Stereo sub +2 way

[1fspd]

I'm a speaker "kit" builder. I enjoy woodworking but have neither the skill or motivation to learn crossover and true speaker design. That said I'm very interested in a kit recently offered by Tony Gee, the L'Orfeo. It's a 2 way, ScanSpeak Illuminator 18wu, and a Mundorf AMT in a ported, or a sealed cabinet

I'm planning a sealed cabinet of a somewhat different shape but adhering to the recommended volume, but would like to construct a separate, bass/sub enclosure. I'm a bit of a bass junkie, enjoying everything from dub reggae, to jazz and the blues. In that attached mock up I envision stereo down firing woofers/subs (2 or 4 drivers) in the pictured cabinet (one cabinet, two distinct enclosures).

My primary question is what bass drivers should I consider given my musical tastes, and the 2ways f-3 of 65hz?

The mock up is to scale. Room 13W x 19L x 9h (~2200 cu ft.)
Listen at moderate to high volumes, and with the dub and electronic interest need those lower octaves. Budget is flexible. I've look at Aura, TC sounds, Morel, ScanSpeak 23W and Rythmic but am concerned about asking low frequency drivers to deliver past 100hz.
Also a DEQX express unit (3-way) is slated for crossover and room correction work (lots to learn here, but I love to tinker).

As a speaker "kit" builder I apologize if I'm overlooking some design fundamentals, but none-the-less look forward to your input.

Thanks
Ryan
Duluth, Minnesota, USA

[ODougbo]

You may have wanted to listed the thread in Multi–Way.

Your profile is similar to mine, i.e. leave the crossover designs the experts and concentrate on cabinet design/fabrication.

You mention bass reflex, but sounds like you are leaning to sealed boxes. My two cents, I have a 3 set of .5 cf bass reflex with a 7” Vifa woofer & Morel tweeter (Madisound crossover). They go low, extremely low way past 40hz, I’ve heard them produce some crazy low notes; sometimes, I don’t even turn on the subs.

Are your sure you want to have down firing woofers? I’d be worried that the bass would be muddy vs. speakers pointed at listener.

[chris661]

Down firing woofers have been used often enough, with no complaints of muddiness. A "muddy" bass sound would imply some missing harmonics of, say, a bass guitar. That'd probably be down to sub-optimal integration with the mids.
Remembering that a down-firing subwoofer is as omnidirectional as any other direct radiating subwoofer (in their correct operating range), I can't see there being a problem.

It sounds to me like you'd want to go to at least 30Hz in terms of extension. To find out exactly how low you want to go, get hold of Foobar2000 with the additional crossover. Try messing around with highpass filters (through a decent pair of headphones) to find what low frequency rolloff is acceptable to you: if you add a crossover at 30Hz and find you're missing some content, then, ideally, you'd have a subwoofer that'll go lower than 30Hz. Of course, the desire for extension has to be balanced against cabinet size amongst other things.

Chris

[ODougbo]

You’ll want to check out this site ~ http://www.zaphaudio.com/index.html

I’m getting ready to build the ZA-SR71s, (reasonably priced kit) for a co-worker.

[jacubus]

Thank you for that link ODougbo.

[ODougbo]

I ordered a SZ71 kit from Madisound today; the advertisement sure reads nice. I’ll keep you updated…..

BTW, there are complete fabrication plans if you follow the links.

[ODougbo]

Pretty cool, easy to follow plans. I've only had them running for a few hours, they do play loud and lots of detail.

If the budget wasn't so tight, I would have upgraded the inductors to Perfect Lay air coil ~ 14 gauge.

Nice Speakers!

Originally Posted by jacubus

Thank you for that link ODougbo.