I have a WAF problem

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I was happy but then we renovated and I am no longer "allowed" to have 7 small powered subwoofers and/or the big refrigerator in the corner of the lounge room.
I really liked my big old sealed box with the old school 15 inch Kicker EX too.
My problem now is that I am limited to a pair of subwoofers for both H/T and the stereo.
WAF is going to limit me to two boxes and my physical limits are 550mm deep 850mm wide and 550mm tall Exterior dimensions. I can only have this much space because I will use them as the bases for my stereo speakers. I'm going to assume that I use a composite box structure and 25mm thick.
So 500 * 800 * 500mm is only about 200 litres and my existing 12 inch drivers won't work in this volume twinned.
I am now retired with no income to speak of so any new driver will need to be at the cheaper end and I will need to restrict myself to existing amplification. Probably the old Jaycar / Silicon Chip PlayMaster Pro which is about 180 / 200 Watts, so not much grunt to play with. As a music sub it will need to keep up with the woofer in the stereo box and the woofer there is the Vifa P-26 which goes reasonable deep in a sealed box and is of average efficiency.
If I sell off most of my old woofers I may be able to talk SWMBO into a pair of the Dayton 15s
DCS385-4 15" Classic Subwoofer 4 Ohm
New computer and my programs are now not working but back of envelope calculation says that this Dayton might be OK given floor boost and the new smaller room
I'd like some second and third opinions and other cheap options if people here in Oz can think of any, primary considerations are WAF and frugality
 
So What are the 12 inch drivers you have - got any data for them?
If a 200 litre dual driver sealed box is too small to get the FR you want, then my first thought was to see how an Isobaric configuration would work?
Might be a low cost option!
 
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They are cheap drivers I bought to make a party bass box with.
Qts of .77 and a large Vas DAICHI from WES speakers
Nice enough woofers but they are not subwoofers as X-Max is low
I have the data somewhere
WAF is going to over-ride distributed bass but the drivers and boxes all have 8 and 10 inch woofers. Cheap stuff I got on sale more than a decade ago and will be given away to the grandkids
 
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After much reloading I have finally got Jeff Bagbys program to work again although it won't save driver data to its data base which is a right PITA.
It seems as if the cheap Dayton would work in a much smaller box and that to do any better I would need to double the driver cost and go up to the big Dayton Ultimax 18"
UM18-22 and I only gain about 3 dB
The old powered subs are a mix of 8" 10" and a couple of 12" with tiny chip amp power [ 100W peak] and worked well enough but no longer have spousal approval.
New room furniture also means a single big subwoofer is not an option, soffit mounting in the ceiling being vetoed at the new plaster stage
I'm still at the thinking stage as music is OK for the time being but the H/T really needs the bass for effects and adding the subs would clean up the mid-bass signal to the Vifa woofers with luck
 
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Not easily and it gets damp there sometimes. Besides the 3-Ways need a stand of some sort
At the moment the big speakers are sitting on a pair of the old powered subs as a temporary measure which is aggravating SWMBO as it's just a plywood open front box
The old passive subs using the CV 12-4 being deemed "Ugly" and also they didn't add much to the bottom end of the Vifa woofers. I'm going to try and use the same sub boxes for both the music and the home theatre now. Simple sealed boxes that also work as speaker stands are the compromise solution, hence that height restriction of ~550mm
 
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Send the family away for a couple of weeks, build a false wall IB, properly finished and hope she doesn't notice the room 12''-18" shorter.

GM

I actually mentioned this at the rebuilt stage and that was also vetoed.

I am surprised tho that the cheaper Dayton 15" models better than the cheaper 18" in this application except for excursion where it's needed.


I'd prefer not to sacrifice sound quality in the music for noise and impact in the movies but it would be nice to get both at a semi affordable level
 
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Does anybody have the book parameters for the Vifa P-26?
I hate computers sometimes and I can't find my paper folders with the speaker designs in it.
I'll need to run the program again to see how deep it actually goes in the top box so I know how high I need to cut off the subs I think.
From memory the F3 is in the mid 40s
 
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+1, with today's cheap electronics, an EQ'd 3+ Qtc sealed seems a viable, if not outright wise, choice nowadays, especially if multiples are spread around the room [not applicable here].

GM

I'm taking it to extremes, I have a box with 4 drivers and two boxes with 2 drivers and a final 4 driver box under construction. Total 12*15" in 800L. 118dB/1m at 20Hz apparently assuming all the drivers were in one place but I don't have a location I can measure that.
 
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My living room is hardly the greatest, but I've come up with a few things to make it WAF tolerable. Apologies for all the blankets, my wife and kids seem to think 70 degrees is "frigid."

1) I think it's really important to put the couches at an angle. By putting them at an angle, it gives you a spot to hide the subwoofer. I have a REALLY large sub behind that couch on the far side of the room. No one has even asked me about it.

2) If your wife likes cats, make a compromise with her. She's not going to complain about a giant cat tree, so put it on the sub. Win-Win-Win. Even the cat digs it.

3) I feel like my wife tolerates subs a lot more if the mains aren't ugly. I used to run Vandersteens and my wife prefers the small monitors a lot more. Here's how my Vandys looked:

vcqVoza.png


4) I think anything else you can do will help. I need to hide my cables. Wall mounting the TV made a big difference.

5) If necessary, I might turn the stand below the TV into a sub. I'm trying to avoid that because I think there are better places to hide subs, like build it into that ottoman.

6) If I really go nuts, I'll build the speakers into that wall, and put a big sub on the other side of that wall. 40Hz is longer than a car, your subwoofer won't care one bit if it's located ten or twenty feet away. Just get yourself a MiniDSP and delay the mains to match the subs.
 
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Patrick we just got a new IKEA console in black because previous to hanging the TV on the wall [ yes it made a huge difference to WAF] because previously it was sitting on a big plank sitting on the cheap subs. Pretty and functional is important.
SWMBO doesn't want me to buy more amplifiers so what I build as a passive needs to give me reasonable performance for that 200 watts
Back wall is black All the components are black and it works because everything
seems to disappear.
Coffee table sub might work tho, that is a great idea I had forgotten to rethink Would need to be grandchild proof tho.
 
Coffee table sub might work tho, that is a great idea I had forgotten to rethink Would need to be grandchild proof tho.

This and/or end tables were going to be my next suggestion. This groundbreaking, downfiring [child, pet proof] 1981 Altec was a real looker, but pricing plus too far ahead of its time killed it AFAIK and by the time HT systems took off, the company was too far gone to capitalize on it: https://www.usahifi.com/sites/default/files/product/513/manuals/Altec LF1 LF2 Subwoofer Brochure.pdf

GM
 
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diyAudio Member
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Funny about that Altec Lansing subwoofer as I have the cheap Tandy / Radio Shack clone as SWMBOs computer sub at the moment. I paid $15- as not working. Took me all of 10 minutes to find the fault and fix it; loose wire/poor solder joints.
What are the characteristics needed in a downfiring sub ? Again as I keep forgetting but I don't think the Cerwin-Vega CV15-4 qualifies
I know I have the paperwork somewhere but Fs23 and a Qts of~ .36 Vas 181 litres and all I have ever done with it is a 40 litre sealed box in the old truck
 
I just mentioned a new coffee table to SWMBO and she just groaned
I can't win

Oh, so no coffee for her :D
Just joking a bit, but in reality, what about using just two main loudspeakers with no subs? Perhaps something like a pair of BIB's? Or, if you have a large front wall, probably something like a pair of big Cornu's that could blend with the wall, and then have some nice art/wallpaper on them so it becomes more WAF acceprable?
The Metronomes are also cute and with the righ drivers can go low enough...
 
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