Acoustic Elegance + EP2500 good?

[VERTIGGO]

I've been reading like a fiend and I'm pretty excited about building a cabinet, but I haven't seen much about what drivers are made well enough for HT. I see hundreds of woofers on ebay and 99% look like they were yanked from some Joe's trunk.

Anyway, I've been considering an AE AV15-H:
http://aespeakers.com/shop/catalog/p...30062347d47413

Driven by a Behringer EP2500:
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-EP25...5065662&sr=8-1

And for aesthetic reasons I'd like to go with a down firing sealed compartment similar to the Rubix project (less flashy of course), but according to Win ISD I would get much better LF response with a ported system. Should I modify the Infinity Kappa sticky to my dimensions?

#1 Question: What can I read to learn exactly how to calculate the volume and port size that is best for my build... or are Win ISD's numbers good enough? (I entered AE's data into Win ISD since it was too new to be in their database)

Thanks much!

 

[annunaki]

FYI www.zzounds.com will match the price from amazon with the behringer. They provide stellar service and are a top notch retailer.

 

[annunaki]

I've been reading like a fiend and I'm pretty excited about building a cabinet, but I haven't seen much about what drivers are made well enough for HT. I see hundreds of woofers on ebay and 99% look like they were yanked from some Joe's trunk.

Anyway, I've been considering an AE AV15-H:
http://aespeakers.com/shop/catalog/p...30062347d47413

Driven by a Behringer EP2500:
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-EP25...5065662&sr=8-1

And for aesthetic reasons I'd like to go with a down firing sealed compartment similar to the Rubix project (less flashy of course), but according to Win ISD I would get much better LF response with a ported system. Should I modify the Infinity Kappa sticky to my dimensions?

#1 Question: What can I read to learn exactly how to calculate the volume and port size that is best for my build... or are Win ISD's numbers good enough? (I entered AE's data into Win ISD since it was too new to be in their database)

Thanks much!

What are your goals, expectations? What are the maximum allowed dimensions?

What tools and cabinet construction abilities do you have?

The EP2500 is a great amplifier. I would definitely go this route. The woofer will be dependant upon your goals expectations. The enclosure depends upon the woofer and it's parameters.

WinIsd is very nice freeware modeling program. It works well, but obviously does not calculate linearity of output. I use it extensively, but I rely on 3rd party data for linearity of woofers.

I know the AE subs are pretty linear devices, but I have not modeled them to let you know what you would be looking at.

 

[VERTIGGO]

Well here's what I get in WinISD, though the results really confuse me. BTW, the top two are using the default ACI - SV12 from the WinISD database which is a $120-$130 driver.

I had assumed that the AE 15" would produce a more impressive curve than the basic 12" woofer that I compared it to, but it's worse. The only data I didn't copy directly from the AE website was "dia" which I assumed was diameter and entered 15 inches. I thought maybe changing the volume of the box or lowering the tuning freq would improve it, but strictly from this data the $120 driver is far better than the $250 one.

 

[VERTIGGO]

I was considering a down firing setup with ports surrounding the driver or a similar design with the driver and 3 ports facing front like Mike C had. I'd go with thick ply or hardwood, but the materiel and dimension is largely dependent on the advice I'm looking for from the much more experienced...

I'd not mind going sort of big, but I'd mostly like to know how to calculate the optimal size cabinet for, say, this particular driver (AV15-H), and I'm still foggy on the whole "tuning" phenomenon. When people say they "tune" to 25Hz, is that a cabinet size/stuffing function or some kind of DSP/BFD adjustment?

I've been trying to read everything I can... have I just not found the right stickies for box calc/tuning?