I had an 18sound that was sounded so muffled. It is like they were made to survive concerts and not late night livingroom listening at 2 watts.
You have kinda answered your own question. Looks like IPAL B&C made to go with Powersoft amps. They recommend cabinet size on the site, as well.https://www.bcspeakers.com/en/products/lf-driver/18/2/18IPAL
I believe the IPAL needs a proprietary amp made by Powersoft. But your amp should be able to handle any normal 2/4/8 Ohm load.
Big picture is most pro woofers from top manufacturers are going to be roughly equivalent in build quality and performance, TS parameters being equal. Some have better parameters for reflex, horn loading, etc. Power handling/Xmax scales with price. Don't spend big $$$ just to have the "best" specs you don't actually need.
Can that sort-by-price-descending woofer handle 3400W at your particular box tuning/alignment? Probably. But you might get a better performance/cost ratio with a lesser unit. Before spending $900+shipping on a driver I would suggest modeling it in software like WinISD so you know how it will behave in your cabinet for your use case.
Big picture is most pro woofers from top manufacturers are going to be roughly equivalent in build quality and performance, TS parameters being equal. Some have better parameters for reflex, horn loading, etc. Power handling/Xmax scales with price. Don't spend big $$$ just to have the "best" specs you don't actually need.
Can that sort-by-price-descending woofer handle 3400W at your particular box tuning/alignment? Probably. But you might get a better performance/cost ratio with a lesser unit. Before spending $900+shipping on a driver I would suggest modeling it in software like WinISD so you know how it will behave in your cabinet for your use case.
People seem to really like the BMS 18n862, should work in that volume cabinet. Might be some 21" woofers that could work well also, B&C 21sw152 seems to be well liked.
Define "best"
The loudest?
The lowest?
The most extended range?
Most output density (works better in a small box)?
The least distortion?
The least power compression?
Best value per output?
All the above are quite similar in power handling and Xmax of around 14mm compared to your present driver, the B&C 18SW100-8 which has 12.5mm.
They will have minor differences in frequency response shape in your present box.
Like your present driver, all of them will exceed Xmax around 1/3 octave above the Fb of your box (34.3 Hz) when driven near rated AES power.
Since they all have heavier voice coils and cones (more MMS) than your present driver, they will use slightly more power to achieve the same SPL.
Due to the slight increase in linear displacement, you could expect about 1dB more clean output from any of them compared to your B&C 18SW100-8.
All of them have larger voice coils, so can dissipate more heat, so will have slightly less power compression when more power is wasted attempting to get more output when driven past Xmax.
This may result in another 1- 2dB output depending on what your limiting practice is.
Art
thanks for your reply, weltersys, very thorough, I was about to order Faital 18xl2000 but caught my attention SB Audiences 18SW1900D, in simulation is the best of all, 17.5mm of xmax, a monster!
In that size strong 21" will thrive. Lavoce San215.30 or San214.50 comes to mind. Or oncoming RCF LN19S450. Quite low price in Europe that with proper feeding HAS TO outdo the SB Audience.
Might get +2dB more than the other drivers you compared, doesn't sound like a very large monster, but it weighs almost double the BC 18SW115 (22.4Kg vs.11.9).