Atlas rises from the ashes of a Shiva

Chewie

After ruining my new Shiva I went with an Atlas 12" driver from AscendantAudiio. Chad was very helpful and provided great all around customer service. The Atlas is about $50 more but well worth the price. It sounds better than the Shiva and is far superior in build quality. You can immediately see where those extra $$ went when you open the box. The Atlas weighs in at 21lbs.while the Shiva is 13lbs. The connection points are high quality. You can either use banana connectors or bare wire that is held in place by the spring-loaded terminal. No soldering required! After some break-in time I tried some "Gladiator" tracks tonight along with some recommended bass testing music. Everything sounds tight and right! I have a HUGE room and it is now being filled quite nicely.

12" Atlas (downfiring)
95L vented box
Rythmik 350 amp
Room is 40'x25'x10'

gatemplin

Congrats,

The Atlas has a little more excursion but a much flatter BL curve. I have heard nothing but good things about this company and I started a thread about them a little while ago.

http://clubpolk.polkaudio.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24805

Glad it worked out for you. Chad seems like a good guy and I'm glad that everyone seems to be very happy with the Ascendant drivers. I may replace my Tempest with and Atlas or Avanlanche someday.

Codey

That's a pretty cool enclosure you've built. What's it made out of?

gatemplin

Yeah that enclosure is very unique, me likey.

Chewie

I used 1" MDF for the box and covered it with black marble contact paper. Solid 3/4" oak for the top and legs that was glued -up as needed. All vertical edges are rounded. Total weight is 134lbs!

VR3

Time for Adire to catch up!

bolson

I have been looking at doing a DIY sub using an Atlas driver and an Adire designed enclosure. Does the enclosure need to be tweaked for the Atlas driver or are the differences with the Shiva not significant? Since you have heard both, how does the sound quality compare between the two?

And I am curious how you managed to blow up your Shiva?

Chewie

I used the plans shown on AcousticVisions with the only change being an adjustment for using 1" stock instead of 3/4".


This was my first sub of any kind so I am not an expert on sound comparison. I can say that the Atlas sounded tighter and didn't bottom like the Shiva did. The Shiva sounded fine but the Atlas is significantly better in overall performance. The quality of materials is certainly much better with the Atlas.

A few weeks ago I started another thread about my experience with the Shiva. I had followed recommendations and went with the Shiva and other components listed above but later found that this was not appropriate for my room size. The Shiva bottomed enough that the coils were damaged. You could hear a scraping sound when manually pushing the cone. I then saw a post about AscendantAudio's new drivers. Chad was very helpful and said the Atlas would work perfectly in the enclosure I had built.

gatemplin

Bolson,

I think that the TS specs are pretty close but shoot Chad Kuypers an email asking him if the Adire plans will work. The adjustable Qts makes these drivers very versitile as far as box design goes. The Atlas should sound better than the Shiva.

VR3

http://www.ascendantaudio.com/

goingganzo

i am looking to upgrade strykeforce to dual Avanlanche 18

jdhdiggs

Yup, I'm starting to look at a dual avalanche 18 in a pseudo IB setup. (Maybe 50X VAS or so)

Early B.

Will the Atlas 12" work in an SVS PB12-ISD enclosure and amp?

goingganzo

it should. but you might want to re port or re tune the port . and maybe get more power.

gatemplin

Originally posted by Early B.
Will the Atlas 12" work in an SVS PB12-ISD enclosure and amp?

I gotta disagree with Bryan. The SVS Bash amp has built in EQ for the ISD driver, the response curves will not be the same. I suggest you build one of the recommended enclosures and get a 250-360w amp.

Airplay355

ganzo you are insane....2 18" woofers? :eek:

goingganzo

are you sure they might have a bass bost. but you might get more by selling the svs and bulding a sub sonos are very easy and so are box subs you can even have home depo cut the mdfb for you. my true goal is 120db@12hz

VR3

Ganzo...

you scare me, u know that - and for the record, I am jealous... LOL

Early B.

Will the Atlas 12" work in an SVS PB12-ISD enclosure and amp?

Spoke with Chad at Ascendant Audio and he said the Atlas 12 will work in this scenario with no problem at all. I ordered one. Should arrive by the end of the week. Will post my results.

jdhdiggs

Originally posted by Early B.
Will the Atlas 12" work in an SVS PB12-ISD enclosure and amp?

That sounds like some bad ju-ju there and I'm not sure how much (if anything) you'd gain. I would keep the SVS intact to maintain its value and make a DIY test sub instead.

Edit: Since you ordered it, good luck, and report back the results!

VR3

Yes! REPORT back, because my sub is exactly like the PB1/12 ISD or w/e the eff it is...

And that sub is VERY nice

Early B.

OK, the driver arrived today. I swapped out the SVS driver, plugged it in, and played my reference DVDs. Will post my initial thoughts on the Atlas 12 vs. the SVS woofer in a new thread probably tomorrow. I want to run the sub a few more hours to let the driver break in. Gonna watch AVP tonight. That oughta do it.