The MSE-218 is a high-power subwoofer system, designed to fulfil the most demanding applications where scalability and single-enclosure use are as important as sonic performance. The MSE-218 has been developed to answer a call from customers who don’t always have the physical space available to use MSE-118 Quake subwoofers in significant numbers, yet still require impressive SPL and frequency response. MSE-218 subwoofers are inherently scalable – they can be used as single units, or in large numbers for filling arena or stadium shows. The substantial enclosure houses a pair of reflex-loaded 4.5” voice coil, 18” (457mm) neodymium LF cone drive units. Like all EM Acoustics products, headroom is key. Peak-to-peak linear cone travel is 28mm, meaning large amounts of low frequency information can be produced by a surprisingly small and lightweight subwoofer enclosure. The MSE-218 requires an active crossover to function correctly – although the choice of filter points is very wide, allowing the user to tailor the response to exactly what is required. Cardioid DSP program settings are also available to create arrays with significant rejection to the rear of the subwoofers, by stacking three enclosures in a block (two facing forwards, one facing backwards). The robust enclosure is constructed from premium 18mm (3/4”) multi-laminate Birch plywood – rebated, screwed & glued together. The enclosure is finished in black textured paint as standard, however RAL colour matching as well as weather protection options are available if required. Due to the extremely high cone travel available, enclosure rigidity was key in the design – as such the inside of the enclosure, including the enormous port in the centre – are rigidly braced in all dimensions. Runners are provided on the bottom of the enclosure and on one end to protect the paint finish when in use either lying down or stood on-end, and recesses on the top of the enclosure allow stable stacking of arrays. Eight steel bar handles and tour-grade castors are also fitted as standard. A pair of M20 threaded flange adapters are also provided in the top of the enclosure for mounting fullrange products above for compact systems. Lastly, a tough hex-punched grille backed with acoustically-transparent black mesh protects the drive units from damage, which can be quickly removed for service purposes. The MSE-218 requires active high/low pass filters and a single amplifier channel capable of delivering 3000-4500W RMS into a 2 ohm load. For optimal results, either the DQ20 Advanced System Amplifier, or the AD-9 amplifier combined with a DSC48 processor should be used.