is it possible... small (relatively) sub with 20-25hz output? (1 Viewer)

[Matt D K]

I'm looking to build a sub shortly. It will me used mostly for home theater, but some occassional nice music listening. My room is about 16 x 16 with 10' ceilings. My main speakers are Polk Lsi15's driven by an Adcom 545II(modified), and Polk Lsi 7's for surround driven by an Adcom 2535. I will probably use the PE 250w amp. I would like to have a relatively small enclosure, 3-4 cu'(or smaller if possible) max! I am open to driver suggestions. Also open to traditional enclosure vs. sonotube. Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

 

[Greg Monfort]

Shiva, Stryke, or their clones, will do this in 4ft^3 tuned to 20Hz. WRT cab shape, it's whatever floats yer boat since it's a sub.

GM

 

[Matt D K]

Would you have links to pages describing the building of these units?

 

[Jonathan T]

Shive and Stryke make sub drivers, not subs.

There are many ways to build a sub that 4 cubic feet and tuned to 20 hz, use your inmaginenation. If you want to keep it simple then all you have to do is build a cube, brace it on the inside, add pading to reduce standing waves, install the amp and driver, wire it up and you have a sub.

 

[Joe Sabato]

go to adireaudio.com and look at the shiva white paper as well as the other links there for guidance, or contact Kyle Richardson at acousticvisions.com he sell both drivers, cabinet kits, etc for both drivers and is a good guy to deal with

 

[Brett DiMichele]

You will get 104-106DB out of a Stryke AV-12 in a sealed
2.0 Cubic Foot Enclosure.....
And yes that's down at 20Hz not even factoring in room gain.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

A Stryke AV12 with two Stryke 15" passive radiators in 95L tuned to 20Hz would have amazing output, maybe even approaching reference levels in a tight non-huge room. Something along these lines:
http://basszone.stryke.com/thunder12.htm
http://www.stryke.com/AVseries.html
This is a seriously great driver!

 

[Brett DiMichele]

I have to say it's a giant killer
To get this kind out output in a sealed environment is
amazing, Infact it craves small sealed enclosures the
EBP leans towards sealed and WinISD's calculated choice
for volume was even under 1.5 cubic foot...
2.0 is a good round about number for sealed..
It models equally as well in ported and Passive Radiator
setups with like Jack said, Reference Levels of output..
There is a post over on diysubwoofers.org by Matrix he has
the Shiva MKII, the AV12 and the Titanic MKII and the Shiva
Kept up fairly well, the Titanic couldn't compete at all
but the AV12 as he put it "is for seriously large rooms
or for serious SPL in small rooms"
The Shiva is still the bang for the buck leader but the
AV12 does outperform it... Without breaking a sweat

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

Titanic Mk2 couldn't compete with a Shiva? That's strange. Was it a 10" Titanic? Or maybe a sealed Titanic vs ported Shiva? I'll have to go find that post.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

Well, I found the thread. He says he used a "Titanic 12" not a "Titanic Mk2". So its probably the 12 inch Titanic Mk1 which has a lower Xmax than the Shiva. It would have been nice to see the Mk2 in this comparison. I suspect it fits right in the middle between the Shiva and AV-12 so you've got about the same performance/dollar ratio with all 3. How loud do you want to spend?

 

[Matt D K]

Well it looks like I'm going to use the Shiva in a sealed enclosure. My problem is I'm not sure what size/Q I want to use. I am really looking for VERY low bass. It will be mainly used for home theater, but every thing I read says home theater is better used with a highr Q enclosure?

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

If you really want the low stuff I don't think a sealed Shiva will completely satisfy you unless you're in a small room. My sealed DVC sub was okay for music ... lacked a little extension, but okay. For movies, well, it was a lot better than nothing but it didn't even come close to what the same driver in a ported enclosure can do. Admittedly my HT is in a VERY large room.

I'd go with 3 cu ft tuned to 22Hz or so. This is right at the bottom of the volume range you listed in your first post. Very close to the internal volume of an SVS 25-31. So it seems reasonable that you could end up with external dimensions close to the 25-31 which really isn't that large. SVS used 1 inch endcaps, 2 inch legs and a 1 inch baseplate on my 25-31PC, just FYI.