AVForums

Our philosophy in our forums, reviews, podcasts and feature videos is to promote audio and visual excellence by gathering and sharing the best information and resources available.

Help

To begin please visit our help section »

Not a Member Yet?

It only takes a minute to start enjoying the benefits of AVForums membership, and it's free!

Member Log in

DIY Subwoofer project

Post Reply
Old 08-06-2009, 10:58 PM   #1
Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bristol
Experience Points:
3,995, Level: 14
Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 7, Got 9
Posts: 272
DIY Subwoofer project

Hi,

I have just kicked off my new project for this year which is going to be a new diy subwoofer because i miss the bass after selling my svs and i also want to see what gains i can get out of going diy again.

I have allready dabbled in diy subwoofery before when i decided to basically build myself a monolith in a custom enclosure which turned out to work very well but i eventualy went down the svs route to crave my need for more bass.

So far all i have is the Driver which has come from the car audio arena but the specs all point towards good performance from a decent sized eclosure.

The driver is a RE Audio SR12, specs for this is as follows:

Electrical Q Value -Qes: 0.41

Mechanical Q Value -Qms: 4.99

Total Speaker Q Value -Qts: 0.38

Free Air Resonance -Fs: 23.6 Hz

Equivalent Compliance -Vas: 85 liters

One-Way, Linear Excursion -Xmax: 18 mm

Efficiency -SPL 1W/1m: 86.2 dB SPL

Effective Piston Area -Sd: 480 cm^2

DC Resistance -Re: 1.8 ohm

Nominal Impedance -Znom: Dual 2/4 ohm

Thermal Power Handling -Pe: 300 W

Force Factor -Bl: 14.35

As you can see it has a good amount of xmax and a low fs which is good for an HT application.

I have done some modeling using unibox and so far i have come up with an enclosure size of around 95 - 100 litres and a tuning point of 20hz, this will give a -3db point of about 19-18hz without factoring in room gain.

Now this is giving preformance almost identical to the monolith but the diy option is also giving me a bit more headroom as i am pretty sure xmax will not be exceeded when driven with 300 watts.

This should also have a nice sound to it as well hopefully because i have allready heard some of the SR10's in a ported and sealed cabinent and they had a very nice warmth to them and never seemed to loose control even when driven to silly levels.

I will keep this post updated when i have more progress.

Regards,
Greg
  Quote
Old 09-06-2009, 12:55 PM   #2
Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Southend-on-Sea
Experience Points:
2,506, Level: 11
Points: 2,506, Level: 11 Points: 2,506, Level: 11 Points: 2,506, Level: 11
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 20, Got 17
Posts: 172
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

subwoofery lol class... made me chuckle

good luck with the build... keep us posted :D
  Quote
Old 10-06-2009, 7:01 PM   #3
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Bedfordshire
Experience Points:
6,344, Level: 18
Points: 6,344, Level: 18 Points: 6,344, Level: 18 Points: 6,344, Level: 18
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 6, Got 73
Posts: 1,041
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Good choice on driver. They indeeed play low, have plenty of displacement and sound good.

I have run RE SR 10's in sealed and ported enclosures. I currently have 2 SR 10's in a ported enclosure of 500 WRMS from a BK Elec BSBPV-500.
  Quote
Old 10-06-2009, 7:29 PM   #4
New Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Telford
Experience Points:
2,366, Level: 11
Points: 2,366, Level: 11 Points: 2,366, Level: 11 Points: 2,366, Level: 11
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 3, Got 0
Posts: 23
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Quote:
Originally Posted by micb3rd View Post
Good choice on driver. They indeeed play low, have plenty of displacement and sound good.

I have run RE SR 10's in sealed and ported enclosures. I currently have 2 SR 10's in a ported enclosure of 500 WRMS from a BK Elec BSBPV-500.

How you getting on with the JBL?
  Quote
Old 11-06-2009, 10:49 PM   #5
Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bristol
Experience Points:
3,995, Level: 14
Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 7, Got 9
Posts: 272
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Couple of photos of the driver i am going to use.
Attached Thumbnails
DIY Subwoofer project-st830276.jpg   DIY Subwoofer project-st830277.jpg   DIY Subwoofer project-st830278.jpg  
  Quote
Old 14-06-2009, 8:23 PM   #6
Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bristol
Experience Points:
3,995, Level: 14
Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 7, Got 9
Posts: 272
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Ok guys i have made a little progress on this now.

I now have the 25mm mdf cut up in to its respective pieces and i am just waiting on getting a router and a circle jig so i can cut the holes for the driver and port.

Anyone have any advice on a decent cheap router? and if you know of any circle jigs that exist.
  Quote
Old 14-06-2009, 9:39 PM   #7
Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Ripley,Derby
Experience Points:
4,366, Level: 15
Points: 4,366, Level: 15 Points: 4,366, Level: 15 Points: 4,366, Level: 15
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 24, Got 54
Posts: 548
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

use a scrap of mdf and put a screw 25mm in from 1 end and into the center of the hole needed. Then drill a 30mm holefor you 30mm guide bush to sit in. This need to be the radius - 1/2 diameter of the cutter away from the screw then get routing in a circle
  Quote
Old 15-06-2009, 7:38 PM   #8
Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Ripley,Derby
Experience Points:
4,366, Level: 15
Points: 4,366, Level: 15 Points: 4,366, Level: 15 Points: 4,366, Level: 15
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 24, Got 54
Posts: 548
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

like this

  Quote
Old 24-06-2009, 8:08 PM   #9
Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bristol
Experience Points:
3,995, Level: 14
Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 7, Got 9
Posts: 272
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Ok so i have got a bit further with this project. I now have all the holes cut for the driver,port and speaker terminals and i am hoping to get the box assembled this weekend.

Amplification will come either via one channel of an Behringer Europower EP2500 or one channel of a Crown XLS 402, it will be getting around 450-500 rms.

Pictures to come this weekend.

Regards,
Greg
  Quote
Old 30-06-2009, 7:56 PM   #10
Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bristol
Experience Points:
3,995, Level: 14
Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 7, Got 9
Posts: 272
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Update:

Managed to get the subwoofer completed over the weekend but due to camera problems i was unable to get any pictures of the build process.

Intial impressions are very good indeed, bass is tight and very deep. Carrys a tune as well.

I will update soon with some pictures of the sub and hopefully some REW graphs.

Regards,
Greg
  Quote
Old 30-07-2009, 1:14 PM   #11
Senior Member
 
smallangryboy's Avatar
Join Date: May 2003
Experience Points:
6,397, Level: 19
Points: 6,397, Level: 19 Points: 6,397, Level: 19 Points: 6,397, Level: 19
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 144, Got 46
Posts: 1,525
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

gregmcquaid Stumbled upon your thread, and was interested to see the results, but alas you didn't get round to posting any pictures, do you have any?

I bought a BK plate amp and 10" Peerless driver which is still waiting for a cabinet, and I'm hunting around for help in it's construction!
  Quote
Old 31-07-2009, 7:08 PM   #12
Member
 
homeboydeluxe's Avatar
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Dublin.
Experience Points:
2,183, Level: 10
Points: 2,183, Level: 10 Points: 2,183, Level: 10 Points: 2,183, Level: 10
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 1, Got 30
Posts: 355
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

I'm currently constructing two enclosures of 32"(h) by 14"(w) by 15.5(d) for two peerless XLS 10" subwoofers, I'm using a Behringer A500 amp to give me 160 Watt into each Sub.

My enclosures will have a net volume of around 80-85 liters and I'm tuning them to around 20Hz using WinISD, they should give me an output of around 105dB(A) at that frequency.

I've made the enclosures out of 18mm MDF and have made then big enough to upgrade the drivers to peerless XLS 12" drivers if i feel the need, my room is around 2,000 cubic feet and i was using a JBL E250P subwoofer which was quite good but did not have much low end responce.

Good luck with your Build.
  Quote
Old 09-08-2009, 8:30 PM   #13
Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bristol
Experience Points:
3,995, Level: 14
Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14 Points: 3,995, Level: 14
Activity: 0%
Activity: 0% Activity: 0% Activity: 0%
Thanks: Gave 7, Got 9
Posts: 272
Re: DIY Subwoofer project

Sorry for the delay guys.

I still have not managed to get the subwoofer cabinet finished as of yet as i have not had the time and the weather to get out side and sort the last bits out.

Performance wise it is very good and i hope to see this improve when i finally get my hands on a Europower EP1500/2500 to properly power it.

Regards,
Greg
  Quote
Post Reply



Thread information and display options
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off