From endless contemplation to fruition: James' First DIY 18" Sub. How low can you go...$-wise? - Page 7

I'll get to it tonight, gang.

James
Edited by mastermaybe - 10/24/12 at 8:24am

Thanks viva. The cabinet is actually incredibly inert straightaway, but there are also small rubber "bumper feet" fastened to the underside of the tray feet.

Now I have them atop some black rubber coasters but Im going to pick up a few smaller furniture/chair leg rubber "pods" and integrate them.

Perhaps I'll throw together a vid with the cabinet during some spirited playback. I'm quite impressed with the cabs overall quietness, for lack of a better word.

James

BTW: my little girl really does leave it alone and the one time she went after it, it was fine.

It is a VERY thick aluminum and even the dust cap is quite robust.

I think you really have to be going out of your way to harm it.

I promise Ill post more comprehensive feedback today. I've just been very busy the last few days.


James

^ ha ha. Nah, just very busy.

In word though, the sub sounds great. I've been running it alone for a few days now and it's really doing a fine job filling my decently-sized living/dining room space (~ 3500^3's).

I haven't reached its limits (the driver's mechanical limits, anyway) yet, but I likely never will as there's "just" 500 watts going into it, and between it and my Captivator, I have a lot of output, period.

I honestly haven't noticed anymore extension from it (over my Cap), but let's get real: how much music has content much under 20hz (no, I don't listen to the shockingly bad "bass-head" and dub step garbage...yeah, even the "good" dub-step, lmao).

I have my BD demo disc though so I'm going to go through some of the standard toture tests tonight and see what happens. So far I'm very impressed and I'm very happy my cabinet is more inert than I thought it would be.

I shall return.

James

I thought I just said I was going to do precisely that, lol?

I don't need 130db 8hz bass. Already experienced it on a few systems and it's simply not a worthwhile goal to chase in my estimation when you consider the monetary and physical space requirements...never mind the sheer relative lack of content out there. Yeah, I know people can name 2 dozen movies containing significant sub 10 hz content, now contrast that against the total number of films available, never mind ones you actually want to watch, lmao. But I digress.

Music is important to me so I want the sub to perform well in that regard and I'm happy to report that it has, thus far.

I own dozens of movies with absurdly low extension...many of them on my demo disc so I'll have a good idea later.

James
Edited by mastermaybe - 10/29/12 at 12:44pm

Ok, went through a LOT of the low-end staples tonight: FOTP, WOTW, Cloverfield, Hulk, U571, etc.

What a performer as far as I'm concerned.

I was clipping the 500 watts coming out of the Crown and I never heard a foul sound out of it. Very controlled, actually. I thought the WOTH at "0" on the dial would surely put it in the danger zone, but again, I was almost certainly out of gas, amp side, at that point.

Excellent, excellent, though when you consider the $300 price tag.

I will admit that my entertainment stand that's really currently serving as the worlds largest center channel stand could be removed for a 7 foot long, 2,000 watt 16^3 quad-drivered cab for $1000.

Crickey, talk about output potential.

So throw a 500/1000 watt plate amplifier in the cabinet and I don't know how you could beat it for $450-$500 all day, anywhere near the size, honestly.

James
Edited by mastermaybe - 11/1/12 at 6:47pm

^ Hard to say re how low it will go. I currently have a 12hz HPF on it, which I think really starts cutting ~20hz unfortunately, but I'm not really wanting for much extension thus far. I'd guess I'm getting meaningful stuff to the 13-15hz neighborhood.

The Cap has a 2 kilowatt amplifier attached to it with 30mm of excursion in a cab tuned to 15z. It's output surely surpasses it across the board. It's also $2,000 of course.

Again, for $300, I cannot and won't complain, it's a fantastic sub that would prolly do- or "overdo" it for 99% of the populace in most rooms.

James

I'm sure once this driver sees a bona fide test with measurements we'll have much more definitive answers, but I'd say for $250 it's a homerun.

James