Dayton DIY Kits

They are good, solid kits for someone who isn't interested in DIY or doesn't have the tools on hand to build a sub. Certainly, they are a great value when pitted against other commercially offered HT subs in the under $800-ish range. When I was living overseas and didn't have any of my tools I bought a Dayton 10" ported HT sub with the built-in plate amp. I thought it was a good value for the money.

With a $340-ish budget, you could get more performance for your money if you DIY. But that assumes you already own some basic power and hand tools and know how to use them.

My two pennies.

Even though the box is undersized, you would get better performance buying that pre-built cabinet and SA250 amp separately, and then use a RSS390HF instead of the much lower quality woofer that comes with that 15" kit. Yes it costs a little more, but the RS woofer will go deeper, and sound better.

Jay1 makes a very good point. You would get much better performance and the cost increase would only be $40-ish.

I've assembled the 1500 for a few friends. They produce good sound, i add a little more insulation to it. Not a bad deal

I have been running the 15" Titanic kit with some added internal bracing in the PE cab now for 9 years. I bought it when I lived in an apt and had no means to build something for myself. It has served me very well. Only after buying a home with an open floor plan have I thought I needed a boost output. I can honestly say I have been satisfied with the product though.

I know this is out of your budget, but I thought I would comment on the reliability of the titanic kit. I have no idea if it runs down the line though.

Jay1's suggestion is excellent. You can buy the HF 15" driver that is highly regarded and the amp. You can either purchase a pre-built cabinet or make one yourself. There are straightforward designs for DIY cabinets in this forum that individuals can refer you to.

A caution: I am quite certain the screw holes in the 15" HF driver do not line up properly with the screw holes in that particular cabinet
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=302-830 . If you read the review comments, you will discover at least one person who had difficulty.

Very good suggestion, I would use the HO version in that box though, not the HF. If I recall it models more favorably in a small box.


A 15" speaker works less to displace the same amount of air a 12" has to displace. For example the cheapest 15" sub option on PE has 9.3mm excursion. The HF 12" has 14.3mm excursion. Still the 12 only displaces 66% as much air as the 15, that is if you can push the 12 to xmax with 240W Anyways moral of the story is it is HARD for smaller drivers to compete with larger ones.

This gets complex with driver distortion, necessary wattage to reach X-max, thermal capacity of the motor, and other considerations which should be properly modeled and assessed.



Even the DVC is quite a driver upgrade and it does fit the mounting holes. The driver you choose really should be modeled in the box with the power from the sa240 to see which works best.

If you have a way to cut the driver/amp cutouts you can definitely save a little money, and build a larger box that will work better. You can take a 4'x8' sheet of mdf/ply cut it down to 8 approximate 2'x2' pieces and assemble a box with braces. That will give you ideal size to maximize the RSS390HF's performance. What you gain over the cheaper woofer is deeper response, and cleaner sound. Essentially you get a sub that sounds like a much more expensive one, and your total cost remains low since a sheet of wood is around $35. You could even swap in a slightly more powerful amp or a far more powerful amp depending on how you feel about your budget. Only difference over the SA250 is 3db headroom for the 500w amp, and a band of eq (nice).

There isn't anything precise to follow assembling a sub like this, since it isn't ported/horn. Difference's in volume gradually adjust the response, but nothing drastic happens unless you go from one extreme to another (tiny vs huge). Take 6 of the 2'x2' pieces you cut and do a mock assembly, then take the extra 2'x2' pieces and cut them down a little until they fit as braces inside the box (dont forget to remove material from the insides of the braces so they resemble something like a window pane), then screw and glue it all up, if you dont have clamps.

"If there was a standard "everybody in your budget agrees this one is a great choice" project, I'd would definitely consider it."

there are tradeoffs in all designs, so there is not "one is best for everybody".

constraints such as small size, low price, high efficiency, deep frequency extension all find their way into different designs.

for you, if you have the skills and don't mind building a large enclosure and want the absolute most sound per $, then a horn is a great option. something like lilmike's f20 will fill your largish room pretty well. it is big, but not expensive and will slaughter the dayton cube kit idea for performance.

also the f20 is proven and lilmike has detailed cutsheets.

as for performance, down around 20hz, the f20 will beat the sealed version by more than 10 db, which means that you would need TEN 15 inch drivers to get the same spl with the same power. and over most the rest of the bass region, the horn is 6db ahead, which means that you would need FOUR drivers to get the same spl.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1329971