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My new year’s resolution: Dual Dayton DVC385 ported build / DIY HT speaker / room acoustics... - Page 2

post #31 of 72
1/23/13 at 11:53am
Yeah, I see the difference in the pic in the other thread.

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post #32 of 72
1/24/13 at 4:37am
This Dayton DVC385 does seem to be a hell of a value. I am just curious as to how low it will go in both a large ported enclosure powered by 1 channel of an EP4000, and also in a sealed enclosure powered by the same? Is there a way to get this Dayton sub down to 16hz without loosing significant output at that level? What kind of ported enclosure size does the DVC385 work best in? (assuming space is un-limited?)

How does the DVC385 do in the mid-bass regions of say, between 35hz and 100hz?
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post #33 of 72
1/24/13 at 5:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martycool007 View Post

This Dayton DVC385 does seem to be a hell of a value. I am just curious as to how low it will go in both a large ported enclosure powered by 1 channel of an EP4000, and also in a sealed enclosure powered by the same? Is there a way to get this Dayton sub down to 16hz without loosing significant output at that level? What kind of ported enclosure size does the DVC385 work best in? (assuming space is un-limited?)

How does the DVC385 do in the mid-bass regions of say, between 35hz and 100hz?

Above the transition frequency response is very room dependent. Below depends on room gain and the amount of air the sub(s) can displace. There is nothing preventing this sub from reproducing those frequencies, but modal issues play a large role.

6-8cu ft models well for ported enclosures. Flat to 16hz should not be a problem with a ported alignment.
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post #34 of 72
1/25/13 at 5:15am
I wonder how 3 or 4 of these DVC385's in a large ported enclosure tuned to say 17hz, or perhaps a mid-sized sealed enclosure, would compare to a single Dayton HO18 in a similar enclosure?
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post #35 of 72
1/25/13 at 5:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martycool007 View Post

I wonder how 3 or 4 of these DVC385's in a large ported enclosure tuned to say 17hz, or perhaps a mid-sized sealed enclosure, would compare to a single Dayton HO18 in a similar enclosure?

4 to 1 isn't a fair fight. The HO18 craps out about 3-5db louder than a single DVC15 (depending on which ambiguous xmax spec you use). 4 DVC's would have 7-9db on the single 18 HO.

The SI 18 has a little more displacemnt than the Dayton 18 so 4 DVC to 1 SI would only be a 5db advantage to the dayton. Bump it up to a pair of SI 18 and you have as much output as 4 DVC's.
Edited by nograveconcern - 1/25/13 at 5:32am
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post #36 of 72
1/25/13 at 8:05am
Thread Starter 
Yeah two Dayton DVC385's are about equal to one HO18 or SI 18, they are all within 2dB of each other both in sensitivity and max SPL.

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post #37 of 72
1/25/13 at 3:18pm
Nice build. I did something similar in 7.5 cu.ft. tuned to about 17Hz. Have yet to actually try it out, but we will have compare results at some point!

Tim
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post #38 of 72
2/2/13 at 9:54am
Thread Starter 
^ Yet to try it out? eek.gif Who builds a sub and never tries it out, get to it man. biggrin.gif


The past week I have been slowly priming/painting, I just finished the third and final coat of paint yesterday so I should be able to install the drivers today and have a listen. I used Zinsser FastPrime 2 as my primer. It is inexpensive, dries fast and sands well. All you need are two coats sanding in between to seal up the mdf. This was before I applied the second coat.




I was going to use Rustoleum painters touch latex semi-gloss black but I had only half quart left and Menards was out. The guy in the paint department suggested I use this:




He mixed it with three times the normal black pigment for me. BTW that was how much I used after I put a coat on both boxes applying it like the guy does in the Duratex video dipping the roller into the paint without using a pan, I used a 6” roller as well. A gallon was $15 and should last a while considering I put three coats on those 10cuft boxes and only used about a quart.

Here is a single coat on the first box still drying, remember this is going over pure white primer.




After two coats:









Now I need to install the drivers and I’ll get some more pictures and hopefully a measurement and some impressions of their performance.
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post #39 of 72
2/2/13 at 10:01am
Really nice work there!

I hope they sound as good as they look!
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post #40 of 72
2/2/13 at 11:52am
Daaaaammmmmn! Lookin' good Matt! Bet you can't wait to fire them up.
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post #41 of 72
2/2/13 at 2:07pm
Looks great Matt! Awesome paint job.
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post #42 of 72
2/2/13 at 2:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Bley View Post

Looks great Matt! Awesome paint job.

+1 agreed. I can't wait to hear his impressions (no pun intended).... biggrin.gif
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post #43 of 72
2/2/13 at 8:38pm
Thread Starter 
^Thanks guys

Well I spent most the day finishing them up/ testing them out and they are AWESOME! biggrin.gif They blow that 10" JBL away no contest. I ran the KFP skadoosh scene at -5 on the avr with the subs 6dB hot and that put a smile on my face real quick.

I need to replace the in wall speakers; the comb filtering from the dual center gave me headaches. I also feel like there is a lack of midbass punch (70 and up) which I associate to both the crappy in wall speakers and the null starting around 70Hz from the subs in their location. That flattens out with an 80Hz crossover but the in wall speakers just don't have the output to keep up with the subs down there.

Pictures:








Here is the cool part, FR averaged across all seating positions. Flat to 11Hz! NO EQ!!! Which is good because I don't have a miniDSP yet, I'll be picking one up soon because I need it for the highpass if I go to a bigger amp. I also want to try some near field subs as well and need the delay it offers.

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post #44 of 72
2/3/13 at 4:46am
Wow, nice FR! I didn't think the DVC could dig that low.. at least not that flat. Nice job.

Tim
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post #45 of 72
2/3/13 at 5:51am
frequency response looks quite nice.

running a protective high-pass on them?
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post #46 of 72
2/3/13 at 5:56am
Man those look great!
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post #47 of 72
2/3/13 at 6:21am
They turned out great, Matt. Cheers!
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post #48 of 72
2/3/13 at 6:30am
Amazing performance for the money... Well done...
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post #49 of 72
2/3/13 at 7:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nograveconcern View Post

4 to 1 isn't a fair fight. The HO18 craps out about 3-5db louder than a single DVC15 (depending on which ambiguous xmax spec you use). 4 DVC's would have 7-9db on the single 18 HO.

So if I could afford either 1) a single Dayton HO18 ported or sealed and powered by a single EP4000, or 2) a quad set of ported Dayton DVC385's with two powered by each channel from an EP4000 in 4 separate enclosures, does this mean that the quad DVC385's will best a single HO18 in terms of theater performance with regards to extension down low and also output from 17hz to 70hz?
The SI 18 has a little more displacemnt than the Dayton 18 so 4 DVC to 1 SI would only be a 5db advantage to the dayton. Bump it up to a pair of SI 18 and you have as much output as 4 DVC's.
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post #50 of 72
2/3/13 at 8:12am
Awesome results!
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post #51 of 72
2/3/13 at 9:12am
do you have them facing each other?
it's hard to tell from the picture
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post #52 of 72
2/3/13 at 9:22am
Thread Starter 
Thanks, a FR looking that nice without any EQ was totally unexpected. I am glad both subs worked up front as that is just about the only place I can stick them.

zheka - yes they are both facing each other. I tried experimenting with the direction they fire, both left/right, opposed, what’s funny they worked best pointed towards each other so really there is only one sub source in the room.

LTD02 - no high-pass right now, I think they will be ok as I am not giving them a ton of power. Would need to be pretty high <12hz content to get them in trouble.

Marty - Yes you are right with that statement.
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post #53 of 72
2/3/13 at 8:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtg90 View Post

Would need to be pretty high <12hz content to get them in trouble.
So what do you think the actual tuning frequency turned out to be?
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post #54 of 72
2/3/13 at 8:48pm
Thread Starter 
Not sure I would need to run an impedance sweep and see if it shifted any from what was modeled. Below 12hz is where it shows it getting into x-mech territory but that is small signal based they might be fine in the real world.
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post #55 of 72
3/12/13 at 12:28pm
I was playing around with modeling the Dayton DVC 15, came up with an alignment that seemed to work great...then found your build which uses pretty much the same specs I was looking at. Great job on the construction. I will probably copy yours almost exactly.
Your in room frequency response looks amazing. In your last post you said you were going to check impedance to verify the tuning frequency. Had a chance yet? Any subjective observations with music/movies?
Running different alignments, it seemed that plugging one of the ports would drop the tuning to about 10hz. This would give better excursion protection and output in the ultralow frequencies, but less output 15 - 20hz and may lead to port noise. I have a smaller, enclosed room, so the lower tune might mesh better with my room gain. Would be very interested to see you redo the in-room response with one port plugged on both subs.
Now just waiting for Parts Express to put these things on sale again, though I doubt we'll see $99 any time soon.

Just to clarify, the port flares and the PVC pipe are glued butted end to end and the inside diameters are the same so there is no gap or step to cause turbulance?
Edited by DavidK442 - 3/12/13 at 12:44pm
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post #56 of 72
3/12/13 at 2:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hi David,

No chance to double check port tuning yet but I bet I can get around to it later today. As for observations to be honest I have not listened to them much since I finished them. They dig deep and have plenty of output but I feel all midbass punch is missing. I am not 100% sure if this is the subs or the placement/room but I have a feel it is the latter. I am in the middle of replacing the in wall speakers with some of my DIY designs and also going to experiment with some nearfield subs, then I'll move onto treatments. Things are going pretty slow in the room so it may be a while I can get everything together and give them a good thorough listen. Right now everything down there is disconnected as I am working on building a new equipment cabinet.

The 10hz tuning would be interesting but I think I would prefer the greater output above 15hz as there is more content there that will take advantage of it. When I get everything back together I'll be sure to take some measurements with one port plugged. Your are right the ports flares and the 4" pvc have the same ID and are just glued end to end. I also ran a piece of tape around the inside seam as my glue job was not perfect and there was a little gap which the tape helped smooth out.
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post #57 of 72
3/15/13 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 
I forgot to check the other day but managed to test them with the WT3 today, tuning looks like it ended up between 14 and 15hz.

I'll try to get some measurements with the port plugged over the weekend, I also need to get some pictures of how things are coming along.
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post #58 of 72
3/16/13 at 4:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtg90 View Post

I forgot to check the other day but managed to test them with the WT3 today, tuning looks like it ended up between 14 and 15hz.
Pretty much where you calculated it to be. Great when theory lines up with reality.
Thanks for offering to test with one port plugged. I think it will be an interesting experiment and will help me with my build.
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post #59 of 72
3/16/13 at 6:31pm
Thread Starter 
Here is a quick measurement at the LP no EQ/filtering with 1 port plugged vs both open:
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post #60 of 72
3/16/13 at 9:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtg90 View Post

Here is a quick measurement at the LP no EQ/filtering with 1 port plugged vs both open:

red curve is the single port version, correct?
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