Ridicubass Revisited

[DarrenE]

Some of you may remember my project about a year and a half ago when I was “Attempting to achieve Ridicubass.” Although I am pretty happy with what I came up with after all the advice I received here I am starting to get the itch to buy some tools and cut some wood. I currently have two 4.6 cubic feet sealed subs with Soundsplinter RL-p15 d2 drivers powered by a Crown K1. The drivers are each wired to achieve a 4 Ohm load and each sub is driven by one channel (550 Watts) of the K1.

I am looking to build one ported box and compare it to one of my sealed subs and then if I prefer the ported to continue on with the process and build the second sub. I plan to put the new ported sub in place and then stack one of the sealed on top of it and switch back and forth between them to see what I think. Theoretically the only difference between the two subs should be the box in which the drivers are mounted. Everything else will be identical and since I plan to build a front firing sub the drivers should be within inches of each other so there should be very little difference in room interaction. The room is decently treated with acoustic panels and bass traps.

Here are the basic design criteria. These are based on the “ideal” design on the Soundsplinter website.

10 net cubic feet after subtracting port and driver volume.
14.5 Hz tune.

I want both the driver and the port to be front facing. I really like the look of the AV123 MFW-15 but don’t know how feasible the slot port would be with that low of a tune. I think a 6” round port at about 32” long would put me in the right neighborhood for a round port.

Any suggestions would be welcome. This should be a very cheap project since I should only have to buy wood and something for the port. I’m not counting the price of the saw/saws I will have to buy since I will use them for some other things I need to do around the house. Everything else can be reused or I have leftovers from building the first subs.

I also would like suggestions as to which type of saw I should purchase to make the cuts. I only needed a router for the sonosub since I had Lowes make the rough cuts for me to work with. Would a table saw be better or do I only need a circular saw with some sort of straight edge to make the cuts. I’m a serious amateur with the wood working so don’t know which way to go with this.

Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

[---k---]

Darren,
Yep, I remember. Sounds like a fun project. You're design sounds fine. 280L is big. My duel is somewhere around 450L for both with a tunning of ~15.5hz. No regrets here. So if you want to spare a bit space, I wouldn't discourage a hair smaller. Nor would I ever try and talk you out of bigger. But I seem to remember that space was an issue before.

As for the saw, JonW just had a thread on circular saws. Might want to look at that one. For ripping down the full sheet of wood, a circular saw is much better than a table saw. Just cut the board on the ground while propped up on 2x4s.

Once you get the rought cuts done, and want accuracy, a table saw is the way to go. (Though many people here have more skill than I can can get accurate cuts with a circular saw.) For a table saw, I like my Rigid Contractor's saw. ~$450 at HD.

Check the FAQ tool thread.

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=17998

This has been discussed lots.

[ThomasW]

For table saw and router recommendations, please use the forum's search function, we have numerous threads dealing with these subjects.

The ported vs sealed box comparison sounds like an interesting experiment. Keep the port length under 36"

[DarrenE]

Nor would I ever try and talk you out of bigger. But I seem to remember that space was an issue before.

I moved to a new house with a finished basement. I have claimed the basement family room as my own and have told my wife that she has no say in what I put in that room :T Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to have too much of a problem with this.

My size restrictions now really have more to do with how heavy the things are than how big. I would rather not have 200 Lb boxes if I can help it. I am going with boxes this time just to do something different.

[cjd]

Too bad you can't go IB down there.

[---k---]

Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to have too much of a problem with this.

For now. She'll seek her revenge when you least expect it. muhahahhahaha



BTW, how are the Ascends treating you?

[AtleDreier]

I'm VERY happy with my two 10.7cuft 13.3Hz sonos. Using RL-p15 and a Behringer EP2500. For music they are just awesome. For movies they are ridiculous.

[DarrenE]

BTW, how are the Ascends treating you?

The SE are much better than the classics. They sound so good in my room in fact that I am hesitant to try to upgrade.

I am curious to see if I like the ported sub better since I think I have pretty much drank the sealed sub koolaid. I am afraid that I am going to put on one of my reference disks with very fast bass guitar and hear a big blurry mess. I like to use Bella Fleck since it has very fast bass passages that go above and below the crossover at high speeds as well as having unison parts in both guitar and bass a couble of octaves apart that will very quickly show if a sub is lagging behind.

[DarrenE]

Does anyone have any thoughts on the slot port idea?

[---k---]

You may know that I traveled the same path. I had sealed and then built ported. I built a dual ported, so unfortunately I couldn't switch back and forth - that was a mistake. I think I prefer the sealed for quality, but I get a lot more low low end with the ported. If my ported wasn't so much prettier than the sealed subs I built and I hadn't tested my wifes limits so much with this monster, I would probably get the sealed cabs out of the crawl space and experiment more. Luckily, I'm not that picky.

And, actually these days with my new mains, the sub only gets turned on for movies.

[AtleDreier]

Well, with a low enough tune the boxes will probably act like a seald system most of the time. Only time I get any air movement in the port is if I go really, really low. And they are tight as can be as well. Agile and fast, as well as very very deep.