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I got a Tuba HT! My First Bill Fitzmaurice Product


Cornwalled

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Hey all,

Had to share the joy with you guys.  Yesterday I became the proud owner of a Bill Fitzmaurice Tuba HT sub.  This one was built by forum member BriBassGuy, and he did a great job.  It's 36" tall by 36" deep by 20" wide and uses the 12" version of the Dayton Reference driver, the RSS315HF-4.  Build pics are from the seller.  I also included a couple pics of the temporary setup in my theater room.  It's currently on the back wall covered in a rather lovely home made afghan.  The cabinet is unfinished plywood, so I'm thinking of staining it, and covering it in a few coats of poly.  That is if I can be torn away from it long enough!

 

Needless to say, my extreme LF needs are taken care of.  Initial results are very promising.  I haven't really put it through it's paces yet, but I'm planning to do that today.  At the moment, I'm using it with a Crest V450.  Bridged at 4 ohms, this amp has 650 watts of output, which is more than enough to drive me out of the room.  It does have a fan, but when I'm playing, it's quiet enough that I really don't hear it.

 

As far as sound, overall I'm very happy so far.  One difference I hear is that things sub doesn't do as well above 100Hz as other folded horns I've heard.  Compared to my Acoustic 301s, this has more output below 50-60 Hz, and less above 100 Hz.  It's definitely meant to be a subwoofer, versus a general LF cab.  That's just what I wanted, as it can supplement any other full range speakers I have.  It's amazing to me the sheer amount of impact this thing has.  At the seller's house, I asked if he had bass shakers in his sofa and he said no, that's all from the sub!  I can't wait to pull out all my big movies.  First up, Lord of the Rings!

 

So now the question is, what to do for the rest of the system.  I think that is best left for another thread.  In the meantime, there's much fun to be had.

open with can.jpg

driver.jpg

Sub 1.jpg

Sub 2.jpg

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Nice! The BFM designs are impressive. I’ve built two, a T18, and just (mostly) finished a TT. The TT worried me at first, as it took a little tweaking to my system and maybe a little break-in time to get it to sound right. But once I got it to play nice with my La Scalas, I can’t imagine ever going back. Good luck on the finishing. You are fortunate to still have the option to finish it to suit your room, and system. 

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The horn mouth should be 18:- 24" from a boundary, corners work best.

 

A 20" cabinet should have 2 rows of braces throughout. Can't understand why one would not follow basic building instructions in the plans, it will work fine but with added distortion due to lack of bracing at higher volumes.

 

300 watts is all you need with these, likely much less.

 

 

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Hi Jason,

It does have bracing.  The construction photo was just taken before it was added.  If you look at the pic with it completed (under the afghan) you can see the brace at the mouth.  It also has another set further in.

 

-Jon

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3 hours ago, Cornwalled said:

Hi Jason,

It does have bracing.  The construction photo was just taken before it was added.  If you look at the pic with it completed (under the afghan) you can see the brace at the mouth.  It also has another set further in.

 

-Jon

 

If it has 2 rows of braces across the horn mouth you are OK. If not its not the end of the world, it just bracing is key in the design.

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, jason str said:

The horn mouth should be 18:- 24" from a boundary, corners work best.

 

A 20" cabinet should have 2 rows of braces throughout. Can't understand why one would not follow basic building instructions in the plans, it will work fine but with added distortion due to lack of bracing at higher volumes.

 

300 watts is all you need with these, likely much less.

 

 

More like 20 watts!

 

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On 4/24/2020 at 10:44 AM, jason str said:

The horn mouth should be 18:- 24" from a boundary, corners work best.

 

A 20" cabinet should have 2 rows of braces throughout. Can't understand why one would not follow basic building instructions in the plans, it will work fine but with added distortion due to lack of bracing at higher volumes.

 

300 watts is all you need with these, likely much less.

 

 

 

Hey, That's my horn... or was my horn. It's modified from the original design to use a 12" version of the Dayton Reference driver, the RSS315HF driver. The cabinet is plenty stiff and was built using the 12"-loaded slim design which is why there is only 2 brace and another further in that you can't see. 

 

In room response will be better with it point into a wall / corner with mouth about 18" way from wall. Here's my in room response pre / post PEQ. It gets a lot louder but my noise floor is pretty low so I sweep a reasonable level. 

 

 

MLP Avg.JPG

MLP EQ.JPG

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