Sub Woofer Construction Project

[luckydog]

is this your own design, or from some plans??

years ago my buddy had 2 enclosures with 15" air suspension speakers for bass, I think retail was $400.00 each, when he cranked it up you could feel the bass right thru your body

[ShockSystem]

Hey LuckyDog! I love your new logo!

This is my own design. The math was fairly straight forward as I had access to the speakers spec sheets. It did get a little complicated when I made the decision to conceal the drivers and add additional "features and power". I also wanted something "futuristic" and visually different from - "Oh, that's your sub huh" to "What is that?"

[ShockSystem]

Here is the test fit of the blacked out separator chamber. I ran a wire through the front port and tested things at about 3 to 5 watts - Impressive... but the unit will need to be fully sealed to be complete.

[ShockSystem]

This is the rear firing sub face... Blacked out and test fit.

[ShockSystem]

This is the addition of the bottom front firing port.

[ShockSystem]

Well... I guess I should include a picture or something.

[ShockSystem]

A test fit of the upper cover and top firing ports - Chambers one and two sealed and firing. Even on a cement floor this is functioning well and exhibiting a lot of power. 28 and 54hz seem to flourish. A sweep from 20 to 240hz gives plenty of punch and power.

There is a fair amount of buzzing. I have not completely secured the cabinet chamber and there is much more reinforcement to complete. I have to leave the upper lid unglued to complete the work.

[ShockSystem]

A sneak peek inside the second chamber containing a second, upward firing sub-woofer. The fit is working well and the seals are tight.

I fired up the amp using sub out with my MP3 player attached... Wow! I will need to double the amount of screws I was going to use! This has got some punch!

My math was off and I made a two inch adjustment on the upward firing chamber, with a massive power and performance improvement. I seated the woofer dividing chamber two inches lower than originally designed. The performance was noticeable even with the chamber divider just "tacked" in place.

[ShockSystem]

Here is the face cut for the upward firing section - This will project the sound toward the listener. I wanted a unique and futuristic look, so I picked a triangular port - It also forces a resonant reflection of sound through several frequencies (and aligns the dilithium crystals with the flux capacitor quite well).

Shhh... yes, I was excited about my new hole saw Mrs. ShockSystem purchased for me and I stared a cut a 3in port on a "scrap line" and nearly made a lopsided project! So... don't tell anyone, OK - I can cover it up later.

[ShockSystem]

Some other views of the face port cut. I think it's looking kinda cool though.

[ShockSystem]

Here is a shot of the system with both woofers installed with additional sealing with an industrial hot glue gun in addition to carpenters glue and silicon sealant.

The back terminals have not yet been installed so I'm still running the system from wires run through the face port and top cover. This thing is putting out some serious power. I tested it running the amp (Adcom 5300) at its maximum output (about 65watts pure/clean per channel) before clipping - whoa! This carries through even on a cement slab!

There are still some small deficiencies in the main seals (top - I still need access) and some buzzing. Things in the shop started rattling and the neighbors came by to check out my new project.

[ShockSystem]

I spent some time cleaning up the ports, sanding the internals and insuring a clean fit. The seals are good and I've reinforced the whole structure heavily.

I think it's very pretty in a techie sort of way!

I sealed the rear firing woofer in, there is a permanent run of 12awg wire for the main connector.

[ShockSystem]

With the power level I'm running - 65w RMS per channel (clean) x2 for the sub woofer system alone I think it will be impressive. If I can keep the design clean and efficient it will be an outstanding performer. The room is 18.5ft x 24ft

I've made some minor tweaks to the original design that I think "sound better and more powerful" while I was testing. In the end I think the project will be very impressive.

[ShockSystem]

Sealing the rear firing 12in with 12awg wire - Three forward firing ports.

[ShockSystem]

Thank you guys!

[ShockSystem]

Now I'm going to port the energy forward toward the user in the second chamber.

If I work things right, I think a set of clever foam baffles and series of small tuned ports and chambers will make this system both efficient and powerful.

I added a full pound of polyfill in the rear firing section and added a test baffle, heavy density foam top cover and fill in the top firing second chamber.

[ShockSystem]

Here is a look at the finalized top chamber foam lining in dark gray. This will deaden any echoing, buzzing, resonance and air flutter inside the chamber to give clean low frequency output.

[ShockSystem]

Here are shots of the rough cut of the foam back baffle - It will serve to aim the sound through the front port and further dampen any unwanted characteristics.

[pinball wizard]

awesome !

[ShockSystem]

Her is the finalized foam baffle - I sprayed it flat black to keep the interior of the chamber dark and nebulous. I will then cut two ports in the rear to fire backwards using the wall as another resonant surface. This will also raise the output level of the system as a whole.