Home Theatre Tuning

[bball09124 10+ year member]

I'm going to make a little enclosure/table for my living room and 15" Treo SSi. I know you are supposed to tune low, but how low? Would 3 cubes at 26 hz sound good or should I go with a larger/lower enclosure?

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[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

Model it out in WinISD and see what works best for that particular driver. For home theatre, I'd do larger and lower.

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

Model it out in WinISD and see what works best for that particular driver. For home theatre, I'd do larger and lower.

I would do that, but I always hear that those graphs don't mean jack in real world scenarios. Just did some math, and looks like 4.8 cubes @ 25 hz should work perfectly. That sound better?

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

Only thing I didn't include is the port length.

 

[Ricci 10+ year member]

WinIsd is actually pretty accurate. You just have to keep in mind that it is not showing the effects of cabin gain or room gain, but just the half space response.

4.8ft tuned to 25hz looks a little peaky. I'd tune lower for HT or your going to miss out on a lot of the good stuff. 6.8ft tuned to 17hz with a 6" port 35" long looks good. It should take 1600w before the driver hits xmax anywhere above 16hz. I used to have an SSi 18.22 HT sub. It was nice.

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

WinIsd is actually pretty accurate. You just have to keep in mind that it is not showing the effects of cabin gain or room gain, but just the half space response.
4.8ft tuned to 25hz looks a little peaky. I'd tune lower for HT or your going to miss out on a lot of the good stuff. 6.8ft tuned to 17hz with a 6" port 35" long looks good. It should take 1600w before the driver hits xmax anywhere above 16hz. I used to have an SSi 18.22 HT sub. It was nice.

Yeah, does look peaky at 25 hz, but not at 20 hz.

Second question. The amp I purchased does 240 watts @ 4 ohms and 170 watts @ 8 ohms. My SSi is Dual 4 ohms. Can I run the amp on just one coil of the SSi?

 

[SSS 18734 5,000+ posts]

No, don't run it on a single coil. The difference between 170 and 240 watts is minimal at best and isn't worth the added strain on your SSi.

You're right in that WinISD won't get you completely accurate, real-world results. But don't discredit it just because it doesn't model cabin/room gain. It's certainly better than just guessing specs. Try a large, low tuned box that drops off gradually without any large peaks - room gain will make up for the drop off. If you want to model room gain, try a program like Bass Box Pro.

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

more powa is gonna be your friend when trying to reproduce 20hz at a fairly high levels like watching movies

 

[bigaudiofanatic 10+ year member]

"How Low" Put transformers on and listen to that when they are fighting THATS HOW LOW

 

[Ricci 10+ year member]

All good suggestions. Use both coils on the driver in series. Do you have a D2? Try to tune at or below 20hz. The suggestion to have the low end gradually roll off a bit is a sound one.

What amp did you get? Dayton 240w plate? That SSi is going to be way underpowered on that little amp. It'll be just enough to get it going. You could probably get another 10db of headroom out of that driver with a good amp.

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

All good suggestions. Use both coils on the driver in series. Do you have a D2? Try to tune at or below 20hz. The suggestion to have the low end gradually roll off a bit is a sound one.
What amp did you get? Dayton 240w plate? That SSi is going to be way underpowered on that little amp. It'll be just enough to get it going. You could probably get another 10db of headroom out of that driver with a good amp.

Yes, the Dayton 240 watt. I really don't think I'll need much more than that, as there is currently an 8" on 80 watts and it's almost enough. As a poor college student, I'm afraid thats as good as its going to get.

It is quite difficult to acheive sub-20 hz tuning. 6" aero is not going to happen, but I think a 4" aero will fit. I'm used to SPL where that much port area for 5 cubes would perform horribly, but in this scenario it should smooth out response right?

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

Any input? 5 cubes tuned to 18 hz with a 4 in aero sound good?

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

Any input? 5 cubes tuned to 18 hz with a 4 in aero sound good?

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[IDSkoT 5,000+ posts]

Any input? 5 cubes tuned to 18 hz with a 4 in aero sound good?

Too low. The human ear can only hear to 20hz... if you tune it that low, you will only feel it, and would be just easier to get one of those bass shakers that attach to the bottom of your chair. Tune it to 26 in a 5 cubed box... use either 2x 4" Aeros or 1x 6" Aero.

 

[bball09124 10+ year member]

Too low. The human ear can only hear to 20hz... if you tune it that low, you will only feel it, and would be just easier to get one of those bass shakers that attach to the bottom of your chair. Tune it to 26 in a 5 cubed box... use either 2x 4" Aeros or 1x 6" Aero.

I'm not tuning to 18 hz to listen to material at that level, I am tuning it there to even out the bump in response around 30 hz if I tune higher. According to WinISD I should I have nice and flat response from 20 hz-60 hz.