I don't have pics yet, but i am in the progress of building my first (sono)sub.
I am using the TangBand 8" woofer that was on sale at PE a while back and a 150watt plate amp from MCM electronics.
The enclosure is tuned a little bit past FS to compensate for the 5db boost at 30-35hz on the plate amp.
I am using 12" sonotube from menards.
The one thing that puzzles me is what i am to do with this plate amp...I have yet to order it but it is clearly too big to put into a matching (diameter) base to the sub...
Should i just put it an a seperate enclosure that will be hidden or what?
I'll have pics once the glue is finished drying and i have trimmed the caps to fit. For a finish i plan on using faux fur in the styling of my fuzzy hi-vi mains. (Not the same oscar the grouch color tho 😉 ... Or maybe...)
I am using the TangBand 8" woofer that was on sale at PE a while back and a 150watt plate amp from MCM electronics.
The enclosure is tuned a little bit past FS to compensate for the 5db boost at 30-35hz on the plate amp.
I am using 12" sonotube from menards.
The one thing that puzzles me is what i am to do with this plate amp...I have yet to order it but it is clearly too big to put into a matching (diameter) base to the sub...
Should i just put it an a seperate enclosure that will be hidden or what?
I'll have pics once the glue is finished drying and i have trimmed the caps to fit. For a finish i plan on using faux fur in the styling of my fuzzy hi-vi mains. (Not the same oscar the grouch color tho 😉 ... Or maybe...)
Cover it in real veneer and it'll look like a stump 😉
Interested in hearing your results as I am considering doing something else with mine.
Interested in hearing your results as I am considering doing something else with mine.
Cal Weldon said:
I don't know if you are familiar with the ren and stimpy show...
"its looog its looog, its better than bad; Its GOOD!"
😎
I was halfway joking about covering them in fur. The reason i covered the hi-vi b3n (or is it S?) speakers in fur was I was getting sick of sanding to get a good finish and didn't think it was worth it on such expensive speakers to be pouring so much work into enclosures what might soon be replaced...
But the subwoofer is different...I think a sub should blend into a room. Not be hidden away in a corner, but not an obstrusive cube (or for that matter a ******* water heater!) in the middle of the room...
Fake fur, eh? I suppose it would match SOME living rooms. 😀
I've been thinking of doing practically the same project. What setup are you thinking? Using unibox, and my space constraints, I was thinking of 45 liters, meaning a little over 2 feet of 12" sonotube. 3" (7.62cm) flared port, at 19.5" (49.5cm) long for 23hz tuning. Walls covered with stuffing, but not packed. It makes for a bit of a hump at 24hz, but that should be slightly balanced by the hump the amp gives a bit above that.
I'm concerned about the power handling below 20hz though, it passes max excursion at 19hz at 150W... Plus, port speed is a little high, but a larger port means a longer port... Not sure what to do about that.
Anyway, I'm curious what your plan is. I'm fairly new at this, so any insight the better. 😉
As to the amp... I was thinking of either larger sonotube, so the amp could fit in one of the plugs, or a large bottom box for the sonotube to sit on. No perfect solution, really...
peace,
sam
I've been thinking of doing practically the same project. What setup are you thinking? Using unibox, and my space constraints, I was thinking of 45 liters, meaning a little over 2 feet of 12" sonotube. 3" (7.62cm) flared port, at 19.5" (49.5cm) long for 23hz tuning. Walls covered with stuffing, but not packed. It makes for a bit of a hump at 24hz, but that should be slightly balanced by the hump the amp gives a bit above that.
I'm concerned about the power handling below 20hz though, it passes max excursion at 19hz at 150W... Plus, port speed is a little high, but a larger port means a longer port... Not sure what to do about that.
Anyway, I'm curious what your plan is. I'm fairly new at this, so any insight the better. 😉
As to the amp... I was thinking of either larger sonotube, so the amp could fit in one of the plugs, or a large bottom box for the sonotube to sit on. No perfect solution, really...
peace,
sam
phidauex said:
You seem to know more about this than i do ;-) I did plan a small hump around 25hz to accompany the +5db from the amp...
I was going to use a 2" port but winisd says that it will have a mach of .22....Am i going to be able to hear this or should i add another 2" port? a single 3" is out of the question unless i top mount it and make it curved...
You can't exceed mach 0.1 or you will have problems.
Adding a second 2" port will not be shorter than a single 3" port.
Adding a second 2" port will not be shorter than a single 3" port.
simon5 said:
Yeah, i decided to go 3" out the top as the bottom doesn't have enough room for a 3 inch port and i don't feel like cutting 2 holes ;-)
That and i don't want anyone to have the temptation to sit on the sub and kill it...Although i can stand on it and it seems strucurally fine...but i am a mere 140 lbs...
UPDATE!
Status update:
The enclosures are almost finished. All i have to do is trim the excess away from one of the caps and add the port(s).
I have decided on the faux fur for finishing and it will either be a deep red or a black.
The MCM Amplifier is on its way and i'm hoping it will be here monday if not saturday...
I did a quick test with the woofer just sitting in the enclosure with no ports and to my ears it is amazing...i can't wait until i have it properly ported and all that good stuff...
Pics VERY VERY soon!
Status update:
The enclosures are almost finished. All i have to do is trim the excess away from one of the caps and add the port(s).
I have decided on the faux fur for finishing and it will either be a deep red or a black.
The MCM Amplifier is on its way and i'm hoping it will be here monday if not saturday...
I did a quick test with the woofer just sitting in the enclosure with no ports and to my ears it is amazing...i can't wait until i have it properly ported and all that good stuff...
Pics VERY VERY soon!
What enclosure volume and port length did you decide on?
Are you stuffing the enclosure, or just covering the walls for resonances?
And I'd recommend this fake fur, it looks great with everything!
Actually, just about anything from http://www.mendels.com would be a good choice. 😀
peace,
sam
Are you stuffing the enclosure, or just covering the walls for resonances?
And I'd recommend this fake fur, it looks great with everything!
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Actually, just about anything from http://www.mendels.com would be a good choice. 😀
peace,
sam
phidauex said:
I still have to calculate port length, but the enclosure is a bit more than 30l to compensate for ports, speakers, stuffing, etc...
Ports will be 2x 2" dia
That fur is sooooo trippy! did somebody say VW bus?
weeeeeeeeeee ACID!!!!I think a deep darkish red will look really classy...
I'd recommend modeling the sub in Unibox: http://home20.inet.tele.dk/kou/ubmodel.html Its a free excel spreadsheet that uses an improved box model, and thus, has some benefits over WinISD and some of the other simplified box model programs.
If your enclosure volume is 30L, you've got the walls covered in stuffing, and you are using two 2" PVC pipe ports (which are 5.25cm internal diameter), then you'd need 42cm of port to tune the box to 30hz. I'm assuming you are cutting around 20 inches of sonotube? That means your ports would just fit as a straight line, since they'd be about 15 to 16 inches long.
If you are comfortable with a curved or bent port, then you might tune as low as 25ish hz, meaning a port length of 61cm, which would need to be curved to fit in the sonotube. Both 30hz and 25hz tuning would mean having a slight hump at the tuning frequency, and fast fall-off after that, but the 30hz bass boost in the amp will soften that up a bit.
In both cases, you run into excursion problems, and port air velocity problems at about 100W of power. Fortunately, 100W gets you up to 102dB at 26hz for the lower tuning, and 104db at the tuning frequency for the higher tuning, so thats pretty durn loud. If you want louder, you'll need a bigger driver. But for moderate to loudish volumes, that 8" should do pretty nicely!
Anyway, good luck, and let us know how it sounds in its final form! I'll be building one soon, so I'm glad you're pioneering for me. 😀
peace,
sam
If your enclosure volume is 30L, you've got the walls covered in stuffing, and you are using two 2" PVC pipe ports (which are 5.25cm internal diameter), then you'd need 42cm of port to tune the box to 30hz. I'm assuming you are cutting around 20 inches of sonotube? That means your ports would just fit as a straight line, since they'd be about 15 to 16 inches long.
If you are comfortable with a curved or bent port, then you might tune as low as 25ish hz, meaning a port length of 61cm, which would need to be curved to fit in the sonotube. Both 30hz and 25hz tuning would mean having a slight hump at the tuning frequency, and fast fall-off after that, but the 30hz bass boost in the amp will soften that up a bit.
In both cases, you run into excursion problems, and port air velocity problems at about 100W of power. Fortunately, 100W gets you up to 102dB at 26hz for the lower tuning, and 104db at the tuning frequency for the higher tuning, so thats pretty durn loud. If you want louder, you'll need a bigger driver. But for moderate to loudish volumes, that 8" should do pretty nicely!
Anyway, good luck, and let us know how it sounds in its final form! I'll be building one soon, so I'm glad you're pioneering for me. 😀
peace,
sam
Attachments
phidauex said:
I'm going to go with the lower tuning frequency...
Thanks for the advice, you rock!
And yes, it is 20" tall...
I gotta go pick up some bondo to fill a big ding/hole i put in the side of the sonotube while trimming the top cap...Other than that i think i'm almost ready for prime tme :-D
****
I finally got around to purchasing that bondo and i made the mistake of letting my dad apply it...
He tricked me into the illusion that he knew what the hell he was doing
Now, after an hour, i still have a sticky tube covered in blue crap. I am not the least bit happy about this...
I think a nice mdf box might be in the future of this driver...
I finally got around to purchasing that bondo and i made the mistake of letting my dad apply it...
He tricked me into the illusion that he knew what the hell he was doing
Now, after an hour, i still have a sticky tube covered in blue crap. I am not the least bit happy about this...
I think a nice mdf box might be in the future of this driver...
w000000000t!
Project is back on track! We amazingly got all the crap cleaned off of the sonotube (god knows how...) then we mixed up a new batch. I think the catalyst needed to be mixed up better or something as now it have a good hard bondo coating on this thing.
I have the prots installed and i'm gonna decide the exact length i want...
Right now they are tuned to about 30 hz but i made it so that if i wanted to i could easily add some more pvc to the elbos that are already in place to tune lower.
All that is left to do is sand the living bejesus out of this thing and apply whatever it is i'm gonna cover it with...Might be fur, might be vynil.
It sure as heck aint gonna be paint as we just got a nice surprise snow storm over my spring break. Not that sonotube would be easily painted in the first place what with this waxish coating it has...
I'm gonna make a nice grille for it using a 1" piece of sonotube and some black fabric.
Pics SOOOON!
Project is back on track! We amazingly got all the crap cleaned off of the sonotube (god knows how...) then we mixed up a new batch. I think the catalyst needed to be mixed up better or something as now it have a good hard bondo coating on this thing.
I have the prots installed and i'm gonna decide the exact length i want...
Right now they are tuned to about 30 hz but i made it so that if i wanted to i could easily add some more pvc to the elbos that are already in place to tune lower.
All that is left to do is sand the living bejesus out of this thing and apply whatever it is i'm gonna cover it with...Might be fur, might be vynil.
It sure as heck aint gonna be paint as we just got a nice surprise snow storm over my spring break. Not that sonotube would be easily painted in the first place what with this waxish coating it has...
I'm gonna make a nice grille for it using a 1" piece of sonotube and some black fabric.
Pics SOOOON!
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