Upgrading Subwoofers

[Pogre]

*8 magnets - $20

*2 packs of rubber feet - $12

*4 Speakon connectors - $17

*Pack of female crimp terminals - $4

*2 Speakon plate mounts - $5

*Cheap ass polyester fiber filled walmart pillows for stuffing -About $20

*Dayton UM15 flat pack bundle - $300

*50 ft of 12 gauge speaker wire - $15

*Museum putty - $4

*Measurement mic - $50

*REW software - Free

*iNuke 6000DSP - $400

That's my list thus far. Around $450 to get started, but that's all the stuff I'll need for both, so the second sub will just be the price of the flat pack for a grand total of around 740 for the pair. After that it's 400 for the amp. I haven't decided on a finish yet. I have wood screws and glue. If the screws aren't the right size new ones are cheap. So is glue, for that matter if mine's all dried up...

I read up on the stuffing link you posted HD. I also read on parts express that 3 lbs of polyfil is recommended for that box. I also read that sealed boxes don't require lining, it's mostly for ported subs?

 

[Pogre]

So I am looking at around $1140 for an unfinished pair of subs. A pair of ULS-15s would be $1499. Does that include shipping? I didn't see it on the page.

*Edit: I s'pose some of that cost is incurred with stuff I'll be using in the future too. 50 for the mic is something I can purchase later when I'm finished also, and would probably be purchased by me ether way eventually no matter what I get.

 

[MrBoat]

So I am looking at around 1160 for an unfinished pair of subs. A pair of ULS-15s would be 1499. Does that include shipping? I didn't see it on the page.

*Edit: I s'pose some of that cost is incurred with stuff I'll be using in the future too. 50 for the mic is something I can purchase later when I'm finished also, and would probably be purchased by me ether way eventually no matter what I get.

I bought two, 7 dollar pillows from kmart for the stuffing. Only used part of one for the 2ft box, and what was left and a tiny bit of the other for the top portions of my Tempests.

It's the little things that add up.

When you start going with big drivers and lower freq, the density of 3/4" mdf starts to become overridden exponentially. The damping should help with that at least, I would think.

 

[Pogre]

7 dollar pillows sound MUCH better! I'm starting to get stoked. I think HD is right. The Finish is probably going to be my biggest challenge. If I can keep the cost down on that, it definitely makes it worth it to build.

I know sanding is key for a nice gloss finish. I don't have to have a gloss finish. A nice matte black would work just fine also. I absolutely hate sanding.

 

[Pogre]

I cleaned up that parts list and made it a lot easier to read. Looks pretty complete. If I'm missing anything just give me a poke.

 

[lovinthehd]

Sounds like you're getting to the brink and ready to take that big first step....but be sure you want to do it.

Yes, some of the small stuff can be used for other projects, too....I buy stuff in bulk for the long term and its a bit cheaper that way. Its a lower cash outlay for the two subs, and the difference gets eaten up by your own labor costs, but with the bonus of learning something and enjoying the activity as well as the pride in the final result (the reaction on your friends face when you point 'em out and turn 'em up and say I built that is fun all by itself sometimes). The sub companies are narrowing the gap a bit though as far as cost goes....and I see the ULS15 in the lesser finish for buying two at the same time is $1499 plus $150 shipping (which is a very good deal!).

 

[Pogre]

Sounds like you're getting to the brink and ready to take that big first step....but be sure you want to do it.

Yes, some of the small stuff can be used for other projects, too....I buy stuff in bulk for the long term and its a bit cheaper that way. Its a lower cash outlay for the two subs, and the difference gets eaten up by your own labor costs, but with the bonus of learning something and enjoying the activity as well as the pride in the final result (the reaction on your friends face when you point 'em out and turn 'em up and say I built that is fun all by itself sometimes). The sub companies are narrowing the gap a bit though as far as cost goes....and I see the ULS15 in the lesser finish for buying two at the same time is $1499 plus $150 shipping (which is a very good deal!).

I put that list together so I could see my total end cost, or at least get an idea. I think I'm in the ballpark. The way I see it, I'm still saving a lot of dough. I don't even count my labor because this is something I'm going to enjoy... well, up until sand an paint/stain/clearcoat/Duratex... whatever I end up going with. I'm assuming Duratex wouldn't require any sanding?

 

[lovinthehd]

I put that list together so I could see my total end cost, or at least get an idea. I think I'm in the ballpark. The way I see it, I'm still saving a lot of dough. I don't even count my labor because this is something I'm going to enjoy... well, up until sand an paint/stain/clearcoat/Duratex... whatever I end up going with. I'm assuming Duratex wouldn't require any sanding?

I just dived in damn the cost myself, altho I'd read enough build threads to have a good idea of my costs. At the time for 18"s there just weren't many offerings to choose from either, although now there are, but I do enjoy the whole thing. Sanding I don't mind as long as it's a nice day outside and I can take my boxes outside on some sawhorses and go at it with an orbital sander; hate sawdust from the saw and router but have hooked up a small shop vac to act as a fairly effective dust collector.

No sanding for me in between coats of duratex for the pebbly finish I was after but I'd go for a thinner less pebbly finish the next time (cutting the duratex with a bit more water) but still no sanding. I did two coats just to make sure it was a nice uniform black with no splotchiness from my crude efforts

 

[Pogre]

Finish, finish, finish... that's gonna be the tough part. Sigh

What's nice is I can get a lot of the stuff from one place. This should get me started, right?



*Edit: I just noticed I have 4 of the plate mounts in my cart. I'll change that to 2.

 

[lovinthehd]

You already have a crimping tool? I started out with a crimp tool that came with a variety of connectors that was like $10. I ran out of that size connector from that kit after several different uses....

Parts-express is hard to beat especially when they've got the shipping included in the price, at least they seem better priced than some of the other diy type speaker supply guys.

 

[Pogre]

I have a crimping tool. I did all my own car audio a while back, so I have tools related to this project. I might even have some of the connectors and stuff I need in the garage. I've been down this rabbit hole before with car audio. One day my dad said "So, do you do a lot of driving? Is that why you spend so much?". Well, no I don't drive a lot...

That's where I picked up some of the (limited) knowledge I have now on power supplies, wiring, impedances, etc. I ended up just kinda letting it go. Got tired of tearing it out and reinstalling everything every time I got a new truck.

Home is different though. I don't have to go for a drive to enjoy it! So here I find myself once again going down the audio rabbit hole, only this time for home theater.

 

[lovinthehd]

There was one point where my audio listening was much more frequently done in my vehicle as I put many many miles on (figure I'm well over 1.2 million miles by now, but not doing a lot these days), but my diy audio efforts were very limited in them. I'm afraid of panel clips Much prefer the home experience

 

[Pogre]

Oh, me too. I never thought I could afford a really good HT experience so I never truly went after it. I have a little more cash now, the kid's grown up and I'm diving in. I'm building the subs as a money saver. If I had the disposable income I'd just buy a pair. With these I can do a little at a time and spend over time.

I have a little experience with this stuff too, so I'm pretty confident I can get it all together without too much trouble. It's the finish and tuning everything in with the dsp and REW I'm worried about. A sloppy finish would ruin the whole project for me.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Pogre, what kind of finish do you want? You posted a pic of what looks like a beautiful piano gloss sub. If you hit YouTube, and google you can find endless ideas. Hand rubbed lacquer, epoxy, oil based finishes, and you can even get a finish as nice as your car with rattle cans. All these will take time and patience but it's possible to have a finish that you really want. Wood veneer? Not impossible. Iirc PE has a variety of things to finish cabs, as does Home Depot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pogre]

I think I've decided to go for Hsu's ULS-15 MK2 DualDrive package. I feel like I'm letting HD down, lol. I wrestled with it an decided that for only a couple hundred more I can outright buy a pair made by professionals far better at it than I. I'm just not up for a diy right now.

Now, I was looking at their other packages and I'm not opposed to going with ported, but the cost goes up too. Can someone explain the difference between these two?
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-15hmk2Dual.html
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-3mk5HPDual.html

The MK5 is pretty close in price. would that be a better option than the ULS? It's tunable with port plugs so I could go sealed if I chose, right?

*Edit: That looks like a President's Day sale on the MK5. I could put it on a card and pay it off within a month or 2. If the price is right I could pull the trigger...

**Edit: I also forgot to factor in shipping and don't see where it is on the site...

***Edit: I just started an order (but didn't complete it) and the shipping would be $186 for the MK5's. 1735, OTD.

 

[shadyJ]

I think I've decided to go for Hsu's ULS-15 MK2 DualDrive package. I feel like I'm letting HD down, lol. I wrestled with it an decided that for only a couple hundred more I can outright buy a pair made by professionals far better at it than I. I'm just not up for a diy right now.

Now, I was looking at their other packages and I'm not opposed to going with ported, but the cost goes up too. Can someone explain the difference between these two?
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-15hmk2Dual.html
http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-3mk5HPDual.html

The MK5 is pretty close in price. would that be a better option than the ULS? It's tunable with port plugs so I could go sealed if I chose, right?

*Edit: That looks like a President's Day sale on the MK5. I could put it on a card and pay it off within a month or 2. If the price is right I could pull the trigger...

I think the VTf-3 is worth the extra investment. You can always run it in sealed mode, although its response will not mirror that of the ULS-15, it should still be pretty good. You can use ported mode for movie night when you want that monster 20 Hz output.

As for the difference between the VTF15h and VTF-3, the main difference is cabinet size and port size. The larger ports and enclosure of the VTF15h mk2 will allow it cleaner deep bass than the VTF-3. From the CEA-2010 measurements, it doesn't have a huge performance edge over the VTF-3, so it is more like a premium version of the VTF-3. It also has XLR inputs that the VTF-3 does not have.

 

[Pogre]

I think the VTf-3 is worth the extra investment. You can always run it in sealed mode, although its response will not mirror that of the ULS-15, it should still be pretty good. You can use ported mode for movie night when you want that monster 20 Hz output.

As for the difference between the VTF15h and VTF-3, the main difference is cabinet size and port size. The larger ports and enclosure of the VTF15h mk2 will allow it cleaner deep bass than the VTF-3. From the CEA-2010 measurements, it doesn't have a huge performance edge over the VTF-3, so it is more like a premium version of the VTF-3. It also has XLR inputs that the VTF-3 does not have.

Well then the VTF-3 looks to be the one I'm leaning towards now for sure. I just got approval from my wife (unbelievably) to pull the trigger. I have butterflies right now.

The not quite as good response bugs me a little. These will be mostly for music.

 

[shadyJ]

Well then the VTF-3 looks to be the one I'm leaning towards now for sure. I just got approval from my wife (unbelievably) to pull the trigger. I have butterflies right now.

The not quite as good response bugs me a little. These will be mostly for music.

The native response will be great; its your room you need to worry about. The room acoustics will badly mangle the linearity of the response that the subwoofer has. Two VTF-3s will be a huge upgrade over two SB1000s.

 

[Pogre]

The native response will be great; its your room you need to worry about. The room acoustics will badly mangle the linearity of the response that the subwoofer has. Two VTF-3s will be a huge upgrade over two SB1000s.

Oh, I'm banking on it. Literally. I intend this to be my last sub purchase for a very, very long time. If ever again.

I've been looking at the order page and I'm to the spot where you enter cc info, and haven't pulled the trigger yet. I'm having buyer's guilt already. I've never spent this much in one shot for audio. It's a lot for me. I just want to be certain I'm going to end up with what I want. My last set of subs.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Did you save room for a minidsp?