Car Audio Subs VS HT Subs (1 Viewer)

[James Brown]

This may not be the right place for this but I thought it may be to basic for the DIY and Advanced Project area.

Im curious to find out what specs to look for in drivers used for HT versus car audio subs. I was reading some of the post about it and the post were way over my head.

How do you tune a sub? Is this done by the enclosure?

What does WinISD do and where can i find it?

Ive got a few high powered SUBS for car audio with dual voice coils laying around and was wondering if they would work for HT.

 

[Joe Tilley]

James, I cant break it down into numbers & all that but generally car audio subs do not perform well for a home theater uses.

As for WinISD for what I know of it it helps you design a enclosure based on the speaker you are using & what you tuning goals are. If I remember right you can find it just by doing a search on your web browser.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

James,

I'm going to move this to DIY-- the guys there are really helpful, even to newbies- and I'd bet the could provide oodles of beginner info and links. After all, we all had to start somewhere...

-Vince

 

[Craig Woodhall]

James,

Car subs rely heavily on cabin gain for their performance.. which mean they don't have to be as good performers as the designers know they will get a big boost from being in a small space.. HT subs on the other hand are designed knowing they could be in a space 20 or 30x that of a car and don't rely on gain as much so they are for the most part better performers. Tuning a sub is done by the enclosure. Depending on the internal volume of the enclosure and the size of port you use determines the tuning frequency of that box. Winisd, is design software where you can plunk in enclosure sizes/tuning frequencies and see how your driver would perform in a specific box.

Craig

 

[Jon Torres]

Also, car subs generally have a higher Fs not suitable for HT. You can check out WinISD here http://www.linearteam.dk

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

Get yourself a copy of David Weems book on building and testing loudspeakers
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...ID=11010&DID=7
or some other basic speaker (home) DIY books. You can use car drivers and if it is designed correctly using the software as an aid it will sound good, most likely better than alot of comercial companys speakers at the mass marketers. It may not go as low and may not be as tight, but the subs people are building here are equivilant to $1000 and up comercial subs. Use what you got play around ask questions here, but most of all have fun.

 

[eric]

even with a fairly high fs, cant you tune a sub low, and not lose much at all?

eric

 

[Anthony_Gomez]

Eric, if you get a chance, model the shiva www.adireaudio.com vs the BPD 1202 www.missiondigital.com and you will see what the tunning will do. Sure you can tune lower, but you potentially sacrafice the transient responce. One of the few good exceptions I like is the Brahma 12. I personally thing it works pretty nicely in 65-72L tunned to 20hz (or a pair of 2000g 15" PR's).
Edit: actually, the 1503 is a better example. While several people have had good results with it ported at 18-20hz in 160L for HT, it is not my cup of tea (now sealed with EQing..and we are talking another beast)

 

[James Brown]

What I have is a pair of Rockford Fosgate 12" punch DVC's. (RFP 1212)

Before I went out and bought a bunch of MDF I want to see if would even be worth my time. With the setup in my car, I had the optimal enclosure specs and built my box with that.
With HT I see that there is more to just building an enclosure with 1.75 cubic ft.

Being very new to HT in general, I dont have a clue as to where to start.

I'll be taking a look at the links some of you provided and go from there.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Andrew Santos]

i have a question...

if ht subs generally perform better than car subs, why not use ht subs for the car?

 

[Jack Gilvey]

They don't come in enough colors.

 

[eric]

the ht drivers tend to be higher qts, as your house doesnt have the space limitations that your car does, and in your car, you have quite a big of cabin gain. as a result, a lot of audio companies make "low q" subs, which makes the required box sizes smaller, and it counts on cabin gain to fill in the extreme low end that is lost by using a low q design. its more complicated than that, but i wont go into any more detail.

eric

 

[Robin Smith]

lol good response jack!

 

[DavidY]

Andrew,

i have a question...

if ht subs generally perform better than car subs, why not use ht subs for the car?

I am using a 12" SVS in a 0.75 cu.ft sealed enclosure. Definately not ideal, but that's all the room that I could spare in my pickup's extended cab.

Dave