DIY for a college student. Dayton SD270A-88 10" in a ported box. - Page 2

Okay so my current plans are:

Dayton RSS390HF
CSS PA500 linked above
~6.5 cu ft. I'm going to aim for this but not complain too much if it ends up a little less due to bracing, ports, etc.
2, 23" ports
Tuning to 20 Hz which gives me this SPL


A couple questions:

What order is the subsonic filter? Can I change that, or will I have to live with it in terms of what it would do to rear port velocity and excursion, which is barely above the max. I doubt I'll ever raise it above even 90 dB, so I'm not too concerned with that.

Can I put the ports front facing? I think that would be a lot better looking, but would someone sitting near the sub feel the air moving?

What sort of bracing should I use? Minimal to increase volume?

Awesome thank you! One last question: does the CSS amp you linked come with the 25 Hz boost or does my receiver provide that?

Sounds good! I'm just going to aim for the biggest box I can make up to about 9 cu ft and then see what happens! Shoot I forgot: do I need filler or insulation of any kind?

I actually decided against building a sub until I'm out of my apartment and into an actual house far in the future. If my parents let me build one for their guest house I will update!

6/7/13
Decided against everything I had put previously. I'm going for the Dayton SD270A-88 10" in a 3.5 cu ft. box tuned to 24 Hz wit ha 70 watt amp. It will measure 24x13x19 in order to fit under my parents TV, as I am home for the summer and would like to enjoy it. The parts arrived today and I got 3 2'x4' sheets of 3/4" MDF at Home Depot, so the build will hopefully start tomorrow and be done shortly after. Will update with pictures as it gets done.

Total cost so far:
Dayton Audio SA70 70W Plate Amp - $59.60
Dayton Audio SD270A-88 10" DVC Subwoofer - $39.56
Precision Port 4" Kit - $19.37
3 sheets of 2' x 4' 3/4" MDF - $24.96 (the lady only scanned 2, didn't realize until too late)

6/8/13
I'm a little puzzled as to how to wire it. Looking at this page (even though there are 2 8-ohm voice coils), it seems like either configuration would work. Should I do series just so it doesn't overheat or cause damage? I'm really not sure how this works.

Also, do the wires then just go into the amp connections and stay there, or do I solder them in?

Thanks Jay I will be doing parallel for sure. Just with some speaker wire? Should I solder it to or just tie it around the terminals? Also how do I attach the wire to amp connectors? Stuff it in? Thanks for the help!

6/8/13 #2
We began construction today. Fun fact: 3/4" MDF from Home Depot is said to be 23 3/4" wide but is actually a bit over 24", which works great for my 24" wide box!

We cut the pieces for the box, and then either the height of the smallest panels was off when we cut them, or the 3/4" is lightly larger than 3/4", so we had to cut that down a little bit.

Here are a couple pictures of test fitting the panels:




Then we estimated the circle sizes of the subwoofer and the port using parts and the foam circle the woofer came in.



We used a circle bit for the pilot holes and then a plain old jigsaw to cut the circle. Decide against baffles just for ease, but did roundover the edges. Also, the hole for the amp was made the same way.





We glued, clamped, and nailed the top, bottom, and side panels, will work on the rest tomorrow.



The final dimensions will be 24"x14"x19" with around a 11" port tuned to 25 Hz. Hopefully the loss of interior volume won't be too much to alter the tuning, but this is an imprecise and first project just to dip into DIY. We'll probably brace it with just some dowels going both way.

6/10/13

Yesterday went quite well! We finished gluing the box together, extended the wires on the amped, wired the parallel connections on the subwoofer coils, and ran a quick test to see if there was sound. Even got the edges rounded over and the whole box sanded with a random orbital sander. Next comes painting! I will be doing a primer followed by fiberglass filler and then matte black spray paint with some sanding and such.

Here's the box with the back panel glued on:


And the front panel with the holes for the driver and the port:


From there we went in and cut off the connectors on the amp and lengthened them a bit with a pretty cool soldering torch (I've only used the old fashioned hot metal rod in electronics classes) and then put some heat shrink on to keep it even more secure.






We also wired the driver in parallel when we did the amp:


Then we headed back to the workshop and glued the front panel on and clamped it:


As well as gluing the port together:


After the front dried I had to make sure the port fit, and it did!


I bought 2 2 pound bags of polyfill from Joann's which I'm sure will be enough to get it good.


Here's some pictures of the box after rounding it and sanding it:




Now for what we did today. Really the only thing left was painting! I decided instead of priming and sanding and spreading filler to go with just plain old bedliner for a truck. It actually filled in most of the holes very well, and some of the cracks were a little open but hopefully no one will notice. This is the paint that we used:


Here's the box after the first coat:


The second coat:


And the third and final coat:



From here, we just have to mount the amp, wire it to the woofer, and mount the woofer and port with some screws! Operation subwoofer almost complete.