16 Hz subwoofer for organ music

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I'm working on some DIY speakers for a digital organ for my living room, and need a sub to deal with the infrasonic frequencies. It will only have to deal with the material in the 16 - 32 Hz range, as I am planning to have the main channels go all the way down to 32 Hz. Since I only have to fill my living room with sound, and not a church, I don't want to use the huge cabinets that come with such instruments. Instead, I'd like to build or buy a sub that can truly get down to 16 Hz, even if not at ridiculous volume levels. I can adjust the output of the organ so that the truly low notes are boosted in volume to compensate for some rolloff in the sub's natural response, but it has to have a decent amount of usable output at 16 Hz.

What would you all recommend? I've found some threads about truly huge subs for organs in churches, but those will be too big and are overkill for a living room. It looks like most people don't care about bass below 30-40 Hz, but I certainly do!
 
To give examples of what I'm considering, I think I could use a commercial sub like this one and achieve my goals:
SVS SB-2000 Subwoofer | 12-inch Driver | 500 Watts RMS

It's frequency response looks like it rolls off slowly enough that with room gain, I could compensate for it.
 

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Same thing as in a church, a ~one note [octave] pipe and due to the low frequency it has to have a low enough Fs woofer to drive it. One or more of this little horn driver in a long enough tube should be OK: https://www.newark.com/mcm-audio-select/55-2421/8-high-excursion-woofer-120w-rms/dp/88C7835
GM
I've looked at that driver before, for the main speakers, but I don't understand how it could be used for these low frequencies. When I try to sim putting it in a ported enclosure, I end up needing a 100" long vent. :confused:

I had better luck with the Dayton UM12-22 12" driver, in a 4 cu. ft. box. I still needed a 4.5" diameter port that is just over 32" long, but that's better than 100" :D.
 

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It depends on how big the enclosure that you can tolerate, i'm building stereo dual-opposed 2x12" subwoofer in sealed 4.5 cuft enclosure with Fb 41Hz. i still consider it as moderate size

since you are in US, look for Dayton Ultimax 18 which will have Fb 26Hz but 10cuft enclosure :)

If it's me living in US, i will build dual-opposed Ultimax 18 in stereo mode, 32"x32"x40" enclusore is still smaller than regular refrigerator. why bother with small size with your audio?I think any low bass freq won't be a problem anymore to be reproduced
 

GM

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Joined 2003
I simmed two in a long, skinny TH that would fold 3x in a ~8 ft long or 6x ~4 ft, ~92+ L net box. >110 dB/~16 Hz-up/190 W/1pi.

I imagine the ROAR folks can come up with something similar in a multiple chamber BP that may be better overall for you.

GM
 

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@mlaird - consider the design using a cheap car subwoofer which TB46 did for me. Mine is extremely heavy due to 18mm Baltic birch plywood and what I think are redundant boards. (is there a good way to retain the crosssection and fit the woofer witout them?)

Take a close look. It, or similar, should be buildable of 15mm Baltic birch or 18mm Arauco plywood. Maybe even 12mm Baltic birch with proper bracing between the sections.

The pseudo K slot may (?) have smoothed things but IF you are pushing it hard, then the round opening would have less tendency to chuff.

Mine weighs about 110lb - I think it that could almost be cut in half.

There should be a cheap substitute for the cheap out of production Infinity 12"

The footprint is small, and simple to cut.

GM - what would you do to reduce its weight? Also, a 30Hz version would
be cool for my theater organ cds.

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There is no fill at all in mine - just carpet felt lining.

(maybe Bjorno did the design and TB46 the drawing? - I can't remember)

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I'm working on some DIY speakers for a digital organ for my living room, and need a sub to deal with the infrasonic frequencies. It will only have to deal with the material in the 16 - 32 Hz range, as I am planning to have the main channels go all the way down to 32 Hz.....


Are you sure your digital organ puts out an actual 16Hz signal?


Like actual pipe organs some digital organs may use cunning harmonics to generate missing fundamentals. I guess if you play C0 into 32Hz mains and hear nothing then the organ is doing true fundamentals. But if you hear something and then play play C1(32Hz) and G1(48Hz) together via your 32Hz mains is it the same?

If your organ doesn't actually put out any low fundamentals it will save a heap of work. Your walls, ceiling, light fittings, family, dentist, brain, heart and neighbours will be relieved too.
 
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GM - what would you do to reduce its weight?

Obviously use thinner material and more lightweight bracing, basically offset subdividing the box longitudinally in a golden or acoustic ratio since a TH has a two driver load over a narrow BW and in this case also a high aspect ratio, not to mention need a separate massive plinth to attach it to if vertically oriented; that, or strapping it to the floor/whatever or adding mass on top of it if laying down, making for a lot of extra work and maybe no reduction in shipping weight, just for moving it around.

I typically recommend closet rod for large cab bracing, but for lightweight, hard to beat cardboard tubes packed with fiberglass insulation, even ones as flimsy as used for toilet, etc., rolls and have used Styrofoam packing sheet strips for bracing. In all cases, I use[d] some form of industrial construction adhesive.

GM
 
that $50 shipped price JBL CS1214 has 12mm of xmax (1.26" coil height, 0.306 gap height) - if the woofer would fit in a triple fold pipe with the 69 liter example simmed above then that would be good enough for my purposes. 12mm plywood should be good enough (maybe thicker at the speaker)

what's the best and most practical compromise for the OP's 16Hz cabinet need?
 
what's the best and most practical compromise for the OP's 16Hz cabinet need?

Apparently [multiple] driver high Qtc sealed + DSP. With modern electronics, this would apply to any <80 Hz sub system based on my recent exposure to one of the better systems, especially if combined with Dr. Geddes' spread around the room layout.

GM
 
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Are you sure your digital organ puts out an actual 16Hz signal?

Like actual pipe organs some digital organs may use cunning harmonics to generate missing fundamentals. I guess if you play C0 into 32Hz mains and hear nothing then the organ is doing true fundamentals. But if you hear something and then play play C1(32Hz) and G1(48Hz) together via your 32Hz mains is it the same?

If your organ doesn't actually put out any low fundamentals it will save a heap of work. Your walls, ceiling, light fittings, family, dentist, brain, heart and neighbours will be relieved too.
Excellent question, but having played both pipe organs and digital organs with resultants, I'm sure Allen's 32' Contra Violone does have some fundamental, even if not as much as a 32' Contra Bourdon does. It would be interesting to measure the amount, however. I'll have to do that sometime. I can record the output of the bass channel by itself, play some low notes, and see what they look like in an audio editor.
 
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