My budget multi-purpose setup

Fast1one
10+ year member

CarAudio.com Veteran
The goal of this setup was simply a budget college setup, something for movies, music, and the occasional small party at my apartment. I finally got the plate amp in for the sub so i decided to share.

First off are my towers, they are floor loaded BIBs, which are basically 1/2 wave tapered pipes, tuned to around 80hz for Aura 3 inch full range drivers. They sound very good for around 28 shipped for the pair, and realistically can go down to around 70hz, maybe lower with room gain. They do well off around 5-10 watts, currently they are hooked to my parent's receiver until i go back to college.

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They are around 4 feet high with a very small footprint, Sound great with pretty much everything, and they shine with acoustic music (Daaaamn Jack Johnson never sounded so good).

Next up is the matching sub, the goals for this sub were simple: The loudest i can get with 25 watts with authority down low for movies. A lot of commercial subs already achieve fairly high decibel levels with that power, but nearly all of them cant play below 30hz, a majority not even below 40. A small driver was used to keep the cost down once again, a Dayton classic shielded DVC sub, 20 bucks used off here. Its sitting in an Expanding TL tuned to 26hz IIRC, with an F3 of about 22hz without room gain. Fairly flat up to around 70hz, and reaches x-max with the 25 watts its given from the Dayton plate amp.

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Looks mean in the corner, obviously the downfalls are the size, but doesnt matter. These are currently in a fairly large living room, 25 by 35 feet, plus the kitchen and dining room since its all open. Even with the big space the combination reaches acceptable levels for normal to moderate listening levels for music and movies. Enough to rock the house.

I cant wait till i get these things in a small room where they will really shine, as they were made for small to medium room sizes (300 square feet and below). The subwoofer should really be nasty then. It already shakes the hell out of everything in the house. Not bad for around 60 a pair for the towers, and 90 for the sub, including the texture paint.

Shoot me your thoughts! BTW Im not finished painting the sub before you ask, the flash made it look worse too //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 
Nice, what's that covered in???
Texture paint from Micheal's, Forgot the brand but its Gotham Grey if that helps, looks really nice and it hides imperfections //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif
 
If you like your little driver BIB do well in that room, I'm wondering how many noise complaints I'm going to get with BIB's with 12" drivers....
BIBs are great, later on I want to move to 8 inch drivers, which should go down into the 20s, 12s would be insane bro. give them 20 watts a piece and you can cause some serious damage...
 
give them 20 watts a piece and you can cause some serious damage...
I've got major kilowattage to throw at them though, should be interesting, especially in a college house... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

Oh and BIB stands for Bigger is Better. *not joking*

 
hmm very interesting. does the horn part of it have to be open to the top in order for it function the best with most drivers?
Mine was open at the bottom because the towers were so short, but usually you have it open on top and load the towers into corners. This increases the output and low end extension, if you don't have access to corners or you have very high ceilings you can always floor load like I did...
 
Mine was open at the bottom because the towers were so short, but usually you have it open on top and load the towers into corners. This increases the output and low end extension, if you don't have access to corners or you have very high ceilings you can always floor load like I did...
If I understand correctly the "horn" is no horn at all but is simply a stuffed transmission line that is designed to absorb all backwaves from the diaphragm and essentially cut out all resonance from the enclosure. So it should not matter which direction the "horn" is facing.

 
If I understand correctly the "horn" is no horn at all but is simply a stuffed transmission line that is designed to absorb all backwaves from the diaphragm and essentially cut out all resonance from the enclosure. So it should not matter which direction the "horn" is facing.
In theory yes, but a BIB more closely resembles a BLH than a transmission line, which is 1/4 wave instead of half wave. in practice however you can clearly notice the difference when you move the speakers from a wall to a corner, this is true with sub woofers as well...
The simplicity of the BIB is its high point, they are not sensitive enclosures at all and take full advantage of corner placement. There only real down point is, well, the size especially when you start getting into 6.5 inch speakers and larger...

 
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Fast1one

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