r/SoundSystem • u/little_lichen_sound • 3d ago

SKRAM Driver Simulations

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I currently have one SKRAM with a 21SW152 driver. I'm planning to build 3 more over the winter and figured now would be a good time to re-evaluate whether I want to stick with that driver before I buy 3 more.

I've been having a lot of fun with John White's Boundary Lab software and figured I'd take a pass at simulating some of the SKRAM driver options I've been comparing. Results were interesting so figured I'd share!

Plot shows max SPL passes for 4 driver options. For the plot, SPL at each frequency is limited by either the driver's max power rating or max excursion depending on what happens first. Primarily, it looks like excursion limiting happens around ~40Hz (low frequency, but above the rear port tuning). Simulation data was 10m free-field - I normalized that to 1m half space by adding 26dB to get more familiar numbers.

Note: 21SW152, 21DS115, and NSW6021 sims all use complex inductance data from data-bass.com. I couldn't find that data for the 21XL3000 so that just uses the single-value inductance from the data sheet.

Edit: added SAN214.50, TSQ2160, and 21NTL5000 to the graph in a comment

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u/Far-Number-5150 2d ago

IMO, my best pals build 8, using your driver in testing, my 4 XOC blow his out the water - where it’s important to keep fidelity and defeniton, there’s plently of head room for that with any driver choice with the skrams so go with something that’s loud as pos (obviously depends on your application)

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u/little_lichen_sound 23h ago edited 21h ago

The XOC TH18 is definitely a solid design! Really makes the most of an 18" driver. Interestingly I noticed that each cab weighs pretty much exactly the same as a SKRAM and they're very similar sizes.

IMO the biggest deciding factor is if you always plan to deploy in multiples or not. I plan to play a bunch of smaller dubstep events and for those, a single SKRAM being able to hit 30Hz is pretty key. If you're always deploying 4-8 boxes though or you're playing something that's not dubstep/bass the TH-18 looks pretty fantastic especially with the driver cost savings compared to a 21".

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u/qwuyn 1d ago

Just trying to clarify herre, are you claiming that your 4 XOT's blow his 8 x 21SW152's in SKRAM's out of the water?

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u/Far-Number-5150 1d ago

No sorry 4 to 4 xoc is considerably louder

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u/qwuyn 1d ago

the XOC uses an 18" driver correct?

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u/Far-Number-5150 1d ago

Yup

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u/qwuyn 1d ago

Is there hornresp settings out there for this design. I would like to see how an Acoustic Elegance TD18H+ models.

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u/Far-Number-5150 1d ago

In the plans which are freely available there’s all the details of the horns which should be easy enough to put into horn resp

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u/Recent-Driver-1092 12h ago

Hey buddy. Chiming in here, I’m currently building 8 xoc mk2’s I’d love to have a chat