I measured 10 subwoofers.

[aschen]

This is such a useful body of work since I am cross shopping a lot of these currently. In general if you wonder around the internet a bit you run into quite a few annecdotes of plate amp failures.

The Neumann's are expensive but I can't help wondering if they have a statistically significant greater life expectancy than say a similar sub at half price. I don't think any of us have the data, but I suspect they are built to a higher standard than most consumer subs. I may be trying to rationalize though because I want a pair!

 

[Nuyes]

I'm curious, if you don't mind me asking, sealed? PR? port?

Sealed!

 

[Mark609]

DIY, sealed, 15" Acoustic Elegance SB15 subs, Lambda motor with Faraday shorting rings built 20 years ago. Black walnut and glued/screwed up MDF. Crossed braced, painted internally with sand/latex paint. Fs is a whopping 18 Hz. I moved them a bit away from the back wall after this shot. Cones face the wall. Anthem MRX1140 preamp to an old Soundcraftsman PCR800 amp. Low and blow!

 

[fzst]

DIY, sealed, 15" Acoustic Elegance subs with Faraday shorting rings built 20 years ago. Black walnut and glued/screwed up MDF. Crossed braced, painted internally with sand/latex paint. Fs is a whopping 18 Hz. I moved them a bit away from the back wall after this shot. Cones face the wall. Anthem MRX1140 preamp to an old Soundcraftsman PCR800 amp.

View attachment 477052

Dang those look gorgeous!

 

[Mark609]

Dang those look gorgeous!

Thanks! Couple of coats of Waterlox Original Sealer. Best tung oil varnish on the market. Penetrating then builds with more coats.

 

[fzst]

Thanks! Couple of coats of Waterlox Original Sealer. Best tung oil varnish on the market. Penetrating then builds with more coats.

Well whatever you did, it works If they sound like they look, you've got a sweet setup.

 

[Mark609]

Well whatever you did, it works If they sound like they look, you've got a sweet setup.

I do. Crossed over to ELX towers at 60 Hz they disappear. Movies like John Wick and James Bond shake the walls. Music is fine too. The WHACK of the snare drum in Dire Straits "Calling Elvis" is chest thumpng. By the same token the little 6" ELX woofers look like fish out of water. Excursion is really radical.

 

[delta76]

Fantastic job, thank @Nuyes

From the measurements it seem 1961 1s is better over SB-3000?

 

[Haskil]

MDF for subs. Of course that works too. I've even built a subwoofer out of a cardboard tube. It went well. Sounded surprisingly good, but that's what a chef always thinks about his own cooked soup. The sub at the top right of the image (cluttered with stuff in my in my living room but still).
View attachment 322378


[/URL]


Exactly.

Hey, I see we have the same Yamaha subwoofer! What do you think of yours?

 

[DanielT]

Hey, I see we have the same Yamaha subwoofer! What do you think of yours?

Yamaha YST subwoofers have been sold a lot in Sweden. So it's easy to get used ones now for little money ($30-$70).

I find them to be really good subwoofers for the money. My YST-SW90 in the picture is now sold. I have a YST-SW150 instead (it has double 8 inch woofers).

I think the best is the YST- SW300 (12 inch woofers). Of which I have two in the summer cottage. In the apartment in the city nop, consideration for neighbors and so on (in and of itself I could drive them crazy with my YST-SW150).
The advantage of the SW300 is that it has an adjustable HP filter (50,80,100 Hz).

SW 300 goes down to 23 Hz f3 (measured).
Here's one SW300 next to my SW150:

I briefly had an SVS SB12-NSD Subwoofer (relatively small sub, 12 inch woffer, sealed). The SW300 was better.

With the positives said, the downside. The mentioned YST models are really old. They can of course stop working at any time, or the amp starts humming annoyingly or whatever that can happen with such old stuff. You have to weigh that when buying them.
They are ugly, but on the other hand, subwoofers are rarely beauty queens.

 

[Haskil]

Mine is

https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/yamaha/yst-sw200.shtml

Very good !