Reference's DIY Monster Subwoofer

[djkest]

First off reference, your tower speakers look amazing, lots of great craftsmanship there. It kind of looks like you are using the excellent KEF coaxial driver for the high/midrange and then possibly some Dayton reference or SEAS prestige woofers. I'm guessing it's a 3-way crossover or possibly (but not likely) a 3.5 way design.

Hey guys, I just thought I'd add in my 2 cents.

1) Epic 12" subs are good subwoofers, no doubt. They have high praise from noted speaker designer Jeff Bagby

2) Your dual sub design is not ideal from a performance standpoint. If you are more concerned with aesthetics and not as much with performance, that's fine. What you are essentially talking about here is 2 fairly large subwoofers stuck together.

If using 2 drivers in 1 box, the ideal solution is "dual opposed". The idea is that the motion of one driver counteracts the motion of the other driver. This cancels out a lot of vibration and leads to better sound.

If this is your only subwoofer, it's better to make 2 seperate boxes. You can then take advantage of room placement and better calibrate your room response. Depends on your goals.

3) Cool design ideas!

4) What BD said as a rule of thumb I'm going to have to disagree with. Larger surface area = more displacement = more output.

Old addage was that smaller subs are "faster" or "punchier" or whatever have largely been proven to be false. A lot of recent "subwoofer shootouts" and sub comparisons have found that time and again the 18" drivers are receiving the highest scores for both movies AND for music.

Further proof:
http://www.data-bass.com/data?page=system&id=89&mset=96

You can compare many different subwoofers and what you'll generally find is that the 18" drivers have more output across the board than smaller drivers. These are measured on the ground plane.

Example: Dayton Reference 18" sub ($250) has more output from 100 Hz - 20 Hz than TC Sounds LMS-R 12" ($370) with 2 very expensive passive radiators. This is because in addition to having double the cone area, it also has higher sensitivity.

In closing, my recommendation is this. Decide what your goals and expectations are. 1) performance 2) size 3) cost. If you want I can kind of steer you in certain directions. Otherwise I'll just butt out. I'd be glad to run some accurate simulations for anything you are considering, if you'd like.

[Blu-Benny]

I wish I was smart enough to understand what u guys are talking about!!

Good luck Ref….really looking forward to your progress on this new project!!

Your last 2 projects were awe-inspiring!!