Please recommend me proven compact subwoofer design

[tllw]

Can you please recommend me proven subwoofer design thats relatively compact. Ie. cube with sides < 40cm (or 16in in your units). I am in EU and my budget is <500 eur for driver and amp of single unit. I plan to build two.

Not really sure I will be able to beat the commercial options at thie price range, yet I have woodworking tools and some skills and I enjoy the process of building the cabinets myself.

I really do not have much of experience of designing and measuring speakers, so I am looking for a proven design to follow exactly.

thank you

 

[Timcognito]

Save yourself from a lot grief. This one comes with onboard DSP and gets great reviews.

Amazon.com

 

[Grotti]

I just checked different DIY sites and I found nothing that I would build myself for this budget. I second Timcognito....

 

[voodooless]

Nowadays it’s really hard to beat a commercial sub.

Do you already have DSP? If not, make sure the amp has it. Hypex has some nice fusion amps with DSP options, though they will eat up quite a bit of your budget.

As for woofers, Dayton Reference should do well. 12” should work for your size needs.

You can use WinISD to simulate the woofer and enclosure. It’s not exactly rocket science. In the end you’ll want to measure it in your room and correct it anyway.

 

[kemmler3D]

If you are determined to build for the sake of building, listen to @voodooless - if you are OK with just listening to music and not building stuff... listen to @Timcognito .

 

[tllw]

Yep, I do have Marantz AVR with room correction and plan to get miniDSP.

Is not the SB1000 bit restricted in terms of low end extension? Probably i should look at sb2000 or ported variants?

 

[kemmler3D]

Yep, I do have Marantz AVR with room correction and plan to get miniDSP.

Is not the SB1000 bit restricted in terms of low end extension? Probably i should look at sb2000 or ported variants?

Depends on the size of your room... it does 20hz almost flat, anechoic. Unless you want the bass very loud or have a very large room it should do OK.

 

[Timcognito]

Yep, I do have Marantz AVR with room correction and plan to get miniDSP.

Is not the SB1000 bit restricted in terms of low end extension? Probably i should look at sb2000 or ported variants?

Okay but the Marantz has DSP, both SVS' have DSP and why the miniDSP. Trying to build it yourself and having four DSP apps, maybe take a step back and think it over. At 20Hz you start to feel and not hear it. If the room is small you could save some money putting SVS 1000 closer to the wall and adjust them lower in the app. Just saying.

 

[DVDdoug]

You can use WinISD to simulate the woofer and enclosure.

Right!

You can model sealed & ported boxes, different woofers, etc. Usually with a "small box" is better sealed, with EQ (DSP or analog) to make-up for the bass roll-off, and plenty of amplifier power to make the boost usable. The slope of a sealed box is more gradual than a ported box, and the woofer remains loaded (restricted) at low frequencies.

A ported box can be tuned lower, but possibly not low-enough if the box is small. The slope is steeper with a ported speaker so it takes more power and the woofer "flops-around" below the tuning frequency without making much sound so EQ/DSP doesn't help as much with ported designs.

The software will help with that...

In case you're not familiar with decibels - Every 3dB boost (to make-up for bass roll-off) is a power factor of 2. +6dB requires 4 times the power and +9dB requires 8 times the power, etc. So you probably won't want to boost more than about 6dB.

 

[staticV3]

Is not the SB1000 bit restricted in terms of low end extension? Probably i should look at sb2000 or ported variants?

The SB1000 Pro is about as powerful as you can get with your constraints on size, price, and location.

For more subs, take a look at this awesome spreadsheet:

Subwoofer Comparison

I've created a *slightly large* subwoofer comparison spreadsheet. :D Info: -==Link to my Subwoofer Comparison spreadsheet ==- https://bit.ly/SubwooferComparison

www.audiosciencereview.com

Go to Data->Create filter view to apply custom filters.

 

[tllw]

Okay but the Marantz has DSP, both SVS' have DSP and why the miniDSP. Trying to build it yourself and having four DSP apps, maybe take a step back and think it over. At 20Hz you start to feel and not hear it. If the room is small you could save some money putting SVS 1000 closer to the wall and adjust them lower in the app. Just saying.

I would get the miniDSP/mic combo If I go the DIY route. I guess I wont need it if I get the SVS subs.

And as much I love the idea of building and painting the cabinet the cabinet myself, you guys are maybe right, It is probably very hard task to try to match the level of performance of the comercial subs within reasonable budget.

I did not mention the room details: about 55 m2 with irrelgular shape and high ceiling. So about 600 sqft in USA units. The irregular shape of the room makes me think that 2 subs will better than one.

 

[Chrispy]

I would get the miniDSP/mic combo If I go the DIY route. I guess I wont need it if I get the SVS subs.

And as much I love the idea of building and painting the cabinet the cabinet myself, you guys are maybe right, It is probably very hard task to try to match the level of performance of the comercial subs within reasonable budget.

I did not mention the room details: about 55 m2 with irrelgular shape and high ceiling. So about 600 sqft in USA units. The irregular shape of the room makes me think that 2 subs will better than one.

DIY can be cost effective with a pair of subs with the right driver/amp combo. As long as you don't mind donating your time for free and are happy with your finishing skills....

 

[Timcognito]

I would get the miniDSP/mic combo If I go the DIY route. I guess I wont need it if I get the SVS subs.

And as much I love the idea of building and painting the cabinet the cabinet myself, you guys are maybe right, It is probably very hard task to try to match the level of performance of the comercial subs within reasonable budget.

I did not mention the room details: about 55 m2 with irrelgular shape and high ceiling. So about 600 sqft in USA units. The irregular shape of the room makes me think that 2 subs will better than one.

Yes that is a large area and two subs are probably a good idea. I am very good woodworker with large shop/garage with 40 years of equipment procurement and could make some spectacular speaker cabinets, but the wood part is the easy part. There is a lot of engineering in the electronics and acoustics, especially for low frequencies were there is the most distortion and room interaction, best left to the pros. You were right to come here because the advice can be excellent. Take your time and set priorities. First step decide what is the most important Movies or Music and go from there. Many will watch and help.

 

[jaakkopetteri]

The SB1000 is like 850€ in the EU.

For around 50 liters sealed, I would also suggest the aforementioned Dayton Reference series 12" subs. Audiophonics offers this amp with integrated SMPS that looks like superb value with a DVC sub like the RSS315HO-44. If you don't have other means of DSP, add a TinySine TSA1701 board and the programmer. With the required inlets, all in all around 450€ - plus whatever you value your time, but building a cube like this is rather enjoyable IMO. And I'm pretty sure a build like this will sound better than the SVS

 

[tllw]

Downloaded winISD and entered ScanScpeak Discovery 26W/4558T00 parameters there. Well within the budget with the recommended audiophonics amp.

48l closed box in blue, 44m ported box in green (10 cm diameter of the port):

Since I will be using DSP any inperfections will be corrected and the response curve flattened towards 25hz. Yet is it really that simple? Am I no missing something important?

For the wood part I am planning to use 18mm MDF with braces (does it matter how much?) with 4mm veenered plywood on the top of it.

 

[voodooless]

Downloaded winISD and entered ScanScpeak Discovery 26W/4558T00 parameters there. Well within the budget with the recommended audiophonics amp.

That woofer only has one voice coil. To use the amp fully, you’ll need two 4R voice coils.

 

[voodooless]

Since I will be using DSP any inperfections will be corrected and the response curve flattened towards 25hz. Yet is it really that simple? Am I no missing something important?

Excursion and power limits. The Scanspeak has plenty of the first, but power wise it’s not as good as the earlier recommended Dayton.

But yes, within the limits of those two parameters you can EQ the response to whatever you want. The room will dictate it mostly anyway.

 

[Berwhale]

Save yourself from a lot grief. This one comes with onboard DSP and gets great reviews.

Amazon.com

I don't think the sub in the 360 degree view on that page is going to work very well

 

[tllw]

Excursion and power limits. The Scanspeak has plenty of the first, but power wise it’s not as good as the earlier recommended Dayton.

But yes, within the limits of those two parameters you can EQ the response to whatever you want. The room will dictate it mostly anyway.

Selected ScanSpeak because I know the brand and found all T/S parameters easily. For sure will do more reasearch before I select the drivers.

So the dual voice coil drivers are more efficient and require less powerfull amps?

 

[Timcognito]

I don't think the sub in the 360 degree view on that page is going to work very well

I'm no expert but it looks to be hard to beat by home brew design. OP was asking for a turnkey design for $500.

SVS PB-1000 Pro and SB-1000 Pro Subwoofers Review

SVS has totally redesigned their entry-level powered subwoofers in the PB-1000 Pro and SB-1000 Pro. Our review reveals these subs go well beyond entry-level performance. Read on to find out how.

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