Holy SonoSub!

engtaz · May 2007

Go for it Ben.

engtaz · May 2007

What is the latest on the SonoSub?

ben62670 · May 2007

engtaz wrote: »

What is the latest on the SonoSub?

Got the new woofer installed, shortend the port to 15"s, 20hz. Don't like it any more. I am going to shrink it to a little less than 6' cubed from 10 cubed.

engtaz · May 2007

Let us know how it goes and what your final measurements are.
Thanks

ben62670 · May 2007

I was happy with the sub with the 30" long port. I still have the other 8 feet of tube. If I am not happy with the shrunken sub. With the big tube, and short fat port it just lost a lot of umph, and sounds boomy. Also the smaller sub may look funny next to my new speakers. The old sub, and the new speaks are a little over 7 feet tall, and match well.

ben62670 · June 2007

Well I shrunk my SonoSub to 6 cubic feet, and changed the port back to 30"s. I sounds pretty good. Not as good as before, but handles more power. No more woofer slap at 30hz. Little tighter, but not quite as deep. I think the titanic woofer looks good on paper, but I am not overly impressed with it. No matter what you do to get good power, and a flat response you have to sacrifice 15hz, and below. I realize that you can only hear to 20 (me 25), but a big explosion at 20hz isn't just 20hz. Maybe I am just crazy? and I want too much. I don't know. I will run some test later.

jakelm · June 2007

Ben, I agree, the Titanic woofer does look and sound better on paper. 6 cuft, is a rather small inclosure if you aiming for lower than 20hz. Actually, your encloser (5~6 cuft) and port length would be ideal for a 12" SVS woofer. Reading the specs of the Titanic seems to put the enclosure @ around 8cuft to reach down to 15hz. I agree with you on explosions. I prefer to feel (<25hz) rather than hear (>25hz) an explosion.

ben62670 · June 2007

Well I was messing with the settings. I turned the crossover point up to 60hz, bridged the amp back to 850 watts. I am liking it more and more. War of the worlds puts one hell of a strain on a sub. Chapter 13 goes way deep. As for typical home theater it is better than I thought. Music is much much better. It is hitting harder, and tighter. The more I listen to it the more I am liking it. It was louder, and deeper, but the SQ is there a lot more now. I also moved it a little. That made a big difference. The walls here are crap paneling (yuck). I got the hammer out, and a box of nails. I went around banging on the walls. Located a bunch of rattles. I am thinking of drilling some small holes in the walls, and spraying some foam in there to bond the walls together. It sounds less like a ghetto rig with the trunk rattling, license plate twanging on its mount. I also have to keep in mind that I am trying to keep up with SDA-SRS's. When I finish my other project I may have to build another sub to keep up. I don't know. We shall see. I am in my office right now about 60 feet from the sub, and while typing I have been enjoying the tightness of the bass.

Edit
BTW
gross volume = 5.8
Effective = 5
tuned to 21hz
port 6X30
4 feet tall without end cap

jakelm · June 2007

Try not to blow the cone off of this one too Ben...lol

ben62670 · June 2007

jakelm wrote: »

Try not to blow the cone off of this one too Ben...lol

I was running it at 325watts the first time because I was scared of lack of self control. It handles the power very well, and tightened up the bass quite a bit. I am not messing with this one at all. The only thing that scares me is movies with surprise bass highly prevalent, flat at 15, and below hz. I could have gone with a 4" port. I have one here that I tried. It was a flared model that fit over the 6, and it just sucked the life out of the poor thing. I might have well put my hands over the port. My buddy stopped in, and he was trying to block the port with his hands. It was very funny watching his fingers flopping in the wind! We have an upholstery guy who rents from us who happens to keep in stock a ton of poly matting material. I doubled up on this stuff. It is about an 1 1/4 thick which helped take out the resonating boom. One thing about SonoSub is that a lot of people are under the impression that you don't need acoustic control in a round tube. BS. egg crate sucked, the poly batting in sheets worked very well. I tried a various amounts, and types before sealing the lid. My friend, and I took turns holding the top in place while the other did the listening.

PS
The thing gets jumping around at certain frequencies, and rocks back and forth a couple inches.

ben62670 · June 2007

OK I have been running the thing for a while in its small form(less than 5 feet tall), and it sounds very good. It has no more peak at the 35hz45hz level that I had before. It is much flatter now. It goes from 20 on up very smoothly. The Adcom is bridged again, and running at 850 watts. Nice tight, powerful, and clean. The walls had a problem with resonating(cheap paneling), so I went around with a hammer, and nails while playing some bass heavy music looking for loose spots. I found a couple where the paneling had popped off the nails. They are fixed now. Things are good. WOTW used to reek havoc on my sub before. I had a big problem with over excursion at 15, and 35-40hz.:)

Conclusion (keep in mind I am extremely critical)

For $250 materials including sub(no amp) I don't see it being beat by much out there. I have my mains set at 0db gain, and the sub at -7 for music, and -5 for movies. Other wise it is way over bearing:) There are better subs out there for sure, but at this price I am very happy with the overall performance of the sub. For DIY on a budget this is a good sub. Don't use this thing sealed. It rolls off way to early. I had an infinity ILS120 sub with a 12 running at 500 watts bash. The list was over a $1000. This thing absolutely blows that thing out of the water. Not even close. You can't tell if the infinity is on while the sono is running. BTW The infinity is not regarded as a high end sub. The ratings from the mags said when it was tuned properly it was good, not great.

engtaz · June 2007

pics of the new sub design change. and design how to's

Thank you and congrats

ben62670 · June 2007

engtaz wrote: »

pics of the new sub design change. and design how to's

Thank you and congrats

I don't want to show pics:mad: It's kinda like lobbing off 2 inches from your unit, and saying look what I did:eek:

jakelm · June 2007

Congrats Ben. Thats just how I feel about both my DIY subs. For the price I paid to build them...they cant be beat.

engtaz · June 2007

ben62670 wrote: »

I don't want to show pics:mad: It's kinda like lobbing off 2 inches from your unit, and saying look what I did:eek:

Too funny.

ben62670 · June 2007

I will not complain about anything with my sub anymore. It kicks butt. I had company over, and they were watching WOTW. I was in a utility closet that is open to the ceiling above the ceiling tiles. When the sub kicked in I swear I could hear the corrugated steel rattling:eek: . There is 3 inches of concrete poured over the steel, and the bass was just tremendous, and tight. I would love to do a side by side with a nice SVS. I have read many post on SVS about being able to do structural damage, and after hearing mine I believe it!:)

McLoki · June 2007

Congrats ben. For those of us interested, but not really keeping up - what did you end up with? What size (i.e. 20" tube 4.5' tall and stuffed with batting) making it how many liters (or cubic feet)?

What port did you end up with? (i.e. 30" long by 4" pvc pipe as the port tuning the whole thing for 18hz..)

It sounds like you are pretty happy with it. Are you getting alot of output below the tuning point of the sub? I was thinking of taking on a project like this and still trying to come to grips with what it looks like on paper compared to the real world....

Thanks,

Michael

ben62670 · June 2007

McLoki wrote: »

Congrats ben. For those of us interested, but not really keeping up - what did you end up with? What size (i.e. 20" tube 4.5' tall and stuffed with batting) making it how many liters (or cubic feet)?

What port did you end up with? (i.e. 30" long by 4" pvc pipe as the port tuning the whole thing for 18hz..)

It sounds like you are pretty happy with it. Are you getting alot of output below the tuning point of the sub? I was thinking of taking on a project like this and still trying to come to grips with what it looks like on paper compared to the real world....

Thanks,

Michael

Just a quick run down. I'm pretty tired here. It does roll off pretty quickly after 18HZ, but I think most subs do.
As for on paper... Well I could do an in room response, but they are usually pretty far off. The computer simulation shows it extremely flat from 20-100 +-2 db. It dug a bit deeper when I had it super sized, but had a huge peak between 35-45hz, power handling, and over excursion problems. I am feeding it 850 watts clean now, and would recommend a 500 watts amp. I have this thing turned way down so it does not over power the movies, and I turn it down even more with music. For all parts minus the amp it can be built for less than $300. I bought the sub for $166 on sale, and it is normally $200.
Keep in mind my room is 24'*24'
Everyone who has heard it has said Hly ****:D It has made quite a few people jump when a bass scence comes up!

15" Dayton Titanic MIII driver 800 watts RMS
Total hieght with top End Cap = 55"
Gross volume=6 ft
effective= 5.1
SonoTube=18"*42"
port=6*30 20hz
Estamated weight=80lbs
2'" thick woven poly batting material aplied to cylender walls

Please anyone feel free to contact me with any questions if you are seriously contemplating this build.

Ben

Deadof_knight · June 2007

Hey Ben where did you get that tube you bought a packing company ?

ben62670 · June 2007

Deadof_knight wrote: »

Hey Ben where did you get that tube you bought a packing company ?

Local lumber supply yard, and I got the 6" PVC at Lowe's.

Deadof_knight · July 2007

Hey Ben , do you know what sizes those tubes come in you bought ? i havent been yet or i would know

ben62670 · July 2007

Deadof_knight wrote: »

Hey Ben , do you know what sizes those tubes come in you bought ? i havent been yet or i would know

I saw a whole bunch of different sizes at the local lumber yard. They went up to 24" where I went. From 6 to 24's by 2 inch increments.

Deadof_knight · July 2007

thanks

Holy SonoSub!

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