(hello everyone) Can I use this orion sub? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Bowzer]

Alright, first, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Andrew, and although I'm only 17, I like to think that I have an excellent knowledge in car audio, but not home audio. Car audio just seems a little pointless to me now, and I want that great movie sound in my room since soon enough I will be off to James Madison University, without my truck (that I paid for).
I have a leftover 12" Orion XTR (svc 4ohm) http://orioncaraudio.com/xtreme12.html
sub from a previous install, and I was wondering if I could use it for a home audio application. (i would pick up the P.E. 250 watt amp, and build myself a nice low tuned ported box)
I've built plenty of ported enclosure, with circle ports, and with slot port (which is better for home applications?)
I ran the sub in WinISD, and I get a pretty nice flat curve at 5.25 cubes after all displacements tuned to 25hz. One last thing, how much port area should a home application have? (I was thinking of doing a slot port with 30 sq in. but most people only have around 13 sq in with a 4in. port. Will it really matter how much port area for home audio?
I'm sorry for the length of this post, but I figured why not get most of my questions answered at once, rather than having 6 different posts about each one.
Thanks in advance to any who reply, and GREAT FORUM.

 

[Jason Hammerly]

I would think you could use it. Can't hurt to build the box and see what it sounds like. With that large of box, you could almost build an EBS Shiva alignmnet. Using a Shiva (Excellent DIY driver available from adireaudio.com)you could get tune it to like 18 hz. I recenlty built around a 2 cubic foot sealed box for my Infinity Kappa 12" 4 ohm sub (one with a green cone). It sounds great for HT. Definitely not the deepest bass, but pretty accurate. I'd give it a shot. It'll only cost you the MDF and some PVC for a port. JMHO. Take care, and I'm sure there are plenty of guys that will be able to give better suggestions than me.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

It should work fine. But I agree with Jason - you might try tuning it a little lower and then cut the port length down if necessary.

Large port areas are required for high displacement drivers tuned to low frequencies. The more air the driver can push through the port, the more chance there is of port turbulance or chuffing. The Shiva that Jason mentioned typically does fine with a 4 inch flared port and it can displace almost twice as much air as that Orion driver. So you'd be fine with even a 4 inch straight (non-flared) port. Anything bigger would be overkill and just make you box larger.

 

[Andrew Bowzer]

So I'm guessing 20 hz would be good enough? My first home system consists of (not the best, but I'm 17, and I think its pretty good for my age) Sony HWT840 theater in a box, and then im going to add this sub, Sony DVD player, sony VCR, and a sony equalizer. I got the HTIB for $150 from BB with a friends employee discount. And the rest was the classic going to my friends house, and asking if I could buy things off their parents. I saved quite a bit of money doing this.

Actually, my first sub was an old old old adire audio shiva, when i didnt even know anything. I actually didnt even realize it was a shiva till i got really big into car audio, since its widely used there. So i only had 1 coil hooked up running off a kenwood KAC628 with the gain maxxed out. Lets just say that one bit the dust.

But it sounds like I will go through with this, just because it was an extra lying around, if I didnt have this, I would get what I told my brother to get for his car.......a Tempest.

One last thing, could I actually get away with Home Depot port rather than ordering the 4" flared port from P.E. with my amp?

Once again, so sorry for the long posts, but I can't stand it when people ask question by question by question when they can make it all one big essay......haha.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

Yeah I'd probably start with 20-21Hz and then increase the tuning point if necessary by cutting the port shorter. Fs is 23Hz so you probably wouldn't want to tune any lower than about 20Hz. A 4 inch (inside diameter) PVC pipe should work fine up to the linear excursion limits. You'd probably have to drive it pretty far past that point to hear any port noise. And at that point you'd be getting distortion or bottoming anyway.

I'll go ahead and add the disclaimer that I haven't simulated this (there's really not enough info listed, but you could guestimate). But I can see from the Vas that it wants a big box and the Qts looks pretty good.