Building Dayton Sub enclosure

greyford1979

Well I started building a sub enclosure for my new 15" Dayton Reference HO sub. I decided to go with front firing compared to my old CV which was down firing. It's gonna be a little larger than the old box and tuned slightly lower as well at 16Hz:D Here are some pics of the new sub vs. the old sub.

greyford1979

Here are a couple pics of the old sub enclosure.

greyford1979

Next are a few pics of the new box in progress. First is a pic of a pile o'wood. I decided to use birch in stead of mdf, this way I don't have to worry about veneering the enclosure when I'm done. Next are pics of the pieces going together, including one where you can see the port and some of the internal bracing starting to be put inside. In the final pic I glued the second front panel on, this way it gives the speaker a nice recessed look once it is mounted inside the box. Don't have large enough wood clamps to hold it until it dries, so just used a few weights:D More updates on progress tomorrow:p

zarrdoss

Well it looks like nice work and well built. Just wondering why you didn't cut the wood at 45's so you don't see the plywood ends? the last one I built I used MDF and just sanded and painted it with a paint that looks like metal, turned out nice. It will be neat to see it when its all done. That Dayton sub looks massive, will the Cerwin Vega amp power it? I might be building one in the near future as well.

Attachment not found.

greyford1979

To be quite honest I totally for got about it...I did think of it after I finished cutting all the pieces:o and no way in hell was I gonna go and buy more wood and cut new pieces lol. But once I'm done with it I am gonna do a few things and some trim work so that you can't see them;) I have a different amp and crossover for it, the CV amp is only 200 watts(that and I got rid of that amp)

zarrdoss

I would not sweat it too much, I'm sure it will turn out fine. it should be a beast!

greyford1979

Well it's oh so close to being finished. I glued the top on today and finished it off with some quarter round trim(again using the weights:p) Also finished sealing and insulating it. I was gonna stain it very dark black, but my fiance and I really liked it how it looks in the pic where the wood is still showing through, so no more coats of stain. Next will be urethane tomorrow and firing it up once it's cured:D

greyford1979

Also I was gonna make a grill for the front, but decided just to leave her naked:p

Conradicles

greyford1979 wrote: »

tuned slightly lower as well at 16Hz

That is a nice box you built and that Dayton sub is on my list of possible subs to use as well.

I am trying to gather as much information as possible about building a home sub.
How do you tune it at 16Hz seeing the woofer does not even reach that low?

greyford1979

Conradicles wrote: »

That is a nice box you built and that Dayton sub is on my list of possible subs to use as well.

I am trying to gather as much information as possible about building a home sub.
How do you tune it at 16Hz seeing the woofer does not even reach that low?

Tuning it depends on what size box u use(the final internal volume of it) and also by what size port(diameter, length, how many). You also have to take into account some different specs of the speaker itself. And then ofc I used some programs to come up with these figures before I started even building the enclosure. The CV enclosure was tuned at I believe 30Hz. If all goes well this should be a good upgrade over the CV, which was no slouch. Oh and thank you, I love building things....destroying them too lol.

zarrdoss

I kind of knew you would make it look great, keep up the good work!

greyford1979

zarrdoss wrote: »

I kind of knew you would make it look great, keep up the good work!

Thank you! I just can't wait to finally hear it:eek:

Face

Bah, who needs clamps?

Conradicles

greyford1979 wrote: »

I used some programs to come up with these figures

That answers my question. Where did you get yours?

greyford1979

Conradicles wrote: »

That answers my question. Where did you get yours?

You can find different programs on the net. Just google building a subwoofer, home theater sub...things along those lines, and you will get lots of info on building a sub enclosure.

greyford1979

Ok she's all finished:) The picture came out kinda weird because of the flash but you get the idea, and I don't know where that yellow on the right of the speaker showed up, it's not there on the sub just in the picture lol
Haven't listened to it too much yet, starting to get late and I don't think my neighbors will like it too much, but all I can say is WOW!:eek: It definitely gets down lower than the old sub, I thought my light bulbs were gonna blow up:eek:. The sound is also so clean, no boominess(is that a word?) and much tighter than I ever thought a 15 could be in a big ported box.:D My fiance is even real happy with the way it turned out, she loves the way it looks with the wood showing through. And ummm she kinda likes the vibrations from the new lower notes:rolleyes: I'm a very happy camper, but my only question is, do I go for an even more powerful amp now?:p Total for the build of this subwoofer was less than $300, so it was definitely worth it!

greyford1979

Oops I forgot the picture:o

Rodeo0530

Looks good...a very different look, but that's not a bad thing. Enjoy!

zarrdoss

looks great, how many watts are you running to it now?

zarrdoss

being 800 watts RMS I would go with this

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-806

or this

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-752

or this



http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-811

greyford1979

Rodeo0530 wrote: »

Looks good...a very different look, but that's not a bad thing. Enjoy!

Thank you! I had to make the fiance happy too as with the size of this thing it's a piece of furniture:p

zarrdoss wrote: »

looks great, how many watts are you running to it now?

Thank you! I'm running a measly 300 to it right now, sounds great but I know I'm not reaching the true potential of this sub. I'll probably be looking at getting at least a 500(or more:D) in the not so distant future.

greyford1979

Yep those are some of the amps I was thinking about, probably won't be till maybe summer or a little later. We are going to Romania in the summer to visit my fiance's parents so no more upgrades for a bit:(

zarrdoss

I ran the bash 300w on my last sub project, solid performer. I am thinking of building one with the HF version (500 watts RMS and 14mm x-max) of the one you got and a bash 500w in the future.

greyford1979

If you do definitely get some pics up. I'm gonna try some spikes on mine as well, I have some thick carpeting.

greyford1979

Well I decided to sell some old gear including the CV sub which I found the amp to(thought i sold it...what was it that I sold) And I will buy the 500 watt amp:D

greyford1979

Damn I was just looking at the size of the bash amp. Looks like I'm gonna have to make a plate that it sits on and seal that to that to the enclosure since its smaller than the other amp.

20hz

I was debatting a bash 500 watt but ended up with the dayton sa240 watt .
The bash is a class D the sa240 is an A/B type .
D class has no headroom so it has exactlly what it claims wheras an AB type has headroom and can have a lot more power then it claims (based on the headroom) .
plus the techs at parts express say the dont fix dclass amps at all , but the A/B type usually just blow output transisters and they they put new ones in ($20 for parts), so for less cost you get a new amp wheras a dclass amp you just throw away .
They recomended a sa240 over a bash 500 .
I bought the sa240 and it has plenty of power for my 15" .

ben62670

The Bash amps fail. Infinity used them a lot. I would have gone with the dayton too.

greyford1979

Well when we got home from vacation today, my fiance looked at the sub and said, "hmmm, you think maybe you should make that thing look more like a table?" Looks like I may be rebuilding the enclosure for this thing to resemble more of a table then a speaker:( Not sure yet, she hasn't made her final decision yet:rolleyes: But I will post pics of the redesign if she decides we go for more of a furniture look. I will definitely make sure it sounds just as good in the new enclosure. And yes I'm sure some are thinking I have no balls:p But as much as I love my audio stuff, they can't do for me what she does:p:eek: lol