Thinking about building myself a sub.

[klipschfan]

I have been thinking of doing this for a while now, and my finally decide to it. I am not going to go crazy with this for my first time building a sub, maybe later when I get more settled in one place.

What I am thinking of right now is using a Dayton Titanic mkIII 12 and the 500 watt RMS dayton sub amp. Seems like a good setup for what I need. The problem I am having is the box design and need someone else to do that for me.

It will be used for a 98% home theater and video game setup. Ported is fine. Playing deep is great. No real size constraints on the box if they will benefit me, but I do have a size I would like to keep it under. I do have some experience building with MDF and that will be the material used to build the box most likely. I do not know how to calculate the internal box volume and port size with a given frequency. I guess a tune in the neighborhood of 22-25hz would be fine, unless lower is possible with this setup. Since I will likely move a few more times I can't give room dimensions.


I guess if I had to give some constants it would be:

Dayton Titanic MK.III 12"
Daynton 500W RMS amp.
Ported box tuned as low as possible, slot port (preferably on the front, bottom of the box, beneath the front firing sub), max dimensions of 36 inches front to back and about 32 inches tall, 36 inches wide.


Can this be done?

 

[adwilk]

How bout a JL Audio driver and an O-Audio 500 watt amp?

 

[WmAx]

The Dayton RS 12" is superior driver. No question. It has been analyzed on a Klippel Anaylzer and offers very high performance for a conventional subwoofer.

The JL drivers are better, but only if you get a W6v2(and marginally better only) or a W7(substantially superior), but I imagine these may exceed the price range you intended. I will state that the 8" W7 is not that much more than the Titanic really - and it will most likely produce superior performance even though it is an 8" driver. I am serious. The 'actual' linear displacement and thermal motor compression, when compared, the W7 8" surpasses most conventional 12" high quality subwoofers. The 8" W7 easily produces high output into the bottom 20s in a well engineered ported cabinet, and with 500 watts input, only exhibits 1dB of thermal compression on test signal analysis/comparison. An extraordinary motor/suspension is used on the entire W7 series. The motor on the 8" actually is about what one expects on a VERY substantial conventional 15" driver.

-Chris

 

[klipschfan]

I work in the car audio world and am aware of the entire line of JL Audio speakers. But using one of them is pretty much out of the question, they are all out of my price range.

And if you are wondering, I can get a great deal on the Daytons which is why I was looking at them.

 

[klipschfan]

BTW, thanks for the tip about the RS series. I wasn't really looking at them. I can get them cheaper than the Titanics. Will they work well in a box that meets the requirements listed above?

 

[klipschfan]

I am off work today and have been reading up on the Dayton RS series. As well as that O-Audio amp. Thanks for that tip, I really like everything I have read about that amp, and the price thats on it.

I have also read up on some other drivers I hadn't considered before, specifically, the Peerless XLS series.

I honestly don't want to spend alot here. $500 tops for the sub and amp, and thats up from the $400 I originally intended on spending. I do not plan on having this be my final sub, mainly, a test to see if I can indeed do this. I already have subs in my system (def tech powered towers with built in 8's and amps). I will likely build 2 or 3 designs here and there until I am comfortable enough with my woodworking ability to finally build me a sub that I plan on keeping. Right now I am looking at doing a sub with the Peerless XLS and a passive radiator. Trying to mimic the look of the best sounding sub I have heard myself, the Klipsch RSW-15. I imagine that I will end up going with 15's eventually. But for now, I don't have a large enough room to need anything with that much output, or size.

 

[lsiberian]

The original Shiva was running the same price as the Dayton's and would work very well in the Box detailed in our DIY forum.

 

[lsiberian]

The Dayton RS 12" is superior driver. No question. It has been analyzed on a Klippel Anaylzer and offers very high performance for a conventional subwoofer.

The JL drivers are better, but only if you get a W6v2(and marginally better only) or a W7(substantially superior), but I imagine these may exceed the price range you intended. I will state that the 8" W7 is not that much more than the Titanic really - and it will most likely produce superior performance even though it is an 8" driver. I am serious. The 'actual' linear displacement and thermal motor compression, when compared, the W7 8" surpasses most conventional 12" high quality subwoofers. The 8" W7 easily produces high output into the bottom 20s in a well engineered ported cabinet, and with 500 watts input, only exhibits 1dB of thermal compression on test signal analysis/comparison. An extraordinary motor/suspension is used on the entire W7 series. The motor on the 8" actually is about what one expects on a VERY substantial conventional 15" driver.

-Chris

Wow the model I just ran is very impressive. For 130 that's a great deal. Power it with a bridged A500 and you got a sub for around 300 bucks.

 

[smcgov34]

I wonder if you could locate an old altec woofer...I heard one for the first time a couple weeks ago, it was from the late 60's and the thing kicked like a mule..it was incredible.

 

[Guiria]

Check out the subwoofer projects listed here.

http://www.drmarksays.com/?p=25

There are models for the 8W7, the Dayton RS 12 and 15 and many other capable subwoofers.

 

[TLS Guy]

I have been thinking of doing this for a while now, and my finally decide to it. I am not going to go crazy with this for my first time building a sub, maybe later when I get more settled in one place.

What I am thinking of right now is using a Dayton Titanic mkIII 12 and the 500 watt RMS dayton sub amp. Seems like a good setup for what I need. The problem I am having is the box design and need someone else to do that for me.

It will be used for a 98% home theater and video game setup. Ported is fine. Playing deep is great. No real size constraints on the box if they will benefit me, but I do have a size I would like to keep it under. I do have some experience building with MDF and that will be the material used to build the box most likely. I do not know how to calculate the internal box volume and port size with a given frequency. I guess a tune in the neighborhood of 22-25hz would be fine, unless lower is possible with this setup. Since I will likely move a few more times I can't give room dimensions.


I guess if I had to give some constants it would be:

Dayton Titanic MK.III 12"
Daynton 500W RMS amp.
Ported box tuned as low as possible, slot port (preferably on the front, bottom of the box, beneath the front firing sub), max dimensions of 36 inches front to back and about 32 inches tall, 36 inches wide.


Can this be done?

Here is a capable driver the Dayton Titanic 320C-4. It is primarily intended to be in a sealed enclosure. It has sufficient xmax to tolerate some Eq. It would require 12 db per octave starting at 50 Hz, with second order bass filter 12 db per octave at 25 Hz.

Here is the sealed alignment of the Dayton Titanic 320C-4

This driver can be ported. It requires a large enclosure and a long port. The tuning volume is 5 cu.ft, port and driver add around a cu. ft. Damping is included in Vt but brace and amp volume will have to be added.

Here is the vented alignment of the Dayton Titanic 320C-4