My first DIY - Rythmik 12" sub

[darien87]

Hey folks,

I decided to give building my own sub a shot, so I bought the $400 Rythmik 12" standard sub kit. I spent about another $100 in materials, (wood, clamps, screws, glue, etc.) I finished it Wednesday and tested it yesterday, and it is an awesome sub!!! I would definitely recommend it to anyone that wants a great sub at a great price. If you have ANY building skills, you can do this. If I can do it, anyone can. I haven't veneer'd it yet, so it's not pretty, but it really does the job.

This sub is quieter than my Earthquake, but in a good way. The Earthquake was never able to shake my couch, but the Rythmik sure as hell did. I guess I was used to all the extra boom and noise that the Earthquake sub made, and I thought that's the way subs were supposed to sound. I used to wonder why my neighbors never complained when I watched movies. The bass seemed very loud to me. And it was loud. It just wasn't low. So there probably wasn't much of the bass frequencies to travel to the next door units. I think the Rythmik will get some people complaining. We'll see.

Now I know what people are referring to when they describe a sub as "transparent" and having "seamless integration". The Rythmik is like an old Chinese martial arts master, quiet and humble, but will knock you out in a moment's notice and you won't even see it coming. In a word, this sub is awesome. Now I want to go back and rewatch all my DVD's, as I'm hearing things I've never heard before.


Here are some pics:

Pieces

Bottom

Bottom and 1 side

 

[darien87]

3 sides and brace

Test fitting the sub

 

[darien87]

Finished!!!!

 

[Seth=L]

You have inspired me to want to build a sub. I guess I will fix the M&K again and sell it after I build a more solid performing sub. The M&K just dies when low frequencies come in, it plays them perfect until the IC blows (SANYO SUCKS!!!)

 

[Matt34]

Sweet! If I ever go DIY I'm going with the Rythmic 15" servo kit.

I take it that's a sealed and not ported box?

 

[Seth=L]

I find Rythmik Audio's site rather difficult to navigate.

 

[Swerd]

darien87

Nice work. Welcome to the world of DIY speaker building.

That Rhymik driver looks like a real hoss. It should easily outperform anything else for at least twice the price. Did you make the 2 ft³ sealed cabinet? Rhymik's design for the cabinet looks good. The internal bracing is very important in a subwoofer.

From your photos it looks like you have no problems with the level of woodwork needed for making speaker cabs. How did you cut out the circles for the driver?

Now you are ready for the next step - building some real speakers to go with that subwoofer .

 

[darien87]

Sweet! If I ever go DIY I'm going with the Rythmic 15" servo kit.

I take it that's a sealed and not ported box?

Yep, it's the sealed version. I didn't want to deal with ports and stuff on my first box. I went with the 12" because Brian said the 12" and 15" have almost the exact same frequency response. The 15" just give you a bit more output. So I figured that extra $100 would about pay for the materials. Plus the bracing on the 15" box looked a little crazy.

 

[darien87]

darien87

Nice work. Welcome to the world of DIY speaker building.

That Rhymik driver looks like a real hoss. It should easily outperform anything else for at least twice the price. Did you make the 2 ft³ sealed cabinet? Rhymik's design for the cabinet looks good. The internal bracing is very important in a subwoofer.

From your photos it looks like you have no problems with the level of woodwork needed for making speaker cabs. How did you cut out the circles for the driver?

Now you are ready for the next step - building some real speakers to go with that subwoofer .

Thanks for the kind words dude. Yeah, I think it came out pretty good for my first attempt. I had never even used my jigsaw before this project. For the circles, I just drew them with a compass and cut them by hand with the jigsaw. I was expecting to have to sand them a bit, but the sub fit like a glove the first time.

As for building some speakers, that's a maybe. John Garcia's got some homemade GR's that sound pretty damn good. Who knows, I just may give that a shot some day. But building this sub was VERY frustrating. Pieces didn't fit together perfectly, I had one of the sub bolt holes end up right next to a brace that was a complete pain, I had to apply about 3 layers of caulking to make it air tight, on and on and on. I just want to sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor for a while before I tackle another project.

But like I said, if I can do this ANYONE can.

 

[Swerd]

...But building this sub was VERY frustrating. Pieces didn't fit together perfectly, I had one of the sub bolt holes end up right next to a brace that was a complete pain, I had to apply about 3 layers of caulking to make it air tight, on and on and on. I just want to sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor for a while before I tackle another project.

That sounds a lot more like my own experience building boxes. Getting the pieces to fit well is hard. I wondered why you used so many screws . But seriously, if you did that well with a handguided jigsaw and maybe a circle saw to cut the panels, you did real well. Maybe you have talent and don't yet know it. There are a lot of tricks to making straight cuts that you can learn as you work. Afterall, MDF is cheap. I also found that a plunge router and a Jasper circle cutting jig helped me quite a lot.

As for building some speakers, that's a maybe. John Garcia's got some homemade GR's that sound pretty damn good.

Building smaller boxes for 2-way speakers is actually easier. The dimensions are smaller and if they are for those A/V-1 kits sold by GR Research (is that what you heard?) then you don't need any cross bracing.

The midwoofer in the GR kits, the M-130, is one of those great deals available in DIY speaker building. It costs $24 and is one of the best 5¼" drivers available at any price. It is very smooth across the critical midrange, about 500-2000 Hz, and makes an excellent 2-way when crossed at 2700 Hz to a $30 tweeter. I've heard both the A/V-1 and another DIY version using the same midwoofer with a different tweeter, called the MB20. I like the tweeter in the MB20 better, but both are very good designs. Some of those speakers along, with your new subwoofer, and you'll be in audio heaven.

 

[darien87]

That sounds a lot more like my own experience building boxes. Getting the pieces to fit well is hard. I wondered why you used so many screws . But seriously, if you did that well with a handguided jigsaw and maybe a circle saw to cut the panels, you did real well. Maybe you have talent and don't yet know it. There are a lot of tricks to making straight cuts that you can learn as you work. Afterall, MDF is cheap. I also found that a plunge router and a Jasper circle cutting jig helped me quite a lot.
Building smaller boxes for 2-way speakers is actually easier. The dimensions are smaller and if they are for those A/V-1 kits sold by GR Research (is that what you heard?) then you don't need any cross bracing.

The midwoofer in the GR kits, the M-130, is one of those great deals available in DIY speaker building. It costs $24 and is one of the best 5¼" drivers available at any price. It is very smooth across the critical midrange, about 500-2000 Hz, and makes an excellent 2-way when crossed at 2700 Hz to a $30 tweeter. I've heard both the A/V-1 and another DIY version using the same midwoofer with a different tweeter, called the MB20. I like the tweeter in the MB20 better, but both are very good designs. Some of those speakers along, with your new subwoofer, and you'll be in audio heaven.

LOL, yeah I guess I kind of overdid it with the screws, but I had no idea what I was doing. I figured with the amount of vibration going on in the box, more was better. Believe me, that box is THOROUGHLY glued and screwed.

I believe that you are right about the speakers I heard. This is their website:

http://www.gr-research.com/

I'm pretty satisfied with my Boston's. But who knows, that could change at any minute.

 

[j_garcia]

Wow, looks like it came out nice. Did you find out about veneer?

Uhhhh, yeah, that IS a lot of screws You won't see them once the outer finish is done though.

 

[darien87]

Wow, looks like it came out nice. Did you find out about veneer?

Uhhhh, yeah, that IS a lot of screws You won't see them once the outer finish is done though.

Hey John,

I bought some vinyl laminate from Parts Express yesterday. It was really hard finding anything online that looked like it matched my furniture. This one looks pretty close.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=261-614

Hard to tell on the screen though. We'll see. What are you doing this weekend? I've got a wedding to go to tomorrow, but Sunday is wide open. You can come check it out. I'd also like your thoughts on how to go about applying the laminate.

 

[darien87]

http://www.************.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=261-614

What the hell?!?!? Does Audioholics block linking to Parts Express or something?

 

[j_garcia]

Yes it is blocked, and the Admins here have their reasons. I think I am available Sunday.

 

[Audioholics]

I'm lifting that block... sorry.

 

[Matt34]

I need to stop coming back to this thread...it's getting my creative juices flowing and I still have over 15 days of leave left.

 

[darien87]

I need to stop coming back to this thread...it's getting my creative juices flowing and I still have over 15 days of leave left.

15 days is plenty of time to build a sub. It took me 3 and I'm a beginner.

What happens after your 15 days are up?

 

[j_garcia]

15 days? (redeployed?) I wouldn't be building a box, I'd be with the wife and maybe a little more time with the Neon

 

[darien87]

This Rythmik sub F'in rocks!!! John came over yesterday to check it out and brought a test tone CD. The sub was hitting 16hz, and probably would go lower, but that was the lowest tone on the CD!!! This is definitely an awesome sub for the money. All together, it cost me about $550 in electronics and materials. I would recommend this sub to ANYONE. Even if you have the money to spend 2 or 3 grand on a sub, why?!?! I guess if you're the type of person that has to buy expensive things just for bragging rights, then this sub isn't for you. But if you like to get a great deal, and enjoy the satisfaction you get from building things yourself, you can't go wrong with a Rythmik sub.