Little help on a new subwoofer

[TLS Guy]

Thanks, I think I'll wait - I was leaning this way as well since I'm hoping I can get lucky and spot another decent sub like the KSW-10 for something like $80. Subs don't ever seem to turn up at Goodwill sadly...

My original intention was to purchase the sub for movies and games and still is a large portion of the use it will serve. However, I would like it to compliment my bookshelf speakers for music as well without sounding awful and terribly inaccurate.

I know I've asked several times but I want to make sure you're not referencing something new - are we still talking about that Dayton "You finish the rest" DIY kit or something even more basic? I would imagine tracking down a decent cabinet then finding a good amp and speaker would be a rather pain and could sound very different than other subs so I have none to compare mine to. I have the help of someone experienced in electronics and soldering so that's truly not a problem - I'm just making sure the woodworking is not necessary. I didn't have a shop class at my school or any such and never really built anything so handing me some wood and a powersaw may not end well.

I'm not completely opposed to DIY, I just like the ease and simplicity of a pre-manufactured subwoofer which has all these factory specs that can be cited and what not. My DIY sub may be off because of how I put it in or the cabinet I chose over someone elses. I have no audio test equipment like an SPL meter or any such to test any of this. A DIY just seems like a daunting and lengthy process to me.

Carpentry is absolutely required. A good rigid cabinet is costly nad has to be the right size for the driver. One of the biggest differences between a commercial sub is the quality of construction, which is crucial. A DIY sub can be well braced and have a properly constructed slot vent. It is the cabinet, that on the whole, is the biggest downfall of commercial subs.

You are a young man and leaning some new skills will not hurt you, especially in the economic conditions we are likely to face in the next few years.

Learning good practical technical skills is a very valuable asset. Even if I leave out audio, the money I have saved myself and friends over the years has been enormous. If I add up savings on car repairs, appliance repairs, lawn mower, snow blower repairs and many others, the bill must be enormous. And remember this, it is all tax free. The money I saved changing the intake manifold gasket on my car last fall, can not be taxed! If I had a shop do it, that would have come from taxable income.

Having good hands on skills is valuable, and can help you in countless ways throughout life. So if you did build that sub, it could well end up adding a small fortune to your net worth over your life time.

I have given this advice to many yougsters over the years. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!

 

[Shintsu]

Yep, DIY is out then. I have neither the time nor patience to hand craft one and certainly don't trust myself to be a better subwoofer maker than a company that does research and makes tons of them all the same.

Not to come off as snobbish, but with my plans career wise I'm not going to need any of that hands on nonsense. My hands on will consist of plugging things in and installing computer hardware. Big deal. I will leave the wood working to people who have garages and stuff - I have no real room to even partake such a project. Again, I do not trust my own workmanship for something this important with this much variation in how it's done. There are hundreds and hundreds of different subwoofers out there all made differently - my cheapo version will not compete with something made of true quality.

Plus I don't want my sub to look like some ugly bare wood thing with hard corners and stuff. Like sticking a car sub in your house or something...I'll do minor work on my car as I already do but I'm not going to tear it down like some people snooze at the idea of. Maybe easy if you've got a four cylinder, I don't though.

 

[TLS Guy]

Yep, DIY is out then. I have neither the time nor patience to hand craft one and certainly don't trust myself to be a better subwoofer maker than a company that does research and makes tons of them all the same.

Not to come off as snobbish, but with my plans career wise I'm not going to need any of that hands on nonsense. My hands on will consist of plugging things in and installing computer hardware. Big deal. I will leave the wood working to people who have garages and stuff - I have no real room to even partake such a project. Again, I do not trust my own workmanship for something this important with this much variation in how it's done. There are hundreds and hundreds of different subwoofers out there all made differently - my cheapo version will not compete with something made of true quality.

Plus I don't want my sub to look like some ugly bare wood thing with hard corners and stuff. Like sticking a car sub in your house or something...I'll do minor work on my car as I already do but I'm not going to tear it down like some people snooze at the idea of. Maybe easy if you've got a four cylinder, I don't though.

Well I hope you have a career that makes you a lot of money. I think incomes will be on the way down for two generations. We had two professional incomes. I'm a retired critical care physician, and my wife a cardiology NP, and is still working.

I can tell you having skills is very handy. I'm sure glad I did not have to pay through the nose every time something did not work. When my children were in college, if I could not have kept their cars going, they would not have had wheels. In those days I rebuilt engines.

DIY does not have to be as you say. Companies do not have a monopoly on the laws of physics. In fact I often find that delving into commercial speaker designs, really basic clangers are dropped quite frequently. DIY does not mean it has to look like it either. Please browse through the pictures in my signature.

I'm always a little distressed when a young person starting out makes a conscious decision to be dependent on the skills of others.

The late Dr Edwin James, former dean of the UND Medical school, and himself a highly skilled thoracic surgeon, always used to say, that we are ALL called to be skillful people.

I miss Ed a lot. Few medical school deans have skills at all, including his successor. He was such an outstanding dean, in large part because he was a skillful person.

I have a feeling that with were this country and the world is headed, you may have to rethink your view that hands on is "nonsense". It is anything but. The loss of skillful people is certainly a big contributing cause of the pickle we now find ourselves in.

 

[Shintsu]

Well, let's just say the economy is in it's current state in large part due to politicians - I'll leave it at that. My views on the matter are none too friendly and rather than start a flame war or argument I'll just with hold my thoughts.

I don't think all DIY look like crap, I'm thinking in realistic aspects to how well I personally can make something. I don't know how to finish wood or make beveled edges or any of that. My DIY sub would look like this at best

Because a DIY subwoofer requires all this: http://www.the-last-domain.com/MattsProjects/DIYSubwoofer/tabid/70/Default.aspx Done in - you guess it a garage we do not have! We don't even have a large enough shed to work in or a room big enough to have this stuff in.

Sorry, I'm a realist. That requires a lot of time and skill with wood that I simply don't have. I'm not dependent on other's skills, I know about cars and work on them TO AN EXTENT (hardcore internals be left to grease monkeys), I take all my own photos and wouldn't hire a photographer, I build my own computers, among other things. Again, I'll leave wood work to someone who has a garage and lots of spare time. I have neither.

I don't suffer the problem a lot of college students have by having a cheap crappy car, not to brag but it's a very nice car by most definitions. Powered by the GM 3800 Series II supercharged motor still running great at 149k miles and hopefully many more (I have seen them go over 220k+ regularly). Still, barring it blowing a piston or something I can maintain it. Change my own spark plugs, just did the wires, change my own oil and filters, etc.

With my current overloaded state of school work I simply don't have time to take a project of that magnitude. There's no room in this house to do it - it's just not feasible.

All that aside, I see the AH store put all the Velodynes on sale. I see the Mini-Impact is $300 but would it be more worth that or would the Impact-10 - or neither?

 

[ChunkyDark]

Did you get a chance to listen to the Dayton subs at the store? I just got the 120 and even though I haven't had the chance to properly dial it in yet I think it still sounds really good. Much better than anything I heard at BB (granted i couldn't tweak those at all).
For games and theater the 120 would be great, perhaps not so much if your a big fan of classical music.

 

[popotoys]

but with my plans career wise I'm not going to need any of that hands on nonsense.

.. now that's a funny statement.

 

[Torgus]

buy a 15 inch ebay type aarrggh. build a box or buy a prefab, buy an amp. under $250 and it will murder the lows.

 

[Drako60]

I feel the need to chime in, with a semi DIY solution, we have a Technical School here, and the automotive department often takes on projects from the community up to even rebuilding motors, as its a learning experience for the students.


I don't know of any college carpentry classes, but if you could find such you may be able to talk to the Professor and arrange to have a sub built, for just the cost of the speaker, amp, possibly the wood as well, you may be able to get the school to supply the wood, and the design of the box.

While it may not seem ideal to have students doing the work, you may be surprised at the results.

just my 2-cents and possibly a completely pointless idea, but if you can do it no doubt you'll have a higher quality sub at a fraction of the price.