Quest HPI-218: Did the earth move for you?

Look under that stage, it could be HPI

Appearing in ever-increasing numbers inside larger scale venues around Australia is the Quest HPI-218. This is not a new phenomenon; nightclub installers have been installing the HPI-218 since the heyday of rave parties and techno. This box was a development on an earlier GT design developed specifically for the rave party market where 12-14 hours at full power was the order of the day.

The shortage of extremely durable sub-bass boxes available to the early rave party production industry was the spur that drove the development of the whole HPI series.

Even in those days many systems were protected by system controllers to greater or lesser degrees, but people were still barbequing bass drivers and copping expensive re-cone bills. As it turns out, there’s more than one way to save a speaker.

Enter excursion control

It was quickly learnt that power handling over long durations is not just a question of cooling and voice coil size, excursion control could save suspension systems and improved the transient attack giving better sonic results and more reliability.

Excursion control (from the Quest point of view) is all about air mass and driver loading at high power levels. As it turns out, in a test lab, most bass boxes will behave as designed when pushed to a moderate power level. At high power levels you have the mass and momentum of the cone assembly, the air loading on the cone and ports, the changing impendence and free air resonance of the bass drivers and the way this loads the amplifiers. The end result can be that ‘muddy/boomy’ bass that 18” drivers are often hated for.

The major difference between the HPI-218 and all other front loaded boxes is excursion control as part of the basic box design. This simple solution removed the need for sophisticated system controllers and means the HIP-218 can be easily added as the sub bass component to virtually any high powered system of any manufacture.

It delivers the sub-lows of those big heavy concert boxes with the ‘wack’ of the tightly loaded 15’s.

Awesome bedrock of bass under any PA

The HPI sub bass boxes will work with any of the famous brand ‘big boxes’ as a cost-effective and really sonically satisfying sub-bass for both live music and dance club big systems. It might shake the earth but it doesn’t cost the earth.