New Kicker Hideaway 10

[dewey79]

Has anyone tried it yet? I have the 8 and want to know if it is worth the upgrade.

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[shoegazer]

My gut feeling with this is that it's basically a 'refresh' for the 8" model. And I'd have to hear them side by side to make a judgement. Personally... I don't see 30 watts and a slightly larger (compact) sub making a huge difference so far as detectable sound. But it likely has more headroom; which is never a bad thing.

 

[dewey79]

My gut feeling with this is that it's basically a 'refresh' for the 8" model. And I'd have to hear them side by side to make a judgement. Personally... I don't see 30 watts and a slightly larger (compact) sub making a huge difference so far as detectable sound. But it likely has more headroom; which is never a bad thing.

More headroom would be awesome, and maybe a smoother or more refined response. I wonder how the new FIT technology and noise cancellation affects the sound quality.

 

[josby]

I don't see 30 watts and a slightly larger (compact) sub making a huge difference so far as detectable sound.

It's not just slightly larger, though - it has 56% more cone area.

Larger speakers usually have a higher xmax, too. I don't see the sub specs on these Hideaway boxes, but assuming they're using their Comp RT slim subs, the xmax for the 8" is 8mm and for the 10" is 10.5mm. Using this calculator, at 40Hz the 8" sub will be putting out 97.4 dB at max excursion, while the 10" will put out 103.6 dB.

As long as the 10's amp can drive the sub to its full excursion, its output will be equivalent to two of the 8's.

 

[shoegazer]

Good points. For me it's just really difficult to translate specs to subjective terms like 'better'. And I've seen so many designs that 'should' sound better or worse; but do the opposite in terms of actual consumer satisfaction. Now I'm really curious to hear an A/B comparison.

It just reminded me of how Honda usually adds a few HP and visual 'ooh and ahh's when they do a mid-generation refresh.

Fingers crossed that the new one delivers.

 

[josby]

Yeah, I do wonder about the fact that they only added 30 watts of additional power. Unless the 8" had more power than it needed, it seems like that might not be enough for the 10" to reach its potential.

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