New Vibes

Fresh for 2009, there have been some evolutionary and even revolutionary changes at the Midbass stable. We bring you this special news round up from the UK player who is doing a bit of a Leona Lewis in the USA…..
Vibe are a really happening outfit. Strong in genuine proprietary electro-acoustic R&D and with a really high power marketing and graphic design team. Always evolving, they now cover car audio from entry level through midmarket and premium lines, all the way up to what can best be described as ‘weapons grade’.
 
We are familiar with the Slick, BlackAir and Space speakers as Good, Better Best product but there have been some additions for 2009 and a new line of light weight kit called, well, ‘LITE’. Along with a refinement of the Space series called Deep Space, there are now six levels of hardware.

Level 1
Vibe Slick. Rubbery details and lots of sound for the pound in 4in/5.25in/6.5in and 6x9in (in both two and three way) and a new for 2009 5x7in oval. The subs, amps and SLR enclosures continue – up to fifteens, too which ain’t common in entry level.

Level 2
The BlackAir series has the familiar yellow cone and alloy basket and offers a bunch of active enclosures, too. The BlackBox series of amps are now counted in this stable. The big bad ported CBR range of ready made bass boxes uses Blackair subs so naturally goes in this level as well.

Level 3
The new LiteAir series of speakers have Kevlar/fibreglass coned mids and sweet silk tweeters and all use N35 Neodymium magnets for light weight with big power. The Liteair 5 and 6 are component systems with off board passives and really heavy power handling of 90 and 100w RMS respectively.
Tellingly, there is an eight inch midbass as well. (Although seen in ‘Vegas in finished prototype, we don’t yet have a date for this important supercar woofer’s UK availability but will report as soon as they arrive.)
To be called the Liteair 8, it has the same 45mm mounting depth as the four inch coax. Super shallow is also a description you could put to the Liteair 12 subwoofer. It’ll cope with a no-compromise 750 watts but only has a 114mm mounting depth. A cunning use of serious Neodymium.
 
LiteBox amplifiers – Remember Jurassic Park? The accountant who got eaten in the loo cabin (how we cheered) measured things by their mass. “Look, I found these under my seat!” exclaims Timmy. Gennaro says, “Are they heavy?”, “Yes” “Then they are expensive, put them down…” by which he meant posh and not for little boys to play with. The Lite Box amplifiers are exactly meant for little boys to play with, and big boys, too, but those with issues to do with cubic and weight of their system.
Yes, there are some real slabs in the Vibe amp ranges but if you are after something that offers nutty amounts of muscle for the mass. These are the items. The range comprises LiteBox Stereo 2, LiteBox Stereo 4, and LiteBox Bass 1. They operate in Class GH, with 90 watts per channel on the stereo items and 300w RMS at 4 Ohms for the Bass 1. However it’s really a half-kilowatt amplifier, as it is designed ground-up to work at 2 Ohms. They have huge fidelity, with the LiteBox Stereo 2 offering a truly high end signal to noise ratio of 111dB and the four channel, 109dB. Two inches (or fifty mm) deep makes them chunky but they are only 135mm front to back, so they are really diddy for what they do. You get a low pass and a high pass filter on the stereo models and a low pass plus a subsonic filter function on the LITEBox Bass 1 which also has the ability to be strapped with another Bass 1 to produce 1000 watts RMS.
SQ12 active and SQ12 passive are boxed Liteair subs in gorgeous enclosures, the active version sporting a built in amp.

Level 4
This is the new designation for the popular high-power Space series, including the Space 3D components which for 2009 are joined by SpaceBox amps, working in class GH, they offer 110w RMS per channel in stereo and 450w RMS into four ohms or 800w @ 2 Ohms for the monoblock. There’s a two channel, a four channel and a mono. Space woofers come in twelve and fifteen inch sizes. This is also now the excellent CBR S enclosures’ group designation as they use Space woofers. CBR S Fifteen Twin Evo is an animal.

Level 5
The DEEP Space series is an SQ-enhanced take on the Space theme. No parts in common at all with the Space subs, they are an ‘SQL’ type of product, and as well as being compatible with the Space 3D components, there is another driver, an esoteric thin-coned eight inch midbass as well. So delicate it needs to wear its grille permanently to avoid cone damage. The new Deep Space 12 and 15 inch woofers have parabolic dished cones with indented peaks that look dead sexy. There’s a new Deep SpaceBox  Bass 1 amp, too. Good for 1,500w at 2 Ohm mono, yet with an astonishing (for bass) 94dB of signal to noise ratio. It promises to be a bit of a wunderkind. The continuing enclosures called AC Evo are bandpass paragons of SQ lows and are rightly now placed in the level five zone.

Level 6
Black Death – the SPL competition monster woofer only comes in fifteen incher size and only has the sick BDQB69 three -way oblong six by nine monster as its main chum. The popular six by nine size of speaker has a madness about it when it reaches Vibe Level Six. Using a motor the same size as you might put on the back of a twelve inch subwoofer (let alone a ten!) the Vibe oblong six by nine has long had it’s own cult following. You can actually put two in a box to share and run the bass cones as pukka woofers and they will rock quite unlike anything else on the market.
You do of course have to enclose them to get the best results and they fit only in their own special cut out sized holes, so in that, they have the same cost-effort to install as ‘real’ woofers’ However, you can use them to rock in the still under-used 5.1 channel audio style as rears or just use them as full all-around hooligan sound speakers.
Acknowledging them as truly badass and as part of a sensible streamlining of the Midbass brands’ stable, this once ruggedly individualistic speaker is now in any colour as long as its black. It has had it’s mid and HF improved for 2009 so as better to keep up with The Death.
 
The BD ‘Deathbox’ Stereo 4 and BD ‘Deathbox’ Bass 1 are the real engine rooms of the new series and are all new for 2009. The big bad Deathbox will put out a whopping 2,500w RMS at a 1 Ohm load of bass drivers. And the BD154P or BD151C will do it justice. One version has a Carbon fibre cone,  the other classic bone-breaking paper/fibreglass. At the top of the pile of ready made bass boxes and as heavy as carrying a passenger, you find SPL15 EVO. It’s a pressure wedge box with a big port and a Black Death woofer in it.
It’s effing Monstrous.
With some cool accessories like DeltaBox line drivers for SPL multi systems and some really excellent cabling stuff, you can start off with Vibe and upgrade for years in the same brand until you are a raving high end enthusiast with the Vibe brand writ right through you like a stick of rock.