Jump to content

Larger Enclosure for LF-10?


Dman155

Recommended Posts

I like my LF-10, but as an American, I want more of everything so I want more bass. I was thinking of building a custom enclosure about 2.5 times the size of the LF-10 and using the klipsch driver, passive radiators, and amp. For the array, I want to basically double the height of the LF-10 cabinet, install the passive radiators on the front, and the active driver on the bottom, back with the amp on the top, back.

I arrived at this design by looking at the new RSW series subs with passive radiator in front and active driver in back. Anyway, will increasing the enclosure volume significantly improve bass response? Can anyone give me any pointers?

When/if I do build it, I know all about wood glue, cabinet bracing, and materials so I'm looking for some advanced recommendations. Thanks.

Also, what should I finish it with? I don't really like wooden-looking speakers, I'd rather have a standard black finish. Is there some kind of special paint for this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dman155,

My first reaction to moving the components to an oversized box is NO. It would most likely tear the woofer to shreads the first time you hit the volume.

Generally, speakers like subs are optimized by the manufacturer since they are specialized designs and the box plays an important part in controlling the woofer. You might be able to put larger speakers with the "borrowed" amp.

An acquaintance once tried to put the Altec "dynamic force" woofer in a Voice of the Theater cabinet with disasterious results. I helped him to close up the box which at least helped to keep the drivers from flying all over the place.

------------------

John P

St Paul, MN

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dman, don't do it. The passive radiators work like ports, thier weight decide how long the 'port' is and what the tuning is.

Increasing the box size will just throw it all out of whack. The overall tuning of the sub will drop quite a bit, and since there is less resistance in the larger box, the next time you watch a movie the driver will probably bottom out.

Charlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want the tuning to drop lower, like 20 hz or something (is that what you meant spider?). If the driver does get close to bottoming out, it will be producing a much higher spl then it is now (the front driver never moves more then an inch right now and apparantly, its capable of 2 inches).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:

Originally posted by Dman155:

I want the tuning to drop lower, like 20 hz or something (is that what you meant spider?). If the driver does get close to bottoming out, it will be producing a much higher spl then it is now (the front driver never moves more then an inch right now and apparantly, its capable of 2 inches).

You won't get any good results by changing the enclosure of your sub. The driver and the passives used are precisely matched to the existing enclosure. There's nothing more difficult than to get good bass, it requires very precise calculations of the box/woofer interaction. And those "special" drivers as the one you have in your LF10 are designed to work only in very small enclosure; the high displacement capability of this driver is there to compensate the reduced size of the box. In a bigger box it would bottom out without producing any hearable bass...

Regards,

Frans

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dman, it just doesn't work.

There are a couple points where a driver works well, and at other spots the results are.... unpredictable?

Anyway, lowering the tuning will decrease power handling above tuning, simple as that. The sub will reach its excursion limits much sooner than you think.

If you envision the excursion plot for a sealed box of similar size you'd see it would hit Xmax at a relatively high frequency to maintain the same SPL levels as the vented or PR sub. To prevent the driver from exploding, the port is used to increase the power handling at that point by lowering excursion at the port's frequency (and above and below it). The port's frequency is chosen to be at the point where it starts to lower the excursion again as it reaches close to Xmax. If you blindly lower the tuning, the port won't begin to lower excursion until a LOWER frequency, and the driver will go way beyond Xmax in the 20-30hz range.

If you had the T/S parameters for the driver and the passive radiators, I'm sure you could work something out, but without them, it's just not wise to change the design.

Charlie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...