Need Help on a sealed 10" subwoofer

BruZZi · 10-28-2003, 10:56 PM

Hi,

Let me start saying that... I live in a studio and had some complaints because of the bass so a high output subwoofer isn't a option for me. I was using a Pinnacle Digital Sub 600 (Amplifier died) isobaric configuration with 2 12-in drivers and 350w watts continuous power.

I'm planning to make a small sealed subwoofer using the Dayton Titanic MKll 10" driver, Rythmik Audio 350 amplifier and 3/4" MDF for the enclosure . The sub will be used for 80% Music and 20% Movies. I really prefer the sub to sound better for music and at least have a *good* bass to watch movies. I don't want to make it big and my ideal external dimensions are: 13"w x 13"d x 14"h .
It will be placed on a corner - room is 16'd x 13'w.

Here's some questions:

1) Should I make it with Q=.6 or Q=.7 ?

2) Is there any other 10" driver to consider?

2) Which kind of glue should I use for the MDF?

3) Do I need to brace it? If yes can someone give me suggestions.

4) Stuffing ???

Any opinions/suggestions will be appreciated.

Thomas J. Coyle III · 10-28-2003, 11:14 PM

Glauco,

Try out the following website that is in Canada: www.creativesound.ca. They are selling a nice 10in subwoofer kit or you can get the owner, Bob Reimer, to come up with a custom kit that will do what you want. The kit cabinets are made by Al Wooley at RAW ACOUSTICS.

Regards,

TCIII

Chris*Liberti · 10-28-2003, 11:29 PM

Make sure to design a linkwitz transform circuit. Even with a small box it will allow you to re-eq the box to produce a .707 Qsc and have flat response to 20Hz. The trade off is that you will need to run additional power in order to do this

Rory Buszka · 10-29-2003, 06:56 PM

Chris is right about the LT circuit. You can't get something for nothing. A sub in a small sealed box can't vibrate like it can in an ideally-sized sealed box or ported box, so you need to do it with brute force. Parts Express makes the 10" kit with 250 watts with an amplifier that has a built-in boost of 6dB, which is huge, another not to my comment of brute force being necessary. The Linkwitz Transform circuit is an active circuit (it uses its own DC power supply and modifies the signal at the line level) that acts as a super-precise EQ circuit. I'm sure there are people here who have designed them and are a better source of info, but just know that you need some sort of EQ circuit to get the woofer into such a small box.

ThomasW · 10-29-2003, 07:50 PM

The lower the "Q" the tighter the bass.

Sealed boxes are stuffed at a rate of 0.5-1.5 lbs/cu ft.

The 10" Titanic II is actually 11" in diameter. It's a very good driver, we've used them in a couple of projects. For the small difference in price and it's 12.5" diameter I suggest getting the 12" Titanic II. You can always keep it turned down.

Be sure to use spikes to decouple the box from the floor. This will help decrease the amount of bass transferred to the neighbors

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Ryan Schnacke · 10-29-2003, 09:53 PM

The 10" Titanic Mk2 sounds like a good woofer for this application. By the time you factor in the 3/4" thick walls and the displacement of the woofer you're down to about 1 cu. ft. or less net internal volume. This would give you a fairly low Q alignment with the 10" Mk2.

The SX10 is certainly a very good 10" driver. But it basically wants the same box size as a 12" Dayton DVC. You could put either of them in a 1 cu ft box will lots of stuffing and they'd be okay for what you're wanting. But the 12" DVC costs $60 less than the "introductory" price for the SX10. And it should have as much potential output displacement. Yes, I know we're comparing a "regular" woofer to the SX10 with the XBL2 motor. But still, the DVC's 22% displacement advantage on paper is significant enough to make me believe that it can at least equal the SX10 for practical purposes.

If you think you ever might be able to live with a bigger sub in the future then I'd say go with the 12" DVC in a small box, knowing that you could get more low-end output later on by putting it in a bigger box (sealed or vented). And in the mean time you could use the boost options on the Rythmik amp to get a little more low end out of it. The DVC shouldn't have any trouble with less than 400 watts in such a small box.

BruZZi · 10-29-2003, 10:13 PM

Thomas J. Coyle III - Thanks for the link.I like the high-gloss cabinet they're selling.

Chris*Liberti and Rory Buszka - I definitively need to find a place that sells it ready to use. I won't be able to do it myself.

ThomasW - Edited. I guess I'm going with the 12" with free shipping.

BruZZi · 10-29-2003, 10:21 PM

Ryan Schnacke,

Would the dayton 12" have better response than the 10" on a 1 cu ft box ???

The price includes shipping so it looks very tempting

I forgot to mention that I have a BFD. So I could boost a little bit the lower frequences.

Ryan Schnacke · 10-30-2003, 09:54 PM

"Would the dayton 12" have better response than the 10" on a 1 cu ft box ???"

Actually I think the 10" Titanic Mk2 would have a better response in the sense that it would be a low-Q alignment and have a lower tuning point.

The 12" DVC has a significant displacement advantage. And with enough enclosure space it will have the better response. Your preferred box size is just a little smaller than what is usually recommended - between 1.2 and 2.0 cu ft sealed.

I built a 1 cu ft sealed and stuffed DVC for by brother-in-law's car. We did play it for a few minutes in my living room just after it was done. And it certainly did a nice job for such a small sub.

Later I built a 1.3L sealed and stuffed DVC for myself. It was okay for music but in my house the open floorplan means that the living room/kitchen area is 6000 cu ft plus it opens up to another 2 living areas and a hall. For movies, a small sealed sub just wasn't going to hold its own in this environment compared to the SVS 25-31PC that I already had.

Since then I've put the DVC in a 3.6 cu ft vented sonotube enclosure. And now it rocks just as well as the SVS. So now you can see what I mean about the upgradability of this 12" driver. Certainly the Titanic would also benefit from a larger, vented enclosure. But the DVC has a undeniable displacement advantage.

With 1 cu ft, 380 watts and a BFD I'd probably go with the DVC since you can boost the low end to suit your preference. Of course there are limits to what a small sealed 12 can do. But it sounds like your neighbors won't let you crank it up "to 11" anyway.

Frank Carter · 10-31-2003, 11:30 AM

Quote:

I definitively need to find a place that sells it ready to use. I won't be able to do it myself.