DIY Sealed Box Subwoofer with an SVS driver

I want to give a huge shout out to my father for taking on this project. All I did was to supply the parts.

It all started when I ordered an SVS SB-1000. I couldn't get it to work right despite numerous calls and discussions with SVS tech support. Turns out that there was nothing wrong with the sub, itself, it just didn't want to play with my preamp (RCA connection) or my amp (speaker level connection).

I purchased a new SVS 20-39 PCi back in '06. Two weeks after I bought it, SVS released a new NSD driver and offered the driver, by itself, to their customers for $150 or $175 IIRC. I purchased the new driver because I wanted to have the latest and greatest equipment. The original driver was placed into the replacement driver's box, sealed up, and put away.

I recalled that the driver was still at my parent's house and we located it. I asked dear old dad if he could build a box out of MDF and he went to work on it. Sadly, he didn't take any photos during the build process but I can tell you that he did a great job. He used a router to recess the area where the driver would be mounted and, after installing the driver, he used nuts on the back of the screws to hold it in place. He commented that the driver isn't really 12" but that it's more like 12 1/2" so, if I ever need to replace the driver, I have to take the plate amp out and take the grill off to get to both sides of the parts holding the driver in place. As far as I know, he picked up the MDF at the local home improvement store and it's 1" thick. He painted the outside after all the bracing was done inside.

The amp, grill, grill hardware, polyfill, and plate amp are from parts-express. Total cost was less than the SB-1000 and it plays louder (to my ears) without needing to have the gain cranked up as high as the SB-1000. Of course, I don't have to "buy" the driver, per se, so that would've made it at the same price level of the SB-1000 (I don't know how they're making any money on those to be honest).

When I asked the guys at SVS about my little DIY project, they recommended a plate amp with 300 watts RMS minimum so that's what I got. IIRC, the 20-39 PCi had a 300 watt RMS BASH plate amp as well. They also indicated that I should use at least 3/4" MDF for the cabinet / enclosure.Unfortunately, the folks at SVS couldn't give me diagrams for the box itself citing that it's protected under / considered to be IP. I could have opened it up, taken pictures and measurements myself but my dad put his own spin on it and I could not be happier (I cannot say the same for my neighbors).

Even my wife said it looks very "professional" (professionally made) and I think that made my dad's day.

I'm happy I got to put the original driver back to good use and I am really enjoying this sub!

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Audio: Polk S15 * Polk S35 * Polk S10 * SVS SB-1000 Pro
HT: Samsung QN90B * Marantz NR1510 * Panasonic DMP-BDT220 * Roku Ultra LT * APC H10

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