香蕉视频直播

Features and Construction

The RF-8w is an 8鈥� dual four ohm voice coil woofer, utilizing fairly standard 鈥渙ff the shelf鈥� type of parts. But it鈥檚 designed to be a very good performer, and the money not spent on chrome plating and injection molding was instead spent on real performance features and better parts that will make it sound better and be more reliable. The woofer has a heavy duty stamped steel basket, and weighs in at almost 8 pounds. A large 5.5鈥� ferrite motor assembly provides the magnetic energy to drive the dual 4-layer coils, which are wound on a Kapton former. Each coil is rated at a nominal impedance of 4 ohms. Keeping the former and coil centered in the gap is the task of a Conex progressive type spider and an old school type foam half roll surround. Connected to the UV protected surround by special adhesives is a molded and double sided paper cone, which in my experience has a more natural sound than a poly cone. A poly-mica inverted dustcap is finished in the classic Soundstream blue and silver, with the Tarantula logo proudly displayed.

The basket is finished in a textured matte black powdercoat, and uses beefy nickel plated spring type binding posts. A molded rubber gasket provides an air tight seal and will seal from either side, just in case you wanted to mount the woofer with the motor showing. The RF-8W also incorporates a vented pole piece to reduce internal pressure build up at high excursion and to improve voice coil cooling.

Another feature designed to enhance reliability are the stitched in tinsel leads which follow the contour of the top of the spider.

Listening

After break in, following the recommendations in the owner鈥檚 manual, I mounted the woofer in a 0.5 cubic foot sealed enclosure, and connected it to my reference system. I began with a -12dB/Oct subwoofer crossover at 125Hz, but later found that I preferred a setting between 80 and 100Hz. With the coils wired in parallel for a 2 ohm load, it was time to do some listening. The output from the 8鈥� woofer was surprisingly strong and authoritative, and even very deep bass like the synth notes in Avril Lavigne鈥檚 鈥淪k8ter Boi鈥� were reproduced well. Moving on to a few other high energy bass tracks like Thomas Dolby鈥檚 鈥淜ey to Her Ferrari鈥� and Thom Rotella鈥檚 鈥淔riends鈥�, the RF-8W provided a rich and pleasing bottom end sound, and retained a tight and articulate character. Once again, I thought the good old paper cone did a great job in reproducing rich and natural sounding bass. While doing my listening, I had to remind myself a couple of times that I was listening to an 8鈥� woofer, because the sonics of it were such that it could have just as easily passed for a 10鈥� or even a 12鈥� driver.

Measured Performance

After listening to the woofer for about as long as my hectic schedule would allow, I let the woofer sit overnight and measured the Thiele-Small parameters, and generated an impedance curve. I鈥檓 happy to report that my measurements were virtually identical to the specs that Soundstream published in the owner鈥檚 manual. The parameters suggest that the woofer will work good in either sealed or vented designs, so you have some flexibility in the type of enclosure you prefer.

Conclusion

It may not have all the bells and whistles, and may be missing chrome plated bits or custom tooled components, but there is no doubt that the Soundstream RF-8W is built to listen to first and foremost. With performance belying it鈥檚 size and using the money saved on 鈥渟how鈥� to improve the 鈥済o鈥�, I give the economically priced woofer high marks for not only it鈥檚 performance but also for overall value. If you don鈥檛 have a lot of room for some boom, the RF-8W could be exactly what you鈥檙e looking for.

Related Articles

KnuKnonceptz Kord Ultra Flex

KnuKonceptz expands its ultra flexible Kord Oxygen Free Copper speaker wire line up with a new color combination - Red/Black. This new color offering...

Kicker ST Series Explained

Most every Basshead remembers experiencing their first 鈥渨indy build.鈥� Tightly contained in an unsuspecting volume knob, the anticipation is akin to...

Metra Electronics New Tesla Speaker Adapter Plates

Metra Electronics is now shipping new speaker adapter plates that fit an assortment of Tesla models. These new products were introduced at the SEMA...

Alpine Next-Generation R-Series Sound System Line

Alpine North America, Inc. (鈥淎lpine鈥�) introduces the Next-Generation R-Series sound system line. This line features the same 鈥淟oud and Fun鈥� experience...

Kenwood DNR1007XR Head Unit

The KENWOOD eXcelon Reference DNR1007XR navigation receiver has built-in Garmin Navigation, is both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto ready via wired or...

Electric Cars Brake Reliably With LIQUI MOLY

Brake Fluid DOT 5.1 EV was developed for the systems of modern vehicles that are also installed in electric vehicles. Many things are different for...