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Best DIY subwoofer?


Rudy81

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42 minutes ago, Jirachi said:

What are some other common DIY subs besides the Full Marty? 

 

 

On 9/28/2017 at 10:31 PM, wvu80 said:

The best bang-for-buck IMO is two Ultimax 18's and an Inuke 6000 w/DSP, $1200 total.  The savings is in the second sub which only costs a little more since the Inuke can drive both subs.

I quoted my own post from early in the thread.  The dual Umax subs are quick, easy and reasonably priced.  The flat packs are worth the price of admission, easy to assemble and precision fit if you have zero woodworking skills or tools, like me.

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The Marty line has various  sizes and slightly different performance.  Then there are the horn loaded refrigerator sized variations. There are other designs of sealed and ported subs as well which you can find by searching this site as well as AVS forum.

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On 1/10/2018 at 7:15 PM, Jirachi said:

What are some other common DIY subs besides the Full Marty? 

 

Parts express and DIY soundgroup sell a bunch of flatpacks for sealed subs that are pretty popular. Full Marty is the undisputed champion of the world for cheap, easy and epic output though.

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Glad you are happy with your subs. They look awesome. I have my 4 set up about 1/3 along the front and rear walls. I am not 100% on tuning and just haven't gotten around to it yet. I've done a little tweeking and run Audessy but that is about it.

 

One thing is for certain: I honestly feel like I finally have more bass than I know what to do with. I hope it stays that way. Any more subs is going to require an additional 20 amp circuit and will most likely result in actual structural damage to my home. Next stop: LFE Buttkickers

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On 1/10/2018 at 11:49 PM, wvu80 said:

 

 

I quoted my own post from early in the thread.  The dual Umax subs are quick, easy and reasonably priced.  The flat packs are worth the price of admission, easy to assemble and precision fit if you have zero woodworking skills or tools, like me.

I can't disagree on that note. 4 of those and a Behringer will set you back about $2,000 and you will have perfectly balanced bass from all 4 walls or 4 corners.

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18 hours ago, tigerwoodKhorns said:

So how about a build that will fit in the following spaces? 

 

up to about 7' or more long, 18" high (maybe another inch or so) and 18" wide max.

 

 

Or one or two that fit in the following area:

 

54" wide max, 14" high and maybe 30" deep (I can do two of these). 

these are good horn sub dimensions

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have a technical amplification question for you guys.  Regarding my Full Marty subs, is it better to run each sub off a separate amp channel using two amps, or use one amp with two subs wired in parallel to each channel?  Amp is/are Behringer EP4000.  Sub drivers are 4 ohm each. 

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41 minutes ago, Rudy81 said:

I have a technical amplification question for you guys.  Regarding my Full Marty subs, is it better to run each sub off a separate amp channel using two amps, or use one amp with two subs wired in parallel to each channel?  Amp is/are Behringer EP4000.  Sub drivers are 4 ohm each. 

4 subs?  Run one driver off each channel assuming 2 amps.  4 ohms per channel is a breeze for that amp.

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Carl, I was hoping you would chime in.  Yes, 4 Full Marty subs.  What advantage is there to using 2 amps at 4 ohms per channel vs. one amp at 2 ohms per channel using one amp and parallel wiring?  Just trying to have the best setup possible.

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2 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

It all depends on how much wattage each driver will require and what your amp is rated at.  I'm a big fan of headroom and not maxing my amp or drivers out.  If you have 2  amps already it's a no brainer.  

I do have two amps I can use for the subs.  They are both Behringer EP4000 amps.  Available headroom is exactly what I was wondering about.  Hence, my question about which would be the optimum way to set them up.

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1 hour ago, Rudy81 said:

I do have two amps I can use for the subs.  They are both Behringer EP4000 amps.  Available headroom is exactly what I was wondering about.  Hence, my question about which would be the optimum way to set them up.

Use them both then.  They'll loaf along pushing 4 Ohms.

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Took your advise and finished hooking up the subs. I have been rewiring the 4 Full Marty's as a result of a new discovery....at least for me.  I was reviewing a paper concerning the use of multiple subs in a rectangular room and that led me to a new feature in Room EQ Wizard, the Room Sim.  That software suggested that I could greatly improve my system performance by moving the subs from where they were, up front, to 4 different locations in room.  It also suggested I raise the subs off the floor between 4' and 5'6". I figured I could reconfigure the room in a few days and see if that really worked.  Well, it worked amazingly well.  Today I finished moving things around and will start voicing the speakers and using REW to measure the new response in the room.  Really amazing stuff and very counter intuitive.  I will probably start a new thread on my find since it would be of use to others using multiple subs in listening rooms.

 

Before moving the subs I did take a frequency sweep, so I have a baseline performance graph.

 

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On ‎2‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 7:46 PM, Rudy81 said:

..led me to a new feature in Room EQ Wizard, the Room Sim.  That software suggested that I could greatly improve my system performance by moving the subs from where they were, up front, to 4 different locations in room.

 

Was that a basic suggestion to move your subs around, or was it based on specifics about your room and your four subwoofers?

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9 hours ago, Khornukopia said:

 

Was that a basic suggestion to move your subs around, or was it based on specifics about your room and your four subwoofers?

Best response and coverage is with a sub centered on the 4 walls.  Best output with decent coverage is with a sub in each corner.

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The REW software has two preset configurations.  One puts the subs in the 4 room corners.  The other puts the subs at the 4 wall mid-points.  The two options are certainly way better in room interaction than putting them all in one location. 

 

I figured I had some time to kill and why not move those 200+ pound behemoths around my room.  I ran frequency measurements and much to my surprise, the response was close to what  REW predicted.  I had also been reading that the subs should NOT be left on the floor for optimum performance....and that was correct also.  Due to the configuration of my build, I can place the driver 4' in the air without placing them on any other surface.  So, I played with the software for hours trying to make the response as flat as possible.  I then configured the subs as indicated by the response.  The results are amazing in my book.  I get a very flat room response in LF without ANY EQ.  Just amazing in my book.  I have been playing with this stuff for years and have never seen that kind of relatively flat room response. 

 

I now have my subs at various heights and positions throughout the room and they sound really amazing.  I plan on taking more measurements today for comparison.  

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