DIY Sub Suggestions???

[Mr. Lamb Fries]

I sent a PM to Buckeye fan about a sub. He asked a couple of of questions and I thought I would start a new thread to get a bunch of opinions. Basicly what I am looking for is...(obviously)
AMP-
SUB-
BOX-Design or kit. Ive found a bunch of designs, plugged a bunch of drivers in the winisd but get bad numbers when mathced with the designs(maybe I am using it wrong). I would like a design for a driver that is less than $150...Links would be greatly appreciated!

The key-That all goes together for HT use (some DVD concerts, but mostly HT)

Right now, I am thinking of making a DIY sub. I have read about a bunch of designs and a bunch of amp/driver combinations. Its making my head spin. I am looking at the parts express 300 w Bash amp with a Dayton 12” sub…and the shiva design for the box. I had the link to it saved (i thought) but cant find it.

Sub
http://www.insertPE).com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=295-464

Total budget-somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-Buckeye fan suggested the 15" kit from PE. That would be conveniet...but would i get better performance from a well constructed DIY?
Any suggestions or alternatives?

This is my first DIY try and thought I should seek advice from some people who have done it before!

I saw these on closeout and thought I would see what you thought.
Oem 12” (maybe two of these)

http://www.(insertPE).com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=299-392

soundstreem 12” Maybe two of these)
http://www.(insertPE).com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=299-674

 

[wilkenboy]

Go chat with Steve Callas over at htguide forum or AVSforum - he's got some great advice on DIY subs and sonosubs and can also point you toward some software which will help you design your enclosure to match the drivers you're looking at for the performance you're looking for.

~Josh

 

[ehurnie]

I'm looking at doing a diy sub as well and here is what im leaning towards.
eclipse SW8200 $200 off ebay
behringer ep2500 ~$280
behringer feedback destroyer ~$100
Im looking at doing 2 of these subs in a sealed box. If you want 1 you could get the behringer ep1500 and save some money. Based on the parameters these subs model pretty well, but require a decent sized box.
hope this helps

 

[jonnythan]

I built a sonosub in the neighborhood of 4 cf with the Dayton 12" HiFi sub and the Dayton 250w plate amp.

It positively blows the windows out of the room. I spent a total of under $400 all said and done.

You can see a few pics of the planning and construction here:
http://www.jonnythan.com/subwoofer/

 

[wilkenboy]

I built a sonosub in the neighborhood of 4 cf with the Dayton 12" HiFi sub and the Dayton 250w plate amp.

It positively blows the windows out of the room. I spent a total of under $400 all said and done.

You can see a few pics of the planning and construction here:
http://www.jonnythan.com/subwoofer/

To hit below $400 with a DIY is pretty respectable. Would love to see a breakout of your materials and costs, design dimensions, etc. Also FR plots of the finished product.

~Josh

 

[jonnythan]

http://jonnythan.com/subwoofer/cost.xls

I rounded on some of the small items, but you get a good idea.

I don't have the equipment to plot a FR for the finished product, sorry.

BTW, I couldn't find a way to securely mount the plate amp to the sonotube itself, so I ended up putting it in its own small enclosure in the A/V rack and running 12g speaker wire to it.

 

[Mr. Lamb Fries]

Looks great...That may be what I will do but with a pro amp instead of the plate amp. Any tricks on cutting the end caps? How did you secure them to the tube? I assume with the gorilla glue, but anything else? Do you have the length of the Sonos tube?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Looks great...That may be what I will do but with a pro amp instead of the plate amp. Any tricks on cutting the end caps? How did you secure them to the tube? I assume with the gorilla glue, but anything else? Do you have the length of the Sonos tube?

You can glue the end caps to the tube, but you can also use four dowell rods running the entire length just outside the area of the driver, and screw them together which will act as "super bracing."

Jonny - that is some beautiful work. Nice job, man. I love those PE HiFi subs. Any reason you decided on the 12" and not the 15"?

 

[wilkenboy]

http://jonnythan.com/subwoofer/cost.xls

I rounded on some of the small items, but you get a good idea.

I don't have the equipment to plot a FR for the finished product, sorry.

Awesome, thanks!

If you have get a Radioshack analog meter ($25-30) a computer with a decent soundcard, and some basic interconnect cables ($5-10), you can do excellent low-frequency charts via Room EQ Wizard on a budget. Let me know if you want more details.

~Josh

 

[jonnythan]

Looks great...That may be what I will do but with a pro amp instead of the plate amp. Any tricks on cutting the end caps? How did you secure them to the tube? I assume with the gorilla glue, but anything else? Do you have the length of the Sonos tube?

Unfortunately I didn't document the meat of the project that well.

The end caps are two layers of MDF sandwiched together. The inside layer is cut exactly the inner diameter of the sonotube. The outer layer is about 1" larger. I glued these two pieces together with Gorilla Glue, then put a bead of Gorilla Glue along the inside corner where they met and shoved it into the sonotube.

A buddy of mine has a pretty generic Sears jig and a cheap plastic attachment that allows you to cut circles with it. It was pretty straightforward.

The tube I used was pre-cut in a 4cf size from PSP. The inner diameter is about 15.75" and the length is just under 36". You can use a regular sonotube from a construction supply company.

For the base, I used a third piece of MDF and three 3" sections of dowel. They're just screwed in.

 

[jonnythan]

Awesome, thanks!

If you have get a Radioshack analog meter ($25-30) a computer with a decent soundcard, and some basic interconnect cables ($5-10), you can do excellent low-frequency charts via Room EQ Wizard on a budget. Let me know if you want more details.

~Josh

I don't have the Radio Shack meter. They apparently don't sell them anymore. Quite hard to come by.

 

[jonnythan]

Jonny - that is some beautiful work. Nice job, man. I love those PE HiFi subs. Any reason you decided on the 12" and not the 15"?

Size and price. Mostly size. The 15" required about twice the enclosure volume, and this thing is massive already. You could fit a body in it. I didn't want anything that obtrusive in my relatively small room (odd shape but in the neighborhood of 16' square). Besides, looking at the charts, this design gives me way more SPL and low-end extension than I even need. I couldn't really ask any more of a sub in this environment.

 

[Mr. Lamb Fries]

Any thoughts on this sub?

Soundsplinter RL-p 12"


http://www.soundsplinter.com/rlp_premium_series_12_and_15_inch_subwoofer.html

It is all over some other DIY forums...

 

[jonnythan]

I'm no expert here. The only advice I could give is to run all the numbers in WinISD and BassBox and see how they come out.

That particular driver was way outta my price range so I didn't even do that.

 

[audiofox]

If you can find them, the NHT 1259 is an excellent subwoofer driver, suitable for both music and movie applications. They require a 3.3 cf sealed box (big, but not too large) to sound their best. Properly built, a sub with the 1259 will easily reach a lower 3 dB of around 28 Hz, which is very respectable for any sub, let alone a DIY one. Madisound (www.madisound.com) sells a clone of this fine speaker that has most of the same specs as the original NHT driver, which was manufactured by Tonegen. They aslo sell nice plate amps that you can mate with the 1259-all you need is a box.