first off, here is a link to the maxxbass 103. click the top tab that says maxxbass 103 for more information:
http://www.wavescaraudio.com/index.html
for those of you who don't know me or my accomplishments in the audio realm, here is some quick background information:
i've been been designing, building, and installing stereos for the past 8 years now for friends, family, and customers. i am self taught, so my experience and knowledge comes from first hand experience. i first started competing in SPL events 5 years ago and have had a passion for it ever since. 4 years ago when the scores weren't so high for SPL competition i was hitting a 151.2 dB with a single 15" subwoofer off a 1200 watt amp in the stock 2/mini street B catagories. a little over a year ago i accomplished hitting a 147.2 in IASCA stock 1 with a single 10" subwoofer. i've built all the basic enclosures as well as 6th order bandpass, transmission line, folded horn, and i'm finalizing design plans on an 8th order bandpass. last march i went through the trainging and became a certified judge for IASCA. Steve Cornell trained me on sound quality judging, so i was trained by one of the best. currently i'm in the process of building a competition SQ vehicle for next season. i already have the DLS iridium components and 3 DLS amps. i'll be using alpine for the HU and main processor, and my adire audio brahma 10 for the sub. i will have a maxxbass 103 inline with the 6.5" mid-bass driver as well as the 10" brahma. it shows that i really believe in the product to put it in my personal competition vehicle. i own an audio control epicenter and a phoenix gold bass cube, but the 103 just does more, and i don't have to worry so much about damaging my speakers. now on to the review.
my first thoughts of the product when reading about it was that it was too good to be true. how could it be possible to achieve what they claim? would it add in additional sound that would detract from the music? could it damage my speakers?
when the package arrived from Waves Inc, i imediately opened it up. the product was securely packaged and looked beautiful. the 103 has a nice black gloss finish and so does the controller. i didn't measure the cable that connects the controller to the 103, but it looks plenty long for any application. it's a larger network cable interface, rather than a phone cord that many others use. their power connection system reminds me of phoenix gold equipment. it's a seperate plug that you connect to power, ground, and remote turn on, then plug into the unit. the 103 comes with full instructions as well as a description of how the unit works.
installing the 103 was a breeze. simply unplug the RCAs from which ever channel you want to test and plug it into the 103. then plug an RCA cable from the 103 to the amp. connect the power plug and adjust the settings. i left the settings 1:1, but it does have independent input and output gains.
first i tested the 103 on a pair of P1 12's in the preloaded enclosure from rockford fosgate that were running off a JL 500/5 amp. nothing special, just their lowest line of subs in a prefab enclosure. with the 103 you have the option to bypass the enhancement circuitry, so i started with it bypassed. the P1's had very little output, especially below 35 hz. i know RF's subs are a little underrated, and they have an rms rating of 150 watts each. the JL amp has output of about 250 watts, but knowing JL it's closer to 300 watts. it's a good matchup, but personally i would have run 500 watts to the subs, and they sounded like they could really use it. then i adjusted the remote on the maxxbass so it's barely on. wow. it was a night and day difference. the subs came alive. my first thought was that it just increased the preamp input voltage, so i set it to bypass again and turned the volume up further on the HU. the subs could not reproduce what they were doing with the 103 on at any volume. i turned the HU back down and turne the 103 back on. wow, again. i really could not believe what i was hearing. the bass that was almost non-existant was there in full force. it was more than just audibly louder, you could really feel the low notes. the ford expedition i was auditioning the 103 in started rattling in several areas during the testing. i was using everything from jazz to punk rock to rap to test tones. the 103 made it all sound louder and fuller. after trying everything out and playing around with the adjustments, i found that having the adjustment at full was not needed. barely having it on was plenty to get full, rich bass. while listening to test tones it sounded almost like clipping when the adjustment was up too high. like any processor, it has to be properly adjusted and each setup will be a little different. for the application i was using it on, having the 103 barely on had amazing results. after listening to and adjusting the 103 for over an hour, i can honestly say the 103 does exactly what it claims to do.
next i tried to test the 103 on a set of MB Quart QSD 216 components that were run off the front channels of the 500/5. unfortunately shortly into the test, when my buddy (i was using his vehicle and equipment for the testing) decided to see if he could recreate the same effect with the QSD's, he blew one of the 6.5's. he was trying to determine the low frequency limit of the QSD's, and used test tones to find it. i can say that for the short time while i was testing the 103, the QSD's had much fuller mid-bass and could reproduce the lower frequencies. my buddy bypassed the 103 and cranked the volume. after about 10 minutes of him going through sine waves, the driver cut out. he cursed, and i laughed and just said "well if the maxxbass was on that would have never happened". i will definitely be doing some more testing on regular door speakers and will post all the results.
list of future tests:
brahma 10 with a DLS A6 powering it.
factory nissan frontier 6.5's running off a US amps USA-100.
DLS iridium 6.5" mid-bass drivers running off a bridged DLS A4.
a competition SPL vehicle. i'll post before and after scores that will be metered off my term lab USB sensor.
overall the 103 is an amazing unit. it backs up it's claims with solid performance and great sound. it's definitely something that i will personally be using for many many years, in daily driving as well as competition vehicles. i only wish it had come out sooner. i would recomend the 103 for everyone that listens to music in their cars. adding a small 50x2 amp plus a 103 to a set of front components would have amazing results without sacrificing trunk space for a subwoofer. or using a small amp and the 103 on some rear speakers that are dedicated to below 100-120 hz would give you the effect of having a subwoofer. adding it in to the signal chain going to a sub amp feeding an 8" or 10" sub would give the average listener to extra output most are looking for. and for those of us that are not content until it is louder, regardless of the equipment being used, this is a must have piece of equipment. i promise you will be happy if you try out the maxxbass 103 processor, and they garauntee it.
thank you for reading my review.
brian eicher
http://www.wavescaraudio.com/index.html
for those of you who don't know me or my accomplishments in the audio realm, here is some quick background information:
i've been been designing, building, and installing stereos for the past 8 years now for friends, family, and customers. i am self taught, so my experience and knowledge comes from first hand experience. i first started competing in SPL events 5 years ago and have had a passion for it ever since. 4 years ago when the scores weren't so high for SPL competition i was hitting a 151.2 dB with a single 15" subwoofer off a 1200 watt amp in the stock 2/mini street B catagories. a little over a year ago i accomplished hitting a 147.2 in IASCA stock 1 with a single 10" subwoofer. i've built all the basic enclosures as well as 6th order bandpass, transmission line, folded horn, and i'm finalizing design plans on an 8th order bandpass. last march i went through the trainging and became a certified judge for IASCA. Steve Cornell trained me on sound quality judging, so i was trained by one of the best. currently i'm in the process of building a competition SQ vehicle for next season. i already have the DLS iridium components and 3 DLS amps. i'll be using alpine for the HU and main processor, and my adire audio brahma 10 for the sub. i will have a maxxbass 103 inline with the 6.5" mid-bass driver as well as the 10" brahma. it shows that i really believe in the product to put it in my personal competition vehicle. i own an audio control epicenter and a phoenix gold bass cube, but the 103 just does more, and i don't have to worry so much about damaging my speakers. now on to the review.
my first thoughts of the product when reading about it was that it was too good to be true. how could it be possible to achieve what they claim? would it add in additional sound that would detract from the music? could it damage my speakers?
when the package arrived from Waves Inc, i imediately opened it up. the product was securely packaged and looked beautiful. the 103 has a nice black gloss finish and so does the controller. i didn't measure the cable that connects the controller to the 103, but it looks plenty long for any application. it's a larger network cable interface, rather than a phone cord that many others use. their power connection system reminds me of phoenix gold equipment. it's a seperate plug that you connect to power, ground, and remote turn on, then plug into the unit. the 103 comes with full instructions as well as a description of how the unit works.
installing the 103 was a breeze. simply unplug the RCAs from which ever channel you want to test and plug it into the 103. then plug an RCA cable from the 103 to the amp. connect the power plug and adjust the settings. i left the settings 1:1, but it does have independent input and output gains.
first i tested the 103 on a pair of P1 12's in the preloaded enclosure from rockford fosgate that were running off a JL 500/5 amp. nothing special, just their lowest line of subs in a prefab enclosure. with the 103 you have the option to bypass the enhancement circuitry, so i started with it bypassed. the P1's had very little output, especially below 35 hz. i know RF's subs are a little underrated, and they have an rms rating of 150 watts each. the JL amp has output of about 250 watts, but knowing JL it's closer to 300 watts. it's a good matchup, but personally i would have run 500 watts to the subs, and they sounded like they could really use it. then i adjusted the remote on the maxxbass so it's barely on. wow. it was a night and day difference. the subs came alive. my first thought was that it just increased the preamp input voltage, so i set it to bypass again and turned the volume up further on the HU. the subs could not reproduce what they were doing with the 103 on at any volume. i turned the HU back down and turne the 103 back on. wow, again. i really could not believe what i was hearing. the bass that was almost non-existant was there in full force. it was more than just audibly louder, you could really feel the low notes. the ford expedition i was auditioning the 103 in started rattling in several areas during the testing. i was using everything from jazz to punk rock to rap to test tones. the 103 made it all sound louder and fuller. after trying everything out and playing around with the adjustments, i found that having the adjustment at full was not needed. barely having it on was plenty to get full, rich bass. while listening to test tones it sounded almost like clipping when the adjustment was up too high. like any processor, it has to be properly adjusted and each setup will be a little different. for the application i was using it on, having the 103 barely on had amazing results. after listening to and adjusting the 103 for over an hour, i can honestly say the 103 does exactly what it claims to do.
next i tried to test the 103 on a set of MB Quart QSD 216 components that were run off the front channels of the 500/5. unfortunately shortly into the test, when my buddy (i was using his vehicle and equipment for the testing) decided to see if he could recreate the same effect with the QSD's, he blew one of the 6.5's. he was trying to determine the low frequency limit of the QSD's, and used test tones to find it. i can say that for the short time while i was testing the 103, the QSD's had much fuller mid-bass and could reproduce the lower frequencies. my buddy bypassed the 103 and cranked the volume. after about 10 minutes of him going through sine waves, the driver cut out. he cursed, and i laughed and just said "well if the maxxbass was on that would have never happened". i will definitely be doing some more testing on regular door speakers and will post all the results.
list of future tests:
brahma 10 with a DLS A6 powering it.
factory nissan frontier 6.5's running off a US amps USA-100.
DLS iridium 6.5" mid-bass drivers running off a bridged DLS A4.
a competition SPL vehicle. i'll post before and after scores that will be metered off my term lab USB sensor.
overall the 103 is an amazing unit. it backs up it's claims with solid performance and great sound. it's definitely something that i will personally be using for many many years, in daily driving as well as competition vehicles. i only wish it had come out sooner. i would recomend the 103 for everyone that listens to music in their cars. adding a small 50x2 amp plus a 103 to a set of front components would have amazing results without sacrificing trunk space for a subwoofer. or using a small amp and the 103 on some rear speakers that are dedicated to below 100-120 hz would give you the effect of having a subwoofer. adding it in to the signal chain going to a sub amp feeding an 8" or 10" sub would give the average listener to extra output most are looking for. and for those of us that are not content until it is louder, regardless of the equipment being used, this is a must have piece of equipment. i promise you will be happy if you try out the maxxbass 103 processor, and they garauntee it.
thank you for reading my review.
brian eicher
