component sub driver choice (1 Viewer)

[John Meringolo]

Here is a question that should bring about a wide variety of opinions. If you were going to build a sub for your home which driver would you choose and what type of box would you put it in,i.e., ported or sealed? Thank you for any feedback you have to offer.

 

[Brian Bunge]

John,

This really belongs in the DIY forum, but I'll give you my thoughts here. The first thing you need to do is define what your budget is for the entire project: driver, box, amp, etc. Then you need to decide what size limitations you have, if any.

We can help you out from there.

 

[PaulDF]

Also, is it for mostly music, or movies, or both?

 

[John Meringolo]

It will be used for both movies and music. Cost is no object, and the amp is a Sunfire Signature Stereo which is quite powerful. I would prefer a ported box.

 

[Brian Bunge]

What about PR's? I checked out that amp and it looks like you have around 1300W per channel into a 4 ohm load. That should do quite nicely!

If cost is no object, then you need 2 Adire Audio Tumults ($500 each) with 4 Stryke Audio Passive Radiators ($100 or so each) in a 10ft^3 enclosure. If you've got a few thousand watts to throw at it then you should be able to shake the whole house.

 

[John Meringolo]

OK, Brian, I will be more specific. The Sunfire amp puts out about 2,00 watts into 2 ohms. 10^ft is bit large. I am thinking more on the line of 2 - 2 1/2^ft ported.

 

[Brian Bunge]

John,

You can pretty much forget 2-2.5ft^3 ported. About the smallest ported sub worth building would be a Shiva in a 3ft^3 box tuned to 20Hz. But you wouldn't want to put more than a few hundred watts into it.

You could put the Tumult in a 5ft^3 enclosure and tune to 16Hz with a slot loaded port but you'd want to run it a 4 ohms.

It's not possible to port a small box and tune it low because the port length will end up being too long to fit into the box. That is, of course, unless you want a smoke stack sticking out of the top or side of the box. And the larger the diameter of the port, the longer the port must be for a given tuning frequency.

Maybe you'd be better off with a Tumult in a small sealed enclosure and then use EQ to boost the low end.