If anyone is looking to build a budget subwoofer take a look at the EHQS12 (http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/product_info.php?t=0&products_id=183) driver for Elemental Designs. I have not heard it, or know if it is any good or not, but from the reputation of the company on the car audio side, it should be good for the money.

Here is a link to a thread from ED with someone who built a sub using these drivers: http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?t=31676

http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/gallery/213_large.jpg

WOW! I used two of these for my outdoor sub. Was thinking about building more to give more output. Now it's a no brainer! :D

Would putting 4 of those in a seal enclosure for a large open rec-room/basement(like 16' by 30' [ish]) sound any good at all? Seems hard to top price wise.

When I modeled them sealed, they seemed to roll off too high for my taste. Though admittedly my goals weren't typical: since they were to be used outdoors, there would be no room gain, and the normally desirable roll-off wasn't desirable for my application. So at this point, I can't really remember if they were bad in a sealed box, or just not good for my specific application. Still, from what I remember, their frequency peak and roll-off characteristic was much less flat than a Dayton HF series driver in a sealed box that I was also considering. They also don't have a lot of excursion (though still quite a bit more than most other cheap drivers I've seen), so putting them in a ported box helped that out a little too. I can tell you that two that two in a ported box gave me PLENTY of output when I was testing them inside the house. But it's amazing how much gain you lose when going outdoors.

But of course, you could always EQ them, and use multiples for the lack of excursion. They certainly don't have the sound of my servo sub, but for $25 freakin bucks, they aren't bad at all. There weren't bad at $40, which is what they were when I bought the first two. This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to tinker with building a decent sub with very little money. And at $25/pop, I'd definitely consider multiples for those who have the room. Even without adding any more power, you still get a 3db increase for every doubling of cone area & enclosure volume. And the resulting lower excursion lowers distortion.

Would putting 4 of those in a seal enclosure for a large open rec-room/basement(like 16' by 30' [ish]) sound any good at all? Seems hard to top price wise.

Four of the single 4ohm variety, wired in parallel pairs, then then the two pairs in series for a nominal 4ohm load. Put those in a ~6.5ft^3 enclosure and put ~500-600W behind them...but the roll-off is pretty steep.

So what you are saying is... Two quad boxes? The price is right :p

Four of the single 4ohm variety, wired in parallel pairs, then then the two pairs in series for a nominal 4ohm load.
Don't worry, this Electrical Technician can handle the Ohms law on this one. ;)


How steep of a roll off are we talking? I can deal with 35ish Hz and under, and I think my parents would be happier with that too.

Heh, well, "just" four drivers should give plenty of output in a normal sized room. But at this price, I see no reason not to get as many as you can fit. :) Wonder how these do in an IB. :D

Don't worry, this Electrical Technician can handle the Ohms law on this one. ;)


How steep of a roll off are we talking? I can deal with 35ish Hz and under, and I think my parents would be happier with that too.

I have no doubt you know tons more about electronics than me. ;)

Yeah, I'd suspect that after room-gain is taken into consideration, the F3 could very well be in the mid 30s, sure.

Heh, well, "just" four drivers should give plenty of output in a normal sized room. But at this price, I see no reason not to get as many as you can fit. :) Wonder how these do in an IB. :D

So....thirty-two will displace about 30 liters, for just $800 (of course shipping wouldn't be cheap). :D

Just doing a REALLY quick model using about 2.5 ft³ per driver, this is what the response looks like. As Willd pointed out, room gain will help quite a bit, but I think EQ would still be necessary.

EDIT: Should have just gone ahead & did this the first time. I revised the graph to show what going up to 4.75 ft³ per driver will do for you (the blue line).

Just doing a REALLY quick model using about 2.5 ft³ per driver, this is what the response looks like. As Willd pointed out, room gain will help quite a bit, but I think EQ would still be necessary.

EDIT: Should have just gone ahead & did this the first time. I revised the graph to show what going up to 4.75 ft³ per driver will do for you (the blue line).

So, I could plan to see easy late 30's with room gain and early 30's with some EQ'ing I'm thinking. It doesn't have to be perfect, just has to have some punch, these are cheap drivers and I won't expect them to be the best thing ever. It will just be cool have 2 quad sub boxes in my basement. ;)


I was planning on makeing a nice hefty dual mono subwoofer amplifier once I secure some more extra fundage, and I was going to throw in some minor EQ'ing, so it shouldn't be too bad. There is alot of stuff at http://www.sound.au.com He is a very nice guy and will help you out even on little side projects of your own.

psycho,if you plan on using 8 of those drivers,you could get away with using small sealed boxes and utulize Rod Elliotts AES project to EQ them flat to 20hz.Those drivers have limited excursion but 8 of them should be able to handle that amount of EQ and of course lots of power will be needed.http://sound.westhost.com/project48.htm

(of course shipping wouldn't be cheap). :D
Being the "take one for the team" kind of guy that I am, I just ordered six more of these "just to see what shipping would cost". ;) Shipping was $34.18 (to Atlanta). My previous order for two of them cost $12.31 for shipping. With the price drop, the second order had three times as many drivers as the first, yet cost almost exactly twice as much. I'm thinking 8 of these should be sufficient for a little background music during brunch on the deck. Let's see how ugly I can make the second box. :D

I was thinking about that project when thinking about this :o

I'm not sure how that would work out on this since I just want 2 mono amplifers. I think that using his sub EQ project might be a better idea when looking at the whole box. I will look into it more once I order the drivers and make the boxes.

Being the "take one for the team" kind of guy that I am, I just ordered six more of these "just to see what shipping would cost". ;)
Ouch, 100bucks to get 8 shipped to Thunder Bay, Ontario. :(

I am using this project with 2 12" woofers in separate boxes and each has its own 200watt amplifier.I run my LFE channel into the EAS which outputs to both amps.It can also sum together the left and right channels.

Ouch, 100bucks to get 8 shipped to Thunder Bay, Ontario. :(

Oh, you live in Canada?

Go the Mach5 route then. (http://www.mach5audio.com/index.php?cPath=21_22&osCsid=90115310240315be0e1d13bedf6f9369)

Being the "take one for the team" kind of guy that I am, I just ordered six more of these "just to see what shipping would cost". ;) Shipping was $34.18 (to Atlanta). My previous order for two of them cost $12.31 for shipping. With the price drop, the second order had three times as many drivers as the first, yet cost almost exactly twice as much. I'm thinking 8 of these should be sufficient for a little background music during brunch on the deck. Let's see how ugly I can make the second box. :D

Just FYI, for all you guys, these things ship in master packs of 4, so shipping is reflected as such. If you live in a state touching Iowa, a 4 pack is about $16~$18 on the shipping.

Farther away you get, more expensive, up to about $27 for people on the coasts.

Darin, do I sense a bigger squirrel proof enclosure in the works?

Most definitely. The new box could be a varmit resort I'm not careful. :)

Most definitely. The new box could be a varmit resort I'm not careful. :)

You know...if you let them in...and then turn it up...they might learn their lesson, I've seen it done to cats.

Heh, yeah, my problem is, being an outdoor sub, it doesn't get regular use. Especially in winter. By the time it gets used, they could have moved in and done their damage. Don't want any dead rodents in their messing up my Fb!! Though with the problem I already have with squirrels in the attic, the bigger concern is them chewing on the surrounds. Is that covered under warranty?

Heh, yeah, my problem is, being an outdoor sub, it doesn't get regular use. Especially in winter. By the time it gets used, they could have moved in and done their damage. Don't want any dead rodents in their messing up my Fb!! Though with the problem I already have with squirrels in the attic, the bigger concern is them chewing on the surrounds. Is that covered under warranty?

As much as I'd love to say yes....unfortunately, no squirrels are used in the manufacturing process so it'd be rather hard to show that as a defect :)

Even without adding any more power, you still get a 3db increase for every doubling of cone area & enclosure volume.

That is incorrect. You're halving the power to each driver while doubling the cone area, keeping SPL the same. More drivers gives more headroom, nothing more.

That is incorrect. You're halving the power to each driver while doubling the cone area, keeping SPL the same. More drivers gives more headroom, nothing more.

Doesn't doubling of the cone area usually yield a 6db increase, while doubling the power only yields a 3db increase?

There are many variables, but the generally accepted "rules" are that doubling cone area (same thing as doubling the drivers, assuming they are co-located), yields a 3db increase. Doubling power without a change in cone area (assuming you are still within the linear range of the driver) will yield a 3db increase. Doubling the cone area AND doubling the power (same as co-locating two powered subs) yields a 6db increase.

That is incorrect. You're halving the power to each driver while doubling the cone area, keeping SPL the same. More drivers gives more headroom, nothing more.
True, only if you connect the co located drivers in series instead of parallel.

halve the power (ie series connection)= -3db

double cone area =+3db

That is incorrect. You're halving the power to each driver while doubling the cone area, keeping SPL the same. More drivers gives more headroom, nothing more.
True, only if you connect the co located drivers in series instead of parallel.

halve the power (ie series connection)= -3db

double cone area =+3db
Hmmm, I don't think the two of you are saying the same thing. You are saying two drivers in series would consume half of the power (in total) of a single driver, but produce the same output as the single driver. That is correct. He is saying that EACH driver would receive half the power, keeping the TOTAL power the same, and doubling the cone area, netting no change in output. That is incorrect. If two drivers were wired in series, the total current would be cut in half, assuming the voltage supplied by the amp remained the same. In series, each driver would see half the current, and half the voltage, so each driver would consume one quarter the power of the single driver setup, not half. So total power would be half, as you said, not the same.

Driver output is a product of the square of the area and the square of the velocity. Velocity is proportional to current, which is proportional to voltage (assuming the same driver). So it takes four times the power to double velocity. In this example, we've doubled the area, and halved the power with the same net output.

I meant that his statement of no gain in output is only true if you add the extra driver and connect them both in series.
If you keep the power the same you will get 3db of gain for the doubling of cone area.

Ah, I see. I agree with you, I just thought you were reading his post differently than I was.

And conversely, if you wire them in parallel, you get a 3db boost for doubling the power, and a 3db boost for doubling the cone area. So 6db extra, assuming you had excursion room in the driver, and headroom in the amp. :D

Ah, I see. I agree with you, I just thought you were reading his post differently than I was.

And conversely, if you wire them in parallel, you get a 3db boost for doubling the power, and a 3db boost for doubling the cone area. So 6db extra, assuming you had excursion room in the driver, and headroom in the amp. :D

Yes +6db, but excursion will be halved for the same output in comparison to a single driver.But the amp must be stable with the lower impedance.

Heh, yeah, my bad: power would double, so power/driver would stay the same, so excursion/driver would stay the same.


Now back to the EHQS... four of the six I ordered arrived yesterday - UPS seems to be giving the other two an extended tour. :rolleyes: The two I already have are excursion limited... I have way more amp than necessary for the two. So quadrupling the number of drivers also allows me to quadruple the amount of power, so there's a 6db increase for the power, and a 6db increase for quadrupling the cone area. 12db increase sounds really impressive until you realize it takes about a 10db increase for a perceptual doubling of output. So all this "free" output for from extra area doesn't go very far when you quadruple the drivers and power, and only double the perceived volume. :(

So you are putting 8 of these in your living room.I like that idea. :D Even though they have limited excursion with the volume displacement available from 8 of them you should have gobs of headroom assuming you have lots of power.

btw. I read your Rythmic write up nicely done.

No, they are for outside, under my deck. The outdoors really eats up the headroom. The EHQS drivers were perfect, because they're cheap, and suitable for outdoor use (no paper cones). And thanks for the compliment on the Rythmik thing... I continue to be thrilled with it. :)

Wow, eD just got a lot more appealing being that they are less than an hour from here. I might drive over there and check them out in person.

No, adding another driver in parallel (doubling overall power) gives you +6dB. If you add another driver and keep the power the same, then each driver is 3dB down from the original driver, but you have 2 drivers so you gain 3dB back for... no difference.

No, adding another driver in parallel (doubling overall power) gives you +6dB. If you add another driver and keep the power the same, then each driver is 3dB down from the original driver, but you have 2 drivers so you gain 3dB back for... no difference.
I'm sorry, but that's not correct. At least not entirely... you are correct in that adding another driver in parallel will produce a theoretical gain of 6db, but only 3db of that is due to the doubling of power. The other 3db is due to the doubling of the cone area. This is because of the better impedance match between the driver and the air. Basically, the energy is transmitted between the cone and the air more efficiently when it's done over a larger area.

I have a 150 watt plate amp that has a 5dB boost at 35Hz. Would there be any way to get that plate amp to work nicely with one of these drivers?

Thanks for the heads up on this deal. I have a pair of them on the way. I'm no looking to use them for home theater use, but rather make a smaller sub used for music. It was either these drivers or the Quattro from Parts Express. Fortunately, these drivers are easy on the wallet. :)

Here is my EHQS sub:
http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?p=332566

Looks great. :)The bedliner makes for a nice textured finish.
So how does it perform?

Still a work in progress. Waiting for the paint to dry right now. Will get her wired up tomorrow!

I am also considering this inexpensive driver in a 100l/3.5 cu ft ported box tuned to 26hz. Fine extension (a bit better than a 15" sealed), but the group delay response models very well, so it should sound tight (good transient response) with little overhang or blur at the lowest freq. Here I would give up ultimate extension (and ultimate SPL - only 9.1mm XMAX) for tighter response -- a more musical sub for a ridiculously low price. A nice balance between the sealed and vented 12" models.

OK, I went ahead and bought the EHQS. Heck, it is only a fraction the price of all other 12" alternatives! :)

Here is my EHQS sub:
http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?p=332566
That cabinet is looking good. A few questions:

Which amp are you going to use?
What are the dimensions of the cabinet?

Since I have a pair of the subs still in boxes, I'm getting excited to get a project going in the new year. :)

I have those and other details over at http://www.icixsound.com/vb/showthread.php?p=332566, but its an MCM 150 watt plate amp, and the cabinet is about 32x16x18. I forget the exact size, the cabinet design changed several times as I was building, but I will measure it once I am finished. Right now I am off to drop in the subs and put on the grills and feet.

Well...I just finished her. New pics are up over at icix. Total size is 32x16x19 for the box, 23 deep with the heatsink off the amp and the speaker grills. Now to find a god damn rca cable to hook it up with!

I am new to the whole building subs and speakers thing so I want to start off with a inexpensive project. Would this sub work decently in a sonosub set-up? For some reason I love the looks of the sonosubs and want two for my home theater.

Yeah, this would work fine for a sonosub. These subs like big boxes, so expect a tall and fat sonosub.

I don't mind it being a large sonotube. I have a big basement that I am slowly (very slowly) turning into a home theater. I actually kind of like it to be a larger enclosure visually. My friends are more impressed with the size of a speaker to anything else. I am most impressed by price and decent performance. I just want the enclosure I build to be the best performing for the sub. Do you think this sub wuld be best suited in a sonotube?

Well...I just finished her. New pics are up over at icix. Total size is 32x16x19 for the box, 23 deep with the heatsink off the amp and the speaker grills. Now to find a god damn rca cable to hook it up with!
Looks great! Thanks for sharing the progress and pictures with us. :)

Glad ya liked it.

...and it sounds GREAT! I have heard several commercial subs in my system (including a HSU STF2) and this DIY EHQS12 single sub keeps up with the best from 23Hz on up. Details of this box:

- 4.0 cu ft heavily cross braced with no stuffing (foam lined and eggcrate opposite the driver)
- BASH 300w amp
- 4 in rear firing flared port 13.5" long giving a 23Hz tune
- Downfiring single EHQS12 driver (sag calcs are fine)
- Corner loading to help with room gain below 30Hz

WinISD models this with a gentle sloping response with a F3 at 30Hz and F8 at 20Hz -- a nice fit into my room with corner placement. Group delay response is fine for a vented system.

This $25 driver is excellent, giving a tight clean response from 30Hz up to my cutoff at 100Hz. Distortion is low and the SQ is similar to a sealed box -- no sloppy bass here. Only 9.1mm XMAX so output is limited, but it works well in my 2100 cu ft room with solid 102db output at 30Hz. Extension is fine and output does drop below the 23hz tune, but distortion is still low with the second order harmonic being 40db below the 20hz tone. In fact, I could not hear the 20hz tone, but my sound meter and TrueRTA was showing 95db output, which shows how clean the response is. Blends well with my modded Magnepan MMGs (which is a tough feat in itself).

I can highly recommend the budget DIYer consider this driver paired up with a PE BASH 300w amp. Build the proper box and you will be amazed at what you can produce for under $200.

And to increase output while keeping costs low, I'd bet a 300w amp could drive two of those drivers to excursion limits, so if someone wanted more output and had the room for a bigger box, you can get an extra 6db for $25 more plus the cost of building a larger box. At $25/driver, you can't help but buy as many as you have space for. :)

I'm very happy with the dual EHQS sub I built. It has quite a punch, but at 6.5ft^3 it takes up a little room... haha

For power I am using the bash 300w. I believe tuning on mine was around 27hz (simulated)

Agreed that this driver sounds "punchy". This sub/box combo sounds great for both HT and music with a solid "mid" lower bass punch (60-80Hz). It keeps up well with the fast bass that the MMGs produce. Good rumble for those movie effects and the 300w BASH provides ample power. Blends well in the room and very difficult to locate the sub -- I think this is more a function of the low distortion driver and heavy box bracing -- no artifacts.

I like this project better than the HSU STF2 and that is saying quite a lot.

BTW, I use the LFE input on the BASH 300w and perhaps this may help explain why the sound blends so well (keeps the xover slopes 2nd order, rather than cascading)

Just ordered one of these to play around with. If I don't like it for the house it will be a good sub for the car. Freakin shipping was half as much as the cost of the driver though! Maybe I should tell them to add a few more to my order...

Here is my pair of cabinets, each using a pair of the drivers: I've always been farting around with car and home stereo systems, installs, upgrading speakers, etc., but never built any cabinets from scratch, so this is my first try project of this nature. I've got a buddy at work that let me use his table saw and misc tools (clamps, rotozip, etc) so I could fill in the blanks of things I was missing.

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1917657/0/nouser_1917/T0_-1_1917657.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1917657)

http://show.imagehosting.us/show/1917661/0/nouser_1917/T0_-1_1917661.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.us/index.php?action=show&ident=1917661)

Tech junk:
Each cabinet is a dual driver, ported system. I used WinISD to determine the cabinet and port size, and then it was time to start cutting. Each cabinet is 48" high, 16" wide and 17.5" deep, with dual 4" diameter, 13" long aeroports. The enclosure is tuned to 27 htz. They are overly braced, screwed, and glued.

The only thing left to do is to finish the cabinets. I've got some rolls of black vinyl laminate from Parts Express that I will try first. I'm not too confident how that will turn out (since its my first try with the stuff). If that doesn't work, I'm going to go with the spray in truck bed liner. I've used some stuff like that in the past, and am more confident how that will turn out.

The sound:

That's the most important part, isn't it? They sound great! Very low, but musical when need be. I've got them driven by an old powerhouse amp I picked up from ebay a few years ago. No idea of the specs but it will run 2 ohm stereo all day long (wow), so I'm guess each woofer is seeing 150-200 watts.

Very good drivers for the $$$.

i would strongly suggest the isobaric route because of the huge boost in low end response. its a heck of a sub for the money, but the B/L is only 7.2, and it really benefits from the iso arrangement. sounds really good though until it gets below 25 Hz. i think its because i made the port too small, and its not located ideally.

i cant put up a link yet, but its 6 cu ft, 22 Hz, and there are two pairs of them isobaric. its running off of a behringer EP2500 and they can take it. in a few more posts, i'll come back and link it up.

Because of the current clearance pricing, I bought the TC Sounds 12" db500 driver which is the same as the db12 used in some SVS subs. It models great in my 4.0cu ft box with f3 at 20hz. Pulled the EHQS12 out, adjusted the in room response with the BFD and sat back for some testing.

With test tones (sine waves), the db500 defintely has better extension. 20Hz and even 18Hz tones are reproduced cleanly with authority. All the tones seemed just slightly cleaner/purer than with the EHQS12. Efficiency is lower, but the BASH 300w drives it nicely.

However the db500 lacks the PUNCH that the EHQS12 gives. It is not level-matching or FR, the db500 just does not hit in the low-midbass 40Hz - 60Hz like the EHQS12. Perhaps it is the group delay (higher in my box) or something else. It was also harder to integrate into my MMGs with the db500. Kept fiddling with the level controls just to get it right. Distortion measures a bit lower with the db500, but only slightly.

Not sure what is going on, but maybe this new driver needs some breaking in. The EHQS12 sounded great from the beginning and integration was a snap.

At least this shows how nice the EHQS12 is....

Would box Q (Qb) have a direct effect on the amount of punch that a sub provides? With the db500, the overall Q is lower. Though the in room freq response is very similar with both sub drivers.

I recall that a higher Q (>0.7) will give a punchier, but peaky response. A lower Q (e.g. 0.5) will give a smooth damped response.

Is this what I am hearing?

has anyone got any response graphs for these subs? something from room eq wizard? thinking of getting 1 or 2 to try out.

here are graphs for about 3.5ft^3 vented, 20 - 25 Hz tune, 150W.

I just built this @23Hz for my daughter in the form of a nightstand.

it actually sounds really good.

according to the room gain simulator, it's capable of 110 dB in room @20Hz (small room)

That's pretty cool :) you guys over here are doing some cool stuff w/ EHQS stuff.

Bumping up this older post. I like that night stand idea.

Several months back, I ordered a pair of these drivers and a pair of 240 watt plate amps from Parts Express. I built a pair of sealed boxes (1.5 cu. ft.), but they sat in my garage. I had too many other projects - framing 1,000 s.f. for my basement, installing 21 recessed lights and renovating 2 bathrooms for a client, in addition to working 40+ hours a week at my desk job.

Well, last evening, my newly constructed bedroom system was a little bass shy just using the monitors with 6.5" woofers. Knowing that my garage was already messed up from the earlier cutting in the evening, I quickly scribed a proper square hole for the plate amp. I then wrapped some good heavy duty weaterstripping around the back of the driver and set about mounting those two components. A nice stuffing of polyfill before finally setting the driver in place also was handled.

After 15-20 minutes of work, I was schlepping the beast up to my bedroom. It's not too pretty at the moment - just bare MDF with skim coats of bondo to seal the joints. However, once I had the receiver configured for the crossover point of 80Hz and everything in place, I was impressed with what I was hearing. Both this one and my next one will just be used for music, no HT. For that I have my SVS sub. But, the sounds this $25 driver produces is amazing! The bedroom is big: 15 x 18' with 10' ceilings. My music sounded nice. Very nice.

I remember back a few years when I also had two sealed enclosures of similar size, but they had Shiva Mark IV drivers instead. The Shivas were over $100 each. I powered those at the time with a pro audio amp. I just wasn't very impressed with this combo. For some reason, it didn't have enough balls.

The new, cheap, eD drivers are keepers for me. Now, I just can't wait to properly finish off both cabinets with paint and get them into proper position.

I'd like to bump this again too. Has anyone else built any of these? and if so does anyone have any response graphs taken in room? Comparisons to other subs??

I just ordered one to play around with, but I haven't decided tuning or anything yet. it actually models out pretty well in winisd, so maybe I'll pickup more than one eventually. But I am by no means a judge for comparison seeing as the only sub I've ever owned was some d&k 50w sub that came free with my projector.

I buile one for 4 EQHS 12's About 10 cu ft with an 8" port 28" long Very nice Rattles stuff I have never heard rattle before. I ma driving them with a BGW 750 c Amp at 2 ohms stereo. Although I am feeding it a mono signal. Very Nice for the money!
WIll post pix soon . They are on my phone and not sure how to put them on here.

Can't wait for the pix.

here's my crappy phone pix 4 X 12 EQHS http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=79469&stc=1
img034.JPG
upper left is where 8" port lies 28" long

So I got one of these, a 4ohm version, and so far haven't been too thrilled. I guess I expected too much for $25. The build quality is fine, the service was fantastic, and it was shipped right away etc... but the driver just doesn't perform like I've seen others reporting. One guy on icix was saying like 139+ db or something at 90w? maybe his enclosure was crazy or something... I tried the driver in a sealed ~1.4 cf enclosure at ~200ish watts and played with the gain etc till there was minimal bottoming-out or anything. I also tried it in a 2.4 cf ported (the port was tuned for another driver at ~ 35 Hz) and the results for both were not extremely desireable.

Compared to an old 12" kicker that we had sitting around it can't keep up in the low end nor in SPL. The sound quality isn't too bad, it's decent in both enclosure in the 40-60 Hz range it seems, but other than that it lacks.

I was hoping for a hidden gem driver for my first HT DIY sub, but I think I'm going to pass on this one and save for something better. I'll probably still use this sub in my car, since I have nothing, and just put it in like a 3.5 cf ported enclosure with ~150w rms to it; should perform well enough for the $ down to 35Hz.

One guy on icix was saying like 139+ db or something at 90w?
LOL, whoever that was, I wouldn't take his reviews very seriously. That just aint going to happen with that much power, or with that much displacement. Unless maybe if you're pressurizing a very well sealed small doghouse.

That being said, I built an outdoor sub with two of these in a ported box, and for the price I certainly can't complain. But these are not output monsters. In fact, I bought six more to turn my driver sub into an 8 driver sub, just to give me more headroom (the outdoors sucks up a ton-o-bass). I think these are a great value, and can give surprising results considering the cost. But there is a limit to what 9mm@12" and $25 can give you.

I decided i had spent enough time on my lazy arse(aka 14hour days) and have some ehqs fun...so i used what i had available for a quick spl test.

1 honda crx
1 280A excessive amperage alternator
1 yellow top
1 eagle picher spl5000 battery
1 rockford fosgate series 1 2600 (1x90bridged @12.6v, 1x120@14.4, tested
2 brand new ehqs 12s (AKA not broken in)
1 box designed for 2 80lb subs and 13kw, ( tuned to 64hz and painfully small for these subs, approx .9cubes per sub, 4 4" aeroports)
1 7yr old cd player which skips easily


end result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSMdasKsOUM

And be sure to watch the very end.....

Ultimate frustration.. my stupid cd player is at fault here... there is over a db difference between holding it down and not.. next step is to just pull it out of the dash, but i didnt have time for that... soooo close though, and imho, very nice for the wrong box, wrong tuning, 50bucks worth of subs and 120WATTS!!!

more to come I assure you


This is his thread about it.

Soooo, that was 140dB from 2 of these guys?

tuned to 64hz

Well, that's the key right there. This is not a home theater subwoofer. This is something built for max SPL. There is a whole culture out there striving for the loudest boom, with little concern for anything else. But you can't expect to take their numbers and extrapolate it to anything meaningful for home theater use.

yea, I really can't see how 1 or 2 of these in any enclosure could be useful down to 20Hz or lower, but maybe I'm wrong. I think I'll wait and pick up either a tc-1000 or one of eD's 12" or 15" sub if I see a good deal for my HT.

until then I'll play with this EHQS in my car I guess.

I agree about the HT usage. I was merely showing that Stephen can be taken very seriously. You didn't specify about any of the details. He did put up that number with that power and displacement.

It's not too bad in HT, but it's pretty darn good in a car. I've got one in a 2.72 cu. ft. @ 30 hz in my car off of 230 wrms. It fills the bottom end very, very well for a $25 speaker.

I agree about the HT usage. I was merely showing that Stephen can be taken very seriously. You didn't specify about any of the details.
Very true. Being a home theater forum, I was applying home theater paradigms, and I should have been more clear. To get to the output levels referenced earlier, you used TWO drivers tuned to 63hz (higher than even Hsu's mid bass module, and certainly not suitable for anything HT related), and measured the output in a CRX (not much bigger than the dog house I mentioned ;) ).

Since mine were mounted outdoors, I sacrificed extension to gain some output, and tuned to what *I* consider to be a high tuning point - about 27hz, with two drivers sharing a box nearly 8 cu ft. If this were mounted indoors, it would have plenty of output as per a brief test in my kitchen). But even at this tuning point, which is still too high for home theater use, the output was nothing even vaguely resembling 139db.

With a very high Q enclosure tuned very high, you can get very high output levels out of just about any driver. But once you start changing the criteria to include traits you'd actually want to listen to, the game changes. :)

Exactly...I just didn't have the words to put it that way.

The mach 5 MAW 12 is another great budget sub, 13mm xmax for $63, this will hit 20Hz fine but forget about anything subsonic. Then there is the dayton http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=295-185 but then you are getting so close to the price the DB500 it would make this a very poor choice

despite knowing this driver won't perform too great I've decided to build a sub with it anyway. I've never built any enclosures before, so I figure this will be learning experience. I ripped apart a little 50w sub I had sitting around and noticed the speaker in it was 4 ohm, so after hooking up the EHQS to the 50w amp it actually sounded better than the 6" crappy driver in the 50w sub.

So after some thought, and measurements I decided to build a box with these outside dimensions: 26" x 22" x 20" with 3/4" mdf yielding me ~5.377 c/f. I'm tuning it to ~26" for the smoothest rolloff in winisd; according to winisd I need 2 4" ports at 16.5" each... I couldn't went with 1 port for this setup, but I'm designing the box in such a way that I can easily add a 2nd driver, and/or use a much more powerful amp, and/or replace with a better driver down the road (probably db500 or t1k)

When I'm done I'll post some pics; this is my first diy so... my circle cutouts suck ass - but I'll carpet the box most likely so it's not a huge deal. It'll weight a ton, and won't really produce much sound till I get a better amp, but it's better than nothing I guess for the $ since I already have the EHQS on hand.

You may be surprised about the 50 watts. If you were to tune that box a little lower and make it a bit larger you'd get a bit better output in the lower end and almost reach xmax with that 50 watts. You'd still be over 100 dB and if you add room gain, depending on your room you'd probably be flat to 18 hz with a 17 hz tune in a 9 cubic foot box. All running at 105 dB. It won't blow your mind, but for a 25$ sub and small amp it'll beat stuff you'd pay a lot more for commercially.

I don't think I could do much bigger... I can barely lift this 5.3 cf box... 9 would just be insane. I'm hoping for decent results down into the low 20s, and I think I'll get them with room gain etc; should be interesting.

I'm almost done with the box, just need one more side (I made a bad cut... it is my first DIY so I need to recut one panel) then I have to decide what kind of covering to use - I think carpet, but I'll see.

9 cf is not so much larger than your 5.3. In fact, going with what you have listed as your dimensions, you could achieve 9 cf with 36 x 24 x 18. Longer than what you described by just 10 inches and 2 inches smaller in the width.

If you already have the box going though, I'm sure it will still exceed expectations from a 25$ sub.