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Home subwoofer Question

C

CarpePoon

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Jan 5, 2002
Messages
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Location
Grand Blanc, MI
Alright you home theater gurus,
I'm moving into my new house in MI in a few weeks. I am an audio nut and always have been. I love building systems, some of you have seen my work. I am also in to home theater. The cool thing about my new house is that the previous owner was in the middle of finishing the basement when he took a new job and relocated. All the studs are up, electric, lights and heat are in. I just need to finish the walls, ceiling and floor.
The main area in the basement is PERFECT for an overhead projector home theater setup!! I have done home theater wiring and have built some damn good powered free standing subwoofer setups in the past.
This time I want to put the sub in the wall..
Something like this that will sit between the studs and fire out through a vent:
h107CSW100-fp.jpg

Is there a big difference between home and auto subwoofers? I could care less about magnetic shielding because there wont be a TV to intefere with. I currently have a freestanding sub setup using an MTX 12" ported sub powered by a 250w RMS plate amp.
I've tended to notice that almost all home subs are ported.. is there a reason? If I made a sealed setup with a small enclosure auto subwoofer I could save quite a bit of time,space and work.
If there is a difference between auto and home subs does anybody have any recommendations for a home subwoofer that I can build around?
 
IMO most home subs are vented for efficiency. Probably just to get better low end with a cheaper setup.

You're obviously not a novice, there shouldn't be anything different about the setup other than wiring.. placement is key to get the most output as well.
 
Ported boxes are usually made for more obviously more output, and of course.. more low frequency extension. What's teh budget your'e looking at, and how much room are you willing to give up? Finally how large did you want to go with a speaker?

Random note, AEspeakers still carry the Lambda Acoustics PB subwoofers that were legends in cars. They excel in ported boxes at home.
 
The only difference i've ever found is the impedance of home theater systems and car systems is different. If you already have the amp and woofer though, then i don't see an issue.
 
Well, I have "A" sub, but its about 9 years old. It sounds damn good in the box I built and I am willing to use it again in a new box. if I am not going to see much of a gain from from a different sub. Thats why I am wondering if a home audio sub will be better than an auto sub. they seem to require less power according to their specs.

The amp I would like to continue to use, I cant really justify a new subwoofer amp. So we are stuck with 250w RMS.

I would like to stick with a 12", nothing smaller. 15" would require too big of a box and there is only 14.5" of space between the studs (but I'm not saying its out of the question).

Space is not really too much of a concern, so forget I even mentioned that. The only thing is the sub will be near the floor, I was thinking about centering the sub right underneith the center channel. And if I do it this way then the larger the box has to be means the higher up the wall I have to build and I want to clear the center channel without having to do all kinds of funky custom carpentry (but again, if its worth it, I will do it)
 
Ah...home audio...much more my thing than car audio for the last few years.

If you were thinking in wall, would infinite baffle subs be an option? If you had say 4 of the AEspeakers IB15 woofers for 400.00 invested, you could have a kick ass bass system.

One correction to something Ren said earlier, most sealed subs give better low bass extension at the extreme, but ported subs have more output from the tuning point to about 1 octave above tuning.
 
dnewma04 said:
Ah...home audio...much more my thing than car audio for the last few years.

If you were thinking in wall, would infinite baffle subs be an option? If you had say 4 of the AEspeakers IB15 woofers for 400.00 invested, you could have a kick ass bass system.

One correction to something Ren said earlier, most sealed subs give better low bass extension at the extreme, but ported subs have more output from the tuning point to about 1 octave above tuning.
Click to expand...

Well it will be mounted inside an external wall, So no other room or closet to use for the IB enclosure unless I expose the magnet stucture to the great outdoors. The ceiling in the basement is 9' tall, so 14.5" x 9' x 4" would give me about at 3.625cu ft box. I'm sure thats way too small for a 15" IB sub right?
 
Actually I've read a post on AESpeakers where someone in Europe actually had the IB speakers from John. They faced the cone outside and wired it out of phase. John also added extra coats to the cone so that it would resist the elements. It might be possible if you did it that way :shrug:
 
Ideally, you'd want to be approaching 10x VAS to have it act as an IB. Anything above 4x VAS starts working progressively better.
 
It's a fantasy that someday steeda will be able to stroker, but for now, he'll just have to live with the CV strokims that he is stuck with.
 
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