MFW-15 Project Advice Needed - Page 3

Well I finished up my project. I went ahead with the 3cuft design, though nothing fancy with the enclosures (which was good, this being my first time working on a cabinet this large). I definitely learned to cut the pieces larger than needed so I could let the router do the work, although a little too late. In spite of everything I think they came out nicely, and even if they're not the prettiest, they still sound pretty impressive, especially in my small space.

I won't have a chance to do any finishing (in terms of stain/paint) for a while, but I've started to consider my options. I'm thinking of having a painted front baffle, and staining the rest. For that kind of finish, which do you think I should start with? Should I paint first, then tape it off to stain, or stain and tape that off to paint?

I'll post up some REW plots when I get a chance. Hopefully it'll look alright, although if it doesn't there's not much I can do outside of EQ since they're placed in the only possible positions due to space constraints.

Anyway, below are a few pictures of the subs as they stand, and the kind of finish I'd like to go for.

Thanks. I've got a more detailed build log in my blog if anyone's interested in seeing all the mistakes I made, haha.

I also have one more question. Do you think spikes would be worthwhile? The subs are just sitting flat on the floor right now. I'm wondering if it would make a difference in the sound.

Here's the REW graph for these subs. The purple was taken after I stuffed them with some polyfill from Walmart pillows, and the blue one was taken without polyfill.

Unfortunately I don't have much flexibility with placement (as in, they have to stay where they are now), and this won't be my permanent residence, so room treatments wouldn't be worth it for now. I'm guessing this means that EQ is the only way to go to try to flatten this out?

Any help would be appreciated.

I just finished up the final coat today. I decided to stain the whole cabinet to keep things simple, instead of painting the front baffle black. The original rationale for the paint was because of some of my screwups during construction that required lots of of wood filler to remedy. I think it turned out pretty well in spite of the fact that the filler is kind of hard to miss.

I ended up finishing these with 3 coats of wipe on poly. I was planning on going up to 8-9, but it went on very nicely, and I reached the finish I was going for with just a single can (which was also nice).

Here's the result before final assembly. I'll be taking them outside for some beauty shots (at least I think they're beautiful ) in the next couple of days.

Thanks to everyone for all the help!

I dropped the drivers in and hooked them up today. I noticed quite a difference from when they were set up previously. It may just be me, but I think it might have to do with the bracing. Originally I only had side to side bracing, since I knew I would be opening them up again, but when I went to do the staining I added some top to bottom bracing. Before, I could feel the subwoofers quite a bit more, but now I don't feel it as much, and it seems to sound a bit cleaner. Maybe the bottom was flexing, causing more vibrations? Seems unlikely considering how rock solid these things felt even before the bracing. Would that be within the realm of possibility?



I had my BIC H100 hooked up while these were out of commission, so before I hooked up the new guys again, I took the opportunity to measure both sets from the same position (and tried to get the same level). So here are the results. The MFW-15's look pretty much the same as before, but the comparison was interesting.

Yeah, they were laying flat. The polyfill is just some walmart pillows. One per cabinet. I'm not sure how much was in each one, but I doubt it was 3lbs. Would you recommend more?

Thanks for the info, I didn't think the polyfill would have that big an effect. I thought it was just to mask mechanical noise. Good to know. I'll have to go check on those polyfill bags at a different walmart. They just didn't have any at the one I went to. The pillows were "Standard" size.

Dredging this up for a little advice. Eventually I'd like to get a MiniDSP to play around with EQ, and to add an LT for these guys (2 MFW-15 in 3cuft boxes) if possible. Will these drivers be able to handle an LT? I know the power rating and excursion for the MFW-15 aren't the greatest, but my understanding is that the small volume of the box should keep the excursion in check at least in terms of not damaging the driver, right?

Very true, haha. Thanks! And that's good to hear. Can the same be said for the Dayton DVC? Down the road (probably a long way down) I'd like to build up a couple more, and with the MFW-15s dried up, that looks like the best option.