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Build Your Own Subwoofer

Posted by michael on from the rock-the-house dept.

Gerard J. Pinzone writes "Here's a page that details the construction of a homebrew subwoofer." Another in a long line of "You can, but should you?" projects.

5 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Check out Hometheaterforum.com by sdo1 · · Score: 5, Informative
    The DIY section on HTF is filled with people doing DIY subs.

    The DIY section on avsforum also has some info.

    DIY subwoofers is another place to start.

    In fact a google search yields about 16,000 results with the words "DIY" and "subwoofer".

    Which brings me to...

    Is this really news?

    -S

    --
    --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
  2. Not too detailed... by cei · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sure, it's great that the guy documented his project so others could replicate it, but it might be more useful if he mentioned how he calculated the optimal port length. Specs on resonance frequency, Vas, power handling, and other things might be nice as well. Or why he chose a ported sub rather than an isobaric or sealed design or something else. Not that there's a correct choice, but knowing a little bit about how and why he made his decisions might help others down the line.

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    This sig intentionally left justified.
  3. Score -1, clueless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    People have been doing this for a long time (Building ENCLOSURES, not subwoofers). All those little bassheads that you see going down the street with civics shaking the windows out of your house do it themselves. It's simple and easy, and most companies that sell subwoofers provide very detailed and specific guides (more than that page) about port length for ported boxes, volume calculations, building materials, construction methods, and countless other things. And boy, MDF is a bitch to work with.. you need a carbide blade for the saws, and screws strip SO easily. Not to mention MDF dust is very carcinogenic (search around google) and smells bad. Expect this thing to stink up wherever you put it for a while. Most of the guides are in PDF format (For car audio) from the major sub manufacturers' sites: www.kicker.com www.rockfordfosgate.com etc Forque (Chester Bochan)

  4. There is one trick to doing this right by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 4, Informative
    This guy is obviously a pretty weak hardware hacker. I say "obviously" because if he knew what he were doing, his construction page would be covered with formulas about material desity, air volume, port circumferance, port length, and many other tuning-related issues. It look to me like this guy thought of a design that seemed right a priori, bought a driver, and started cutting. Pathetic!

    This has to be the worst Slashdot how-to ever. There is absolutely nothing geeky about doing it blind like this, especially considering how much information is available about doing it the right way. So kids, don't do this at home; do better!

  5. Re:Case only. by Syre · · Score: 4, Informative

    He didn't even build a good case, as far as can be told by that article. Maybe a good looking case, but if he didn't design the cabinet using simulation software, it's very unlikely that it's a good sounding case.

    In case you're thinking of a similar project, a good page with all kinds of information and links for designing and building your own subwoofers that actually sound good is here.

    Here is a page of freeware loudspeaker design software and links to more. And another such page of speaker design software is here.