SPL Dynamics XTR-300D2

A robust and rugged looking subwoofer which can be seen in a video blog entry. It has two voice coils of two ohms each so may be hooked up as a one or a four ohm load. The terminals are 4mm squeeze posts and can accept a heavy duty speaker wire and grip it well. In fact for testing, I used a 4mm banana as part of the connection system since I used it at four Ohm load by way of series hookup, joining one voice coil up with the other sequentially rather than the coils’ ends being ‘sleepers’ across a ‘railway track’ or speaker wire. The chassis is major in construction and is topped by a thick rubber gasket that cradles the whole top of the driver and effects a seal whether the woofer is mounted magnet in or out. The large magnet is booted and like the gasket bears an SPL Dynamics logo. The backplate is chromed.
Tinsel leads are heavy duty and are secured to the top of the first spider. The woofer has two spiders for better linearity of motion. It has a large foam top roll surround and a very high power handling of 750w RMS. The three quarters of a kilowatt continuous can be happily a thousand and a half watts on peak and the woofer won’t object according to the rating. I tested it with the PowerBass XA-3000D monoblock amp and Odyssey battery. Recordings used were Focal’s Spirit of Sound #6 and PowerSupply More Bass More Boom More Bottom.
– Power Handling: 750w RMS (1,500w max)
– Carbon fibre cone
– Die cast Aluminium chassis
– Large rubber gasket
– Dual 2 Ohm voice coils
– Nickel plated 4mm squeeze post terminals
– Voice Coil Diameter: 2.5 inch (63mm)
– Mounting depth 170mm
– 160 Oz (4.536 kilogram) magnet
– Efficiency: 4 Ohm series 86.6dB 1w/1M
– Efficiency: 1 Ohm parallel 86.3dB 1w/1M
– Fms: 4 Ohm series 31.4Hz
– Fms: 1 Ohm parallel 31.7Hz
– Qes: 4 Ohm series – 0.433
– Qes: 1 Ohm parallel – 0.493
– Qms: 4 Ohm series – 4.401
– Qms: 1 Ohm parallel 5.438
– Qts: 4 Ohm series – 0.394
– Qts: 1 Ohm parallel – 0.452
– Vas: 4 Ohm series 41.9 Litres
– Vas: 1 Ohm parallel 42.7 Litres
– Mass: 11.3kg
Box suggestions
Sealed box: 26-40 Litres
Ported: Car/HiFi 60 Litres with 4in port, 25cm long. Tuning frequency 35Hz
Ported: Car/Loud music – 50 Litres with 4in port, 22cm long Tuning frequency 40Hz
Ported: Home Theatre – 65 Litres with 4in port, 33cm long Tuning frequency 30Hz
Review by Adam Rayner
I really have to admit that I enjoy the direction that these Finns are coming from. Like their rally drivers and other assorted Viking types, the Scandinavians just don’t mess around when it comes to engineering. I have some bias as I am a lifelong lover of Swedish cars. I dream of tuned T5 Volvo estates and Carlsson SAABs. (Moment’s worried silence for SAAB.) Also, this is the line distributed by Car Audio Direct, who are closely matey with Talk Audio. However, I’m a seasoned old trouper and have real proper friendships all over the industry and after nearly two years am utterly assured that if anything, righteousness has prevented CAD from really ‘requiring and requesting’ that I look at their kit on Talk Audio.
This actually amounts to negative bias. Like the poor child who is in the class their parent is teaching at school. It can happen and believe me, in an effort not to show favouritism, the child always get treated with rigour! So one, I do my damndest to do the objective thing and two, I realise that it isn’t possible in ‘purist’ terms so admit it and then do the hardest path-walking of all which is to try to take it into account. All of which sounds a bit twisty but is really just to get it out of the way. And to take that whole ‘worry’ and fold it till it’s all corners.and review some SPL Dynamics kit.
For the SPL Dynamics XTR-300D2 is a Pepperami. It’s a bit of an animal. Which does of course beggar the question of what in hell the really heavy duty SPL range of the company who called themselves Sound Pressure Level would be like? The pictures on their site look amazing, with magnets as big as the twelve inch cone assemblies! This is a dual voice coiler, with pretty bits behind, including a wrapper of rubber for the ferrite and a nice branded rubbery top gasket piece.
The dust dome could look a bit less in your face but the logo needs to be there and a CF dome would up the cost. A midprice item well above cheapies but not quite into the mad end, it nevertheless has some slice of the mad end about it. So much so, that a �160 raw driver can score an eight for VFM in the grip of the recession. This is due to its huge power-eating abilities. Rated at 750w RMS, this is not fib but Finnish fact. In four Ohm mode, it scoffed at the PowerBass XA-3000D monoblock’s 4 Ohm thou’. I would need a bigger battery I reckon to run a couple of kilowatts but at the thousand it was happily supporting in the test rig, the XTR was loving it.
I plugged in the AudioControl SA-3055’s microphone and ran up Power Supply and their follow up to Bass Boom Bottom. Track six is again the killer. It wibbles and drops and the XTR sailed through with nary a cough nor bottom out. It has a stiffness about it that means you really can’t run it on a gutless amp. Do not buy and put it on a 400w RMS monoblock as you will be disappointed. Slap it on anything of a pukka half kilowatt or better yet, at least a thousand watts and you will have a testicle tickler.
I played the Focal disc and went to the tough track I used to tell how amazing the Morel Ultimo 12 is (g’wan go find it with the Mag tabs menu upper left as you look at the page.) and it was OK. This isn’t an SQL woofer, it’s about being a good woofer and still able to go stonk-mungerously loud. I measured over 130dB at times, close up to the ever-so-solid Acoustic Wood enclosure I used. A sealed box and the new woofer meant that while I could drop as deep as the suspension allowed (and it is deep as the dual bottom spider really helps) I would not get any extra SPL at the tuned frequency of a ported box. It does keep it fair but I would love to hear a brace in a deep breathing box. I also understand that CAD are building a Beetle with six of the fifteen inch size onboard. Based on the output of this single twelve it aught to be a candidate for joining in with the next ground shake at Santa Pod. (we went to Santa Pod with an Earthquake meter and 100,000+ watts of bass!) I was impressed at the authority and weight and also the fact that it was reasonably linear in output. There were no notes it liked a lot more, or had problems with. It might have a properly low specification in how many dB it can make with just one watt up it but it plays all the bass you will throw at it smoothly and evenly.
After a while I kind of gouched out and was just messing about playing with it rather than rubbing chin and thinking about it, which means the woofer had me. I was off into simply delighting in how much power you could shove up it and how powerful it sounded. So much so, that despite the test bed set of six by nines chugging away, I simply could not adjust the range of the AudioControl SA-3055 RTA to show anything apart from bass. It was so madly huge in the bass end that if the bass showed on the display, the upper frequencies didn’t register and were below the scale!
There was some small degree of purring from the suspension when box fresh but after only a few minutes of neighbourly bassing indoors, this receded, so I don’t expect it to feature after running in. Personally, I’m old enough to like my centre domes a little more restrained in look but that’s just me being a grunter.
If you were thinking of going truly badass and you were worried about the cost of a big ticket super-weapons grade woofer, then the SPL Dynamics XTR series can offer you nearly all they can but for a real slice less. Close up, I got 130dB and that’s where SPL contests start and is as loud as a handgun going off.
Continuously!
Sound Quality 8.0
Build Quality 9.0
Power Handling 10.0
Efficiency 7.0
Value For Money 8.0
Overall rating 8.4