[aceinc]

I do not wish to start a religous war (some people worship at the alter of bass), but I am interested in the best choice for a DIY sub. The criteria;

~3,500 living space with 4'x6'8" & 3'x6'8" openings into rest of house.
3 Cubic foot box with a maximum diameter of the driver of 15 5/8".
Driver is downfiring, and any ports must be down or rear firing.
Great for HT good for music
Frequency response from ~14 to 40 hz with a minimum of 12 db roll off above 35 hz.
Powered with speaker level input.
Maximum price for driver(s) & amplifier $500 + shipping.

My current leaning is the new Rythmik Audio DS 15. This is a little high price wise and will require a shoe horn to fit in the box. I am also considering the DS 12 either ported if I can figure out how to fit the ports, or sealed, filling in some space to get to the recommended 2 Cubic feet.

If you had the above criteria and budget what would you do?

I have built 2 - 10" Titanics into 1/2 cubic foot enclosures driven by a NAD 100 wRMS @ 8 ohm amp, and they perform well down to about 40hz. I pulled a DIY sub of my own design (12" dayton DVC & 250 watt amp in a 2 cubic foot ported enclosure) from my family room system and got pretty flat down to about 25 hz. It sounds good, but while it sounds good, it doesn't aesthetically fit into the decor, and I think I can do better. It would be nice to move it back to the family room as well.

BTW, the aforementioned 12" DVC DIY has an odd feature. No matter where I set the xover, it is supposed to be variable from 40hz to 180hz, it seems to have no affect on the output of the sub. I am using REW and a ECM8000 to test. Any thoughts on this?

Paul