Hiding a subwoofer - how much of an opening do you need?

[sfdoddsy]

I've just moved to a new apartment with my girlfriend. She's kind of OK with my rather large open baffle mains, and merely rolled her eyes when I mounted the tiny (mirage omd5) rears.

But she is drawing the line at my dual 12" (Adire DPL) sub. My mains are full range, so it is really only for LFE.

Whilst pondering alternatives, i noticed that the built-in cabinets directly behind our seating position have speaker shaped vents. The interior volume is around 12x36x20.

This is enough space to insert a small sub like a Sunfire True, or possibly even mount one of the Adires over the vent like a mini IB.

But since it is a rental, I can't hack the vents to make them more open.

So, how open does it need to be? I'll try and post a pic, but assume we have six 10mm vents with 20mm of wood between them.

[benchtester]

I've just moved to a new apartment with my girlfriend. She's kind of OK with my rather large open baffle mains, and merely rolled her eyes when I mounted the tiny (mirage omd5) rears.

But she is drawing the line at my dual 12" (Adire DPL) sub. My mains are full range, so it is really only for LFE.

Whilst pondering alternatives, i noticed that the built-in cabinets directly behind our seating position have speaker shaped vents. The interior volume is around 12x36x20.

This is enough space to insert a small sub like a Sunfire True, or possibly even mount one of the Adires over the vent like a mini IB.

But since it is a rental, I can't hack the vents to make them more open.

So, how open does it need to be? I'll try and post a pic, but assume we have six 10mm vents with 20mm of wood between them.

Alternately, you could fabricate new cabinet doors with the most of the center cut out and covered with grill cloth.

Carefully remove the old doors from the hinges and put in a safe place to be reinstalled at move-out.

[ThomasW]

So, how open does it need to be? I'll try and post a pic, but assume we have six 10mm vents with 20mm of wood between them.

Model the opening using a bandpass sim in Unibox or WinISD Pro

[---k---]

I always show my wife photos of other people's massive subs to make her realize that mine is much more reasonable. Just talk about how bad you want to build one as big as mine for two months, and you'll have her begging you to build one the size of your current sub.

[CZ Eddie]

Did you tell her that having a home theater without a subwoofer is like driving a car without wheels?
It stays or she goes.

[sfdoddsy]

She already thinks the bass from my dipoles is excessive.