DIY for a college student. Dayton RSS390HF in a ported box

I would get the enclosure here:
http://www.diysoundgroup.com/flat-packs-1/subwoofer-flatpacks-2.html

Need some more details though. How large is the room this is going in? Do you have a sub now? What are your expectations for $300?

Keep in mind these flat packs are for sealed subs not ported.

$300 will be a stretch if you can't build the box yourself (lack of tools).

If it was me, I would go with a 3.5cu ft enclosure from the site I sent you above. At that point you just need to buy some wood glue and maybe some clamps to assemble the box. Then I would buy some primer and paint (spray cans work great, just go online and learn how to properly use spray paint and what techniques to follow). Probably looking at $40 or so for all this.

This does not leave you too much for a woofer and amp. You could get something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Reference-1262w-1200-Watt-High-Performance/dp/B0028AYIXK/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1359747460&sr=1-6&keywords=Infinity+Reference

And put it in a smaller enclosure (say 2.25 to 3ft) and then add an amp like this:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=301-508

The trick will be getting the 12" driver to fit the enclosure (pre-cut) and you would want to contact Erich at the DIY Sound Group to see what he can do for you.

If you want to put a little more money into this, you could get a woofer like this one for a 3.5 cu ft enclosure from the above:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=295-190

This will give you more output and extension, but it clearly costs more and you would need a beefier amp to really benefit. I would go with an external amp like an Inuke 1000 that can be found for around $175 shipped. But you would need around $450 for the above.

Ported subs are a great way to go, but if you don't have any tools, will be more difficult to build. Ported subs are typically larger as well.
Edited by ack_bk - 2/1/13 at 1:18pm

If you don't have any tools at all then your best bet would probably be a subwoofer kit from Parts Express. PE has a bunch of kits which include the cabinet: link.

Just about any DIY solution will end up costing more than $300 if you don't already have tools, since you'll need to invest in tools (such as clamps) to put the box together.

If you have a Home Depot nearby they will usually make the cuts for you on a full sheet as well with a small charge per cut. The only problem is I have seen them use a dull blade.

Unless you think the build will be FUN, just get this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882780078&nm_mc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-Home+Audio+Speakers-_-Klipsch-_-82780078

Works great with my BS21s. You do have a center, yes?

Michael

Edited by LastButNotLeast - 2/2/13 at 12:22pm

You can certainly try. If your college machine shop has a router it will really make life easy for you.

The flat packs are really nice, but with such a tight budget the more you can DIY the better. But if you don't have the tools, or have access to them, and your budget is a tight $300 the RW12 is not a bad way to go. You can always go DIY later. But it would not take much to put together a sub that would be a big upgrade of the RW12.

If you can do the cabinet yourself, you could do it for under $300 with a properly sized ported Infinity 1260W and a 250 watt plate amp.

woofer - $60

amp - $125

4" port - $14

sheet of 3/4" mdf - $35

glue - $5

finishing materials could eat up the rest.

Something like a 16" W x 22" H x 24" D box, with a 4" x 17" port (4" precision port kit) would give you a box approximately 3.5 ft3 internal tuned to 22hz. If you do a good job on the build this will outclass the cheaply made klipsch sub, and have no issues at max output.

Obviously spending more on the driver/amp, and building a bigger box will lead to another level of performance

You could basically get a 500 watt amp and a 15" woofer with that budget. The cabinet would need to be around 3 ft3 larger, and at least dual 4" ports needed

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=295-468

http://www.creativesound.ca/details.php?model=PA500

22" W x 24" H x 28" D box, a pair of 4" x 23" ports (would have to use PVC or ABS pipe). Would be good for about 6db more output then the 3.5 ft3 250watt 1260 sub above.

Nope, no plans. Just sketch it out on a piece of paper is what I usually do. When you account for the 3/4" panel thickness, it's pretty easy to figure out what size the 6 outer panels need to be. You can then plan out a few braces that fit inside as well.

The port would just be 4" pipe you find at HD or Lowes cut to the size you need.

Personally I would recommend scouring the build threads on this site to get ideas. Hometheatershack is another forum where there are tons of build threads. Take a few days and read through as many as you can to get ideas. It should help answer a lot of your questions and you can always steal someone else's build and duplicate what they did.

I would also recommend downloading Winisd Pro to do some modeling:
http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisdpro

Here is quick guide on how to use it:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/diy-subwoofers-general-discussion/6330-winisd-pro-tutorial-download-detailed-guide-how-use-winisd-pro.html#axzz2JmDnoq00

If you can go with a larger box, check out this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1448773/my-new-year-s-resolution-dual-dayton-dvc385-ported-build-diy-ht-speaker-room-acoustics-upgrade

That is a $119 woofer.

But you would want a good amp to power it, a 500 watt amp should be fine.

There are 2 or 3 drivers you should consider for such a budget. 1) Infinity 1260W 2) Dayton DVC385 3) Dayton DVC315

Add a 200W or 300W Yung Amp and a DIY Sound group enclosure....

That should be a nice combo. It would walk all over the Klipsch sub. I would also look into an amp like this one:
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/NU1000DSP.aspx

It should give you more output (bridge mode) and has EQ which allows you to put in filters to either limit or boost power where you want to. And if you wanted to add a matching second sub down the road, you would be able to do that if with this amp. On the negative side it is a little loud (there are simple and cheap fan mods out there) and is external and a little ugly

I see them brand new on Ebay for $250-270 shipped all the time.

Yup the dimensions arent really important, just the volume.

You're going to need a high pass filter for a ported sub, which is built into plate amps.

Well, you dont want want that amp for a typical ported build. Add a parametric EQ of 6db boost at 25hz and see what that does to your response. People on this forum have also reported ALL of the Yung amps have 30hz HPF's, making them a bad choice for most builds. The amp I linked you in post #14 clearly states a 20hz filter making it easy to predict. All of the plate amp's filters are built in and always on, most dont say anywhere what the frequency is though, most have been figured out over time.

It's hard to model max output with boost. 6db means 4 times as much power, so you would use 125 watts to model 6 db of boost with a 500 watt amp, but that is only for the region receiving boost. The area above the boosted region will receive more power, and the boosted region will compress eventually, but you cant model that.

You're also not gaining to much tuning below the high pass filter. This comparison is showing your 8 ft3 16hz, vs the 6.5 ft3 20hz I proposed earlier. The much larger lower tuned box only has 0.5 db more at 20hz and 1 db more below 20hz output when a 20hz HPF is factored in.




Youre also pushing past xmax in the large low tune. The 8 ft3 cabinet tuned to 20hz would be a good choice.
Edited by Jay1 - 2/6/13 at 7:27pm