Robert_J

Where did you get those saw horses? I've been trying to see a brand name or something on them but I can't find one. These are EXACTLY what I need. -Robert

What is the enclosure tuned to? You did not properly mound the driver. In fact, the current way it is mounted to the box could damage the surround. The decorative ring around the driver is there to partially hide the screws and provide a gasket between the driver and the box. You should NOT have the screw heads/washers on top. That is forcing the top of the gasket into the surround of the driver and could cause the driver to fail. You need to use screws that will fit into to the gasket holes or pull the gasket back back while installing the screws. -Robert

DII DIII DHT All of the above were designed by Wayne J (aka The Reverend) - Speakerbuilder dot Net Other designs that Wayne helped with: DHT MTM D8 Dave has similar designs - link -Robert

I'm using the Dayton III as a center right now and a pair of Dayton II's as mains. They will go back to their owner (a family member) very soon. I've got 3 DIII's in progress as well as a set of 7 Dayton Home Theater MTM's. The 5.25" Dayton Classic driver is supposed to have better mids than the 6.5" model used in the DII and DIII. I've only heard the DHT speaker once and it was great so I can't give a good comparison. Most of the published Dayton designs are better than any speaker you will get in a big box store. Use the same or similar designs across the front. As for the measurment, the SPL meter and test tones is the cheapest route. Since the BFD is a set and forget piece of equipment I don't think the price of the extra equipment would be worth the one time use. None of my friends are this into audio so I couldn't even use it on their systems. -Robert

I created sine wave test tones using a free tone generator I found on the net. My frequencies matched the PEQ spreadsheet. This spreadsheet is designed to be used with the Radio Shack SPL meter and the BFD. It's easy to graph your response. You can also model how a BFD will help flatten the response. After getting a simulated flat response in the software, I just copied the settings into the BFD. I re-measured and the predicted response was very, very close to the results. If you want to go with a more automated system then Room EQ Wizard, a laptop, a calibrated mic and a MIDI connection is required. But you can make measurements and real-time adjustments to the BFD via a MIDI connection. If you have the hardware already, that's great. But a good external sound card starts at $100. A calibrated mic is $80. You may have to buy a mic pre-amp with a phantom power supply or get a pro-sumer USB sound card with this built in. M-Audio makes some nice ones. If you go with the Tri-Trix speakers for the mains, you need to have a similar speaker for the center. You should not use a Vifa for a center. Your front 3 need to be timbre matched for seamless transitions across the front sound stage. -Robert

You will have the fan issue with most pro amps unless you go with the Crown K series but even open box, scratch and dent, last year's model, etc won't help your budget. Like I said, I used the BFD to tame my sub's in-room response. TC-3K subs have a very large voice coil which means they have a very high inductance. My sub sounded terrible. So I measured the response with an SPL meter and test tones. I had an inductance hump in the response of almost 15db at 54hz. I also had some room induced issues a little lower and a gradual roll off. I cut the peaks on my response and boosted the low end. I now have a flat respnse from 80hz to 17hz plus or minus 3db. Based on published responses, I can outperform a JL Audio Gotham home sub. The Shiva-X and other XBL^2 subs will be low inductance subs so you won't need a BFD for that. But you still may have room induced peaks and valleys in your response. There is no way to really tell unless you measure. It cost me $40 for the meter. The test tones and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (for graphing) were free. If you want the BFD for some extra gain, then you need to get the amp first and check. I can't remember if it was Denon or Onkyo that had the low voltage LFE issue. My Pioneer VSX-1014 had no problem driving the EP-2500 with no other equipment. -Robert

I've been away for a while and come back to a 16 page thread. Woohooo a build thread. WRONG. As one use uses a Behringer EP-2500 and BFD, I have no problems. It does rated power which is 1,200w @ 1khz. At 20hz, it puts out 800w @ 2 ohms. Those numbers are not in the manual and were determined by the guys at AVS. The noise part is the fan. If you have it in your listening room, then a $10 replacement fan and 20 minutes will cure that problem. Some receivers have low voltage out of the LFE jack so a BFD can add a little bit of gain but it is mostly used for its parametric EQ and flattening the sub's in-room response. If you have very low voltage there are a couple of additional pieces of equipment you can add to compensate.To the OP, I see that you mentioned your parents being upset with your current sub. I don't think you know what you are planning with your new sub. I have over 5,000 square feet of concrete as part of my house's foundation and I can make every part of it vibrate with my EP-2500 and a pair of 15" TC-3000's. I've had my wife come into the theater room and I think she was screaming at me to turn it down. At least if I read lips I could understand her. The combination of extremely low bass and moderate SPL in a house is not a good combination if you have expensive or sentimental knick-knacks. Anthing not securely fastened will move. -Robert

A few years ago Dan Wiggins chimed in on a similar thread in another forum. From what I remember ALL magnets are made off-shore. There isn't an American supplier. A lot of the frames are made off-shore as well. Steel and soft parts do have US suppliers so it is up to the manufacturer to buy American. AE Speakers (formerly Stryke Audio) has stated he uses as many US made parts as possilbe. Aluminum cones from CA. Steel from OH (I think). Voice coils from FL. Dayton was mentioned in the first post. The Titanic line is built by NCA Labs in Sacramento. The DVC line is made by Eminence. The rest are from off-shore. Another US build house is Credance Speakers. They are still selling the old Kicker Solobaric without that name on it. They were the original supplier for that driver. -Robert

I took shop class (woodworking, plumbing, welding, etc.) in 9th grade. That was 25 years ago and I still use the skills I learned in that class. I wanted to take small engine repair in the 10th grade but my 4.0 GPA kept me out of it. It was only offered to the short bus kids. -Robert

Post #2 on that thread shows Chas' testing setup. Not a single person person in the thread has questioned his equipment and methods and that includes people in the industry. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....27#post10689427-Robert

Those are built by NCA Labs. If you scroll down on my link you will see the two basket version. NCA Labs also builds the Dayon (Parts Express) Titanic series. PE almost went with a multi-basket sub but scrapped the idea. They sold their one prototype at their big tent sale for about $100. The guy who bought it posted at PE's forum. Yes, having the spiders spaced that far apart will reduce rocking but not much more than having the spiders spaced 1/2" apart. It adds a LOT of mms since the voice coil former is a foot long. That's a TC-9 motor structure. I'm pretty sure they have about 3" of depth in the motor. I can always measure the motors that I have sitting here in my home office. Kind of difficult to have 4.5" of xmax when the xmech is 3". -Robert

It's been a few months since Scott posted about the 10" spiders. Are they here yet? I have a 12" Eclipse basket with a variation of the TC9 motor and a pair of 15" Lightning Audio/TC-3000 baskets with 3HP neo motors that need recone kits. Also, since these are not the standard baskets that Fi uses, will I have to send in the subs for the recones or can a kit be built? -Robert

Unibox may work since it is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and Excel is available for the Mac. Since I'm a PC user at both work and home, this is just a guess. -Robert

Depends entirely on the T/S parameters of the driver and the goals you set for this project. I recommend 20hz at the lowest since the sub's SSF is set at 18 hz. You can adjust the SSF of the sub by changing resistors.-Robert

The 1000w model was the one I was referring to. link. 1st post with master test list-Robert

They do have the largest selection but other places are Madisound, Meniscus and Elemental Designs (they get there amps from Keiga).The amp you need depends entirely on our design and goals. Some of PE's amps don't output the rated power. Other's have subsonic filters too high for home theater use. -Robert

I'm surprised that someone quickly figured out what type of tool that was! I used it as an example. It's very limited in its use but absolutely necessary for some of the things I am wanting to do. Proper tools are an investment.Below is a Rock River Arms model 1291 with a match trigger. I've added a 4x scope, front grip and a green laser with a pressure switch on the front grip. It's only missing a tactical sling mount (one reason I need the tool) and a barrel mounted light. What I don't have pictured is a RRA stripped lower that I picked up Tuesday after work. I'm going to build a 2nd AR that is identical to the one pictured. My sister-in-law had me pick up a lower for her husband and my cousin-in-law will be getting a lower to build his 2nd AR. I'll be sharing the tool among 3 people now. -Robert

Stop by any time your are in the area. This is my latest tool that should be shipped tonight.

That is no excuse for a real man not to own a tool. I've bought a set of 150 drill bits for a single 1 that I needed. I've bought tools that I thought I might need in the future. I've never used my strut spring compressor nor my torque wrench but I have them just in case. At least in this area, the room over the garage is known as the 'bonus room'. Mine is my office so I can work from home. It has a full set of stairs leading to it just like any upstairs room.-Robert

We thought the same thing. Only for movies and big sporting events. Now I only turn on the living room TV about once a month. Otherwise we are in the theater room watching our favorite shows in glorious 720p high def on a 103" screen.The sloped ceiling isn't a bad thing. In fact, it should help on acoustics. -Robert

Those are way too close to the screen. They should be even with the first row of seats or slightly behind. The Dolby site has a bunch of great diagrams for speaker placement.-Robert

Here is my screen while still in frame mode. I was test hanging it. I've got a decent sized wingspan to give you an idea of the size. This pic has a good shot of the border made from door casing painted flat black. In this one you can see the decorative corner I used on the border. I wanted something a little better than a 45 degree corner.

Those are very capable subs but it all depends on your design and your goals.-Robert

A few things: 1. What are you going to use for a border? You need to recalculate the size when you add your border because it can't just be 1" or 2" all the way around and still keep an exact 16x9 aspect ratio. 2. You need to set all of your braces back just a hair. I used L and T braces from Lowes and set them back the thicknes of a very tiny washer. Otherwise they will touch the back of the screen and it won't be perfectly smooth. 3. How are you going to hang it? I used a French cleat system. It allowed me to adjust the screen side to side to center it exactly. 4. Will you be sitting on the floor when watching the movie? Because it looks like the screen bottom is less than a foot from the floor. Divide the screen into 3 equal parts with 2 horizontal lines. Your eyes should be the same height as the bottom line. Also, you want to make sure your head doesn't get in the way of the projector. It would suck to have head shadows on the screen all of the time. And it gets tiring slouching down in the seat. 5. Painting. You can still paint the wall. There are some great formulas on the web that will give you increased gain and better blacks. I built my screen so I can remove the border to paint it. If I don't like it, I replace the fabric for $10 and start over. 6. Projector mounting. Have you decided on a projector and mount? Will it have enough adjustment from side to side if it isn't perfectly centered on the screen? How much keystone adjustment does it have? -Robert

Qts is very important in getting the final Qtc of your system. I like my sealed enclosures with a Qtc of close to a .5 and since IB is a very big, sealed box then that's what I shoot for. The IB subs that I mentioned all have adequately strong motors but not even close to the Axis. Running an Axis in an IB is a waste of a good sub that was designed for small, sealed boxes. Joing the Cult of the Infinitely Baffled or visit the IB forum at Home Theater Shack. Both of those sites have great information.-Robert