I am new to home audio and need some quick advice to get me started from you veterans please.
I am using two 12 or 15s and building 2 sub enclosures for my home theater room, which is also our family room. The best place for interior design is under the TV, but there is room on either side in the corners (not ideal). I want this to have great SQ but also have the bottom end to rattle the shingles off the roof. I can always turn it down...
I need an amp and some speakers, I listed some below that I can afford in my $1500 sub budget.
My equipment ideas:
Crown XTI 1000 or 2000
McCauley 6244 15"
or Acoustic Elegance 15"
or JL Audio 12w7
or budget ideas:
Buttkicker 1500w class D
Dayton 1000w plate
Mackie 2500
Two on-hand 10 year old Cerwin Vega 15" out of CV stock cabinets
My questions are:
What OHMs are best for subs?
Are these pair matched OK?
Is a slot port box OK for 5cu ft boxes in this design?
Parallel or Series?
Mono or Stereo?
One enclosure or two
Active or passive crossover?
I have 4 Jamo for surround, DIY center made from Advent Reference Series, listen to rap, electronic, country, symphony, and LOVE watching scifi and action flicks with my wife and kids LOUD.
Thanks so much for any advice!!
I am using two 12 or 15s and building 2 sub enclosures for my home theater room, which is also our family room. The best place for interior design is under the TV, but there is room on either side in the corners (not ideal). I want this to have great SQ but also have the bottom end to rattle the shingles off the roof. I can always turn it down...
I need an amp and some speakers, I listed some below that I can afford in my $1500 sub budget.
My equipment ideas:
Crown XTI 1000 or 2000
McCauley 6244 15"
or Acoustic Elegance 15"
or JL Audio 12w7
or budget ideas:
Buttkicker 1500w class D
Dayton 1000w plate
Mackie 2500
Two on-hand 10 year old Cerwin Vega 15" out of CV stock cabinets
My questions are:
What OHMs are best for subs?
Are these pair matched OK?
Is a slot port box OK for 5cu ft boxes in this design?
Parallel or Series?
Mono or Stereo?
One enclosure or two
Active or passive crossover?
I have 4 Jamo for surround, DIY center made from Advent Reference Series, listen to rap, electronic, country, symphony, and LOVE watching scifi and action flicks with my wife and kids LOUD.
Thanks so much for any advice!!
Hi and welcome to DIYaudio. You'll find a wealth of info if you search through the threads.
To throw a few answers at the more basic questions you asked:
Ohms is a matter for you amplifier. An amplifier designed for 4ohms or less needs to source a lot of current and so will have lots of paralleled output devices and will probably weight a lot (big iron). Even class D amps have to be specifically designed for low impedance. If you don't know what your amp is capable of, it's best to go for 8ohm or higher. Even an 8ohm driver can dip below 5ohms at some frequencies.
Parallel/series: IMHO doesn't matter
Stereo/mono: IMHO doesn't matter (for subs - very little stereo info below 100Hz)
1/2 enclosures: more subwoofers each contributing a little bit of the bass is the best for room integration. Helps minimize room mode resonances.
Active/Passive: start passive and work to active. Active is best but requires a greater understanding of more inter-related factors.
To throw a few answers at the more basic questions you asked:
Ohms is a matter for you amplifier. An amplifier designed for 4ohms or less needs to source a lot of current and so will have lots of paralleled output devices and will probably weight a lot (big iron). Even class D amps have to be specifically designed for low impedance. If you don't know what your amp is capable of, it's best to go for 8ohm or higher. Even an 8ohm driver can dip below 5ohms at some frequencies.
Parallel/series: IMHO doesn't matter
Stereo/mono: IMHO doesn't matter (for subs - very little stereo info below 100Hz)
1/2 enclosures: more subwoofers each contributing a little bit of the bass is the best for room integration. Helps minimize room mode resonances.
Active/Passive: start passive and work to active. Active is best but requires a greater understanding of more inter-related factors.
Thanks for the response guys
The weight or power draw is not an issue since it will be in my home. The XTI can run anywhere from 4 ohm bridged mono at 1400 watts to 275 watts per channel 8 ohm stereo. The Acoustic Elegance 15 is either dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm.
Would I be better off running 4 ohm with more watts or 8 ohm with less watts with the above Crown and AE paired? Are there other better subs I should look at?
The weight or power draw is not an issue since it will be in my home. The XTI can run anywhere from 4 ohm bridged mono at 1400 watts to 275 watts per channel 8 ohm stereo. The Acoustic Elegance 15 is either dual 2 ohm or dual 4 ohm.
Would I be better off running 4 ohm with more watts or 8 ohm with less watts with the above Crown and AE paired? Are there other better subs I should look at?
The Exodus Audio drivers would be worth it to check out, also 
DIYCable.com
Good quality pro amps can handle 4 ohms with ease.
DIYCable.com
Good quality pro amps can handle 4 ohms with ease.
Those look nice Jim, thanks. I will explore them some more
The Exodus Audio drivers would be worth it to check out, also
DIYCable.com
Good quality pro amps can handle 4 ohms with ease.
If you want a sub to shake the shingles off your roof, a Tuba HT would do a good job coming literally pretty close. Load it with a Dayton DVC 15" and that's a serious sub on a budget. Got a table saw in your garage?
The XTi2000 is a great idea, because it has plenty of power and the onboard EQ is really useful. It also has shelf filters built in, so one can do a "real" Linkwitz Transform.
The Dayton "1kW" plate/standalone amp is fine, too. In some systems, it's less of a headache than pro amps. I replaced the XTi2000 in my nearfield system (powering an Exodus Maelstrom-X in ~110L sealed) with the Dayton HPSA-1000 because in the summer the XTi's fans would come on occasionally and it was only ~4 feet away from me. It still has a parametric EQ that can be used to extend the low end of a sealed box, and if you have Audyssey MultEQ XT in your receiver you'll get most of the benefit of the XTi's EQ in terms of cleaning up the in-room bass response.
As for drivers, the AE or McCauley drivers will be higher fidelity than the linear-BL-but-high-inductance W7. Also, as others have mentioned, look at Exodus Audio drivers, too.
The Dayton "1kW" plate/standalone amp is fine, too. In some systems, it's less of a headache than pro amps. I replaced the XTi2000 in my nearfield system (powering an Exodus Maelstrom-X in ~110L sealed) with the Dayton HPSA-1000 because in the summer the XTi's fans would come on occasionally and it was only ~4 feet away from me. It still has a parametric EQ that can be used to extend the low end of a sealed box, and if you have Audyssey MultEQ XT in your receiver you'll get most of the benefit of the XTi's EQ in terms of cleaning up the in-room bass response.
As for drivers, the AE or McCauley drivers will be higher fidelity than the linear-BL-but-high-inductance W7. Also, as others have mentioned, look at Exodus Audio drivers, too.
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20"x20"x60" (5ft) gives a total volume of 400 Liters. You can do a lot with that. Not optimal for a THT, though. That's something like 36x36x24. A single turn tapped horn could work in that space pretty well.
I have to fit a space that's similar. 16"x16"xWHATEVER to replace some of my records that line the wall.
I have to fit a space that's similar. 16"x16"xWHATEVER to replace some of my records that line the wall.
I have built a couple of the sub kits from Parts Express and had very good results.
Kind of a no fuss no muss approach. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty building
from scratch is much more rewarding.
I am a big fan of stereo subs for listening to music. You can try and try until the sun goes dark but you will never truly mate a mono sub to a pair of stereo sats.
Kind of a no fuss no muss approach. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty building
from scratch is much more rewarding.
I am a big fan of stereo subs for listening to music. You can try and try until the sun goes dark but you will never truly mate a mono sub to a pair of stereo sats.
I disagree. Without a good active crossover, yes it can be a challange. With a decent crossover it's no big deal.
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