reccomendations...First DIY sub, but i'm handy. (1 Viewer)

[Phil Mays]

Currently I have a Klipsch KSW-15 sub that I really like.
However I want to build a great sub that will reach deep and yet be VERY musical.

I enjoy home theater but am highly critical with our music.

I've seen sonitubes and box designs. What do the pro's think?

BTW, I would buil two smaller if that would be better. While money is a consideration it really is not that big of an object to me (wife does not see this).

Thanks for the help.

 

[Greg Yeatts]

Phil

I live in Richmond, VA. My parents live fairly close to Chatham. I have a DIY that will be on the market soon. It's a Dayton 12" DVC tuned to 21 hertz with a 15" Adire Audio passive radiator weithted to ~ 600 grams. The box is a 21" cube on 6" legs. It is painted black with truck bed liner (looks better than it sounds). It currently has a 150 watt plate amp. It will play 25 hertz at 109 db in a medium (23'X13'X9) room. F3 in my room is about 18 hertz. Results in another room may differ.

I am not familiar with the Klipsch sub so I am not sure how it compares. Was the Klipsch purchased at Sounds Unlimited in Danville.

 

[Phil Mays]

Wow, I may be interested. I did get the sub, and all my "stuff" at Sounds Unlimited.

Which side of Chatham do your folks live on?

 

[Greg Yeatts]

My folks live south of Chatham. They live about 5 miles off of 29. A litlle south of the e-toys warehouse (southbound lane on 29) you take the next right (The road number is somewhere in the 620s). They're about 15 minutes from Chatham. They live in a neighborhood called North Ridge (one word or two, I can't remember).

I grew up in Big D. I've spent a lot of money at Sounds Unlimited. Back in the day I was a car audio fanatic. This was in the early 80s. We didn't really go "boom" then. Gear was expensive.

 

[Phil Mays]

We live west of Chatham close to Callands.

 

[Greg Yeatts]

Neat. My parents actually live closer to 41 than to 29. I just used 29 because it was closer to Chatham. My parents live right around Mount Herman Baptist (if you know where that is).

 

[Phil Mays]

My wife passes it every day and out VET is located just around the corner.

 

[Jeremy Stockwell]

I'd consider a sealed Tempest design from Adire,

OR, If you've got some attic/basement space above/below your listening room,

Link Removed

JKS

 

[Brian Fellmeth]

I'll second Jeremy's suggestions for your application

 

[Brian Foley]

You might want to check out Rick Craig's Whomp. I haven't heard it myself, but several very accomplished DIY speaker designers use it as their subwoofer, which tells me that it would be an excellent subwoofer for music. Sealed is definitely the way to go if bass quality for music is more important to you than low-end extension.

 

[Cam S]

I built myself a Shiva/AVA250 combo sub in a 4cuft ported box using Adire's EBBS alignment. This sub will lay waste to the KSW-15. I have the KSW-10 in my music system upstairs and it seriously feels 10 times louder that that 10" sub. I couldn't be more happy with it.

 

[Greg Yeatts]

A sealed sub may not be such a bad thing. Sound guys are putting ever and ever more low frequency rumble in movie soundtracks at lower and lower frequencies. If your sub is not tuned (if you have a ported or PR sub) you have instant cone overdrive on frequencies below box tuning. A sealed enclosure controls the cone of a woofer better below the tuning frequency of the box. For this very reason I have considered a sealed box myself.

However, if you can find a woofer with huge excursion, say a Tumult or a Stryke AV12 or AV15, it does make the ported cabinet or PR cabinet more attractive. The ported cabinet has the capability to play much lower more efficiently. A Linkwitz Transform can get you some extension in a sealed cabinet, but you give up 5-6bd headroom overall(without a port to add to the low frequency output, the woofer has to do all of the heavy lifting using lots of excursion).

If you really want to look at DIY, download Unibox v 4.02 from the FRD Consortium. Go to the Adire, Stryke Audio or Parts Express websites and download the Theil Small parameters and start modeling. Building a box is pretty easy.

Lots of free advice to be had on this site.

 

[george king]

Greg,

That is good information. I have been using winISD to model some sealed boxes. However, I think I want to make 2 subs, and use them as stands. I am thinking of a trapizoidal design, with (outer dimensions) of 16" square base, and a top of 8" wide and 12" which would hold the speaker, and 24" high.

Is there any software that would allow me to model such a box. Thanks.

 

[Greg Yeatts]

George

You can calculate the area inside the trapezoid. Always use the inner dimensions of the box to calculate volume. Then use that area less the area of an bracing and the driver to determine the net enclosure volume. A search with Google will net you a formula to calculate the area of a trapezoid (I can't remember the trap volume formula, must be getting older).

I've always used Unibox. I have had good results with it as have others.

 

[Phil Mays]

Great suggestions...Thanks!

I too have been led to believe a sealed enclosure was the way to go for what I want to do. Frankly the KSW-15 has way too much bass for what my house, wife, dogs, guests can handle. We are always picking junk up from the floor that falls from vibration.

 

[Peter_A_M]

Phil,

Is the size of the box of any concern? If it is, I would buy the Stryke AV12 without hesitation. It has a low Vas as compared to similar drivers (88 L for the AV12; 120 L for the Dayton 12" DVC; 151 L for the Shiva; 160 for the Tumult; 228 L for the AV15; 280 L for the Dayton Titanic; 317 L for the Tempest), and, consequently, can work well in boxes even as small as 1 ft³.

http://www.stryke.com/pics/AV12sealed.gif

I built a 1.7 ft³ enclosure for my Stryke AV12, and when powered by the Adire AVA250 plate amp, provides way too much bass for me to ever get along with my neighbors. It reaches deep, is "quick", and does pretty much everything a high-quality driver in a sealed enclosure is supposed to do. If you decide to go with the AV12, just make sure you get a driver with the clear powdercoat and not the clear paint - mine was cosmetically defective and unfortunately arrived with many visible cracks across the cone.