Car Subwoffer in my room Experts!!!!!!!! I need you (1 Viewer)

[Andre Baptiste]

Okay its like this i live in trinidad right for some of you its on the other side of the world you know the caribbean.We are a third world developing country........so we dont have much high end stores here so but we do have a lot of car audio stores a lot i mean a looooot.So i was wondering if you guys could give me any advice cause i am thinking of building an enclosure for a subwoofer.If you all think its a good idea can someone recommend a brand of car audio subwoofers that would the best results in my room.People say car subwoofers wont work but it must have some that yeilds good results in a room.Your help would be appreciated alooooooooooot

 

[ThomasW]

Give us a sample of the drivers you have access to.

You want something with a low Fs, high Xmax and middle range Qts

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Okay we have infinity's JBL GTO series, image dynamics,Rockford,Lightning audio,Pioneer IMPP's,yea we have most of the recognisable Car audio brands.....but we dont have brands like shiva and dyna audio you know all the drivers that the DIY community goes crazy over.So feel free to recommend car audio rand i sure we carry it.Thanks

 

[Oachalon]

you can probably make a decent home sub with some image dynamics.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Or okaaaay folks thanks for the advice is it recommended also to use car cpeakers as the mains??????cause in trinidad it dont have much of a market for home theater so mostly car audio drivers are what i have availble so i have to make due with what i have.I personally think that you could make some quality mains with carefully selected car speakers.Just my 2 cents.....we have recievers availale over here though and some gemini and qsc amps advice on those would also e appreciated thanks......

 

[phil_a]

willy you should invest in the benwin speakers. they are the best in flat panel equipment, according to your good freind at the cybercafe. dare i say "unleash the devil!"

 

[TanT]

I've used JBL GT sub driver for hometheater with good result. You'll need a 12" or larger to get enough output for hometheater use.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Okay thanks for the advice Tant if you still have you JBL sub you can tell me the output at say.....20 HZ around there and tell methe specs for your enclosure and wheather it is sealed or ported thanks..........

 

[TanT]

Sorry I no longer have it. We were using it about 10 years ago. It was my brother in law and his cousin that built it. Back then we were poor and don't have a lot of choices for sub. In those days in order to get a decent sub one would have to shell out around 1K for Velodyne or M&K sub. That was the main reason we've decided to build one ourselve.

As far as I could remember they built it like a very large coffee table with the driver inside the box (isobaric bandpass box). It has plexi glass on one side to show off the driver. On the one end there are 2 huge ports made out of PVC tubing.

Back then I did not know anything about sub tuning so I didn't even think of asking. I actually brought up the question to him a few days ago. His reply was that he can't remember exactly but it was around 22-24 Hz. His reasoning is there was not a whole lot of material that will go that low back then.

As far as performance goes: That thing was really powerful, played quite low and extremely efficent. I remember we were using a 12V power supply that we pulled from an old old computer. We feed the sub with a Soundstream auto amp rated at 25Wx2 bridged running off of this power supply.

Hey we were students back then so we have to make do with what ever we have

We paired it up with a pair of Infinity RS speaker but kept wishing for something more efficent in order to keep up with it.

I am sure it won't be as low and musical as my current SVS Ultra or some other subs out there. But we could hardly find anything that could match it in term of output those days. It would have made a really good hometheater sub, now that I think about it.

After a few moves we got tired of moving it with us. We tore down the box and sold the driver and everything else :frowning:

Please keep in mind that back then the internet was unknown therefore DIY hometheater sub was unheard of. It should be easier to come up with a plan and help if you ever needed one.

We did it only because that we had the parts and time between school breaks. Our friends and relatives thought we were crazy but it turned out to be a good project and we had a good time building and listening to it together.

Good luck with your DYI sub.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Thank you tant for that legnthy reply i appreciate it......well i am in a prdicament to BTW radio shack in our mall has the infinity ps12 su is that any good??????? or yea and i cotacted a place called advance electronics and they sell velodyne subs......very expensive and i think that would e kinda overkill fuh my room its small.....so maye you could recommend some sus alog the line off polk.jbl.yamaha.energy.elmo.infinity.proac.yea i think the place ccarries all those brands i'll look again and tell you the rest of the brands they carry k????????and thanks again....

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Andre,

You mentioned your room was quite small - which meant that you had to go for a smaller sub so it could properly fit. However, have you thought of an "infinite baffle" subwoofer? If you have room, you could install one in the ceiling of your room (or even a vacant wall.) This would keep your floor space free from a cabinet - and give you plenty of bass, too.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

No sory wayne i dont have space for an infinate baffle system it must be a traditional design like box or tube.Aye you folks think i can get good results making a sonotube wit ah car sub???? if so reply pleeeeeeease yea ah looking either for the JBL or image dynamics subs....Bye









Just Enjoy the Music And shut up......

 

[TanT]

Andre, FYI: I've just replaced my SVS CS Ultra original driver (the old TV12) with an Adire Brahma 12 driver (designed for auto use).

I am quite pleased with the Brahma in the SVS CS Ultra enclosure.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Tant i cant thank you enough for your feedback its really inspiering me......cause all i needed was some for some people in he know to give me some advice......i think i would go with the auto subwoofer yea i think i'll get the JBL then i'll Pass the driver specs through my winsd and get some graphs i'll do that with the image dynamics to By the way how's rockford
and infinity car subs???? thanks for everything folks.....bye for now..And rememer folks getting drivers like shiva and vifa and focal and scanpeak etc in my country is like Ben afflek getting a an oscar for gigli.......bye




Just listen to the music and shut up

 

[TanT]

Andre, some more info that you might want to know: The guy that I bought the Brahma from is currently running 6 JBL 12" auto subs in 2 separate enclosures. Each enclosure has 3 separate chambers, each chambers has a 4" port (unknow lenght, but my guess it's somewhere between 24"-32"). He's powering each driver with a Mono Block Class A Krell Amp.

Extremely clean and more powerful of any sub I've seen.

So my theory is that with the correct driver, right enclosure and amplification, auto sub will work as well for home use.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Thank you Thank you tant.....at least someody sees it myyy way is been tooo long thats my theory exactly i know car subs are not made for house cause they are built to compensate for cabin gain in your trunk but i think that with right engineering you could make a car sub work in the confines of your house thanks tant that piece of info you gave me made my life a whole lot eisier...........ut i think it would e harder to uild mains with car audio equipment like infinity component systems........ thats just my 2 cents Tant get back to me and tell me what you think okay????????????????? thanksssss.....btw tant over here only have crappy amps like gemini and(dont laugh audio pipe) yea the high end amps are waaaaaaaaay out of my range yup in trinidad its not like you could go and uy used equipment and stuff it different overhere soo keep that in mind oh yea and we have crown amps.......and svs uses one of those to power one of their passive sud its aout 3 grand overhere which makes it aout 500US is that a good deal?????








Just listen to the music and shutup!!!!

 

[TanT]

Actually, if you think about it: car speakers should be easier to build as main speakers because they tend to be more forgiving when it comes to building the enclosure for them. They are designed this way so that no matter which car or install location they still sound decent.

The only draw back that I could see is they won't reach the output level of home speakers even when you push them hard. Also, keep in mind that most, if not all, car speakers are 4ohm just becareful when driving them with normal home receiver/amp.

Regarding the Crown Amp, the K1 you saw at SVS site are selling for around $1050 at most internet retailers. If the same one is selling for $500 then it's a steal. Please keep in mind that there are quite different series and models in the Crown line up.

 

[Andre Baptiste]

Yea tant i hear you...... if you do the maths its just no way thre man in the store in our country was talking about the K1 yea that would be some where like 7 grand down here so yes it may be ah different model......On the mains now you think i should use a component system or coaxals yea and would the active crossover in the components be a problem?????? or do i need to just buil an extra enclosure for them???? and or yea maybe you can give me names of some nice sounding components thanks...... you feed back is always appreciated tant or yea another thing tant i dont think output level is really a matter(small room)Buhhh byeeeee




Just Listen to the music and shutup

 

[Mark gas]

Iv'e heard good things about Cervin Vega subs for HT. (do a search on this forum) For Image Dynamics give them a call or post one Link Removed they should be able to help you with what sub to use and what size box to use. Also audio express magizine hade a store on using car audio drivers for home speakers a few months back.

 

[TanT]

I think you'll be better off using components instead of coax speakers. Most coax's don't come with a true crossover. They use just a cap to filter out the low freq. to the tweeter and nothing else.

As far as the crossover for the components goes, they are not active unless you're looking into bi or tri amp them with an active crossover. Most component sets come with a matching set of passsive crossovers. The only different between these and regular home xover are that they come in an enclosure to protect them in the hash auto environment. You should have no problem putting them inside the enclosure. Just make sure they don't vibrate at high volume.

It've been a while since I last looked at car equipments but some of components sets I was drooling over are MB Quart, ADS, Phoenix Gold, JL Audio, Boston Acoustic, Focal, SoundStream.... Most companies top of the line products are very good in quality. The quality doesn't come cheap though :frowning:
I've never tried to build a home set out of auto product because here in the states there are some many good sounding speakers selling for much less than what I could build on out of auto components. Also, I don't think I could ever build a set of speakers that look as good as those prebuilt

If I were you I would save my money and find a set of decent sounding set of home speakers and match it with your DIY sub.

How hard is it to import a set of hometheater speakers to Trinidad? You could also ask someone to pick up a set for you while they are visiting the states

Please feel free to ask if you have anymore question and good luck with your quest