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450 Posts
Hello all,
The blessing of a new baby boy has literally lite a fire under my buttox to work on finishing my dedicated theater room. Before this, I had planned to learn slow and take my time researching and making a decision on a build. Now I feel a much greater urgency to get things going. Although I have built two DTS-10s and am constantly try to read and learn from those in the DIY forum, I would still consider myself a rookie to DIY. I am a sheet metal mechanic who has had some plastics fabrication and machining experience so my handy skills are pretty good.
Some general information about my build and ideas are as follows
Previous subs:
I was running 2 DTS-10s which I built with a single EP4000.
Before that I had 2 AV123 MFW-15s
Room and sub space dimensions:
My room dimensions are approx. 20'L X 12'W X 8'H
My screen wall is built in front of an encove that is 8'W X 7'H giving me an available sub volume area of 96"W X 24"H X 23"D.
Goals:
I want to essentially match or better the performance of what I was getting out of my DTS-10s to include clarity and output (maybe stable down to 15-18hz). I do not think I am a crazy output freak like some of you maniacs
I read about. My purposes and motivation for extra power/displacement would be to decrease THD. I feel the output would be there anyways using 4 properly powered drivers.
My ideas:
Given the measurements of the alloted sub space I have, I feel that multiple (4) sealed enclosures or 2 dual opposed enclosures would be best. The first idea of sealed enclosures is pretty straight forward. I think last time I checked, Erics 4cuft flatpack would fit this space fine. The only way I could do dual opposed is to orientate the enclosure deep side facing the viewer (drivers firing at each other and the side wall).
Driver selection:
Dayton 18HO- Very popular choice as of late but there seem to have been arguments as to its sub 20hz performance and output.
Q Would these work better in separate sealed enclosures across the front stage or dual opposed configuration oriented as described above?
SI HT18- Cheapest of the bunch and model similarly to the HO. Configuration and number of drivers would probably be identical to the 18HO.
FTW21- These got put on my list when I read about the preorder pricing and shipping. IIRC, these drivers optimally require approx. a 6cuft enclosure so I would probably only be able to fit 2 in the space I have. I might be able to fit 4 drivers in a dual opposed configuration but I think that would be really stretching it.
Q: My question about using this driver would there be a audible concern trying to build a 6cuft enclosure using this driver with only 23" of depth to work with?
Q: Powered by two EP4000s or a Cervin Vega CV5000 would two FTW21s be plenty in my space.
Final thoughts:
Right now, with the FTW preorder going on, I think I need to get to a decision quickly as far as what driver and configuration would be best for my space. Once again, I am new to this so I apologize for the lack of technicality in my post. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I will maybe post a pic. of behind my screen wall if that would benefit.
Thanks in advance!!!
The blessing of a new baby boy has literally lite a fire under my buttox to work on finishing my dedicated theater room. Before this, I had planned to learn slow and take my time researching and making a decision on a build. Now I feel a much greater urgency to get things going. Although I have built two DTS-10s and am constantly try to read and learn from those in the DIY forum, I would still consider myself a rookie to DIY. I am a sheet metal mechanic who has had some plastics fabrication and machining experience so my handy skills are pretty good.
Some general information about my build and ideas are as follows
Previous subs:
I was running 2 DTS-10s which I built with a single EP4000.
Before that I had 2 AV123 MFW-15s
Room and sub space dimensions:
My room dimensions are approx. 20'L X 12'W X 8'H
My screen wall is built in front of an encove that is 8'W X 7'H giving me an available sub volume area of 96"W X 24"H X 23"D.
Goals:
I want to essentially match or better the performance of what I was getting out of my DTS-10s to include clarity and output (maybe stable down to 15-18hz). I do not think I am a crazy output freak like some of you maniacs

My ideas:
Given the measurements of the alloted sub space I have, I feel that multiple (4) sealed enclosures or 2 dual opposed enclosures would be best. The first idea of sealed enclosures is pretty straight forward. I think last time I checked, Erics 4cuft flatpack would fit this space fine. The only way I could do dual opposed is to orientate the enclosure deep side facing the viewer (drivers firing at each other and the side wall).
Driver selection:
Dayton 18HO- Very popular choice as of late but there seem to have been arguments as to its sub 20hz performance and output.
Q Would these work better in separate sealed enclosures across the front stage or dual opposed configuration oriented as described above?
SI HT18- Cheapest of the bunch and model similarly to the HO. Configuration and number of drivers would probably be identical to the 18HO.
FTW21- These got put on my list when I read about the preorder pricing and shipping. IIRC, these drivers optimally require approx. a 6cuft enclosure so I would probably only be able to fit 2 in the space I have. I might be able to fit 4 drivers in a dual opposed configuration but I think that would be really stretching it.
Q: My question about using this driver would there be a audible concern trying to build a 6cuft enclosure using this driver with only 23" of depth to work with?
Q: Powered by two EP4000s or a Cervin Vega CV5000 would two FTW21s be plenty in my space.
Final thoughts:
Right now, with the FTW preorder going on, I think I need to get to a decision quickly as far as what driver and configuration would be best for my space. Once again, I am new to this so I apologize for the lack of technicality in my post. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I will maybe post a pic. of behind my screen wall if that would benefit.
Thanks in advance!!!