Subwoofers for Beach Radio...

[m R g S r]

So i'm building a pretty silly beach radio. right now it consists of:

JL audio 300/4
JL audio 500/1
Pioneer AVIC d3
(2) speakers..Each containing: .8 cu ft. airspace, ported. 1 horn tweeter, 1 6.5" pyle sealed back midrange, 1 6.5" mach5audio mli65, dayton 2.5k 2 way crossover.
4 inputs on the back of the speakers, one directly to the mli65 midbass, one to the crossover (for the pyle midrange and the tweeter)

the main speakers will play down to 80hz or so with no problem.

Now I need some sub duty. Right now its up in the air. all i know is that i have 500 RMS and want the loudest sub setup possible...BUT...portability is a big issue. it can be a decent size, i will use 1/2" plywood to keep the weight down. (i'd rather have a box that has some resonance from the thinner wood than a broken back carrying a 200lb subwoofer onto the beach lol)

So i was thinking I would want a pro audio woofer, beacause of the high sensitivity and no need to feed it 3000watts to get loud. i am open to suggestions, i was thinking a 12" sub in 2 cu ft. boxe or so, maybe a single 15", or a pair of 10's (in two seperate boxes) someone on diyma suggested quad 8" dayton drivers.

type of music will be 99% house/dance/electronic. so the sub portion of the radio is pretty substantial.

one last thing, price. i'm not made of $$ (hence some of the driver choices, some stuff was left over, some was purchased cheap ) i would like to keep this thing down in cost. i was thinking about $150-200 max for drivers. wood i can buy at extra cost.

So, what is the best method of attack?

heres a few pics of the build thus far...


Pyle sealed back midrange, Dayton 2.5k 2 way crossover, constant directivity horn tweeter:


just laying the components on the MDF: mach5audio mli65 as midbass...




3/4" MDF front, the rest 1/2" birch plywood. going to be nice and light!


gotta love harbor freight for the cheap clamps and triangles!


clamped








laying all the components in the holes..had the circle JIG on the wrong hole, sooo the hole i made with my router for flush mounting the midbass driver was a little too big...woops!!

[m R g S r]

handle for easy portability...i'll post the final weight once its loaded with crossover/components. but it's a lot lighter than the MDF enclosure i had previously.

[m R g S r]

Testing the first one..


wiring the second


pair all loaded

[VictoriaGuy]

I hope this is your own private beach that you are talking about?
Far from neighbors?
Otherwise, earphones are really the least obnoxious way to enjoy YOUR tunes........
Picking up our blanket, picnic, and moving the family down to the other end of the beach......

[weltersys]

MDF on the beach will swell up like crazy unless coated with epoxy (or similar treatment) inside and out, negating the minimal cost advantages over decent plywood.

Tapped horn designs presently will give the maximum efficiency per driver and enclosed space, so are a big advantage if the system is to be driven using battery power which also needs to be lugged to the beach.

[m R g S r]

Originally Posted by VictoriaGuy

I hope this is your own private beach that you are talking about?
Far from neighbors?
Otherwise, earphones are really the least obnoxious way to enjoy YOUR tunes........
Picking up our blanket, picnic, and moving the family down to the other end of the beach......

the beach we go to is public, but if there is a family there i'd be surprised. actually, the last time we were there with the radio a family had their kids, we told them about the radio and let them know we were going to be playing loud music. they said the louder the better, and had their kids dancing around to the music mid afternoon.
i've had different variations of the radio, but this one i want to be the biggest and best. in the past when the amp went into protect mode, people would scream out awww what happened to the music?!
so it's not really an issue of me being selfish and ignoring the wishes of others. thanks for the concern thou! now back to the loud subwoofer part

[m R g S r]

Originally Posted by weltersys

MDF on the beach will swell up like crazy unless coated with epoxy (or similar treatment) inside and out, negating the minimal cost advantages over decent plywood.

Tapped horn designs presently will give the maximum efficiency per driver and enclosed space, so are a big advantage if the system is to be driven using battery power which also needs to be lugged to the beach.

my last radio was just painted 1/2" MDF, used it for 2 years with no problems so far. but it was heavyyy!

i know a horn will probably be the best bet, but a horn for a 12" sub is going to be pretty bulky. at the cost of a few db, a simple ported box could be a lot smaller, no? unless someone has a design for a horn that is compact.

now, i have two tang band 6.5" double folded horns in my living room. while i like them, they don't really have the output i'm looking for on this project. i really think i need more area from the drivers for this, hence the 12 or 15 i was thinking about.

[m R g S r]

these dayton 10" subs possibly? a pair of them would only run me $120....

Dayton Audio PA255-8 10" Pro Woofer

[m R g S r]

Originally Posted by weltersys

the system is to be driven using battery power which also needs to be lugged to the beach.

we used to use two batteries, one was 100lbs the other 50 or so. they would last a decent amount of time, but were a pain to carry.

i'm going to be building a small generator to be used in conjunction with a small battery, so power should not be a problem.

[chris661]

Those last drivers you linked to aren't subwoofer drivers. Not enough Xmax, Fs is too high...
But efficiency is good. Two of those would go very loud, though unlikely to go incredibly low. What's the target for extension?