MA Audio has been building loudspeakers and amplifiers for the car audio consumer since 1989 (www.maaudio.com), and while not one of the earliest audio companies to discover car audio, it's also not a new kid on the block, having had considerable loudspeaker design experience. MA Audio is also not limited to loudspeakers and amplifiers; they produce a complete lineup of full range amplifiers and bass amplifiers, subwoofers and component systems, as well as a line of electronic crossovers, capacitors, line drivers, enclosures, installation accessories and even mobile video.
Objective
MA Audio's MA1200XL represents the latest generation of MA subwoofers. A notch down from its extremely high-powered Kore series (how about a 15" with 5kW RMS published power handling?), the XL woofers are referred to as "competition subwoofers," so their power handling overall is higher. Since this is the top line, next to the extreme Kore woofers, you would expect a lot of features, and that's exactly what you get.
Like the Orion H2 and the Pioneer TS-W2000SPL, the frame of the MA1200XL is part of the new trend of mounting the motor assembly inside the frame as opposed to bolting it to the back.During assembly the motor is loaded from the top of the frame and then the cone assembly dropped in and glued in place. The frame itself is a new patented black die cast aluminum one, which has 18 spokes with a solid case between two opposing sets of spokes, which are part of the terminal block setup. The black surface is accented by silver trim and the cosmetic appearance is great. This is also about functionality and the black coating helps radiate heat (via the black body radiation effect). Midpoint on these 18 spokes is a spider-mounting shelf that provides about 35mm of rear travel for the dual opposing spiders. Five years ago, this type of woofer would have probably had a generic frame that you would have seen on a dozen different brand names, but with the low cost of tooling in China, making a custom frame for each model is not a problem.
Everything below the spider shelf has a perforated screen inserted on the inside of the frame, along the outside perimeter of the spokes, and covering from the front plate up to the rear spider. MA has provided a completely open path across the plate and voice coil for enhanced thermal cooling, which, along with the 1.75-inch-diameter pole vent, forms MA's patented thermo-cooling motor structure.
Providing the horsepower for the MA1200XL are two 172mm-diameter Strontium ferrite magnets (a stronger grade of magnet than standard ferrite). The pole is extended 8mm, approximately 50 percent of the gap (front plate) height, which is optimal for increasing linearity in the forward-going fringe field.
The cone assembly is also fairly feature laden, beginning with a non-pressed silver-colored paper compound cone, which is light and stiff and additionally treated with a water resistant PVA (Poly Vinyl Acetate) emulsion. A five-inch-diameter vacuum-formed polypropylene dustcap with a raised MA Audio logo covers the voice coil neck joint and also adds stiffening to the cone. Attaching the cone to the frame and providing part of the needed suspension compliance is a 26mm-wide and 18mm-high, three-layer injected and treated foam surround. While the surround has a series of 24 ribs that look like they must be doing something, these are of the same thickness as the rest of the surround, so are more cosmetic than anything.