My ridiculously large sub

[darien87]

Hey folks,

I bought the pre-cut pieces of wood for this sub from a guy on the Polk Audio forums about 6 months ago or so. I finally got around to putting it together. The box is a 27" x 27" cube. It will have a CCS 15" sub and 2 18" passive radiators powered by a Behringer EP2000.

I guess I miscalculated on the size of this thing. It's enormous! My Rythmik sub as about 24" tall, so I thought, "Cool this thing will only be a few inches bigger." Sure, it's only a few inches taller, but it's twice as wide, so this thing is about 3 times the size of the sub I have now. Needless to say, the wife is none too happy. I told her I would put it behind the couch when we get our new house in September. This seemed to placate her a little.

I was just going to paint it black, but when I went to Home Depot to buy paint, I saw this really cool color called Hammered Bronze. It looks pretty much black, but when the light hits it, you see that it is actually dark brown with flecks of gold in it. Pretty cool.

On to the pics!

The cherry box in the upper left corner with the plant on it is the old sub. The new one is WAY bigger! Yikes.

Braces

I put wheels on the bottom because this monster is going to weigh about 200 lbs when I get the woofer mounted.

Close up of the finish. This is after 2 coats of paint.


These next few pics are to show some of the imperfections in the paint job. This was my first time painting something of this size with a paint brush. Usually I just spray paint stuff. I've got some streaks and some areas that aren't so smooth. I'm tempted to hit it with one more coat of paint to see if I can smooth these areas out. But I'm planning on hitting it with a couple of coats of satin varnish tonight. I'm wondering if the varnish will help to hide some of the imperfections?

Also, I'm supposed to lightly sand in between coats of varnish right?

Streaks below woofer hole.

Bubbly area

Should I even bother with trying to give it another coat of paint? After all it's just a sub and it's probably going to go behind the couch anyway.

 

[Shock]

Just make two and use them as end tables imo.

 

[darien87]

Yesterday I decided I was tired of messing with the thing and just decided to move on to the varnish. I put on a coat using a cheap brush I had bought at Home Depot. I shouldn't have done this. I found 3 hairs in the varnish. Luckily they were all on the back side so I didn't really care. While the first coat was drying, I went back to Home Depot and bought some foam brushes.

I waited about 3 hours and then lightly sanded the first coat of varnish with 320 grit sand paper and applied a second coat. The foam brush was MUCH easier to use. I let the second coat dry overnight and I will be applying 2 more coats tonight. Then I will finally be done.

I'll be sure to get it all buttoned up and set up tomorrow.

By the way, bugs are a complete pain in the ***!! They kept flying in and landing in the varnish. I don't know if they were attracted by the smell of the varnish or the light I was using to check for drips.

 

[lsiberian]

By the way, bugs are a complete pain in the ***!! They kept flying in and landing in the varnish. I don't know if they were attracted by the smell of the varnish or the light I was using to check for drips.

I was wondering when you'd discovered that your house was bugged.

 

[Matt34]

That's going to be a beast of a sub!!

 

[Shock]

I hope the varnish isn't oil based, or those foam brushes you're using won't last too long.

 

[darien87]

I hope the varnish isn't oil based, or those foam brushes you're using won't last too long.

It is indeed. I figured the foam brushes would be one use only. At .80 a pop, who cares?

 

[Shock]

It is indeed. I figured the foam brushes would be one use only. At .80 a pop, who cares?

I've had foam brushes literally disintegrate halfway through sealing a few Muskoka chairs once. It wasn't fun removing little pieces of foam that's for sure. In fact the entire process pretty much required a few beers to keep my patience from running thin.

 

[Alex2507]

When you say varnish I assume you mean poly urethane. I don't think you're suppose to go beyond a 220 grit sand paper as additional coats need the grooves to adhere to. Clean the sanded coat with mineral spirits and wipe with a tack cloth before re-coating. I thought you needed to wait 24 hours between coats but I'm sure you read the instructions ... right?

Imperfections in the finish are unforgivable. Get it right.

 

[Nugu]

What, no one going to comment on his title in addition to that Kendo/Iaido photo in picture 1? Always wanted to get into the Naginata myself but never did. PUT YOUR DISCS IN THE CASES! NOW DO IT NOW! Sorry that just bothers me!

Oh, and neat sub. I wouldn't be overly worried about minor cosmetic flaws, just sit your wife on top of that and she'll be feeling too good to complain.

 

[gmichael]

Nice job so far. Keep up the good work, and keep posting pics.

 

[darien87]

I've had foam brushes literally disintegrate halfway through sealing a few Muskoka chairs once. It wasn't fun removing little pieces of foam that's for sure. In fact the entire process pretty much required a few beers to keep my patience from running thin.

I was actually able to re-use the foam brush I had used the day before to do the final coat. I put 2 more coats of poly-urethane on it last night and put some poly fill in. It's ALMOST done. I bought a whole bag of polyfill and it wasn't enough. I'm gonna buy some more tonight.

My speaker terminals didn't show up from Parts Express yesterday like they were supposed to. They better be here today!!

 

[darien87]

When you say varnish I assume you mean poly urethane. I don't think you're suppose to go beyond a 220 grit sand paper as additional coats need the grooves to adhere to. Clean the sanded coat with mineral spirits and wipe with a tack cloth before re-coating. I thought you needed to wait 24 hours between coats but I'm sure you read the instructions ... right?

Imperfections in the finish are unforgivable. Get it right.

I used 320 because it just seemed so anti-intuitive to sand in between coats. I realize that you need to scratch the surface of the varnish up, but I'm trying to build up layers of varnish, why sould I want to scrape it off? I'm pretty much a noob at this stuff, but I read lots of stuff online. Unfortunately it seems like everyone has a different method of varnishing. "Thin out the first coat with mineral spirits, let the first coat dry overnight before putting more on, varnish against the grain, varnish with the grain", geez it was making my head spin.

The can said that you could sand after 3 or 4 hours.

 

[darien87]

What, no one going to comment on his title in addition to that Kendo/Iaido photo in picture 1? Always wanted to get into the Naginata myself but never did. PUT YOUR DISCS IN THE CASES! NOW DO IT NOW! Sorry that just bothers me!

Oh, and neat sub. I wouldn't be overly worried about minor cosmetic flaws, just sit your wife on top of that and she'll be feeling too good to complain.

I've been taking Toyama Ryu Kenjutsu for a little over 5 years now. I even teach the class on days when Shihan is feeling lazy, like yesterday.

The wife gets pissed at me when that happens. "Why are you paying to take the class when you end up teaching half the time? He should be paying you."


Sorry, but I leave my discs out all the time. I'm too lazy to be putting them away and taking them out again all the time.

 

[darien87]

Nice job so far. Keep up the good work, and keep posting pics.

I'm hoping to be finished tonight. I'll be sure to take some more pics with the poly-fill, speaker terminals and woofers mounted.

I'm actually pretty happy with how the finish turned out. I probably should have sanded the paint down a little smoother before varnishing, but oh well.

 

[gmichael]

I'm hoping to be finished tonight. I'll be sure to take some more pics with the poly-fill, speaker terminals and woofers mounted.

I'm actually pretty happy with how the finish turned out. I probably should have sanded the paint down a little smoother before varnishing, but oh well.

I'll be taking notes. My sub-build will be going into full swing this weekend.
My terminals from PE came in last week.

 

[darien87]

So I got it all finished last night. Took longer than I expected with the polyfill, wiring the sub, installing the speaker terminals and everything. I didn't finish until about 10:30pm, so I didn't get to play very much. I just spent about 1/2 hour watching some of Iron Man and Avatar.

I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed. There is quite a bit of tactile bass, but not near the subsonic destruction I was expecting. Before this sub, I had my 10" Boston sub behind the couch and my Rythmik 12" across the room in the front right corner. So I disconnected the 10" sub and put the 12" in it's spot with the new 15" in the spot where the 12" used to be. At first I didn't have the 12" sub turned on because I wanted to hear the 15" by itself. It seemed like the 15" put out a lot of the subsonic stuff that you feel more than hear. It seemed like it was pressurizing the whole room, but I wasn't getting that "punch in the chest" kind of bass. I even turned the gain on the EP2000 up as high as about 3/4 of the way up.

So I turned the 12" on and then things got nuts! The crazy butt-rumbling, couch shaking bass was back! My wife kept looking at me like, "What the hell are you doing?"

So I wasn't too happy with the 15" on it's own, but I definitely loved it in concert with my Rythmik 12". So I guess the 10" will be going upstairs to the bedroom and I will be keeping the 12" and 15" in the HT. I'll have to experiment more with it this weekend when I have more time and it's not so late that it will piss off my nieghbors. I have an eD eq2 to go with it, but I need to get an XLR-to-RCA adapter so that I can use it with the Behringer amp. I don't know how much of a difference that will make.

So far it seems like it was money well spent. I think with buying the sub, amp and all the incidentals, (paint, varnish, wire, connectors, etc.) I've spent about $800 on this sub.

Sorry about the lack of pics. But I honestly didn't think about taking any pics until I was completely finished.


P.S. The poly-urethane varnish I put on it is VERY delicate. I kept noticing scratches in the finish last night that I had no idea how they got there. I put a few wood screws on top of the box for me to use to install the sub and about 5 minutes later when I went to use them, there were 2 deep scratches in the varnish!!! What the hell?!?!? Isn't that the whole point of varnish, for protection?!?

 

[darien87]

You know if I didn't know better, I would assume that my 2 subs were crossed over at different points. It almost sounds like the 12" is playing more midbass, like 80hz to 40hz and the 15" is playing from 40hz down. The sound from the 2 subs is that different. Maybe it just has something to do with the subs' proximity to the seating position. The 12" is right behind the couch while the 15" is across the room.

Weird.

 

[chris357]

looks pretty nice though

 

[j_garcia]

You know if I didn't know better, I would assume that my 2 subs were crossed over at different points. It almost sounds like the 12" is playing more midbass, like 80hz to 40hz and the 15" is playing from 40hz down. The sound from the 2 subs is that different. Maybe it just has something to do with the subs' proximity to the seating position. The 12" is right behind the couch while the 15" is across the room.

Weird.

It could very well be your room. Let us know how it does with the EQ running. I am guessing you will lose some output but it will get a lot cleaner. IMO, with a PR sub, you will get more tactile feel than a sealed sub, but it still doesn't quite sound like a vented one.