# What were some of the earliest high power/high excursion subwoofers? (Besides the Stroker)



## haromaster87 (Jan 20, 2012)

This has always been an idle curiosity of mine, what were some of the first subwoofer drivers that brought in large power handling and high excursion? Like 600w RMS+ and 12mm+ or so of excursion? I know the Stroker from Cerwin Vega was pretty significant in the mid/late 90's. Then there were the original round Solo Baric's that took a lot of power, but that was more so controlled with enclosure size.

I've found that a lot of the older automotive subwoofers hovered around the 250w RMS/10mm xmax range for a while, even for the high end subwoofers of a given brand. Nowadays of course it's not uncommon to find those specs on entry level equipment while higher end woofers sport the large surrounds, big motor, thick cast frames, etc. I'm just curious about some of the earlier examples of that type of construction. I used to see Subwoofers from a brand called Kove that seemed beefy for their era, but I wasn't able to track down exactly when that was.

So yeah, what are some of the earliest big power woofers anyone remembers?


----------



## xr650jkallen (Nov 26, 2015)

MTX 9500's, Brahma, I am sure there were some Diamond Audio subs around that time frame also. I love the old school stuff. Really makes me feel old saying mid to late 90s as old school.


----------



## rmenergy (Feb 15, 2009)

SS SPL160
Earthquake Magma
Ground Zero (forget the model)
AVI ZL300neo
Those are a few off the top of my head


----------



## OldOneEye (Jun 16, 2005)

Orion XTR.


----------



## knever3 (Mar 9, 2009)

Maybe not big power, but excursion and cone area are king in the Aura 1808.


----------



## daloudin (Nov 2, 2020)

Not really big xmax as that wasn't really a thing in the early 80s but the Peavey Black Widow 1502DT-4 was our go to when someone wanted to really push the wattage envelope. More readily available and affordable than other more retail oriented drivers and with 350W RMS and 600W program (iirc) and if they had room 2x in an 8 cuft ported enclosure tuned to the low 30s resulted in some serious panel flex in early full size Bronco and K5 Blazers on PPI or Orion cheater amps. 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


----------



## ckirocz28 (Nov 29, 2017)

haromaster87 said:


> This has always been an idle curiosity of mine, what were some of the first subwoofer drivers that brought in large power handling and high excursion? Like 600w RMS+ and 12mm+ or so of excursion? I know the Stroker from Cerwin Vega was pretty significant in the mid/late 90's. Then there were the original round Solo Baric's that took a lot of power, but that was more so controlled with enclosure size.
> 
> I've found that a lot of the older automotive subwoofers hovered around the 250w RMS/10mm xmax range for a while, even for the high end subwoofers of a given brand. Nowadays of course it's not uncommon to find those specs on entry level equipment while higher end woofers sport the large surrounds, big motor, thick cast frames, etc. I'm just curious about some of the earlier examples of that type of construction. I used to see Subwoofers from a brand called Kove that seemed beefy for their era, but I wasn't able to track down exactly when that was.
> 
> So yeah, what are some of the earliest big power woofers anyone remembers?


I believe Audiomobile 12's had 19 mm Xmax in the late 90's.


----------



## Sounds_Insane (8 mo ago)

Atomic and Lanzar has some good stuff.

I remember my brother had some Lanzar 15's, trying to get them returned under warranty we plugged them in one at a time, freeair into the wall (110V @ 60Hz). they held out for probably 15 minutes until the called it a day.


----------



## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

The late 90's is when Eclipse came out with their big excursion stuff 20-33mm xmax - depending.


----------



## haromaster87 (Jan 20, 2012)

Thanks for the answers everyone! There were some really cool ones I had not seen before, and even more that I look forward to reading into further. In my mind, the high excursion stuff has always had a very specific "new school" feel to it, as I feel those designs play a big role in modern car audio. So it's just cool to see kind of the roots of that design back when things were still "old school" lol


----------



## haromaster87 (Jan 20, 2012)

daloudin said:


> Not really big xmax as that wasn't really a thing in the early 80s but the Peavey Black Widow 1502DT-4 was our go to when someone wanted to really push the wattage envelope. More readily available and affordable than other more retail oriented drivers and with 350W RMS and 600W program (iirc) and if they had room 2x in an 8 cuft ported enclosure tuned to the low 30s resulted in some serious panel flex in early full size Bronco and K5 Blazers on PPI or Orion cheater amps.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


This is so cool, thanks! I also love back when Pro Audio type drivers were often sourced for car audio builds, so to have an exact model of driver and everything is really cool to hear about. I first got into car audio drooling over the Terminator Hearse with the EV woofers and subwoofer in it. I might have to do a Black Widow install one day, they're still quite available haha


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Digital designs 9915 were around a little after the strokers

atomic made several woofers that were decent and fit the bill also in the mid 90’s


----------



## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

The Kove Armageddon was pretty legit.


----------



## daloudin (Nov 2, 2020)

haromaster87 said:


> This is so cool, thanks! I also love back when Pro Audio type drivers were often sourced for car audio builds, so to have an exact model of driver and everything is really cool to hear about. I first got into car audio drooling over the Terminator Hearse with the EV woofers and subwoofer in it. I might have to do a Black Widow install one day, they're still quite available haha


If you've got the room for the enclosure there's still not much that can match the output and durability for the price. 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


----------



## Sounds_Insane (8 mo ago)

dumdum said:


> atomic made several woofers that were decent and fit the bill also in the mid 90’s


Earthquake was another old school brand. Both they and Atomic are still around.


----------



## SNCTMPL (Nov 23, 2014)

Remember the old Precision Power Pro’s, the pistons?


----------



## dumdum (Feb 27, 2007)

Sounds_Insane said:


> Earthquake was another old school brand. Both they and Atomic are still around.


The cpds was awesome and a goal as a teen 👍🏼


----------



## el_bob-o (Nov 8, 2008)

It's hard to find info now but I think Protech subs fit the bill.


----------



## The Dude (Mar 24, 2007)

Crystal Mobilesound Comp and Comp X's were pretty beefy I believe.


----------



## The Dude (Mar 24, 2007)

I worked for a short while at a shop that handled Cadence gear, circa 2003/4. Shop owner built a system in a 96 Civic hatch, pair of Cadence Beastmaster 15's off one of the big Cadence Z series amps, with the carbon fiber finish. It was definitely loud.


----------



## rmenergy (Feb 15, 2009)

The Dude said:


> Crystal Mobilesound Comp and Comp X's were pretty beefy I believe.
> 
> View attachment 345840


Those CMP 12's were something else.


----------



## 1978monte (Aug 16, 2009)

Late 1990's Fosgate Power HX2 with a 4" voice coil.

Orion HCCA Subs Made by TC Sounds along with Memphis Mojo, Some Eclipse, and a few others.


----------



## bmarsh07 (9 mo ago)

I ran a set of Orion 15s, and then moved to the Phoenix Gold Xmax as traditional subs that we used to use- and those Digital Designs 9915s were huge around the time I got out of the scene.


----------



## The Tube Doctor (Nov 24, 2009)

rmenergy said:


> SS SPL160
> Earthquake Magma
> Ground Zero (forget the model)
> AVI ZL300neo
> Those are a few off the top of my head


 I remember when we were prototyping the ZL-300 Neo. Howard was pretty shocked at the unit cost on those motors. 
Excursion was impressive, although we ended up with a much wider VC gap than he was truly satisfied with.


----------



## rmenergy (Feb 15, 2009)

The Tube Doctor said:


> I remember when we were prototyping the ZL-300 Neo. Howard was pretty shocked at the unit cost on those motors.
> Excursion was impressive, although we ended up with a much wider VC gap than he was truly satisfied with.


Well my old one went to another member here who’s supposedly working on a project for it.


----------



## Machine7 (Nov 17, 2010)

I had a McIntosh sub back in the early 90s. Dude I got it from had a false wall in his courier van to hide all the amps, crossovers, eq’s, etc. 

He had a Diamond audio system and one of the later one of the first DSPs made by Kenwood. Every bit of the van that could be was covered in grey tweed.


----------



## chuyler1 (Apr 10, 2006)

Theslaking said:


> The late 90's is when Eclipse came out with their big excursion stuff 20-33mm xmax - depending.


Definitely not the first on the block, but these were the first I had the pleasure to listen to around ‘97-98ish. Found a set recently, can’t wait to get them up and running.


----------

