Where to source parts for subwoofer build

[jschweg]

I've always wanted to get into speaker building, and with the recent demise of my 12" JBL sub, I'm looking into starting a project and building my own.

One of the things that I'm struggling with is where and what to buy as far as components go. With car audio I'm very familiar with the tons of brands of drivers and amps that are available to me (whats good, whats bad, etc), but with home components the brands seem limited (at least to a newbie), there doesn't seem to be too many sites that sell the stuff, and I've never heard of 90% of the brands so I don't know whats good stuff vs cheap stuff.

Any of you guys give me some advice on how to get started?

[planet10]

Read. Lots of reference to where things cm be sourced for a specific project. Go strolling thru the threads and shop for the kind of project that might appeal to you.

You'll see lots of favorites & lots of opinions I'll leave it to others to name names.

Watch the ads. Look in the commercial section.

dave

[Rademakers]

And tell more about what exactly you're looking for. Does it need to go loud, low, not so loud, not so low, how large can it be, what do you already have, is it for music, for HT, not unimportantly; budget.

PS How did your previous sub die?

Best regards Johan

[MannyE]

I have found the eBay can be an incredible source for all sorts of great parts.

[jschweg]

I had a JBL DPS12 (12" 250W). It was about 10 years old, and the amp just finally died. From what I've read about this sub I got pretty lucky that the amp lasted that long.

The sub I'm building will primarily be used for HT. Probably 90% HT, 10% music. I know that I want to do another 12" and cabinet size really isn't too much of an issue since the cabinet on the existing JBL is gigantic.

This is most certainly a budget build. Before I got ideas that I might want to build one, I was thinking about replacing it with a Polk Audio PSW125. This sub lists between 350 and 400, just to give you an idea.

My thinking here is that I could probably build something way better for around the same amount of money.

I had started to take a look at my options. I can't really seem to find too many other brands of plate amps besides Dayton, and as far as drivers are concerned I had looked at maybe the Peerless XLS series.

I guess my problem is that I don't have any brand recognition with these brands like I have with car audio, so I can't tell the difference between a pinto and a ferrari.

[tb46]

Here are some items I noticed, first on the apexjr.com site:

The Apex Junior Subwoofer Amp

and then on ebay:

JBL GTO-1214D CAR 12" SUBWOOFER GRAND TOURING FITS GMC - eBay (item 400164176522 end time Nov-13-10 20:36:53 PST)

or,

2 JBL GTO1214D CAR 12" SUBWOOFERS/SUBS 4-OHM FITS HONDA - eBay (item 400165071064 end time Nov-16-10 19:43:20 PST)

and there is always:

Parts-Express.com sells Speakers, Replacement Speakers, Speaker Building Parts plus HDMI Cables, Home Audio and Video, Pro Audio and Commercial Sound. We offer services for Speaker Reconing, Speaker Refoaming, Speaker Repair. Great selection of Elect

Regards,

[steviedon]

Possibly a hair above your price range I'd check out this for sure.....
Rythmik Audio 12" servo subwoofer " DS1200 Custom Installation subwoofer
This is worth a look as well, coming in @ under $400....
Creative Sound - Product Details
Or combine this SW-12B - SW-12B and this SA-1 - SA-1
for a <$250 package.

[planet10]

Steve (ApexJr) sells good stuff for good price. You might even want to consider a pair of ApexJr Super 8. My HT sub uses a pair. My current sub project uses CSS SDX10.

The current plateamp steal are the NHT/Foster plate amps Jack Hidley is selling. $35 each. Packaged 2 to a master carton.

dave

[Ed LaFontaine]

If one of the Foster/NHT amps is not enough, 2 can be bridged. The site also includes info for changing/customizing/boosting the sub filter.

[jschweg]

Thanks everyone for the responses, this is exactly the stuff I needed to get started.