THT Build

Well the time has finally come to build a THT (took a couple of years for the wife to give in). I'm replacing a Mirage PS-12-90 which was painful to listen to for movies and somewhat filled out the bottom end of music. Needless to say, I can't wait to hear what the THT can do.

I'm building a 24" wide version and have a few pictures of the build so far that I will be post later (as soon as I figure it out). I have made all of my plywood cuts and am ready to start putting the sub together but absent a 15" driver I cant go any further with the build. I live in Dayton, OH and was hoping Parts-Express would stay true to their timeline of availability for the Dayton DVC 385-88, (even called them a couple of times to confirm delivery today) but it appears they won't be in stock. What sub should I use as a viable alternative? I'd like to proceed with the build ASAP and don't really know where to turn.

Also, I'm curious how my Denon 3808CI will do with sub EQ. I really don't want to plop down a few hundred for an omnimic or alternatives and use MiniDSP etc. right now if I don't have to. That being said, if Audyssey XT isn't enough on the sub calibration front I will. I'm planning on building a dedicated theater downstairs within a couple years and know that I will eventually use REW or similar and a decent mic setup but don't know how necessary it is now.

I'm using the Dayton SA240 amp and for now the THT will be in a room with primarily hard surfaces and no acoustic treatments. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Cyneric

Thanks for the recommendation of the RSS390HF-4... I'm picking one up and the materials for the rest of the build today.


To be quite honest I would love to put two THTs in my living room right now but that scores about 0 on the WAF. As it is I'm pushing my luck with one of these beasts. Eventually, I will build a second when we finish the basement. I just hope the modes, nulls etc. in the living room won't be too horrid with just one sub. It's hard to tell whether they will or not right now because I have better bass reproduction from my center channel than my 15 year old sub.

These are just a few pictures of the build so far... I'm hoping to make a lot more progress this weekend now that I will have a driver. As far as finishes, I really like the look of the some of the piano black THTs. Is it much more difficult to finish it in piano black vs matte black?

Well I've made some progress on the build and am going to try and embed some photos.



Cutting the hole for the driver in panel 3.



I test fit the driver and everything went well but the hurricane nuts I'm using overlap the plywood a little bit. It looks like the driver would never make contact with them but I don't know whether I should grind them down or not.




Glued panel one into place. This is all I've done for now and will be making more progress next weekend.



Some excess PL. I've seen some builds where it's oozing out of the cracks... Am I going too light on the PL?



Testing out a new brad nailer to hold things in place . Seems to be working really well. We had all of the internal panels drawn out on the side panel and decided to drill small holes in the middle of the 1/2 inch plywood layout of the side panels and connect the dots on the opposite side so we would know exactly where to brad. If that sentence makes no sense let me know and I can try to explain further

Lol I'm certainly not in a rush to replace all of my drywall nails with screws. I also have the sneaking suspicion that my wife may notice a second THT considering it would be about a food taller than she is if I stacked them... I remember seeing your video of the nutcrackers doing 360s. Needless to say, I will not be showing that video to her...

As far as finishes go, I'm not sure if I want to invest the time to get the piano black finish just right but we'll see as I get closer to the end of the build.

Your THT is the one that inspired me to finish in piano. I also really like the gold stripe and tuba HT written on the cab. I also have a full Def Tech setup so I was planning on the piano finish to blend with the rest of my gear. After your comment about it blending perfectly with the Mythos ST I think I may have to go the piano finish route.

How much time did the piano finish take? What steps and products did you use? I've never finished anything like that before and would love to get it right the first time.

One thing I just thought about was the fact that I didn't use my big clamps on the end of panel one to hold it to the side panel. Will the PL expanding be a problem and cause leaks? It it too late to clamp or will things be alright and I should just clamp more in the future?

Made some more progress last night. There really is no substitute for some good clamps and a brad nailer. Sorry for the shoddy image quality - not everyone can be like PassingInterest... especially with a camera phone.









More to come...

Will do. Thanks Bill.

I guess this post is more related to finishing the theater in my basement but it has a lot to do with the THT. I was considering a drop ceiling but could also go the drywall route. Will the pressure from two THTs move the panels in a drop ceiling? I cannot stand noise from rattling glasses etc. while watching a movie or listening to music and I'm afraid panels shaking would drive me crazy.

Well that answers that... Thanks for the clarification dbl!

Though I can agree that going out with house collapsing around you would be legendary, I don't want to be that guy nor do I think I'll be close with one THT. That said, I do agree that the tactile response I get from my floor shaking during explosions etc. is very cool during movies. I used to have buttkickers so I'm certainly not one to shy away from a little shaking but I've never had a sub capable of shaking the walls so I guess I shouldn't knock it before I try it.

I'll have to keep my eyes open about the possibility of enjoying hearing my house flex. I still think I'm going to drywall the ceiling though after seeing dbl's video. From the looks of it, I'd probably have panels bouncing out of place and landing on me if I ran the subs on full blast with a drop ceiling.

I'm hoping to finish the sub on Sunday except for painting the exterior. How important is breaking in the driver? I'd love to fire it up for a test run.