Sub to go With Bose Busters

[DeathMonk]

I am building a 5.1 Bose Buster setup for a friend and was trying to come up with a sub that would best suit his needs.

Let me start off by saying the room is very small. He has limited room for speakers, hence why he has to go with the Bose Busters, but he has corner with enough space for a good sized sub.

I recommended him the Reference Series RSS265HF 10" in a small ported box. But looking at prices, the 12" RS is only a few bucks more but was thinking would be way too much for the the room.

It also sounds like he is much more concerned with how music will sound, considering that you need a sub with the Bose Busters. I told him that the 10" will probably sound better running with a little more juice than a 12" backed off a bit.. I'm not exactly sure if this is correct.

Maybe I'm thinking too much into this?

[evilskillit]

Well I'm sure someone can give more helpful advice than me on this one but the only reason not to go with the 12 over the 10 assuming the few extra dollars don't bother you would be because it will need a bigger box. Other than that the 12 is a really good speaker and not having to work as hard as the 10, due to having more displacement should make it sound better at any given volume.

I know someone who has the 12 ported, which I built for him and it rocks his house, sounds pretty good too. And I know a guy who bought a kit for the 10 sealed and it sounds pretty good too.

[DeathMonk]

edit:

n/m 12" it is..

[BOBinGA]

Take your pick:

[DeathMonk]

I think I am going to do the 12" in a larger ported enclosure.

[DeathMonk]

would a 3" port be ok for a ~2.5cu ft enclosure with the 12"?

[PoorboyMike]

would a 3" port be ok for a ~2.5cu ft enclosure with the 12"?

That's pretty close to what I used on an RS12 sub I built for a friend. I'll have to dig up the exact dimensions out of Unibox if you want to see them. I used the Dayton 240w plate amp on this sub and it sounded quite nice for the low cash outlay.

BTW, I'll be getting back to you later on the center channel. We had a family emergency on Wednesday so I wasn't able to get a shipping quote.

[DeathMonk]

Thanks, Mike--No hurry.

Yeah, sounds pretty close to what I was planning. Was deciding on either the 240w or a 300w... Thinking the 240 would probably be enough.

I was a little concerned with chuffing using the 3"

[BOBinGA]

If your friend has the room, the 12 is the best solution. If you build the 12, spend some time with WinISD or Unibox. It looks like a 4 cu.ft. ported box is a little small, but it can work. A 5 cu.ft box looks like it would work much better. With a 4" X 18 to 20" port it will go below 20 hz.

I know Thomas and others here like sealed subs, but for a budget build with a standard plate amp and no EQ, IMHO a ported box gets better low end.

-Bob

p.s. The graph above was actually for the original RSS315 which had a lower Q and smaller Vas. The newer RSS315 specs show that it needs a bigger box either sealed or ported.

[DeathMonk]

That is where I am confused.. you can make the box smaller at the expense of a less than flat response.

What are the benefits of a larger enclosure with a shorter port?

Yes, I realize that I am a newb.

[BOBinGA]

A smaller box will usually not tune as low, resulting in a bump in the bass. If you get too much of a hump in the response, it can end up sounding a little like the "one note bass" you hear in less than well designed car audio. The other possibility is that if you make the box too small, you don't get any extra bass extension compared to the same size sealed box and it ends up being a lot of extra construction work for nothing.

[evilskillit]

The RF 12" that I built was tuned to around 20hz in a 5 cu ft box. Sounds great, the cone exceeds excursion below 20hz with 300 watts of power but the bash 300 watt plate amp has a built in high pass filter at 17.7hz by default so it works perfectly. So if you want to just throw everything together the 300watt bash amp from PE in an enclosure tuned to 20hz works great. The thing is big and heavy tho, it is like 2/3 the size of an armchair and feels like it weighs over 70 lbs with internal bracing and a double thick front face. Makes me smile every time I see and hear it however.

I used a 3" flared port from PE, in retrospect that is really too small but surprisingly you never really hear any nasty port noise, tho when the are explosions going off in movies and helicopters flying around it is so loud and crazy anyways I don't know if you would actually be able to hear the port noise. I think the air only really gets too fast at high levels of output below like 30hz. I would have to re-check my modeling in WINISD tho.

[DeathMonk]

Some good info. Thanks guys

I kind of knew, but I just didn't know for sure and it helps to get things straight before I do anything.