best woofer & cab for single DJ sub?

[torontotech]

hey Guys,

I'm a DJ, and I'd like to build a sub for bringing to parties.

I need it to go pretty deep and pretty loud. Box size is not an issue.

I'm hoping to use Eminence drivers.

Any suggestions for a driver and plan would be greatly appreciated!

tt

 

[head_unit]

Box size is not an issue.

Liar!
OK, just kidding. But seriously, if I tell you 30 cubic feet like a refrigerator, then I think you may decide box size IS an issue.

And how about weight? Some super duper subs are easily over 100-150 pounds. Not easy for a DJ to hup around.

So tell us more about what you are doing and how you transport this stuff and crucially what main speakers you want to mate with (which can determine how high in frequency the sub needs to go).

Also, are you envisioning building a simple box with a hole in it? Or are you up for more advanced woodworking? The reason I ask is that a folded horn or tapped horn can be much more efficient, but trickier to build.

 

[torontotech]

thanks for the reply!

OK, so it would be nice to get a loud, deep, single sub that's also small, but I thought was pushing it, which is why I said box size not an issue.

To be honest, I have a wacky idea for a subwoofer that comes apart, with rubber gaskets and ratchet straps.. So a 30 cubic feet fridge wouldn't be bad!

Basically, it will only be one woofer at the party (not a stack) so I'm looking for something that will put out deep power, all by itself.

As for transport, we will have a van, and in regards to mating, it would be nice to have it with a couple small portable tops, say 12" and tweeter two ways : )

As far as simple vs complex, I know horns are more efficient (and harder to build right?) but I'm thinking reflex because in small rooms, people might not be far enough away for horns to sound good..

Any thoughts?

 

[Inductor]

You want to go low (infra-sound and high quality) and you want to shake a##. Don't go with the Eminence get this.
SB Acoustics SB42FHC75-6 15" Woofer

best woofer & cab for single DJ sub?

torontotech,
You ask it my friend... The Eminence LAB 15 can not do this.
You need a 230 L tuned to 22Hz.
(230 Liters/8.1Cubic Feet)
You will need a 350/400 W@6.0 Ohms amp RMS.
Other joys, some of them considering lesser amps or bigger amps are sometimes mentioned in the forum.
Dayton Audio ST385-8 15" Series II Woofer, needs a ~VB = 138 L and amp power 180/200 W@7.0 Ohms.
Dayton Audio PA380-8 15" Pro Woofer, needs a ~VB = 186.5 L and power W(RMS) 50/60 W@8.0 Ohms.
This might give you a good idea where you go.
Other references with builds around mentioned in the forum along the years,
SCANSPEAK 32W/4878T00
STEREO INTEGRITY HT 15
DAYTON RSS460H0-4, also needs a ~230 Liters/8 Cubic Feet enclosure and does infrasound territory (15Hz) but needs ~1000W power.
TC SOUND LMS-ULTRA 5400
LAMBDACOUSTICS TD15H
BMS 18N862
GREAT PLAINS AUDIO 3154 GPA
This can give you a good perspective what to look at and where to chose from. At this moment I don't have any good info on the Eminence drivers unless someone says it in a sub form (<20Hz)... "Who said so?" 😀

 

[m R g S r]

I just saw that the price on the 21sw152 is down a little. Around $750
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=294-689

That could make a killer single sub that will get loud, go low and not really break the bank ($1000 for driver, Baltic birch, casters etc)

A bargain in the pro Audio world when we are talking about buying pre made subwoofers.

Just a thought!

You can bridge a qsc rmx 2450 into the single cabinet and it should make some noise.

 

[OscarS]

PRV Audio 21SW4000 21" High Power PA Subwoofer Speaker 8 Ohm 294-2756

I'd give this a shot. 🙂

Then again, for that price, you can get two of these..

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=294-2755

 

[Inductor]

As a last-but-not-least resource you can also try to by the extra ORION - 2NT 15 from another member noah.
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/subwoofers/239741-first-home-subwoofer-build.html

 

[djk]

"I'm a DJ, and I'd like to build a sub for bringing to parties.

I need it to go pretty deep and pretty loud. Box size is not an issue.

I'm hoping to use Eminence drivers.

Any suggestions for a driver and plan would be greatly appreciated!"

Two Kappa Pro 15LF-2, up to 1200W per cabinet, 3dB down at 35hz.

Cut list is for four cabinets, only one sheet and a scrap needed for one cabinet.



COE PA 2009 Photo by dkleitsch | Photobucket

COE Crowd 2009 Photo by dkleitsch | Photobucket

 

[m R g S r]

Or use this driver, b&c 21sw115-8 for $555 shipped.

B and C 21SW115-8 21 inch Neo Subwoofer LF ND Driver 8 ohm - SavingLots.com

I've never ordered from this site, but josh ricci has, you can confirm with him.

 

[Inductor]

B&C 21SW115

That's a beast in need of 3000/4000 W RMS@4 Ohms.
B&C Speakers
pdf1
pdf2

 

[OscarS]

Or use this driver, b&c 21sw115-8 for $555 shipped.

B and C 21SW115-8 21 inch Neo Subwoofer LF ND Driver 8 ohm - SavingLots.com

I've never ordered from this site, but josh ricci has, you can confirm with him.

That's not bad at all. I don't see that model on the B&C website; is it an older model that came before the 21SW152?

 

[m R g S r]

The 115 has a smaller VC. But I'm sure it will still put out insane amounts of bass with 14mm Xmax, and a decent amount of BL. Not as much as the 21sw152, but in a ported application this driver should do just fine as those sims show.

 

[OscarS]

So then that's false advertisement because it really only has a 4.5" coil and not 6" that savigslot says. 😉

 

[m R g S r]

Yeah I never trust the specs listed on third party sites, many times there are typos. But again, no biggie that woofer will still put out great amounts of LF.

If placed in a TH it will be quite large, but just guessing roughly 130db @1m from it. Feel free to run some sims with the real T/S parameters from B&C and see what you get!

 

[djk]

At the above college dance, it measured 122dBC at 20 foot on program material. Add 16dB to get the 1M SPL. The room held 3000 people at the peak of the evening.

That was with 1KW (rated) amplifier power (total) into the four PPSL subwoofers, only 250W per cabinet. The Eminence drivers may be had for less than $150 each (shipped).

One woofer cabinet has been used with the same double 12 horn stack in a live music situation.

 

[Inductor]

Yeah...
Feel free to run some sims with the real T/S parameters from B&C and see what you get!

Just adding that the simulation from B&C for the vented cabinet is pretty accurate with F3@32Hz as in post#10, pic#1 . Notice that in my sim (not posted) gives the same data for the same alignment used in a 250L enclosure. 🙂
...
That probably I wouldn't use for restricting low frequencies (extension), favoring F3, that means nothing in the frequency range, but more excursion with less SPL at LF. When tuned low they go deeper and take advantage of the alignment with better quality in the infrasound range. As a good thing they have 60 mm peak-to-peak excursion, for a 30 mm Xmech. 😀

 

[Brian Steele]

Cut list is for four cabinets, only one sheet and a scrap needed for one cabinet.

Looking at that diagram, I'm curious about if the restricted space between "F" and the back wall acts as an additional "vent", loading the section of the cabinet holding the driver to the right of the diagram...

 

[djk]

"loading the section of the cabinet holding the driver to the right of the diagram... "

Good question.

The area in question is well over 100 sq inches, the woofer is about 130 square inches. I don't see much happening.

This is the smaller 35hz double 15 PPSL, I've done 7 of them, others have added to that number. No issues.

The second PPSL design had several dozen made, it was 36x30x24 and tuned to 30hz. Had a few woofers that needed the tinsel leads replaced after many, many years.

The only problem turned out to be from my friend Steve. He had 8 cabinets, but only took in one to a certain bar. After that people came up to me and asked about getting one, and they didn't mean one pair.

Steve now has 12, but has never used more than 8, and usually only uses 4, even for large venues.

My friend Eric uses 1 cabinet with a 500W plate amp and a pair of Klipsch Heresy Industrial Ported (HIP) on stands, his daughter does country (and western) music in good sized clubs. He is planning on adding a second sub and using a Crest CKS1200-2 for power. He smoked a pair of the Klipsch tweeters, so a 15 (JBL 2220) plus a large format compression driver (Faital Pro elliptical horn) are in the works to replace the HIP.

 

[freddi]

wonder how the distortion of a little 1-15 tapped horn would be vs a similar bulk PPLL cabinet at similar levels?

 

[Brian Steele]

"loading the section of the cabinet holding the driver to the right of the diagram... "

Good question.

The area in question is well over 100 sq inches, the woofer is about 130 square inches. I don't see much happening.

Yeah, from the embedded image, it looked like the cross-section at that point was about the same as the vent. However, when I expanded the image, I realised that it was squashed vertically and that section was actually quite a bit wider.