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Death Star Subwoofer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-can dept.

bmfs writes "A subwoofer so powerful it could loosen fillings, shake out the cholesterol from arteries and generally make a lot of noise. It seems that the Death Star, ignoring the weakness that ultimately lead to its complete destruction, was a pretty good design... so someone made his own (with a lot of help from a housemate). The Death Star Subwoofer is currently up for sale on Ebay."

2 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. That's not a subwoofer.... by Tyler+Eaves · · Score: 5, Interesting

    THIS is a subwoofer.

    --
    TODO: Something witty here...
  2. Re:Nice Idea... by Reverberant · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Speaker manufacturers go through great lengths (no pun intended) to assure that the internal dimensions of the enclosure do not allow standing waves to build up. In "box" enclosures, the length, width and height are all differing dimensions, with no dimension being a multiple of the other.

    The Death Star subwoofer is, well, a subwoofer. Most subwoofer crossovers filter frequencies above 80 to 100 Hz, per Dolby & THX recommendations, so the maximum frequency that will (hopefully) be generated by this sub is 100 Hz. The wavelength of 100 Hz is roughly 10 ft. The half wavelength at 100 Hz is 5 ft. The diameter of the Death Star subwoofer is 3 ft.

    Basically, the smallest half-wavelength that will be generated by the subwoofer is greater than the diameter of the cabinet, so standing waves just aren't an issue here. It is something that needs to be considered for higher-frequency speakers, but a lot of the "rules-of-thumb" that are applicable to mid/high-frequency speakers don't apply to subwoofers because the wavelengths of bass frequencies are so large. (some gotcha's, like baffle-step, may apply, depending on the geometry of the cabinet)