Worlds largest sub-woofer enclosure

A

accobraman

Audiophyte
I have to downsize... need help.

A few years ago I did an experement and the results were fantastic, I think!. I installed two 18" JBL #2245H speakers as subwoofers and I used my basement 8'H x 20'W x 46'L as the box/enclosure. I built two transfer ports made with 1 1/4" MDF in order to have the speakers mounted in the conventional vertical manner. I did not want to mount them horizontally in the floor as it may have had some effect counteracting gravity's pull on the cone.

We have a new house now and I need to build two new enclosures. My wife would be most pleased if the two new sub-woofer cabinets do not exceed 10' in height x 2' deep and 2' 6" wide. Does anyone have access to design calculations that can test/model this size or suggest an optimum speaker box size within my constraints?

Fyi; I drive the speakers with two mono Haffler amps, about 350 watts each.

Regards.
 
jaxvon

jaxvon

Audioholic Ninja
I can't help you...but holy crap! That's a wife pleasing size? I think a lot of guys on here would want your wife...
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
accobraman said:
I have to downsize... need help.

A few years ago I did an experement and the results were fantastic, I think!. I installed two 18" JBL #2245H speakers as subwoofers and I used my basement 8'H x 20'W x 46'L as the box/enclosure. I built two transfer ports made with 1 1/4" MDF in order to have the speakers mounted in the conventional vertical manner. I did not want to mount them horizontally in the floor as it may have had some effect counteracting gravity's pull on the cone.

We have a new house now and I need to build two new enclosures. My wife would be most pleased if the two new sub-woofer cabinets do not exceed 10' in height x 2' deep and 2' 6" wide. Does anyone have access to design calculations that can test/model this size or suggest an optimum speaker box size within my constraints?

Fyi; I drive the speakers with two mono Haffler amps, about 350 watts each.

Regards.
If I understand you correctly, you will still be using your basement as an infinite baffle cabinet? You just want a design for the plenum, the size of your current opening in the floore above? If so, I may have the exact solution, and if you want, you should add 2 more of those baby subs ;)

Tom Nousaine did exacly this in his new home. And he published the paper on it but you'll have to use your library to get the paper :D

He uses 4-18" if I remember and can swap in 8-12" or 15" .

"The Subwoofer that Shook the World", Nousaine, Tom, Sound & Vision,' Jun 1999, pg 105-109.

Not sure his plenum size will pass muster with your wife, but probably close. Check it out. I think this is what you need.
Just make sure you wale brace it well on the outside as it will flex like crazy.

By the way, yours isn't the largest :D
 
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A

accobraman

Audiophyte
No, I had planned just to have cabinets that size in my living room.

But you have presented a novel idea. I could be doing exactly what I did in my old house. In the old house I had the speakers in the basement. Now if I punch the hole to the finished basement I can install the speakers in the living room and the cabinet size would be a minimum as the basement is the cabinet. Right!
 
majorloser

majorloser

Moderator
accobraman said:
No, I had planned just to have cabinets that size in my living room.

But you have presented a novel idea. I could be doing exactly what I did in my old house. In the old house I had the speakers in the basement. Now if I punch the hole to the finished basement I can install the speakers in the living room and the cabinet size would be a minimum as the basement is the cabinet. Right!

Hmmmmm......I never thought of that.......use the floor to mount the drivers and use the whole basement as the box...........now how do you port the basement? I could put a whole bunch of Jackhammers in the floor! Might blow the windows out though.
 
R

rumble

Audioholic
majorloser said:
Hmmmmm......I never thought of that.......use the floor to mount the drivers and use the whole basement as the box...........now how do you port the basement? I could put a whole bunch of Jackhammers in the floor! Might blow the windows out though.

You don't port the basement, this kind of speaker arrangement is called an infinite baffle subwoofer or ib sub.

See this site for more info:

http://f20.parsimony.net/forum36475/
 
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