absorbers on the floor between the MLP and C18 the null is reduced. I've tried using absorbers in various combinations and locations, but on the floor in a certain area seems to be the best so far. This makes me think that I should consider mounting panels on the cathedral ceiling, which might have the same effect (?). I want to try some ultra thick stuff just below the speaker, and maybe left and right of the speaker also, all right against the front wall.
If this null can't get much better with treatments, it's not so terrible. The rest of the response is already good enough that Dirac shouldn't have much problem with being able to improve things.
As much as I sort of expected that the C18 should sound great, I really didn't think that it would be this good!
There's so little info about this speaker that I though I'd relate my experience with it from brand new to forward into the future (some time travel is expected).
It weighs 50lbs, which isn't super heavy, but being long and narrow it's awkward for one person to handle. It's only finished on the top and sides. The bottom is metal. Both the Flat and Angled speaker brackets allow for quite a bit of extra tilt if needed. The wall bracket is well designed and super strong.
I've had the Motif mounted on the wall above the tv for several years. With the C18 being 2-1/2 times the weight, and being awkward to handle, I'm not considering mounting it in the same location. So I first tried putting the C18 on the console table I've been using for my sources, but the speaker hides the bottom edge of the tv. Next I put it on a petrified tree stump I have as a "side table" for the sofa. Height wise it's great. So I used this all day yesterday.
I began the break-in process using music and listening to only the C18 setup as Large so it can run full range. Started at a moderate volume for the first few hours, then upping the volume to 85-90dB SPL measured 1 meter from the speaker, which is about 80-85dB at the MLP. The sound was better than I thought it would be, albeit a bit "squawky" with some instruments like clarinet and harmonica. It was bass-shy at first, but that settled in pretty nicely after some more hours. Played quite a lot of Jaco Pastorius because the bass was so good, and this is with a speaker that only goes down to 50Hz.
I watched drag racing today and the commentator's voices were so much easier to hear and understand. Everything in the center channel is better.
I'll show some measurements later, but I did an initial measurement at first turn on, then again a couple hours later and more a few hours after that. Measuring with the mic just a meter away from the speaker shows that the speaker itself is fine, no problems like my Motif. But with the mic at the MLP, it shows that there's mainly a problem with a null below the crossover that only seems to affect the cone woofers and not the stat panel, so it's gotta be SBIR. I moved the stump and speaker back and forth to see how the null is affected and the closer to the wall it got, the better things looked. So I decided that the C18 should be mounted on the wall, which I did today.
Next up is to play with absorption to find out what's going to work better to reduce the null. When I stack some absorbers on the floor between the MLP and C18 the null is reduced. I've tried using absorbers in various combinations and locations, but on the floor in a certain area seems to be the best so far. This makes me think that I should consider mounting panels on the cathedral ceiling, which might have the same effect (?). I want to try some ultra thick stuff just below the speaker, and maybe left and right of the speaker also, all right against the front wall.
If this null can't get much better with treatments, it's not so terrible. The rest of the response is already good enough that Dirac shouldn't have much problem with being able to improve things.
As much as I sort of expected that the C18 should sound great, I really didn't think that it would be this good!
