Piecing together a decent HT setup as I can afford it, need help with a plan! (1 Viewer)

[Technica]

Wow that is a fair amount of sub power you have there.


Some of those subs look awesome. I'm now leaning towards building a new sub first and then focusing on the other speakers. There is just so much choice out there and my knowledge is so limited that it's difficult to seperate the good from the bad and the suitable ones from the unsuitable.


So what I am looking for is a sub for a HT setup. I want it to be a fair deal more powerful than my current Polk 12", mostly I want to be able to really feel the movies that I'm watching, when something explodes I wanna kniow it exploded .


The living room in my current place is a open plan design and so shares its space with the kitchen. So while I don't have a huge amount of space to use, it will ahve to fill a fairly large space (I know, pretty much worst of both worlds there) I don't have the measurements of the room as I am at work atm but I'll try and get them later on today.


I don't mind spending the extra on something like those TC's and a decent amp if I will notice the difference, but like I said before I am having trouble deciding what exactly I need. If anyone is able to give me some parts and a blueprint/some sort of build plan (dimentions etc). It would be extremely helpful for me.

 

[Robert_J]

First, not all of those are connected right now. I'm only running dual TC-3000's right now.


Step 1 - How much space are you willing to sacrifice? If it is not much more than your current sub then we need to look at a very high powered system (see Hoffman above). If you can go big, then you have a much more efficient system that will easily play lower.

Step 2 - Budget? You are willing to ship drivers half way around the world so you seem committed to a quality project.


Now let me throw another wrinkle into the mix. If you want to save space while having the best bass money can buy, you can go with an infinite baffle sub - http://ibsubwoofer.blogspot.com/ . That link is one of hundreds covering the topic. Start from the first post and read how they work and his final results. Basically, you use another room or the attic as your enclosure. No bulky box in your room. On the other hand, you need more than one driver.


Also, this guy is a lot closer to you than I am - http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/ . He may have have good sources of drivers at least from that large land mass to your west.

 

[Technica]

Ok, measured the room, its 5.5m long by 4.8m wide by 3.4m high. Now I know that sounds big but like I said before the room is open plan so the kitchen doesn't need to be filled with sound just the area in front of the tv.


@Robert_J: Step 1 - Willing to sacrifice a bit of space, did some measurements, current 12" Polk sub is 410mm*385mm*400mm for a cubic of 0.06314m^3 (2.2298ft^3). I estimated I would be willing to go to about 530mm*500mm*520mm for a cubic of 0.1378m^3 (4.8664ft^3). Would that be big enough? I would maybe be willing to go slightly bigger but I would need some convincing that the quality improvement would really warrant it (and it couldn't really be toooo much bigger than that). I also would rather keep a similar ratio in the dimentions as my current sub which is how I calculated the new measurements, I could be convinced to wiggle in certain aspects here though.


Step 2 - I have come up with a rough budget of 600USD before shipping. I could however be convinced to go higher if the money is worth and I will just save for a bit longer (I can start construction of the cabinet while I save). I saw in another thread you suggested someone get a TC LMS-R 15" and a EP2500, I would be willing to up the budget to get that kinda gear if you think it will be worth the money (although will probably have to get a EP4000 as that's all PE sell and I would rather keep shipping all from one place).


Cheers for your help mate, let me know what you think of my options.

 

[Robert_J]

I'm assuming those are external dimensions. Net volume of air will be much less than 4.8 cubic feet. Based on that, only high motor force, low Vas 15" subs will work (if you want a 15). How about the Dan Marx TC-3000 design http://www.danmarx.org/audioinnovation/tc3000.html except use a Dayton 15" http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=295-468 ? In fact, I'd recommend a pair of them powered by a Behringer A-500 http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=248-749 . If you are short of floor space, stack them.


Advantages:

You are under budget by about $50

2 subs are always better than 1

Sealed subs have a nice roll-off and will play very low

No messy EQ required like with a lot of the TC subs

 

[Robert_J]

The LMS 15" and an EP amp (2500 & 4000 are exactly the same amp) would be a great combination but I would suggest adding a Feedback Destroyer as well. TC drivers have a higher inductance. Yes, they do things like copper on the pole piece to lower it but with a 3" or larger coil, it will never be as low as the Daytons I suggested above. Plus an LMS driver will never work in an enclosure as small as you want. The TC-9 motor is strong but not strong enough.

 

[JohnRice]

A slight aside for Robert. I'm wondering about a decent budget sub for either a 3.1 bedroom or 2.1 living room music system. Parts-express has two that look interesting and I wonder if you have a sense of which might be "cleaner". The BIC F-12 or the Hsu 10" they currently have for $179.

 

[Robert_J]

The BIC gets great amateur reviews as one of the best, under $200 subs. Since it is a 12, it will push more air than a 10 with less effort. Less excursion = less distortion. Check Amazon because it was going for even lower last week.

 

[JohnRice]

Thanks Robert. $188 delivered is worth a try.

 

[gene c]

My brother has the BIC V1220 and it seems pretty good for the price.


I have a Dayton HSU10 from the first batch sold a couple of years ago and it's definently a quality sub but it's listed frequency response is only 32 hz and that seems about right. I also have a couple of the original Dayton 10" "mighty-mites" (25 hz) and they can go a little deeper than the HSU. The HSU10 seems like more of a hard hitting sub rather than a deep one. It does seem very detailed and accurate but I really don't feel qualified to evaluate subwoofers.


$188 shipped from Amazon looks like a good deal for the F-12. Of the two, I'd also get the BIC. The V1220 isn't the best looking thing out there, though. Kind of an uggly dark grey box. Very pedestrian looking.


BTW, the Allison AL10 from PE appears to be identicle to the Dayton HSU10 except the driver is near the bottom in the Allison with the port near the top. The amp looks to be the same as does the cabinet and grill from what I can see in the photos. I bet most subs in this price range could benefit from a better cabinet.

 

[Technica]

I'm not locked into 15" or anything, just saw you recommend that in another thread. If you think I could get more out of a different 12" set up don't hesitate to let me know!


That TC-3000 build looks awesome though, those subs are huuuge, but I'm at the point where I'm just like screw it, if I want something good I'm just gonna have to go for it, so it looks like I might be pushing for 2 of those (no one tell my girlfriend).


This project might take some time to finish unfortunatly, I'm about to start pulling 65ish hours weeks because of a big move going on at work, combine that with we are heading into winter here (it gets rainy as hell and I can only really work outside) and I'm not gonna have much time I can allocate to hobbies...that said I spose there is no rush besides my burning desire to hear these things hooked up!

 

[Robert_J]

No rush then. Scott at Fi Car Audio is reviving the Blueprint Audio name for a line of drivers designed and marketed at the home theater crowd. Those should be out soon which will give you another bunch of drivers to look at. Here's a good example of what the original Blueprint subs looked like - http://home.comcast.net/~audio-worx/page88Tube-Zilla1.html