Custom made telescopic subwoofer enclosure idea

T

TheLAWNoob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 10, 2016
Messages
330
Hi guys, trying to make a cheap subwoofer enclosure. All the parts are ready except for the box.

a1 - Copy (2).jpg
a1 - Copy (3).jpg
a1 - Copy.jpg
a1.jpg




What do you guys think? I'm worried about sound leaking from the gap between the 2 parts.
 
TheLAWNoob said:
Hi guys, trying to make a cheap subwoofer enclosure. All the parts are ready except for the box.

What do you guys think? I'm worried about sound leaking from the gap between the 2 parts.
Click to expand...

And you should. That thing is not going to work properly. You just can't seal those surfaces completely air tight so your box will inevitably leak. And probably rattle while at it.
 
TheLAWNoob said:
Trying to make a box small enough to fit in my backpack, and sound good at the same time.

Planning on bringing it to university use it in the private rooms in the Engineering building.
Click to expand...
Ditch the box and make it dipole (baffle only). It won't be as loud as a box because you have to make a dipole correction in the crossover but it will sound superior and take little space.

Ported construction only makes things worse as the port increases the cabinet pressure at the tuning point, making your seams leak even more.
 
A small ported box won't go super deep, either. You can EQ a sealed box easily (Linkwitz Transform applies here), but you'll need a high-excursion driver and a beefy amp. Isobaric's worth a look, but I suspect sealed's a better approach.

Maybe you could modify the redneck bucket sub so that you could carry stuff inside. If it's a tote, who cares that it won't fit your backpack?

Final crazy idea: can you make an telescoping box out of 2 nested Sonotubes? It would be WAY easier than the box you drew up. And lighter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4CR
like this
Two Acoustic Elegance dipole 15" or 18" in a MDF baffle + DSP...
 
TheLAWNoob said:
Trying to make a box small enough to fit in my backpack, and sound good at the same time.

Planning on bringing it to university use it in the private rooms in the Engineering building.
Click to expand...

They make speakers you can strap right to your head and they sound great. It's like a pair of phones attached on your head... Head... Phones...

Also MDF is heavy as shit and you can't sell that ridiculous design.
 
Good sounding small 'subwoofers' are really not physically possible. It's always a compromise or dirty beating frequency tricks..

Just get as much surface area as you can and run it dipole as suggested above. Sonotube is a great idea above also - run a sealed box but the seal will be the weak part. If you can perhaps bolt a flange with a rubber gasket to keep it pretty airtight, you might have a portable sub!
 
Ocellaris said:
They make speakers you can strap right to your head and they sound great. It's like a pair of phones attached on your head... Head... Phones...

Also MDF is heavy as shit and you can't sell that ridiculous design.
Click to expand...
Uh, MDF is as heavy as any regular material for building speaker boxes. And the design is not ridiculous even that you don't understand it. Actually far from it. A dipole bass is the highest quality way of producing bass in a regular room after horn/transmission line/cardioid.

A dipole radiates sound only front and back which reduces room modes considerably. Added benefit of dipole is light weight (no box) and it takes little space (no box).
 
Agreed regarding dipole. But I'd put infinite baffle not far behind dipole and well before TL or Horn. Especially one big single IB/sealed sub. Lowest group delay, least amount of room nodes and cleanest by far of those other choices.
 
This is meant for a fun summer project, aka low cost.

Not trying to sell this or break any records here. And a 15inch sub definately wont fit in my backpack
 
N4CR said:
Agreed regarding dipole. But I'd put infinite baffle not far behind dipole and well before TL or Horn. Especially one big single IB/sealed sub. Lowest group delay, least amount of room nodes and cleanest by far of those other choices.
Click to expand...
Well yes but IB is usually pretty much a non-option. It takes a nutjob like me to dedicate a building to audio just to room treat it and punch holes in walls and ceilings for IB speakers.
 
TheLAWNoob said:
This is meant for a fun summer project, aka low cost.

Not trying to sell this or break any records here. And a 15inch sub definately wont fit in my backpack
Click to expand...
Ahh so you're looking for something to put in your backpack? Then look at the small subs from Tangband. Dirt cheap but produces amazing amounts of bass in a small enclosure. Like this: "Tang Band W6-1139SIF 6-1/2" Paper Cone Subwoofer Speaker" from www.parts-express.com!

Just a small sealed box and one or two of these will make your dorm room rock. Keep in mind you're not looking for 20 or even 30hz if you want to listen to rock or pop. Most bass is at 50-80hz. If you place the bass to a corner you gain 12db amplification (at the cost of increased room modes though). But with a small bass like this corner positioning is a no brainer.
 
Great advice - the old 1/4 space loading trick makes even the tiniest things sound pretty mighty :)

B00nie said:
Well yes but IB is usually pretty much a non-option. It takes a nutjob like me to dedicate a building to audio just to room treat it and punch holes in walls and ceilings for IB speakers.
Click to expand...

A big sealed box can be made WAF approved in furniture style or integrated into the base of a couch. But it is harder to do. This is also something I want to solve by making ~.5-1m2 enclosure into a piece of WAF approved art. Lets just say the Nautilus is much of the inspiration..

I trust you've seen this crazy ass mofo before... ROYAL DEVICE if not, enjoy and I'm sorry to kill 10-20 minutes of your day :)
 
I already have a 6.5 inch sub and 3.5 inch speakers though, just need enough volume inside the enclosure to make it sound good.

I was aiming for 0.5 cubic feet with the telescopic enclosure. Was at 0.3 cubic feet before.
 
TheLAWNoob said:
I already have a 6.5 inch sub and 3.5 inch speakers though, just need enough volume inside the enclosure to make it sound good.

I was aiming for 0.5 cubic feet with the telescopic enclosure. Was at 0.3 cubic feet before.
Click to expand...
You need to pick the correct sub driver that is designed for a smaller box (like that Tangband). With the wrong kind of driver you're stuck with a large box or no bass, take your pick.

With an isobarik design you can half the required enclosure at the cost of 1 extra driver.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top