My first Dipole Subwoofer!!!

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I've been doing a little research on dipole subs lately and since I had some extra material around, I figured I'de try it out. Needless to say, I am pretty pleased with the results so far. For the crossover duties, I'm using an AudioControl Ritcher Scale Series Three with the built-in 1/3 octave eq to help tune out some of the upper bass do to the 90Hz crossover point.

Here's a couple of pics. This is just a temp enclosure because I didn't want to waste any money on it if it didn't turn out good. Let me know what you think... ;)

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
Thanks for helping out there till !!

NappyLady , the gray box on the dipole sub is actually the bottom 1/4 of some cheapie Sony 3-way tower speakers I have for my bedroom system. They really are pretty decent sounding speakers for what they are. One of my brothers originally bought the Sony's for his rear surrounds then gave them to me when he replaced them with a pair of AR 11's.

In fact, the bedroom system consists of all older items that were "retired" from the ever-growing main system I currently have in the family room. It is as follows: Pioneer VRS-4400 reciever, Onkyo DX-C320 6-disk changer, AudioControl Richter Scale Series III 1/3 octave bass eq/crossover, Carver M-400t "cube" amp for the dipole sub, my main computer, and MIT interconnects and MonterCable 14awg speaker cable.

The sub was built from scrap 3/4" partical board and two shelves from on old stereo entertainment center. The drivers are Rockford Fosgate Punch Series car audio subs from about 5 years ago that I've had laying around with single 8 ohm voice coils.

I really didn't think this design was going to sound good at all, but I was shocked when I fired it up and tuned it a bit. This little thing really rumbles the walls like crazy and is extremely musical to say the least. It is the most natural sounding sub I have ever heard in any system and is super fast. In fact, it's so musical, I'm going to change out the 6 cubic foot 15" sealed sub in my main system, and build a dipole for each channel using two 15" drivers each!

Oh yeah, one more thing, if you want to check out more pictures of the pipe organ, go to my web site. I just uploaded a bunch of stuff to it!
 
I checked out the site, and I must say, I am impressed! Your wife must love you. :)

I know mine would--when I get married, she'll have to live with my love for music. (Idally, she'd share it! But, if that doesn't work out, I'll compromise.)

Do you think dipole would be good for a PA system? The speakers I'm building now really stink, so I'm already planning for the next ones, and I'm open to suggestions. A folded horn would be nice, but a lot beyond my skills as a carpenter, so it's going to have to be something with simple, 90-degree corners.

The woofers I'm going to use have 3" peak-to-peak excursion. (Xmech?) :)
 
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Nappylady said:
IDo you think dipole would be good for a PA system? The speakers I'm building now really stink, so I'm already planning for the next ones, and I'm open to suggestions.

Dipoles are not really efficient enough for PA use, they sound great but don't produce a lot of output. Best stick with a IB or BR design if you want simple construction. There are some simpler horn loaded designs out there, but as with all boxes, they will need to be modified to suit your drivers.
 
pinkmouse said:


Dipoles are not really efficient enough for PA use, they sound great but don't produce a lot of output. Best stick with a IB or BR design if you want simple construction. There are some simpler horn loaded designs out there, but as with all boxes, they will need to be modified to suit your drivers.


After building this little dipole sub of mine, I can see where it is a little less efficient than other designs, but there is no comparison to the sound quality of a well designed and constructed dipole system IMHO.

As for PA use, here's a link to one gentleman's site who built a whole dipole PA system.



http://www.mfk-projects.com/dipole_pa_system.htm
 
Here's a pic of the 15" drivers I'm thinking of getting to make my twin dipole subs for my main system. They are not the greatest out there, but they do have the proper T/S specs and power handling I need.

PPA15.jpg


So far, I have found these drivers for as low as $41 each and think it's a pretty good deal.
 
diypole said:
And your off! Like to see more people experimenting. Not sure how your crossing the sub to your main speaks, but you should get better integration plugging the ports (sock, handkercheif...).

Keep at it:)
regards, Jason


Actually, I will be building the twin 15" dipoles for my main system which for the main channels are Magnepan MGLR 1 planar loudspeakers. Crossover duties will be taken care of by either my AudioControl RitcherScale Series III with built in 1/3 octave bass eq, or my dbx Project 1 223 crossover. And I will be using my Behringer AUTOCOM PRO limiter/compressor to protect them from being over-driven. To top it all off, I will be using my trusty Carver Pro PM700 driven into 4 ohms stereo for a total of 350 watts per channel.

The small dipole that you see along with the Sony speaker it just a little system in my bedroom. I always use that system for my experiments. :scratch2:
 
Here's a few pics of the back of the sub....

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An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


And a pic of the Rockford Fosgate 8" Punch driver....

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


And the AudioControl RitcherScale, Carver M-400t amp, and Onkyo cd changer along with a mess of MIT interconnects....

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And one pic of the main system....

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
chops said:
Here's a pic of the 15" drivers I'm thinking of getting to make my twin dipole subs for my main system. They are not the greatest out there, but they do have the proper T/S specs and power handling I need.

PPA15.jpg


So far, I have found these drivers for as low as $41 each and think it's a pretty good deal.


Here's a little update that I thought I would share with everyone.

First off, I wrote Siegfried Linkwitz about a week or so ago, asking him his thought about the Pyle Pro PPA15 drivers I want to use, and within about 3 hours, he wrote me back saying that they would work just fine for my dipole project.

Secondly, I have found an even lower price on these drivers. They can be had for $35.88 each! Here' s the site that I found them at.... If you decide to buy some, leave at least 4 of them for me! ;)

http://store.yahoo.com/autoronics/ppa15.html
 
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