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Considering a DIY Sub - got a favorite?

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MrPotatoHead

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I'll second this. I built The 10" version of this Troels Gravesen design earlier this year. Excellent performance.
That does look interesting but I initially shied away because of the cost and availability of the Hypex amp in the USA. What's your opinion on substituting a different amp?
 

Wolf

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No love anymore for my little bandpass? It really is a great sounding sub...
 

bluefuzz

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What's your opinion on substituting a different amp?
I don't really have an opinion. ;-)

Obviously any amp of suitable power will do the business, but as Troels states many times on his site: 'build it to spec or face the consequences' or words to that effect. The flexibility of the Hypex amp is nice - built in DSP, ability to accept both high and low level signals etc. I don't know of too many amps that could be substituted, but I'm no expert on the plate amp market. Are Hypex amps really not available in the USA? I'm pretty sure there are many online sources that would ship to the US including Hypex's own shop ...
 

Webninja

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No love anymore for my little bandpass? It really is a great sounding sub...
I'm looking into building this, I'm waffling between buying and building. I'd like to start with 2, as I pre-wired for 4 :)
 

Wolf

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How big is your room? Mine is 13x15, and one is enough for me, but 2 would be very cool.

If you have a commercial one you're considering, which one? I set the Overdrive10 next to an SVS Prime sub, and I feel O10 was more agile and musical, for about the same price.
 

Webninja

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My room is 15 x 18, and it’ll be 70/30 movies/music. I am considering a Rythmik F12 or E15.
 
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MrPotatoHead

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No love anymore for my little bandpass? It really is a great sounding sub...

I'm still very interested since it's reasonably priced, the build is dead simple (no supplemental internal bracing), and it's small. That you seem to know what you're talking about is a bonus. ;-)

It looks like that driver is currently out of stock until March.
 
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MrPotatoHead

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Madisound carries the fusion amps, not sure if they carry the FA251.

They have a variety of Hypex amps but not the FA251, apparently.

Side story: I bought the crossovers for the speakers mentioned at the top from Madisound that had matching wiring errors. After discovering that the speakers sounded like an AM radio, Madisound was quick to blame me for a bad build and didn't apologize for the error and for wasting my energy after I discovered the error and pointed it out to them. So, I'd rather give my money to another retailer if possible. On top of that, they mounted most of the components label side-down which means they can't be verified without unsoldering them.
 

Wolf

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The reason for the simple build is there isn't much room in there, and the main driver mount provides a solid bracing in the first place with double-thickness. It weighs a lot though too. Spikes or rubber feet are advised to keep it from shaking and moving across the floor. It was 3 trials to get the right combo of output, size, extension, and alignment. As another put it- this design is a bit of a unicorn.

As to knowing what I'm talking about, I'm likely the biggest speaker dork you've never heard of. I've been building since about 1999, and strongly since about 2007. Over 50 designs under my belt to boot. Others in the hobby are surprised I don't do it professionally. Meniscus actually sells 3 or 4 of my designs as kits as well.

Wow- I've never known Mad to be that cruel. To have errors though, I have known of that. At least you were able to resolve the problem.

Side note- I actually designed a speaker with the same drivers as the ZD5 in a different cabinet around the same time as Krutke did his. I didn't even know he was working on one. We both achieved a great result through separate trails.
 

Ron Texas

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There's a design which uses an empty 5 gallon container with concrete poured in the bottom to weight it down.
 

paddycrow

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This looks like an appropriate thread, I am seriously considering a pair of DIY subs. The Rythmik DS1200 or DS1204 are currently my leading candidates. Any others I should be looking at? Price point isn't a big consideration.
 

Mashcky

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This looks like an appropriate thread, I am seriously considering a pair of DIY subs. The Rythmik DS1200 or DS1204 are currently my leading candidates. Any others I should be looking at? Price point isn't a big consideration.
So you’re looking for a ~12” sealed subwoofer driver that you can DIY to similar performance of the Rhythmic?
 

paddycrow

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I am leaning toward a pair of sealed 12" subs. I want to make my own cabinets, primarily for aesthetic reasons (I prefer hardwood to the ubiquitous black cube). I like the Rythmik aluminum cones and I like a forward firing design.

I will be using the XLR subwoofer connections and bass management in my preamp.

I'm looking for suggestions other than Rythmik to research.
 

bmc0

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@paddycrow: I use two RSS390HF-4 in self-built sealed cabinets. The in-box corner frequency is not terribly low (~37Hz), but I use a Linkwitz transform (digital implementation) to change it to 20Hz. The in-room response rolls off at 7Hz.

The CSS SDX12 can be used in a much smaller box than the RSS390HF-4 and is actually capable of slightly more volume dispacement according to the datasheet. I don't have any personal experience with the CSS driver, but I've heard good things about their products.
 

312elements

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I really like the Dayton Subs for DIY from parts express. Both the HSS and Ultimax are fine choices. It’s fairly idiot proof when doing sealed boxes as long as you allow for a propersized box. I’ve used both the behringer inuke and crown xls series to power them. The benefit of the inuke is the dsp assuming you can do room measurements with REW. The benefit of the crown + minidsp is that the fan on the crown is considerably more tolerable.

I have some thoughts on running multiples vs individuals. I originally decided to go with a single 18” vs multiple 12” subs. I think your preferences regarding bass factor into this. If you like to run your bass hot, I would opt for multiple smaller subs vs a single large sub. Everything I read suggested that bass was non-directional and to a point, I agree with that statement however if the subwoofer level is elevated as opposed to “properly integrated” it becomes very easy to locate and can feel unbalanced. With multiple subwoofers placed in different locations you can run the subwoofers hotter and not worry about imbalance. Obviously this is not desirable for listening to music, but can be a lot of fun for movies.

I’m a big fan of the value proposition provided by DIY subwoofers.
 

paddycrow

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The ScanSpeak and Seas aluminum drivers are also intriguing. Any experience with their kits that include plate amp?
 
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