Sub woofer for music....

[Enrique]

Hello community mi name is Enrique, i live in Spain, in my 50 years old y always ve a music lover. I have tried a lot of speakers and actually i have a Linkwitz LX521.4 using a DSP. My question is about a really good DIY subwoofer for this sistem because i cant hear sub basses. Can you help me recomended a definitive project of a subwoofer for music applications?

My living room is not too big 24 mts2, I really prefer one box, and I don't hear too much loud, too loud just a few times. 

Thnaks a lot.

[kipman725]

If your volume requirements are modest and you want to minimize the size of your sub a sealed box sub woofer would work well, perhaps dual opposed drivers to minimize mechanical vibrations.  Such a sub woofer will require equalization to produce low bass and a powerful amplifier to overcome the strong air spring of the undersized box.  The driver will be a high excursion type driver.  Its hard to make specific recommendations as I don't know your specific requirements  in terms of output and size but the Eminence LAB 12 might be a decent starting point.  For sealed subwoofers you can use this calculator to work out the maximum output:
http://www.baudline.com/erik/bass/xmaxer.html

for example 2*LAB12 would be about 115dB@41Hz/1m  (lowest note on double bass)

[Ricci]

Hello Enrique...

What is your budget for the subwoofer?

What would be a maximum size you would like for the sub? LxWxH?

[Enrique]

Thanks for your cooperation, my budget aprox 2 x 1000 u$s, Size 2 x 60x50x80 cms.

[neo2015]

Given that you're from Spain, and want a subwoofer for music, i would suggest two sealed 125L boxes with a BMS 18N862, you should be able to get each for about 600€/650€ in Spain.

[peniku8]

The 18N862 is 670€ while the 21DS115 can be had for 450 (430 each if you buy two), but I think both of those would be overkill for a music setup.

I recently bought a 15TBX100 for a friend, which is just 200 bucks. It will perform nicely in the available space.

[kipman725]

I have a couple of 15TBX100, yet to go into a box and can confirm its a pretty serious driver.  It has many of the features of the more expensive drivers like shorting rings, double silicone spider and a 4" voice coil .  What it lacks compared to the top end drivers is excursion capability with an xvar of 11mm VS 19mm xmax for the 18N862 (comparing xmax numbers is difficult between manufacturers as some report geometric xmax and others report 70% Bl and others are just pulling a number out the air almost and other factors such as compliance often limit excursion before BL on high excursion drivers), unless your aiming to get every last dB out of the sub the reduced excursion capability is not going to be important. 

These videos from B&C show some of the kipple data for the 18TBX100 which show a nice parameters that should result in a low distortion bass like a flat BL curve:

 

 

 

[Enrique]

Muchísimas gracias por tantos consejos. Me han gustado mucho los drivers recomendados. Iré agregando novedades en cuanto las tenga.