Hi
I am in the proces of making some subwoofers for my dj setup and now i am got in doubt what the best allround tuning frequence is best for almost any kind of music (pop rock house tehno) I have made the boxes at 120 liter with 4 vents each 70mm i diameter and the driver is the 18sound 15nd930 4 ohm. I have a idea that the tuning frequence should be around 45 hz? but then i take a look on commersal pa subwoofers i can see that many of them has a cutoff -3 to -10 db around 40 hz so they may have a pretty high tuning frequence problely to get a high output? i cut the subs at max100hz and i cut them off under 40hz, any kind of help is welcome.
lls
I am in the proces of making some subwoofers for my dj setup and now i am got in doubt what the best allround tuning frequence is best for almost any kind of music (pop rock house tehno) I have made the boxes at 120 liter with 4 vents each 70mm i diameter and the driver is the 18sound 15nd930 4 ohm. I have a idea that the tuning frequence should be around 45 hz? but then i take a look on commersal pa subwoofers i can see that many of them has a cutoff -3 to -10 db around 40 hz so they may have a pretty high tuning frequence problely to get a high output? i cut the subs at max100hz and i cut them off under 40hz, any kind of help is welcome.
lls
lls,
PA subwoofer tuning will vary. You can get lots of "punch" with a compact box tuned around 60Hz. Mobile DJs often really like that. There's enough bass for people to dance, but the cabinets can be fairly small - a couple of 12"s might do fine.
I tend to aim for flat-to-40Hz as a minimum performance requirement. The extra LF extension does mean bigger drivers, boxes and amplifiers, but the difference in sound is worth it. Most pop music has content down to around 40Hz (maybe the high 30s), and reproducing that at feel-the-bass SPLs can be a lot of fun.
Commercial subwoofers often use cabinets that are too small for the drivers, or drivers that don't have enough motor force to work in that cabinet properly. Take, for example, this EV subwoofer:
https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/ekx-18sp/
Which claims to be -3dB at 40Hz.
Looking at the datasheet (https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/EKX-18SP_F01U308099.PDF), we can see that 40Hz is probably 6dB down on the 50Hz output, so there's already some messing around going on. Perhaps the "-3dB" bit is relative to 45Hz? Who knows.
Going further, EV make a passive version with the same driver: https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/EKX-18S_F01U308106.PDF
Check out that frequency response chart! 40Hz is around 10dB down on the 80Hz sensitivity peak! Further, 40Hz is around 85dB@1w. I'm pretty sure I've got home HiFi speakers that'll beat that.
It's worth noting that, right now, I can buy the active version for £800. That's not particularly high-end in the PA world, but IMO it's enough cash that they should've done the job properly.
I'd recommend firing up a good reference system (home HiFi, headphones, whatever), and using some DSP to apply a highpass filter while you're listening to music (Equalizer APO works well if you're on Windows). Roll the highpass filter up until you start to notice the bass is missing, and that will give you an idea of where to aim for your subwoofers. I like 40Hz as a compromise, but if you're only playing classic rock (for example), you might find that 60Hz is fine.
In that case, go back to Hornresp or WinISD and see how small you can make the cabinet while still getting flat to 60Hz.
Chris
PA subwoofer tuning will vary. You can get lots of "punch" with a compact box tuned around 60Hz. Mobile DJs often really like that. There's enough bass for people to dance, but the cabinets can be fairly small - a couple of 12"s might do fine.
I tend to aim for flat-to-40Hz as a minimum performance requirement. The extra LF extension does mean bigger drivers, boxes and amplifiers, but the difference in sound is worth it. Most pop music has content down to around 40Hz (maybe the high 30s), and reproducing that at feel-the-bass SPLs can be a lot of fun.
Commercial subwoofers often use cabinets that are too small for the drivers, or drivers that don't have enough motor force to work in that cabinet properly. Take, for example, this EV subwoofer:
https://products.electrovoice.com/na/en/ekx-18sp/
Which claims to be -3dB at 40Hz.
Looking at the datasheet (https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/EKX-18SP_F01U308099.PDF), we can see that 40Hz is probably 6dB down on the 50Hz output, so there's already some messing around going on. Perhaps the "-3dB" bit is relative to 45Hz? Who knows.
Going further, EV make a passive version with the same driver: https://products.electrovoice.com/binary/EKX-18S_F01U308106.PDF
Check out that frequency response chart! 40Hz is around 10dB down on the 80Hz sensitivity peak! Further, 40Hz is around 85dB@1w. I'm pretty sure I've got home HiFi speakers that'll beat that.
It's worth noting that, right now, I can buy the active version for £800. That's not particularly high-end in the PA world, but IMO it's enough cash that they should've done the job properly.
I'd recommend firing up a good reference system (home HiFi, headphones, whatever), and using some DSP to apply a highpass filter while you're listening to music (Equalizer APO works well if you're on Windows). Roll the highpass filter up until you start to notice the bass is missing, and that will give you an idea of where to aim for your subwoofers. I like 40Hz as a compromise, but if you're only playing classic rock (for example), you might find that 60Hz is fine.
In that case, go back to Hornresp or WinISD and see how small you can make the cabinet while still getting flat to 60Hz.
Chris
I own a set of the powered EKX subs and they are very good performers, if I was building some I might tune a bit lower but the EV boxes check a lot of boxes... not too heavy, good cost/SPL ratio, and have proven to be 100% reliable. Obviously the powered version uses corrective EQ.. I don't think I could use the passive version without addressing that response, and the driver doesn't appear to be anything special. but at the end of the day the sum of the parts works well.