Louder, Better, Cheaper! In Depth Look at the New Ultimax Subwoofers!

Ultimax II Subwoofer: parts-express....
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[@Toid]

They are in stock! parts-express.sjv.io/q4RZej

[@elikirkwood4580]

I was looking at both the 8" and 18" of the original series for a couple different builds, and I'm glad I ended up waiting because these are a significant upgrade

[@mcjonner]

Would love to see a comparison video between these and other higher end within reason subs in the 15" size like the stereo integrity and other Dayton products and lavoce within that budget ballpark

[@erkkijaakkopetteri]

Agree, it's getting quite confusing between these and Reference HO and HF series - I guess the latter are still better in terms of SQ but also more suited for small sealex boxes due to the stronger motors

[@mcjonner]

@@erkkijaakkopetteri ya a little confusing. Could even mix in sealed 18" compared to ported 15" if they can be done relatively in a similar box size would be a nice comparison

[@DIYAudioGuy]

Can't wait to get my hands on one!

[@Toid]

@@DIYAudioGuy we will have to compare builds when we’re finished

[@WorldOfWobWob]

@@Toid You guys should do a collab on this one!

[@TroyOnymous]

May have to try one of the Ultimax subs one of these days, I love Dayton speakers in general and have several Reference Series in 10 and 12 inch and they are absolute beasts for their price points.

[@JR-ho5qm]

Wow! Nice job Dayton!

[@smiththers2]

my biggest problem with the original was the tiny voice coil and power handling. id love to try these new ones!

[@betaomega04]

What I REALLY want is a 21" Ultimax II!!!

[@shaymcquaid]

Two or four 18" are going in my ceiling in IB. Have an original Ultimax 15" in IB in my bus. These are great drivers.

[@mattbukala2728]

I think I found my next 18 looks great👍

[@sterlingbrown5]

Great vid, looking forward to grabbing two of these eventually! Thanks for featuring it

[@jamesfalvey77]

Just pulled the trigger on a 10"

[@G59.Jonesy]

Got my 8’s in the mail a few days ago. Box gets built tmr, can’t wait to see how they sound

[@Toid]

@@G59.Jonesy keep us updated

[@juanorfi3708]

Looking forward to your UMII18 project maybe a 10-15hz tuned or a sealed bigger than 4sqf

[@EverythingHomeTheater]

Awesome...upgrade time!

[@ZegaracRobert]

Anyway, great drivers got even better now! I am eyeing ultimax for a while (yeears)...

[@xTinBenderX]

Dayton has the spec sheets on their site for the other sizes. 18" looks like a BANGER 28mm Xmax OOF 👀

[@sinewave3323]

That is sick! I love that! I want one to lol!

[@bingdong8571]

can not wait to see if you improved on the um18-22. Bang for buck champs for years.

[@johnniebeard8647]

What a beautiful sub I can't wait to purchase one

[@psyphonyxaudio]

Looks like a very nice subwoofer.

[@ZegaracRobert]

Anodizing black aluminium pole peace extender you use for lowering distorsion (currently silver looking aluminium beefy shorting ring) end would suckin even more heat in from voice coil former not reflect it back to the coil former (check emissivity and IR reflection), that way you would be able to increase power handling even more transfering heat to magnet+basket for increased termal transfer to the environment. Magnetic pole peace under the shorting ring would also help additionally if coated with thin layer of black high temperature paint to recive its portion of radiated heat from black anodized c-former...

[@timLoder]

Have you ever taken a floor model stereo upgraded all of the speakers the head unit amplifiers record player just to keep the appearance of a floor model I’d like to see that happen because I wanna do that

[@SkittlesScott]

I just got 2 UM-12 v1

[@musikman337]

Which Dayton subs perform best in ported enclosures?

[@BobJohnson-tq5vm]

Hello Toids! I have a question for you here. Are there any speakers cabinets designed to be both acoustic suspension, and ported? This could give the listener the option to tailor their sound for the material they're listening to at the time. I was thinking about building some boxes tuned to be acoustic suspension, then have a cover over a tuned port sort of like an air tight gas cap (But not as ugly!) Love your channel, I wish I had half the toys you've got in your shop! LOL

[@Toid]

@@BobJohnson-tq5vm there’s quite a few subwoofers that do this. I haven’t seen many bookshelf or tower speakers. But there is no reason you couldn’t do it.

[@larrygaines7462]

When I sell my paper cone 18 in classic daytons. 3.74cuft cabinet sealed,work?

[@luke144]

Yummy.

[@christittle1131]

What is Dayton best subwoofer for cars?

[@JohnZornAscended]

Ultimax

[@christopherparis6841]

​@@JohnZornAscended no man the x Maxx kinda simple look at box size smfh

[@JohnZornAscended]

@@christopherparis6841 Xmax is not the best in my opinion for modern r&b and hip hop. The Ultimax is able to drop lower in the octave range, they’re also quick enough to enjoy jazz. Just my opinion though.

[@carrizzle9586]

Does anyone know how they were able to reduce the price on these??? Was that a stamped steel or cast aluminum basket? I noticed that they strayed away from talking about the basket design.🤔

[@Toid]

@@carrizzle9586 it is not a stamped steel basket. Actually, I believe it’s the exact same basket. Which is probably why we didn’t talk about it because nothing changed.

[@carrizzle9586]

​@@ToidThe basket has a different design but cool it's cast aluminum. Thanks for the response. Any word on where the cost savings came from: bigger quantity when bulk purchasing, material costs decrease, 1 less ferrite magnet slug, or simpler design???

[@Toid]

@@carrizzle9586 it was my understanding while talking to Brian that the cost savings just came from the new design in general. I don’t think it was one specific thing. It was a combination of everything. Unfortunately we didn’t spend a lot of time discussing the particulars of that. I’ll have to keep that in mind as a question to ask next time.

[@jasoncasto910]

@@Toidbasket design is different this time around. The new Ultimax looks to have a custom tooled basket as where the basket on the original Ultimax was a variation of the very popular and much used 12 spoked basket. Not sure why the new design wasn’t brought up but it isn’t going to change much in terms of clearance and cooling.

[@johnniebeard8647]

In your opinion why does JL higher end have such big spiders

[@JohnZornAscended]

Love the Ultimax. Construction is terrible.

[@IvanToman]

Bl went down from 21.1 to 19.2 Tm, that's why it is cheaper :)

[@Pentenfi]

Nixe, Dayton Audio is putting out New stuff on a regular basis. The background music is irritating

[@hermangaviria690]

I'm so mad, I bought a pair of 12 inch Ultimax Subs for a custom pair in my home theater and these come out only 3 months later.... its already too late for me to send the originals back to parts express. What really gets me is that they're cheaper

[@almiragustinal9670]

😅😅😅

[@christopherparis6841]

Buy new return old fk em

[@hermangaviria690]

@@christopherparis6841 they already said no. Honestly bad luck

[@iggynub]

Why would you be mad? You've had great subwoofers for three months and now fomo has you regretting your choice? Just enjoy your subs. So ridiculous.

[@shanerorko8076]

I just did the math, it's cheaper to buy the 24" subs on the market. The 24" sub from SI move 35m cubic mils of air, whereas 4 18" ultimax 2 subs will move 40m. But one 24" comes in at $1k whereas 4 18" subs come in at $1.2k. But I haven't checked the BL specs, I assume the 4 x 18" subs will have higher BL per cubic centermeter of air moved.

[@alexoncunha2138]

I don't think BL is summed, on the contrary, due to many drivers summed, it will smooth out the response (in general).

[@shanerorko8076]

@@alexoncunha2138 okay, thanks.

[@ilaion11]

That breakup in the impedance, the result of a single sheet of carbon fiber and the inverted dome geometry is not helping. The drive looks good, but it can't stand a chance to a standard paper cone in terms of sound quality or even an aluminum one from the Reference line. If just had a normal cone with a dust cap, things would have looked ten times better because the normal cone is a much stronger structure than the inverted dome. It's physics guys and math. For this sub to work nice, you need to cross it over at 100-200Hz 12-24 db/octave. WIth the Reference, I could go to 500 Hz xover point at 12 db and they have lower fs. The only inverted dome diaphragm that works well is sandwich carbon fiber, but it's sill an aesthetic gimmick because it does not provide any sound advantage. There is a reason producers like Acoustic Elegance are top, and they use classic cones. For that matter, I still wouldn't but a Magico even if I had the cash for because in order to make a great inverted dome, you really need a large cone underneath it so it acts more like a large dust cap. I love the Reference line of subs, though.

[@Openeyesopenheart42]

These are subwoofers bro, not really designed for anything above 200hz.

[@ilaion11]

@@Openeyesopenheart42 Reference line are also subs, yet they are very musical, especially the HF. I am not saying one cannot use these just as subs up to 200hz 24db/octave and be happy with it, I am saying that the design of the basket, the motor, all looks incredible and I was looking to them in order to use a pair into my build, but it seems the diaphragm isn't doing it for me. I really want to cross the subs over at 400 Hz 12db/octave. Reference works great for that and I'll stick to them.

[@Openeyesopenheart42]

@@ilaion11cool. I agree with your assessment, would be more relevant if prefaced with, “for my project “ for the noobs . As a sub , it’s not in the vocal range and the carbon fibre cone won’t attribute much to the sound.

[@Openeyesopenheart42]

@@ilaion11 sounds like an interesting project you have in the making? Are you doing an open baffle ?

[@Pok-001]

Love the reference line. Had great results in a ported box had sealed just didn’t hit enough. Both very musical . Really want to make a second pair with max size box and f3 of 20 or 18HZ just low Fr reinforcement

[@amerdasdk2534]

👍👍👍👍👍

[@Amansshed]

Dayton was not very honest about the TS figures in the passed.. FS 19hz real fs 26hz vas 144 real vas 120ish.. Plus i think they sound crap for music! good for movies

[@adamvoorhies6042]

They do not sound like crap dude. In a proper well constructed enclosure with a good quality amp these are as good as it gets for the price. I have built many home subwoofers with Ultimax drivers from 8' to the 18" and they all sound sound awesome. Don't listen to this guy.

[@goblinphreak2132]

​​@@adamvoorhies6042ive noticed a lot of haters whom are ignorant bashing them, talking about buying more expensive gear .... Essentially its buyers remorse aka buyers justification. They paid more money and now have to defend their purchases.... I still use cheap crunch amps in my car setups and before I tell people its crunch amps they say my car setup sounds amazing. Then after i tell them im using dirt cheap crunch amps they start bitching about how dogshit they are and id get better quality with 4x more expensive amps... Yet they were seconds prior, praising the sound quality.... Lmao. I have another example. I built a 3" stainless steel exhaust for my 2005 subaru Impreza wrx sti.... Pull up to a car meet and get surrounded by people. "omg your exhaust sounds gorgeous. I have never heard an exhaust setup sound so buttery smooth. What combination of parts did you buy? Why downpipe and exhaust? " Then i told them it was the factory downpipe to my custom 3" exhaust. Their faces turned sour and then proceeded to tell me "you won't make any power" and "you should buy the titanium downpipe and exhaust for maximum power output" and i just facepalmed.... My cheap $300 home made exhaust not only sounded better than theirs, we all made the same power numbers according to dyno sheets. People always want to justify spending money when it was never necessary...

[@adamvoorhies6042]

@@goblinphreak2132 Your right! Expensive high end components does not guarantee great sound quality. Design and build is what matters the most. I have spent (wasted) hundreds of dollars on high end components that ultimately don't sound any better than cheaper, lesser components. Keep doing what your doing and learn.

[@Amansshed]

@@adamvoorhies6042 Thanks for the input adam. maybe I need to do some more homework.. I have sealed boxes 25mm mdf with matrix braces... approx 115L.. The Q is approx 0.8 in the box..do you think i need a bigger box

[@GurvanBHC7]

@@AmansshedYes you definitly need bigger enclosure… 0.7-0.6 is best for Ultimax. And of course, you need to know how to position the subwoofer so that it sounds good, and work with the EQ in addition to or independently of an acoustically controlled room.