No speaker voice coil can handle the full power of a sine wave driving a amp to clipping. This is a poor test and does not happen even at the factory. A sine wave test is to drive the amp at full power into a resistive dummy load that is rated at over the amp full power spec and is fan cooled or water cooled. A speaker needs impulse signal so that it moved and is driven by the music and when the amp clips at the peak for milliseconds it will nor blow the voice coil. that is how music works and you can drive the sub all night like that at just under clipping which is pulsed and not a continuous full peak to peak sine wave. If you are going to release test / evaluation videos then please do it right to give a fair evaluation and not blame the manufacturer for a product that works on its own design correctly and you incorrectly demo it. i dont have any affiliation with Alto but i also dont destroy products with incorrect use i use KV2 Audio EX 2.2 subs. and 2 are enough for 500 people rooms. when positioned and used like the manufacturer intended.
don't be put off by any comments you may hear. Make no mistake these are awesome speakers. I have 2 x ts 310s an. d 2 x ts 212s subs and they sound fantastic. You will always get people who will put them down and i guarantee 90% of them would not know which was which if you blindfolded them including me. Are they on par with the qsc k series and similar, well when you take into account the price then yes they are. Do they sound as good, well to the trained ear probably not, but i cant remember the last time i did a disco and heard people discussing my mids, highs and lows, because nobody cares as long as they sound good and they do.
I upgraded to qsc from alto and was disappointed, 1 of my qsc tops was as much as the whole alto rig and for majority of small gigs it was unnecessary. The qsc shines outside and for live but for pre recorded music the altos sound amazing for what they are. Will add too my qsc’s would get stinky at clipping as well, you aren’t supposed clip powered speakers they should be treated as a external amp and passive speakers.
This is a pretty bad review from you man, ive got 2 of these subs and they are really good quality and value for money. They aren't made to be bashed at max gain on the back of the amp, mine has run for 2 years on its normal setting being played aggressively every weekend and not a single issue. You are just giving this speaker a bad with a negative opinion, you started the video being negative and it made it shit.
This guy does not know how to do a review or let alone know how to used audio. Peak is for only for a Second. This guy may have be 90% but the build up was why it failed. This guy is uneducated on how it works.
I am a bass player and a sound tech with 60 years playing in and mixing bands. My several years experience with the TS318 has been trouble free, and I consider ALTO products to be a great bang for the buck. The headline, the unprofessional, slouchy look of this presenter and the negative attitude he projected before he even had the product out of the box told me exactly what to expect. He was pre-programmed to slam this sub well in advance, probably pre-judging by the economical price. I would guess he is a know-nothing PA snob.
Just watched your QSC and Harbinger sub teardowns and I didn't see you put a constant 30Hz Sign through those...? Maybe I missed it, but I think I would have seen it. I was planning on buying an alto based on other reviews, so I am no fan boy. What is UNBELIEVABLE is you claim to know what your doing and put 90% constantly through a new sub at low frequency right out the box and expect it to run perfectly. I call BS. Dont base your purchase decision on this video alone!
Oh. And I learned from another reviewer, (island something) that these speakers go from line to mic amp once you pass around 75% on the box, so no wonder you over worked it. Give a proper, unbiased, professional review. That's not too much to ask.
Great review and honest, I was surprised to see when you removed the woofer from the cabinet, to see the woofer was a single voice coil woofer, I was expecting to see a dual voice coil woofer, that's probably why you guy's where able to burn out the woofer so easily, I would still buy the (Alto TS-318S) sub woofer, just replace the bass driver with a better quality woofer. Thanks for the video!!
if you already own the sub i would agree but, If you don't spent that extra woofer money and get a true and tested sub like qsc..Rcf..jbl.. or yorkville..I learned the hard way..buy good the first time and you won't look back.
Did you run it to mic levels when running from your device? If you did thats the reason why the coil started burning. The amps used will always be rated to the speakers peak power. But it can only maintain peak for a few seconds.
As soon as you slapped the cabinet I immediately said to myself “that didn’t sound good” real hollow sounding. Lots of cabinet resonance. I did not expect it to fail in minutes. That was surprising. Can you imagine being in your first gig with this box and having it fail like that with 50-100 ppl counting on you for a party? Wow
I want monster bass for my house dj set up would I be better off with one of these monsters or a krk 12? I’m thinking the krk would be clearer and more precise and this would be more powerful but crude ?? Thanks
complimenti x i tuoi video molto interessanti ho comprato b&c 15tbx100 ho sostituito il cono e ti assicuro che e diventato molto più aggressivo e pulito grazie del tuo consiglio
I had to replace all my drivers in my 15's Alto tops with quality Eminence and they got super loud and clean sounding; and, yes, poly-fill it's a must.
@@brane6084 I own 2x Alto Truesonic 115A that comes with very small tweeters and very underpowered woofers. So after trying few woofer/tweeter combinations I settled to this: Eminence Eminence Kappa-15A 8 ohms and Pyle PDS182 from PartsExpress. I know, Pyle does not say much but, this one its very clean/warm sounding. First see if your tweeters are very small; only then consider to replace them. With this woofer they will be very-very heavy comparing to current weight. If you are looking to alternatives to those make sure to follow the same efficiency in decibels. That combination works just fine. Never push more bass in the main speakers to compensate for a subwoofer. Just get a subwoofer to match them. At low volume, yes, you can.
Gogo Mogo thanks, I think my first move will be to add a sub to the setup and see if changing drivers is necessary... I don’t want to over complicate things if it’s not needed
io ho comprato2Alto TS315S e ho notato che con Test una "Sweeppata" da 20 a 20.000 Hz che il woofer si surriscaldava. che woofer mi consigli rcf 401 B&C 400 vanno bene ho sono troppo rigidi .oppure non so dimmi tu cosa comprare . ti seguo dal Italia grazie per le tue recensioni
i have my own 318s subs, 2 actually. And for me the bins is AMAZING. And i just don't understand why you push a 30Hz Sine wave through that bin. it was only made to go as low as 40Hz. 10 Hz does not sound a lot but pushing 30Hz at 90% of the power is not a great idea!!!! Overall the bass bins is fantastic end of story
Even most professional series subs aren’t designed/capable of reproducing 30hz at full volume. That’s where the +10db, -6db specs come into play. These are designed to sustain 44hz at full volume. At 30hz your just burning the coil out. Knowing what you’re doing, and how to properly use what you have is half the battle.
@George Snow I think its the other way around ,2 me it sounds that they,and you cannot admit that at this price range its actually amazing sub,so you can convince yourself that overpriced brands are worth the beefy price tag
@@littlecncshop you are correct... these "2 Dudes" are exactly what their name implies... they know nothing about professional sound and the science behind it... there is no music where a constant 30 hz sine wave is produced for long periods of time, so this "test" means nothing for real world use.
A bit of voice coil smell is pretty normal imho when the speakers get hot for the first couple times. It goes away over time. I own a lot of speakers that smelled significantly when driven hard for the first couple times. They still work great years later.
I remember the JBL PA we had in my old band. 2x SRX718s subs per side, had to run them really hard at times and they did smell a bit but never ever failed
If your on a budget check out bishopsounds subs ( maybe hard in the states? ) I replaced my ts312 sub with there 400w RMS jobby ( which was just for a laugh as it's only rated at under half the alto plate amp ) and it made a great improvement. There 18" subs are pretty impressive for the price as well. You can get either a 1000w RMS or 1500w RMS
I refuse to ever haul around 18" Subs. However, I purchased the original 41.5 lb Alto TSUB12 like 9 years ago. I just traded it in at Guitar Center towards a Harbinger MLS1000 array system and got $135 for the trade in, so it held it's value well over 9 years! I never had any problems with it. It was a boomy sounding sub though for a 12" Sub. I was only $299 New! I purchased a Alto TS212S Sub about 4 years ago. Much punchier sounding bass, and better, sleeker box. I never turn it up past Unity, and it has been a great little SUB that I use. I DJ weddings with 50 to maybe 200 guests tops, and mostly 50th, 60th, 70th birthday parties with under 100 guests. So I only use a single 12" Sub in my set up, and it's enough bass. I get often asked to turn the bass down lol.
Damn, I just brought the TS312S, now that you've done this review helps me out. Now I will upgrade the Subwoofer for sure and get that fill inside. What specs would you recommend for the Subwoofer?
I design hifi speaker and subwoofers and have had a lot of experience playing with box size and tuning. Likely the boomy sound is due to an undersized cabinet and so some fill might help. You could try to plug one of the ports with a towel and see how it sounds just as a test . That will lower the tuning frequency and add the one blocked port as more air volume in the cabinet. One things is with one port only at high volume you might get some port noise. Good luck!
I used one of these this past Saturday. I have a pair of QSC 12.2 but no sub... drummer had this Alto sub that he brought. I was scared to use it! The bassist told me they always crank it to the max. Against my better judgement, especially after watching this video, I cranked it. They were playing outdoors. This sub held it's own. I actually had to bring the kick drums down slightly. It wasn't a "slam you in the chest" type of bass, but it did fill the bottom end. I am not sure if I would buy one tho.
The chest thump is usually the upper end of the bass and the low end of the tops e.g. 80-120 hz. The rest is low bass down to the 30s that gives that satisfying ear pressure if it's loud enough.
If you was to put a better driver in it you feel it would help or work better within what ever the true rms amp is limited too? As some going cheap on ebay (pair) shame cheap stamped frame
Hi man I have blown up both my alto Ts315 and ts218s when in used for a drum and bass party. Return was not accepted and rather to throw the bins I would like to know if there are suitable driver (more resistant) that I could use to replace alto ones? An answer would be much appreciated. Thanks for your work. Best regards. Alex
Ok so I have 2 Altos 15 power speakers plug in to stereo left and right on my yamaha mixer . I have another 12 inch power alto speaker . Question is how do I connect the 12 inch , to the mixer or to one of the speakers because I want to use it as a monitor speaker
So for the record it might be a bad box. Just like the qsc I got DOA in the box. Sent it back and eventually was sent a new one and it works great. Shit happens. It's not the only speaker that's happened to. My friends macbook pro burned out after 15 minutes of use. We actually went to the apple store and they didn't even bother fixing it they just gave him another laptop. Again it's electronics and shit happens. Meanwhile i do have a very old sony laptop that i turned into a chromebook and still works great.
@@damienlobb85 I wonder if DAS has a similar 18" driver to RCF/dB. On the RCF side, as a mobile DJ I'd consider replacing my KW181 with the new RCF SUB-9004-AS but it weighs in at 125lb compared to the ~90lb KW181, so I'd rather haul around the lighter KW181 even though I'd much rather have a more powerful 18".
@@djstacktrace I had seen a review on the EV ETX 18" in the review just like the Alto everything was good except the subwoofer itself. Dude dropped at Seismic Audio 18" in. He said power consumption went down a lot. Sound levels went up.
If that amp is a stable amp and killed the speaker is it a 4ohm or 8ohm class d amp rating I cannot find any info and alto acts like its top secret info
I use 4 of them and they have a solid sound. They are not so bad as you talk. They don't have that punch but you can definitely feel rumbling your bones and moving your clothes. The only missing thing (my opinion) is a better x-over function. It doesn't have 1000w RMS it does 500-600w but hey for the price you get it it's really good. If you combine it with 2 15" subs they will rock! I usually use them for techno/house events and I've never had any problems. 7/10
I trust that the amp does not have limiter. When amp is clipping, the amp is delivering DC current to the speaker and therefore roasting the voice coil. That is why never power a passive speaker with underpowered amplifier, you will burn the coil of the speaker.
Yep! Not only does the driver get fed DC at full power, maximizing resistive losses, but the voice coil stays still for longer instead of excursioning, reducing the heat exchange with the pole piece.
Electro voice have a bypass system so The speaker not gets blown Down, and its working 100% good. but alto has at all, a largere bass port on all their subwoofers.
May be you should have given it a gentle break in rather than thrashing it out of the box ? I don’t know 💁♂️ I’m still using the 215s they only sound good with certain types of music. To be honest I was disappointed inthem from the off .
That amplifier looks just too small for 2000W, even by Class-D standards. Maybe it smoked the heck out of the woofer's voice coil because it was clipping. Anyways... great vid. Cheers!
Just brace the inside, 2 planks of wood as a cross will do it.... buy some white loft insulation and sprey glue it on..... build a bass reflex 2 shelf port and remove them 2 stupid carpet cardboard centers
It will definitely be 1000watts rms but either way thats not important as its mainly marketing tbh its the spl and quality of components and box design which makes a difference wattage is just the fuel the subwoofer runs on along with the magnet etc also its gotta slap hard but have minimal to zero distortion
I know of a few bands that use Alto stuff. Also I had one of the PA speakers from them but sold it. To be honest, if I had never heard the better stuff such as QSC, EV, JBL ... I probably would have made do with the Alto speaker. But test them side by side and Alto comes in last ... but it cost half of what the big names want. And as someone pointed out by feeding a 30hz signal, that sub was doomed. A sub that size should have gotten maybe a 60hz signal. In real life, 90% of the bass is above 50hz anyway ...
It's understandable that you believe the driver being doomed was natural but, at the same time, I, as a designer, think the necessary protections must be built into the amplifier in integrated products like these. The amplifier should not be able to fry the driver to destruction.
They normally comes with a shit driver, i once load the old 18" sub with some fatial pro 1700watts, and they still running ok. You can upgrade them with a better driver.
@@kevinwillson4297 I never use one before, only the 18 inches, but RCFs are pretty good because they produce good drivers and the amps are also good, so i would say yes.
Well, you playing sine wave at almost full tilt, what where you expecting? Do you even understand what clipping is? What shape the wave takes? Clipping can damage a speaker even when it’s bee underpowered. I like your reviews but you totally dropped the ball in this one
That is a blanket statement and is patently untrue..... many many professional speaker systems are switching to powered speakers. I am a professional Audio engineer and have been for many years (working and touring with very famous acts you will have heard of)..... There are many advantages to active (powered) speaker systems including but not limited to improved damping factor, reduced resistance due long speaker cable runs and the ability of the manufacturer to more closely match the amplification and system processing to the speaker components and enclosure characteristics, thus resulting in a more constant audio response from system to system. This allows system engineers to be more confident in the speaker systems they will be using in the field.
@@arthurton365 likewise I have a long history in both professional and domestic audio, what you have not understood is I am not talking about the ancillary equipment ( cables , connectors etc ) I am just talking about the stand alone quality of the speakers , I am well aware of the advantages of active speakers and in a professional sense they are ideal in terms of convenience . But in a real world sense not on the budgets used in professional circles a passive system gives you much better value for money both in build quality and performance for example an active spk costing $1000 will not give you the same performance in sonic performance, power output and build quality as an amplifier and passive speaker of the same value would, that may be different in the professional world when your spending hundreds of thousands of dollars but for normal , DJ work it is as I've said !
Try Indian products they will blow your mind. What you showed us was just a normal speaker with cheap class D amp with subwoofer crossover also the cabinate construction is bigger thats why it sounds horrible. Any way very good review really appreciated 😊
Its not a pure SPL sub like you have in a car. To put that frequency through it without running it in is gonna fuck it up. Think its probably an unfair review. Your going for max spl on a system that's not designed to do that.
Great video! I'd never invest on a sub nor any alto speaker again. I have been using alto ts315 tops, I have faced problems 2 times in that years time.. The worst thing happened to me was that the highs of one speaker stopped functioning, really disappointing.
Frequency range is only 35 Hertz you better erase that video before you return it you said 30 Hertz ... Crossover should have caught it though.... Please put one of your own drivers in there see what we can get out of it.. thanks..
The sub is still fully functional. We wanted to test that frequency and to see what would happen for this exact reason. Unfortunately the subwoofer would have fully failed if we hadn't have turned it off right when we started to smell the coil. So unfortunately for anyone who buys this they should realize this could happen to them if they decide to push these sub for some real low frequencies
@@2DudesAudio I have the old trusonic 1200 18inch.. it's boomy also the cabinet is too big that's the only reason I was interested in the newer version....scary though.. 18 inch will be more boomy the anything smaller....I run everything through my driverack DSP little compression helps for punch.
You know that this is the low end of pro audio then you will play constant 30 hz at 90 percent? like wtf if you're going to review subs tell us how it sounds then proceed with the toughness test. your standards are pretty high and youre obviously rich for doing this. and we're not sure if youre telling the truth because you didnt show the back while its playing. i dont see evidence that it failed and you mentioned at the comments its still working, so what now?
@George Snow how is this a bad product it was hit with a straight sine wave up to almost clipping you hit anything with a straight sine wave to clip and it will fail even overpriced qsc shit will fail
