Best 18" woofer for around $350

[SlugButter]

Is the flared end really needed If Its big enough say I just fiberglass a 10" concrete form tube to the box... ugly but that would be cheap and easy.

That would work. It would need to be about 35 inches long to get down to a 30 HZ tuning.

 

[Bobby.b.]

If more motor helps in a smaller box would it be worth it to spend the extra on the death row 18? I could spend $500 If its worth it but I only have 1200 watts.

 

[mat3833 10+ year member]

If you want to run an 18, pony up the space for a proper enclosure.

I'm in the middle of building an enclosure for a pair of 18's on 3k and it's going to be roughly 14.5 cubes net tuned at 24hz/28hz/32hz with interchangeable external ports. My port area for the pair varies from 90" up to 170" depending on tuning.

Matt

 

[Beatin' 10+ year member]

I too want to do a budget steve meade build lol. I cant do 4 18's on 20,000watts, but I can do one on 2,000.

I'm lookin at that CT Tropo 18 but it does NOT model well on winisd. The group delay in a 4th order is stupid bad. Even then in a sealed box you need like over 8cu/ft to have a flat response.

 

[Bobby.b.]

yea I had the tropo in there it sounded pretty bad had to EQ the **** out of it. It was supposed to be temporarilly in the van untill it made it to my home system which woud have worked good 10' tuned to 28hz on a crown ce2000... but it done blowed up in 2 months lol. waiste of money on the tropo would not recomend!

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

I would probably do a Fi SSD 15.

I came here to recommend Fi as well.

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

1st off I love 18" subs:
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Manufacturers typically have a marketing dept that will usually go to great lengths to sell their products.
70-90in2 of port in around 5.5ft3net- 7ft3net usually makes most 18's happy. Dependent on power.
For example, this 1750watt 18 was overpowered a fair bit... and was in 5.6ft3 net with 77in2 of aeroport for a reason. Recommendations claimed 6-7ft3 for this sub on their website. Designed around the power and installed for the vehicle it did numbers like 153db+ garage and 152.4db usaci for 2 years with only a slight coil tap when hitting the lanes.
I think I was close/at the subs ultimate potential... 3K clamped worked with a 1750rms Fi ferrite sub.
It wasn't a burp box either, it was tuned to my musical tastes it went as low as I needed it to and got loud for what it was. It sure flexed and slapped windshield wipers when I needed it to...
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To go with under 5ft3 you'd probably need a stronger motor, that means a beast sub with more output potential and THAT means... $. The capable 18's I've seen cost and need power and port to use in the 5ft3 range.
Space makes bass... especially in lower power setups.
As stated... space makes bass
Food for thought

X2 I’ve owned like 7 different 18’s.

 

[Bobby.b.]

Thanks for the help guys I ordered a death row 18d2 just because I had a set of lethal injection 15s in my last build that I really liked. And the FI has less motor for the $. Im gonna have to cut some shelving up to make the box bigger but with an external port and some hacking I think I should be able to get 6.5' to fit.

 

[Bobby.b.]

good lookin woofer

 

[Ridinhi 5,000+ posts]

good lookin woofer

Wow, you got that fast!!!

 

[Bobby.b.]

Wow, you got that fast!!!

found a used one on ebay its been re coned with psi stuff only cost $360 shipped and no lead time, looks like new.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Is the flared end really needed If Its big enough say I just fiberglass a 10" concrete form tube to the box... ugly but that would be cheap and easy.

I've used sono-tube with good results. Cheap and easy enough to modify length if you want to tweak tuning. Flared port will gain efficiency but it will likely be inaudible so if you don't intend to meter you'd never notice the difference.

 

[Bobby.b.]

couldnt find a true 10" so i got a 12" and cut it down and fiberglassed a flange on it. Ugly, but functional.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

Looks good. I have used sonotubes quite a few times.

 

[Bobby.b.]

I knocked out and plugged the internal port which gets me to 5.7', put 6 lbs of poly, 10x34" port should be tuned around 30 dont remember. Just checked with my meter got about 52v and 23A so about 11-1200 watts and its not working hard at all. The work van hits pretty hard lol.