Sonotube considerations

[rnoble]

Hi,

I have been browsing here as a guest for a while but this is my first post officially.

I am planning my first DIY project - a sealed sonotube design and I was wondering if I could ask for some good advice in regards to the plate amp placement.

The diagram below shows the proposed design in rough form (If you could please excuse my drawing skills, the bottom grey box is the plate amp. ):



The gap between the driver and plate amp is a healthy 150mm (6").

The Questions are:
1. Does anyone forsee any heat related problems with heat 'rising' from the plate amp to the driver?
2. Does anyone forsee any problems mounting a plate amp horizontally like this instead of the traditional vertical mount?

Any other suggestions are also very welcome. I will post pics as they come to be taken during the build process.

Kind regards
Rod

[454Casull]

1. No.
2. I think the fins work better in a vertical position, but the moving air will probably make up for that.

[rnoble]

Thanks for that, I have decided to go with the KISS principle on my first DIY so I am not including the amp with the sub, I'm making a separate box for it. This way less to go wrong.

[Hybrid fourdoor]

Well you've hit the unspoken pain thats associated with Sonotubes....putting a plate amp somewhere.

Its true what they say...there are always compromises. You can build a Sonotube for like $30 and one trip to Home Depot (actually I like Loewe's Sono's better), but then you can't stick a <normal> plate amp on it like you can those big expensive square monsters.


I think most poeple just remote mount the amps. You could mount the plate inside and just move the knobs/connectors to the cylinder.

[rnoble]

They're not that cheap here either, sonotube is around $50 a meter if you want short lengths.

[Timn8ter]

I think putting the amp in a separate box is a fine idea.
Placing the box under the amp will make it difficult to reach the controls.

[Jhovis]

I built a HT sonotube in 2002. I used an 18" (45.72cm) sonotube with a 15" (38.1cm) subwoofer. Mine is ported and stands approx 72" (189cm) tall. I have a component rack built into a wall and the sub amp is mounted in that rack. The sonotube here is sold in 12' (3.7m) lengths. I bought mine at a commercial concrete supply company for a relatively cheap $65US.
Here is what I built: http://europa70.tripod.com/diy_sonosub001.htm

[Hybrid fourdoor]

Is your plateamp mount fiberglassed? Or is that wood? Nice either way.