SLAPS-12
Earthquake SLAPS are Tunable Passive Radiators that provide additional bass, without additional amplifier power or enclosure volume.
Designed to perfectly complement all good quality long-throw woofers on the market. SLAPS add up to +6dB of bass compared to regular sealed and ported enclosures. The benefit of them being user tunable is they can be integrated into virtually any sub/ cabinet combination.
Key Installation Benefits:
- Installs just like a subwoofer
- Slim-mount design is only 3-inches deep
- No increase over existing sealed subwoofer enclosure sizes
- Easy tuning for quick adjustments
Subwoofer Design with SLAPS Passive Radiators Calculator (opens in new tab)
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SLAPS is a patented type of passive device that significantly increases subwoofer efficiency and ability for ultra low frequency reproduction. SLAPS is short for Symmetrically Loaded Audio Passive System. As the name indicates, SLAPS is built symmetrically which distinguishes it from traditional passive devices. SLAPS integrates identical components in its suspension design, this results in identical stoke regardless of forwards or backwards motion. The high efficiency and performance is a result of the pneumatic coupling between SLAPS and an active driver.
SLAPS overcomes the limitations known from the conventional sealed and ported enclosures that tends to limit excursion. The unique design allows the active driver compression free excursion resulting in deep, dynamic and powerful bass response.
SLAPS design differs from other passive devices by having double edge suspension and no center spider. SLAPS is designed from the ground up to be operated and controlled pneumatically. Traditional passive devices are often just a normal active driver where the primary motor system (voice coil and magnet) has been been removed. Conventional devices are designed to be powered electrically, in which the force emanates from the drivers conical center. A passive device is operated pneumatically by air pressure from the active driver. For pneumatic operation a traditional unit does not perform identically in positive and negative pressure environments. (imploding edge suspension and positive over ring).
SLAPS have a dual structure of identical opposites, ie. that there is an introvert and an extrovert edge suspension and no spider. This gives identical properties in both the negative and positive pressure domain. SLAPS thus behaves pistonically and accurately, they do not have the "hesitation" traditional passive devices seems to have when you observe them in operation.
SLAPS opens up for new subwoofer designs, where even very small enclosures can be tuned to low frequencies . The low weight allows great flexibility in terms of weight attachment. SLAPS can be custom tuned for optimum performance in a wide range of enclosure sizes and active device configurations.
Damping is very important in a passive device because it does not have a magnet motor system to control it. It is essential that the passive device constantly is "leaning" up against the pneumatic environment in the cabinet. If the device's compliance is too weak the result ss over-shoot and over-ring. This means, for example a transient in the music causes a rapid pressure ratio change in the cabinet and control over the device can be lost - making it move more than it should. The same thing can happen to a normal woofer. unit if the suspension + motor system is not built correctly. The design of the edge suspension itself is important. If not correctly designed it may implode ie. be sucked backwards if the pressure in the enclosure is too strong. A full implosion is rare, but in most typical slave/passive/drone designs some "dimples" in edge suspension can be visible already at medium load. A normal passive device only has a one way edge suspension so the dimples will only occur when negative pressure is present - = asymmetrical artifacts = distortion.
SLAPS dual structure based on the principle of - identical opposites - eliminate the circumstances that would allow asymmetric nonlinearities because the device is subjected to identical loads. You could argue that it does not fundamentally resolve dimples at high loads, as they will still occur, but they are offset as they now occur similar under both positive and negative pressure.
SLAPS enables the transfer of high amplifier power into low frequency output. Since the device does not have to fight against increasing pneumatic pressure in a closed cabinet or over-excurt close to a port tuning frequency. SLAP has no annoying port noise and enables deep bass from a compact volume. SLAPS promotes the dynamics of a small system in which a closed enclosure design has difficulties. In a closed cabinet design the pneumatic loading of the woofer increases as a function of its travel, this causes compression. SLAPS technology possesses none of these limitations. SLAPS allows tuning below 10hz making any worries about tuning frequency superfluous.
Q: How can a subwoofer driver play below its Fs (resonance frequency) point?
A: The Fs of a driver is taken in Free Air. As soon as you put it in a box you add resistance same as if you made the moving mass heavier, this lowers the resonance point. This is referred to as system resonance.
With SLAPS you can tune this resonance point to be outside of the audible range. How low you can tune it really depends on the maximum excursion potential of the woofer you are using. You want the Slaps to start resisting the movement of the woofer before the woofer runs out of excursion as to prevent it from bottoming out. This is why only long stroke woofers should be used with SLAPS.The reason why subwoofers you might have heard in the past sound bad below their tuning point is simply because their design did not allow for a tuning point low enough for it to be outside of the audible range. Slaps can not fix the sound if the primary woofer is distorting, instead it prevents the woofer from distorting in the first place by allowing a tuning frequency below audible range.
With a Slaps energy below the tuning point typically below 20hz is translated by the slaps to powerful infrasonic energy (vibrations) that the human auditory system will detect as very low frequency sound, even though the ears are not capable of hearing it, your body will sense it. Same as how tactile transducers can stitch back the missing fundamental to an audio range through the body, so will this low frequency airborne energy.
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Q: Which is best - SLAPS or SLAPS-M Series? Is the music quality is the same between them? How about low frequency dynamic capability? Fx SLAPS12 has lower Fs and bigger outer diameter than SLAPS-M12. SLAPS-12 has Fs 17,6 Hz and SLAPS-M12 has 25,5 Hz.
A: The Original SLAPS series is made specifically for use in our own subwoofers paired either with DBXi or MagmaX woofers, as such they have been optimized for that exact combination and the characteristics we wanted in those specific subwoofers. The Original SLAPS has a stiffer suspension than the M-Series, this was done because of the compromise we wanted to make between dynamic response and over-ring. In a passive design there is always a trade-off between distortion from over-ring and distortion from absorbed dynamics due to the resistance of the suspension. The stiffer the suspension the more motion is lost at a given pressure level. The looser the suspension the more over-ring will occur. You can not improve one without hurting the other so its about making the best compromise for the application. The stiffer suspension also puts a higher demand on the active driver, but since this was not intended from inception to be used with other than our own top of the line drivers, this was not a concern. From a macro view all these factors really are non-issues since any competing solution like portet/sealed has artifacts many times larger than SLAPS. Sealed has very high dynamic compression. Ported has terrible group delay and great problems with low frequency response.
The M-Series was designed from the ground up to be as widely adaptable with other drivers and cabinet configurations as possible since they were intended to also be offered as a standalone retail product. So they offer a less stiff suspension with much greater excursion potential. The Fs is higher, but that’s simply to enable them to be used in a wider array of configurations. You can add a little weight to it and the Fs will drop to that of the Original SLAPS or lower. Although there are differences between the two designs the music quality output will be very close. For all out bass war into low frequencies the M-Series will have the upper hand.
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Q: How many liter or cubic feet or cubic cm displacement does the SLAPS-12 and the DBXi-12D have when submerged into water? This value is important for cabinet calculation.
A: This driver volume displacement has been accounted for in the SLAPS calculator program. The cabinet volume it gives is the exact one to be used. Many manufacturers does not give this value, and those who do, does not adhere to anyone standard. For this reason we, based on many tests, computed this into a set factor and added it to the calculations. Unless the driver used is of a new and previously unknown design that causes the magnet/motor system/basket to be extremely large or small compared to average then it is not an issue.
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Q: Differences between USA and EU Ts parameters, what's up with that?
A: In the EU we try to whenever possible to obtain the TS specs using the high power V-I box method where specs are taken at the highest power level possible typically 100 watts or more. Standard TS parameters are taken at 1 to 3 watts, which paints a very inaccurate picture of a given high power long excursion woofer. This will in many instances lead to some differences in cabinet calculations.