DIY Subs

My sub's blown (as has my DSP, but that's another story) and is beyond economical repair :cry: , so I'm wondering whether to splash out money I haven't got on something like REL or try DIY (not just to save money but have some fun in the process).

Have any of you guys built an active sub? If so, how did/does it compare with those available from established manufacturers. I vaguely recall Merlin's efforts but I fear SWMBO will bury me in it if I build one that big, it took her a while to get used to my Tannoy D700s . Anyway, I don't have the room.

I'm after a complete good quality kit that I can assemble, rather than studying books and designing one from scratch. Something along the lines of about 250W amp and 12" driver, sealed box (?) to keep the size down. So any comments/thoughts? urls?

 

How much money you prepared to spend? I would say that unless you're going to do a merlin and spend serious cash (and get it seriously well designed) then you're probably better of buying something off the shelf. How about the MJ Acoustics Reference 100 or 150?

Michael.

 

I was thinking of about £500 max. If building a sub is going to be costly and painful then I'd probably get an REL Q150E.

BTW how do go about auditioning subs? any good movies to give them a workout?

 

I think the MJA Reference 100 is only £350 and I think it would comfortably see off the REL Q150 but that's just my opinion

Very difficult to audition a sub properly unless you can get a home demo but even then since they can take a while to get properly setup you'd need at least a week or so to make a proper judgement.

Do you want this sub mainly for movies or for music?

Michael.

 

Only movies. The Tannoys can pump out enough bass for music already .

I was only thinking of DIY because I just want to. No logical reason really. Failing DIY, I thought of REL because I've never heard a bad thing about them but I must admit I don't know anything about the likes of MJA, so your suggestions are very welcome. Having said all that, I'll probably get the DSP replaced first, how can they both blow up together when they were not even in use? . Too many choices and not enough money

 

I think you might be surprised what benefit a sub could bring to the music side of things, even if you have speakers that go quite low already.

At the £500 and under end of the market I think that REL and MJA are the only serious makes to consider. Many people have suggested tha MJA are better for music and REL better for movies but that's a huge generalisation. The MJA "Reference" series seem to have more flexible adjustments and inputs than the equivalent RELs.

Michael.

 

Thanks Michael, I'll check out both. Still would like to look at DIY options though.

 

I have it on good authority that subs bought through the usual retail outlets are a very poor substitute for DIY stuff. A good driver and amp plus some woodworking skills and you can end up with something really magnificent.

I will post some links tomorrow

 

Cheers Ian, look forward to them.

 

Dev, time for a small tight sealed box say .6 cubic meters, a 350 mono class 't' and a small JL 8"W7, that'll cure your problem mate, else Henry is selling a Ref 1 (big boy) for £350 must be worth a pM mate
else I'll try and did out the plans for the ones we made last year, for a proper home cinema install T.

 

WM have you made a JL audio sub before?

I've got a 15w3 that's gathering dust and I would like to utilise it in a av setup. Any recommendations on enclosure type?

 

There are a few people on AV Forums who are into DIY sub building with GaryG and Ramius being the experts. There are a number of threads covering various projects and one here and another here should give you anough information and further links to get you up and running

 

Thanks Ian.

 

Something like this then:



http://www.bkelec.com/Diy/xls10.htm

They seemed to have stopped selling the ready made ones as in the photo.
I think they maybe got some pressure from the famous sub manufacturers who buy their amps. Mentioning no names, but the box containing my drivers says 'MJ acoustics' on the outside...

If you are naff at woodwork see if falcon-acoustics.co.uk still have some aria 10 cabs and just modify the port length to tune it right

cheers

Graham C

 

I knew you'd come up with something after seeing your speaker boxes at the bakeoff .

Thanks Graham, great site, just the sort I was after. It's actually given me an idea. My blown sub just needs an amp (not sure about the 10" driver yet but might as well replace that as well as they are quite cheap), so I could use the cabinet which happens to be a sealed box of about 30 litre capacity. My DIY skills only need to stretch to expanding the hole for the amp. At a later date when funds allow it, I can do it properly with a bigger cabinet.

I'm still tempted by Henry's sub though

 

Graham, nice cab mate However that driver aint no W7, and I can't see the amp module, but I suspect with your talents it cost a lot less, for tighter & more articulate bass I prefer a sealed box, all those Halcon days in the boom & tizz industry paying off see

 

15 inch precision devices driver

Adire DPL 12 driver

300w class D sub amp panel, with boost (very handy)

Two exellent drivers above and an exellent amp module, use WinISD to model your enclosure, buy some mdf chop it up, sand it, stick it all together and voila, a nice sub that could easily sound better than an REL.

 

Thanks everyone for your help. It just seems too easy, I am going to give DIY a try but can't spare the time at the moment so thanks to Michael's advice I'm going to buy a MJA sub from Henry (thanks to Tony for bring it to my attention). In the summer I'll hopefully post some pictures of my DIY efforts.

Thanks again, Dev

 

Just noticed this thread. I built this one:

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15&highlight=skinny+subwoofer

It works very well - doesn't go REALLY low, but low enough for my classical tastes. It's fine with organ, and that goes quite low. Moreover, I have tried some electric bass on it and had to throttle it back from its normal volume setting, because there was too much bass.

P.S. It's also quite cheap!

 

Cheers Tones,

I have already purchased Henry's MJA Ref 1 which should be delivered today or tomorrow . However, it is still my intention to make a small sealed box unit in summer. Transmission line seems complicated at least for someone like me. I've bookmarked some of the above links and will have a closer link then. The more I look at these links the easier it seems to be getting.