Its ALIVE!
Okay well one of them is. And I am not sure just how alive it really is because of my neighbors and limited mains power supply. One circuit for this entire room just doesn't cut it.
Attaching the wire inside the cabinet. I used two pieces of 12/2 speaker wire. Cause' why not. Then put them in some wire loom. Played with a few different ideas but ended up drilling some 1/8 holes in the bracing to be able to zip tie the wire securely in place.
Also got the 2" thick rockboard 60 installed. Lined the two side walls of the front of the cabinet nearest the driver and added a couple of small pieces in the area along the floor between the port and the side wall to kill any echo in there as well both in the front and the back.
Sanded down the cabinet. Used a 6" ROS with a hard sanding pad that made quick work of any imperfections and smoothed everything out. I also used the 3/4" roundover on the corners lengthwise but only used a 1/8 roundover everywhere else.
original bondo on the screw holes. Did the first fill then sanded, filled again and the second time I skimmed over it more and did not sand it completely back down to bare MDF to help it blend better.
I did not get any photos of painting it along the way but I used some rust oleum semi gloss ultra cover paint from home depot sold in quart size cans. Only used about 1qt for the entire sub. The stuff went a long way. I painted two coats then went over any rough areas with some 220 grit by hand. Especially the end grain areas then put another 2 coats on. Used a small foam roller to apply. I am pretty pleased with the paint job. I did not think i could get these kind of results with a roller. Last time I used a professional HVLP unit and I would say this is on par with that finish only not as smooth but I like the slight texture anyway.
The port was a bit of a chore. its so deep I just cant get my arm all the way in there. The parts you can see when simply looking at it in a room look great but with a flashlight looking near the back it is not perfect. I used some black spraypaint. Same brand and type and fogged the whole inside of the port and it took care of most of the visible scratches I put in the paint from when I first painted the port interior before assembly.
Next step was moving the behemoth. Needed to get a hand truck to do the job. No way this would be a hand carry and sliding it along the floor from my "shop" to my room was not an option.
Getting ready to drop in the driver. Used two pieces of 12AWG per positive and negative lead.
I also bought some copper ring terminals to attach the wire to the dayton binding posts. Great. But then I went to put it in the cabinet and found out I was stupid and the hole I cut nice and small to keep everything tight was too small for these big lugs.
Had to improvise and cut out some more of the hole with a forstner bit. Looks like a hack job but it is hidden I guess and I did not want to get the router back out and make a big mess.
At first I put the sub where I thought I would place them. Between my front speakers. well besides the fact it does not fit there without pushing my main speakers against the wall it also did not sound very smooth at all. There was a huge null in my listening position. SO... I did the subwoofer crawl.
obviously you can see the room I have now is less than ideal but its only for a few more months.
When doing the crawl I found the best response was pretty much right where the door going into the room is. Well... That won't work for subwoofer placement. The next best place was where my desk is directly across the room on the other wall. That won't work either.
Not the best place but the most acceptable of the possible candidates is a recessed corner area where my toolbox was. So.. Thats where it sits now. Bass response definitely improved but I still have a ton of tweaking to do and getting the DCX setup. I also need to finish the second sub and get it up and running.
The thing sure is a beast. the photos really do not do it justice on sheer size. I am thinking the second one will go towards the front of the room next to my desk. Really nowhere else is a good place for something that size in this room but again I am really just looking at the future when I can get a decent room dedicated for the stereo.
Can't give any impression on listening yet. I have plenty of adjusting settings still to do before then but I will say that the couple brief times I turned it up a little bit there is quite a bit of potential here!
