Suggestions for DIY Home Audio Sub

Hi There,

I'm toying with the notion of building an Active Subwoofer for my stereo. I'm trying to spend less than $200.00. The Sub will run off my Yamaha RX-V250. I'm hoping for recommendations for a design, a pretty good (plate?) amp, and the woofer/woofers/passive radiator itself. I want something that sounds clean and musical when running the receiver in 7 channel stereo and other surround stereo modes but can give some decent low end when playing movies. My current speakers (ye olde A/D/S L990) do pretty well on the low end for most music so I'm hoping the sub will function nicely in the 25-80 Hz range.

So, who's making good drivers and plate amps these days? Or should I consider and external amp and are there some in my budget? What kind of box designs are tight, clean and musical? (folded, passive radiator, ported, etc?) Are there free or inexpensive plans that can be e-mailed or downloaded of some proven design? Any other suggestions? Resources?

Thanks Greg

I think you might be hard pressed to find something under $200 since most of the descent plate amps I have seen have been over $200, but here is a 12" that is already built... http://www.partexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-635 - for only $120.60

I think you're going to have a tough time too. Most plate amps are already going to cost almost that much. I just ordered a RythmiK 350W amp and on sale it was $150. The cheapest I've seen for a decent one is about $90, which leaves you very little room for cabinet and driver. Your best bet at that price is to go with an inexpensive sub or two like the one Ed listed.

Allow me to readjust my perspective here. Let's say about $200.00 for Woofer and Amp. I can hide the price for materials (wood, glue, etc.) from my wife. On my credit card she will see "Home Depot" and assume it's for house repairs. Does that help?

I just finished building sub for my system. I bought a 12” JBL European knock off speaker on Ebay for $24 to my door. Its is made exactly like the JBL without the name. A sheet of MDF will run you around $19 and is more than you’ll need, wood glue around $3. The speaker tested at 23HZ free air. I built a 15” X 18” X 10” deep sealed box in one night and veneered it and was playing it the next night.

I did some side by side comparisons of it against some Acoustic Research 10” woofers and some Cerwin Vega 10” woofers. The new sub had better kick in the lower end and rolled off slowly as the freqs went up. I did not check the resonance after I boxed it, but it sounded great. I might check resonance this weekend.

The amp is an older Sony ES model that I still had laying around 100W per channel stereo, using the mono mode its over 200, can’t remember.

Finding a power amp in the $150 dollar range may be a bit tough but keep an eye out for one, good things come to those who wait.

El-Cheapo Sub that sounds good?

Yeah, I think it's doable and I've been poking around on e-bay finding 200 watt plate amps from $80-120 and respectable woofers for $30-70. I think with a good box design I can come up with something that would work. My experience with lower priced Yamaha, Polk, Cerwin Vega etc. subs has been that they are boomy, bumpy thumpy affairs. So the question is can I build something better than what's available from the mainstream manufactures?

Did your box have any bracing? Was it a downward firing woofer? I would love to get my hands on some proven subwoofer designs. (Ill do more poking around.)

I started building systems when I was 10 years old, that was 38 years ago. I stayed away for a while but still dabbled here and there. I'm getting back into it very strong again (older, more money, huge shop and lots of background from other fields of study).

One thing to be aware of is that not much has changed in the last twenty years. The speaker is still the same basic design, the only real change is the way many want to hear their sounds. Big boomy bass is popular, but not real. Smaller speakers to do the job of larger ones, far more porting and what is porting? Taking the out of phase signal and trying to add more by delaying it and sending it back out.

What has changed dramatically is the production costs and materials. The same $200 speaker of the mid 70s can now be bought for far less.

Its very easy to get caught up in the money chase for the ultimate sound, after all if it cost more it has to be better right. Find you an inexspensive well made speaker and build you a nice box for it and you will be amazed at what you can do for little or no money. But if you just have to be able to say I spent X amount of dollars on it so be it.

Also, keep in mind that the amps of yester year can still perform as well as those of today. Its the same configurations, but in smaller production wise packages. Look at the spec on some of theolder gear and you'll find it's the same as today's.

me too

I am thinking about starting a DIY sub as well. I still need to learn a lot. The question that is on my mind right now is; are care speakers the same as home theater speakers? I read that car speakers are 4 ohm, while most home speakers are 8 ohm. Possibly 6 ohm. What about the voltages driving the speaker (car and house)? Is that something that I should be concerned about? The reason I am asking these questions; I can get car components easier from many local shops. But I've never seen a shop tailoring to the DIY HT.

TIA.

This is fun

Right! The issue is can I build a better speaker with $200.00 in parts and $40.00 worth of glue, MDF, screws, and fiberglass than I can buy for the same amount of $$$? My research thus far has led me to conclude that I can spend about $90.00 on a 15" subwoofer and $120.00 on a decent plate amp. The peeps at Parts Express are suggesting an $88.00 Dayton Quatro 15 inch sub and a 240 watt amp. One question is how much of a difference do different brands make? What are the differences between an $88.00 Dayton driver and a $300.00 high end driver? For clean tight base in a 500 sq ft. space with 10 ft cathedral ceiling do I need a woofer (and 3 sq. ft. box) that big? How 'bout a better 10 inch and a smaller box? Again, I'm looking clean tight bass for playing 5 channel and dsp stereo music and a little more boom and thump when watching a movie (when it's there). I imagine that this can be achieved but what drivers do people like and why?!

Greg

Dryseals said:

I
Its very easy to get caught up in the money chase for the ultimate sound, after all if it cost more it has to be better right. Find you an inexspensive well made speaker and build you a nice box for it and you will be amazed at what you can do for little or no money. But if you just have to be able to say I spent X amount of dollars on it so be it.

Also, keep in mind that the amps of yester year can still perform as well as those of today. Its the same configurations, but in smaller production wise packages. Look at the spec on some of theolder gear and you'll find it's the same as today's.

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bcycle said:

Yeah, I think it's doable and I've been poking around on e-bay finding 200 watt plate amps from $80-120 and respectable woofers for $30-70. I think with a good box design I can come up with something that would work. My experience with lower priced Yamaha, Polk, Cerwin Vega etc. subs has been that they are boomy, bumpy thumpy affairs. So the question is can I build something better than what's available from the mainstream manufactures?

Did your box have any bracing? Was it a downward firing woofer? I would love to get my hands on some proven subwoofer designs. (Ill do more poking around.)

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I did the EBay plate amp routine. Didn't last, bought a new one from parts express for $117(?). Sub was built using MAdisound design and driver.

bcycle said:

Right! The issue is can I build a better speaker with $200.00 in parts and $40.00 worth of glue, MDF, screws, and fiberglass than I can buy for the same amount of $$$? My research thus far has led me to conclude that I can spend about $90.00 on a 15" subwoofer and $120.00 on a decent plate amp. The peeps at Parts Express are suggesting an $88.00 Dayton Quatro 15 inch sub and a 240 watt amp. One question is how much of a difference do different brands make? What are the differences between an $88.00 Dayton driver and a $300.00 high end driver? For clean tight base in a 500 sq ft. space with 10 ft cathedral ceiling do I need a woofer (and 3 sq. ft. box) that big? How 'bout a better 10 inch and a smaller box? Again, I'm looking clean tight bass for playing 5 channel and dsp stereo music and a little more boom and thump when watching a movie (when it's there). I imagine that this can be achieved but what drivers do people like and why?!

Greg

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For the lower cost, I would suspect a 10" would do better than say a 12" for the same dollar amount. I always like a 10" in my front speakers for stereo music, the attack time is better than the 12" and most music is in the range of the speaker.

I just built that quatro 15 and let me tell you its a sweet ride. I did ALOT of research and the quatro is proboly the best your going to be able to find unde 120 bucks. My quatro definitly goes below 20hz, the whole thing cost me about $270. I cant say enough about that quatro im very happy.

DIY Sub

marrypoppins said:

I just built that quatro 15 and let me tell you its a sweet ride. I did ALOT of research and the quatro is proboly the best your going to be able to find unde 120 bucks. My quatro definitly goes below 20hz, the whole thing cost me about $270. I cant say enough about that quatro im very happy.

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Thanks for the recommendation? Care to share your plans/design? Did you follow guidelines from Parts Express? And why a quatro over say a DAYTON DVC310-88 or a different brand.

I would love to find a good proven design with known components like the Quatro. Anything would be better that my simply winging it. And who has the time to research all the driver/box/amp combos anyhow? Me? I want high quality, clean tight, woofering. (Not the thumpy stuff you here in cars). I have a pair of nice full range 1000.00 towers (sealed cabinets) that are smooth down to about 40hz.

Finally, what amp did you end up with? Are you doing cinema only or music too? Thanks for the help! Happy Holidays.

Greg

Ok, I downloaded winISD, the program will show you the expected results of your sub. Thats how I choose the size of my enclosure and all that jazz. My sub is ported, 5.3 cubic feet, with a 6" port. I used 3/4" mdf board and the thing is solid as a rock. The reason I choose the Quatro 15? Ive done alot of research and honestly is the only sub I found under three hundred dollars with the amp that could get the results I wanted. At first I admit I was a bit skeptical, but after hearing good result after good result I took the plunge. With the woofer at $85 and the amp at $130 I just dont think it can be beat.

If you need more help let me know, im glad to help. My email address is patty_osu@yahoo.com
If you want pictures ill send those too, and attempt to draw my plan, that shouldent be very hard.
Ps thats an underslash between patty and osu i know sometimes it is hard to tell.

Marrypoppins, Do you have any test results from the sub? What about designs? (dont mean to assume you'd have them or give them out, but i would be starting from scratch as well) I am trying to decide wether or not to build one or buck up and buy one.

Sorry I don't have any test equitment, im a college student trying to save up for an engagement ring so to spend $270 on a sub was alot for me. Really if you use winISP then its hard to screw up. My sub is 21"x23"x24" that equals up to 5.3 cubic feet. Basicly your choice comes down to space, the only downside to this sub is the box is large. If you have the space then the DIY is the way to go, I very much doubt your going to find another sub with this type of sound under $600, it definity beats the $1000 dollar subs ive auditioned at Ultimate electronics. I found that the true test for me falling in love with this sub came from the rocket scene in the Icredibles, before with my h-100 I felt the rocket it was impressive however now I feel as though im in the rocket, its almost night and day.

Just thought I'd throw in my 2c. I built my sub using 2 MTX MZS1204 woofers, and I am using my 100w/ch (its more like 250 into this load though)Proton amp to drive them. This is the plot I got when I designed it in winISD



After I measured it, I found that the sub was within 3db of the plot from 16-90Hz.

I paid $80 for the 2 woofers, and had the amp laying around. There are a bunch of drivers out there that you can use. I just happened to stumble onto a good one for my project.

This sub shakes the house, literally. If you look around on e-bay you can find a driver that will work for you pretty cheap. Remember, all of these woofers come from China, so brand name doesn't mean anything. Just find one with acceptable T/S parameters and you are golden.

Actually thats not true, a good deal of woofers out there come from Europe, Canada, and the good oll US of A

marrypoppins said:

Actually thats not true, a good deal of woofers out there come from Europe, Canada, and the good oll US of A

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There is only 1 driver mfgr left in the USA. The rest of the so called made in USA drivers are parts that are made in China and the pieces are assembled here. Even Dayton loudspeakers long known for being an american company have farmed out almost all of their production.

MacManNM said:

Just thought I'd throw in my 2c. I built my sub using 2 MTX MZS1204 woofers, and I am using my 100w/ch (its more like 250 into this load though)Proton amp to drive them. This is the plot I got when I designed it in winISD

After I measured it, I found that the sub was within 3db of the plot from 16-90Hz.

I paid $80 for the 2 woofers, and had the amp laying around. There are a bunch of drivers out there that you can use. I just happened to stumble onto a good one for my project.

This sub shakes the house, literally. If you look around on e-bay you can find a driver that will work for you pretty cheap. Remember, all of these woofers come from China, so brand name doesn't mean anything. Just find one with acceptable T/S parameters and you are golden.

Click to expand...

Can you post a better (larger) copy of that graph? Looks a little "too" flat.