DIY Subwoofer Update

[poneal]

Just to give you guys an update on my progress. I ended up purchasing the Dayton MKII Titanic driver from parts express not the MKIII. I will be putting this in a 16x16x16 inch cabinet. A co-worker is an expert cabinet maker and so he offered to build the cabinet as long as I provide him the cabinet plans. I haven't decided if I will veneer the cabinet or just sand and paint it black. I have spent a total of $147.00 so far. This includes the driver, terminal cup, and hex head screws for the speaker. This will be a passive subwoofer driven by an external amp which I already have. I figure the wood will cost about $30.00 and of course I will pay my coworker some small fee for building the cabinet for me. All in all it appears as though the project is going to come in under $200.00. Not a bad deal I don't think. The reason I decided on a DIY was mainly because of price. All the store subs I looked at was upwards of $400.00 and I did not think the drivers were very good. Well, I will keep you updated as the project progresses.

[Willow]

Just to give you guys an update on my progress. I ended up purchasing the Dayton MKII Titanic driver from parts express not the MKIII. I will be putting this in a 16x16x16 inch cabinet. A co-worker is an expert cabinet maker and so he offered to build the cabinet as long as I provide him the cabinet plans. I haven't decided if I will veneer the cabinet or just sand and paint it black. I have spent a total of $147.00 so far. This includes the driver, terminal cup, and hex head screws for the speaker. This will be a passive subwoofer driven by an external amp which I already have. I figure the wood will cost about $30.00 and of course I will pay my coworker some small fee for building the cabinet for me. All in all it appears as though the project is going to come in under $200.00. Not a bad deal I don't think. The reason I decided on a DIY was mainly because of price. All the store subs I looked at was upwards of $400.00 and I did not think the drivers were very good. Well, I will keep you updated as the project progresses.

please do keep me updated as I a interested in DIY sub as well...not now but in the future....would it have been much more expensive and difficult to have it powered ??

[poneal]

A 250 watt plate amp runs about $120 + shipping from parts express. So adding an amp would up the price to a little over $300. I may in the future buy a plate amp but since I had this one laying around, I'm going to use it and see how it works out. It is only a 150watt into 4ohm amp. If it doesn't work, then I will either get a more powerful amp or a plate amp.

[This Guy]

so you went with the 12" sub rather then the 15"? It should be fine, the 12" is suppose to be a very musical sub. The price was excellant too at $120, I would always pick this over the Shiva. Keep us posted man and tell us how she runs.

-Joey

[poneal]

Ya I went with the 12". It was on sale and couldn't pass it up. It's enroute and scheduled for delivery on Friday. Haven't told the wife yet so I will probably get the 3rd degree for an hour or so. Plan on taking it to work on Monday so that my coworker can start making the cabinet. Once the cabinet is complete, I will test it out and post the results.

[poneal]

Well my co-worker is almost done with the enclosure. Man its looking nice. He had all the woodworking tools such as table saws, routers, sanders, etc. The front and back are doubled MDF making them 1.5 inchs wide. On the front he made it so the speaker is flush with the outer baffle. The back is also doubled and he inset an oval shape on the outer baffle for the speaker terminals. This way if the speaker is shoved against the wall or piece of furniture it wont break off the terminals. All thats really left to do is the internal bracing and sealing all the internal edges so that its airtight. Im sorry to say that I don't have a digital camera. If I did then I would post some pictures. I then will probably (not fully decided) seal/prime it, sand it, and paint it. Oh, this suckers getting heavy. The speaker is 20lbs + the box weighs about 25lbs and if i get a plate amp that weighs about 20lbs so I could be looking at a 65-70lbs monster. Just amazing considering its only 16x16x16. Oh, almost forgot, he ended up using glue and nails instead of screws. He started out using screws but the MDF kept cracking/chipping when trying to countersink them. I was a little concerned about that but after gluing it up i dont think this suckers going to come apart even if i dropped it. Well, my next update will probably be the sound test so stay tuned.

[poneal]

Well my coworker finished the box yesterday and I must say that he did a professional job and only charged me $80. That $80 includes materials too. So when I got home I tore open an old polyfill pillow and put the stuffing into the box. It filled it a little more than half way. I then put the driver into the cabinet and tightened it up. I then connected it to this mixer/amp I bought of ebay and it didn't work. To say the least, I was disappointed. The next day, I dug out my 25 year old Kenwood integrated amp and connected it to the subwoofer. It worked so I was relieved. That amp is only rated as 100wpc into 8 or 16 ohms, so I am a little concerned. It didn't seem to get too warm though and it drove the subwoofer fairly decently--put it this way at 3/4 volume during a deep bass passage, the exterior windows and windows on my wall unit started vibrating. IMO that I think I have the volume set too loud because I feel really fatigued after only listening for about an hour. I'll have to break out the radio shack SPL meter to fix that situation. So by now, you're probably wondering how did it sound.

First off, the box + driver weighed in at a whooping 53 pounds (remember it doesn't have a plate amp on it). Being that some plate amps weigh 20 pounds that would bring the weight up to a heavy 73 pounds, so I don't think I will be adding a plate amp. Secondly, to my surprise, my wife loved the craftsmanship of the box--he did that good of a job. The external dimensions ended up being 16x16x16 and the front and back was doubled up. The whole box was made from 3/4" MDF. Now for the sound. Well, its definitely not boomy which suits me fine. I wanted nice tight kick you in the chest type of bass and I got it with this driver and sealed box design. You know how you've seen some subwoofers just a pumping back and forth while playing just looing like it's going to jump out of that rubber surround, well this one doesn't. It just pumps out massive amounts of deep clean tight bass. It fills my medium sized room with plenty of bass and believe it or not it blends well and I haven't even set the level yet or placed it in its final destination (probably a corner). I also set all my speakers to small and the crossover at 80hz and to be honest I can't localize it. Haven't really sit there trying to but I was concerned because some have said that 80hz is too high. I did try setting the front to large and then back and forth and didn't really notice that much of a difference. For this reason, I just left them set to all small with an 80hz crossover.

In conclusion, would I recommend this driver and cabinet size? I most certainly would! Finally, I have only spent $227 on this project (if I buy another amp that will certainly jump the price up) but it will be money well spent. So those of you who have been wanting to do a DIY subwoofer project go for it. You will not be disappointed. Thanks, Paul

[Worf101]

I'm running a Hsu VTF-3 and that thing's damn near 95 lbs of dry weight humping. So the weight's you're quoting for your sub sound just about right. I'd rather have it "overbuilt" and rock solid than underbuilt and rattling like coins in a Dutchman's purse.

Da Worfster

[poneal]

Thats a lot of weight. And here I am complaining about 53 pounds. I think I'm going to get some small casters at home depot so that I can roll this thing around when cleaning or moving. Now comes the hard part--priming and painting. I'm not going to veneer it because veneer is to expensive. I'm going to paint it a black laquer. I hope to get that 3D depth look. Hmmm, I wonder if caster are such a good idea? It might decide to roll along the floor or something. Any thoughts? Have a good one. Paul.

[Worf101]

Thats a lot of weight. And here I am complaining about 53 pounds. I think I'm going to get some small casters at home depot so that I can roll this thing around when cleaning or moving. Now comes the hard part--priming and painting. I'm not going to veneer it because veneer is to expensive. I'm going to paint it a black laquer. I hope to get that 3D depth look. Hmmm, I wonder if caster are such a good idea? It might decide to roll along the floor or something. Any thoughts? Have a good one. Paul.

If this thing is a powerful as you say it is, when you get it set up right the last thing you want is for it to move on you. Sooo, I don't think putting wheels beneath your stuff on a hardwood floor makes much sense... On carpet you may be able to get away with it though.

Just a thought.

David

[thepogue]

When I picked up my Monitor Audio 210 i was surpirsed to see the former owner had put gold casters on for feet...it look quite good in fact as the drivers are gold boxed in a black box. I've been very happer w/the sub but I'm just using it w/ my 100's for bass management so I really don't need to peel no paint w/it. I do agree casters will work but keep 'em on the carpet! BTW great job w/the sub...I'm not a big do-it-yerselfer...but I do love the idea (maybe some day)!

[poneal]

I ripped all the carpet out of the house last year (allergies) and put in tile. I will not get into that only to say that me and the wife got into a lot of arguments doing it. So I think I will put some 2-3 inch rubber feet on it so I can dust under it. The wife would love the rollers, but since I'm concerned about them, I will just put the rubber ones (maybe). Man it's sad when you put so much thought into making such a decision as feet LOL. D*mn it's cold here (45 degrees) LOL. Well for South Texas it's cold. Later. Paul.