Getting ready to build first sub - sonosub (1 Viewer)

[Matthew Will]

Hello all,
Another year at college is almost over and I could not be happier. This means I can begin to look into building my first subwoofer ever. My first plans were to take a tempest and just follow the plans on Adires website. I did that this winter when I built their HE10.1 monitor kit. I am very pleased with those speakers.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I want to build a sonosub simply because it will make construction that much easier, cut down on costs, and not pollute my workshop with nearly as much dust as the HE10's did. I have no clue what I want to do now as far as what subs to use, amps, etc. Here are a few question

1. Advantages/disadvantages of downfiring vs firing up?
2. I know threadrods are to hold the caps in place but I can not picture what they look like in my head. Does anyone have any links to pictures of them? I want to build a nice heft 15 or 18" subwoofer so most likely I'll need something to hold the massive weight of the driver.
3. Where do most people mount the plate amp? On the bottom cap?
4. I'm looking to spend about 500-600 and I really want something that pounds. The tempest doesn't sound like it will be enough. The tumult impresses me simply because it looks like it can take a bullet and keep pounding. Then I see the 34 mm xmas on way and my jaw drops. Whats the overall opinion on that sub?
5. What should I look to power it?
I'm building this for home theater although I will definently listen to music through it. I just dont care so much because I'm sure it will sound fine no matter the tuning. Blah....getting excited already. Matt

 

[ThomasW]

Crown K-2

 

[Joe Tilley]

Matthew, Have you seen the Titanic MKII yet from PE? Not quite a tumult but still beefier than the Dayton DVC, or Tempest & pretty reasonable price. IMO unless your going for some plane insane bass the Dayton or Tempest are awsow on a budget paired up with the 250 watt PE plate amp. If you wont to go one better look into the Titanic MKII & one of PE's newer 500 or 1000 watt amps.
Just speaking from what I have the Dayton DVC & PE amp would be more than enough to satisfy most people. I'm using a Dayton 15" DVC with the PE 250 watt plate amp in a 220 liter sono tuned to 17hz. So far it's managed to impress anyone who has heard & seen it so far. I wouldn't mind having alittle more every now & again ( mainly just when I'm showing it off ) but myself I've been very happy with the performance it has.
Not to mention if your on a 500 to 600 budget max a Tumult will tap that out alone. And than theres still an amp that has enough grunt for it, & the encloser. I built mine fully finished in Oak veneer on the tube & Birch for my end caps for just under 500. If you click my link you can see it there.

 

[DanielKellmii]

I bet that sounds great. How did you tune it to 17Hz? Is there some calculations that you went through? was there a blueprint that you followed? Did you just build it and then check the resonance?
Someday I would like to own a sub that is tuned low enough to pick up just about all LFE from the DVDs. Building my own sonosub sounds like the most likely path. I am more interested in picking up the lower frequencies than having a lot of dBs. Well, I am not, but I can never turn things up anyways, so it doesn't matter.

 

[Adam Demuth]

It's all calculated, I can't imagine doing this through trial and error. Basicly is a ratio between box volume, port size and port length.

Here's the equation: *

Lv = (23562.5*Dv^2*Np/(Fb^2*Vb))-(k*Dv)

Where
Dv = port diameter (cm)
Fb = tuning frequency (Hz)
Vb = net volume (litres)
Lv = length of each port (cm)
Np = number of ports
k = end correction (normally 0.732)

* - Shamelessly stolen from www.diysubwoofers.org - definitly a place I would check out if you are planning on building your own sub.