Pic of my AV15 cube (1 Viewer)

[Darren_T]

One of my favorite things is checking out other people's creations on this forum so I'm posting my latest project for the enjoyment of others.

This one isn't nearly as pretty as my old Tempest enclosure but I built this one purely as a performer with no real desire to create another furniture grade piece.

I think it looks great in black though with the aluminum. It is constructed out of single layer 1.25" thick MDF and coated with truck bed liner from Walmart... the stuff can be a bit tricky but the finish is uniform with a nice texture. I have large black chrome spikes underneath and am powering it with the PE 500 watt plate amp.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Darren,

While you commented that this latest sub wasn't a furniture-grade piece, it still looks damn nice. I know plenty of people who would display such a sub proudly in their listening area.

 

[Darren_T]

Thanks Wayne,

I was sure to build a quality piece and am very proud of it, I just didn't make it look like a piece of furniture like my last sub.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm very happy with the outcome

 

[Nat Ward]

I agree that it looks very nice in a simple way. I've had my Tumult cube in nekkid MDF for months now and I'm not sure I have the desire to truck it to my friend's house (closest one with tools is 50miles away) to do a solid hardwood top. What size roundover did you use on the corners? I like the curvature in relation to the size of the box. Thanks!
Nat Ward

 

[Darren_T]

The radius for the corners is 3/4" diameter. I did all edges except for the bottom which I beveled about 1/4" to prevent chipping. It worked out very well. Quite presentable.

 

[Allen Ross]

how much bed liner stuff did you go through? and just one coat?

 

[Darren_T]

I did about 4 coats and I bought it in a gallon can, didn't even use half, I'd say maybe 1/3rd used. I rolled it on as my spray gun didn't have the right size tip to spray it. The stuff in the spray cans really makes a nice finish but I tried one can and it only covered one side per can so I bought the gallon. If you use a short napp mini roller you can get a nice textured finish.

 

[Allen Ross]

thanks for the quick reply, i think i am going to try that one next.

 

[Bryan Michael]

i can barrow a paint crew paint gun it is a profosonal unit no more spray paint for me now just need to bild a paint area to contain the over spray

 

[Joe Hsu]

Bryan...let me know when you get that going, as I'd love to give you a few bucks (or beers) to let me use that apparatus to spray my soon-to-be-redone sub.

 

[Rory Buszka]

The textured finish on my passive radiators makes my subwoofer extremely difficult to photograph. Enjoy your awesome sub. If you decide to replace the driver with the upcoming AV12 MKIII, the new ones won't have that cracking around the dust cap. The MKIII is basically the MKII with a newer, shinier cone that John orders directly from the cone manufacturer.

How does this sub compare to your Tempest listening experiences?

 

[Darren_T]

Actually I have the AV15 (not AV12), not sure if that is what you meant. It performs pretty much as I was expecting... much more overhead than my Tempest and the bass seems to be "tighter" or more accurate. I'm very impressed. I have the MKI so I'm trying to figure out if I should have it rebuilt to fix the single spider issue.

 

[Geoff L]

Darren

Very very nice and it appears to be furniture grade, just black!

Whats the size of your encloser external?

Looks to be around a 26" cube, just what is the ~{size external}~, curious like always!

Regards
Geoff

 

[Darren_T]

The cube is about 23.5" square... if I had laminated 2 sheets of 3/4" mdf it would be 24" square but I opted for 1.25" thick MDF instead which eliminated the hassle of building two boxes and should have very similar structural integrity since it is one solid sheet.

Those measurements are from memory... I could be off a hair but not more than 1/2" I can get you exact numbers if you are interested. I'm 98% sure those are the exact numbers.

 

[Geoff L]

Humm, the angle pic makes it look to be slightly larger, cool smaller is good in my book.
Not everyone has room for 7-12ft^³ enclosers!

Very good looking bass producing unit, hope she preforms up to expectations once everthing loosens up...


Cheers
Geoff

 

[Darren_T]

I'll measure external dimensions tonight. I've been known to be an idiot from time to time and may be way off. I'm usually right on or waaaaaaaay off

 

[Rory Buszka]

What I like so well about passive radiator enclosures is that above the PR's tuning point the overall group delay is very low, almost like that of a sealed box, and the group delay is only localized around the enclosure's tuning point. That means that further up in the subbass frequency range, for the bass requirements of music, the sub has a very tight sound. Then for the bass requirements of low frequency effects of movies where output is the priority, the enclosure still has lots of output. The only possible drawback is that in the lower end of the musical bass range and in the beginning of the range where the PRs are really taking over, that's where the excursion of the woofer can be extreme. But with capable woofers like the Stryke/AE Speakers AV series, this is hardly any issue at reasonable listening levels.

 

[Bryan Michael]

well it will be a while i have to clean the gurage and hang some plastic to control the overspray.
so you want a new look for your tempest? maybe a different tune? and i know it will spray paint but dont know if it will do the thicker stuff

 

[Darren_T]

Just took the outter measurements on the sub. It is indeed 23.5" square.

 

[AllanRW]

Darren how do you think it hits with the PR.
I built this one for a customer.
Like the output of the ported but never built one with a PR.
Comments on the PR tuning


Al