What's new

My 30L Shiva Boxes (1 Viewer)

Wayne Ernst

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
2,588
About 5 months back, I purchased a pair of Shiva drivers and begun the process of building 85L cabinets based on the Shiva plans from the Adire site. After getting the cabinets approximately 90% complete, I realized there was no way my wife would allow two of the beasts to go in our family room. I then changed directions and worked up some sealed cabinets with 30L of volume.

So far, these cabinets and drivers have had about two months of good use, so they are properly broken in. Today, I located some Bass Mekaniks CDs, so I could properly test out the subs with the waves and my RS SPL meter.

The pair of Shivas are driven by a Nady XA-1100 pro audio amp. Overall, I am quite pleased with the results. Lately, it seems like my mix is 90% music and 10% movies, so the smaller cabinets are a benefit in that area.

The cabinets were made out of 3/4" MDF material. The cabinets were finished to make them blend a bit better by applying the following process:

1) Applied 2 coats of primer
2) Applied 2 coats of Sears "Cinnamon" semi-gloss paint
3) Dry-brushed streaks of black Rustoleum paint onto the surface.
4) Dry-brushed streaks of gold Rustoleum paint onto the surface.
5) After all paint had a good chance to dry, I then applied a coat of oil based stain to the overall surface and wiped it good with a cotton rag to allow some of the paints to "blend" a bit and give it a more consistant appearance.

On to the pictures:





A plot showing the results of my testing:
 

Jack Gilvey

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 13, 1999
Messages
4,948
Looking good. How's the sound? I tried a Shiva in the same Vb a few years ago and found the high Qtc unbearably boomy.
 

Ryan T

Second Unit
Joined
Sep 10, 2001
Messages
406
I had a Shiva in a 28L enlcosure for a while. I didnt think it was too boomy at all. I also made a 54L enclosure for the same driver. I changed the enclosures back and fourth and I honestly couldnt tell the 54L was any cleaner. I had my 230L sealed tempest to directly compare it to. The Tempest was cleaner and had more power in the low end but at a high cost with the HUGE enclosure. I still have the tempest but its in a ported enclosure now. I sold the shiva and 54L enclosure but kept the 28L one. Maybe i'll get another shiva someday.


Ryan
 

minhG

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
82
Wayne,

Those are really nice, did you integrate the legs into the sides of the box? or is that seam just hidden really well?
 

Wayne Ernst

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
2,588
Minh,

Yes, the legs were integrated right into the panels when I made the cuts. I've done "add-on" legs before which were a bit more time consuming. Knowing that these boxes would be not too heavy due to their size, I thought that incorporating the legs would be fine.

Jack,

Actually, I don't find the smaller box(s) in my situation to be boomy at all. I play plenty of newer jazz music which has quite a bit of bottome-end to it. Also, the movies I watch don't sound boomy either.

However, my wife still doesn't like the boxes - even though they are small. She made a comment last night to the effect: "How come these small, orange boxes keep re-appearing?" and "They seem to be blocking part of your new Polk floor-standing speakers." Well, yes, one sub is partially blocking the front of the Polk due to the location, but the drivers in the Polk are still located above the top of the sub.

But, a few more comments of that nature from my wife and I'm going to have to give here the old "well, honey, we do have this small unused wall for the furnace area where I could install (2) 15" drivers and a nice grill." :D

Oh, the I.B. is coming ... it's now just a matter of how soon.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,792
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top