Treo SSI 18 build plans...possible DIY Conquest

[Ricci]

I'm about to start on a DIY build for this 18" sub and I think that I've almost made up my mind as to what I want to do. This will be my first "real" build. I've done some car audio builds and a few haphazard bookshelf builds before, but nothing like this. I want this to turn out to be something I can be proud of that looks at-least decent. I want a box not a sonotube and I'm looking for a good compromise between HT and music performance. It will be used for 50/50 HT and music. The room that it will be placed in until I move is roughly 18x20x12 (4000cuft). The driver is rated at 1000wrms and xmax is 31mm. Here are the specs taken with a WFT3 with the dual 2ohm vc's in series...
RE 4.36
FS 19.51hz
VAS 8.571ft/242.7L
BL 22.73
Le 4.15mh
SPL 87.97
Mms 430.2g
Cms 0.15mm/N
n(0) 0.39%
Qms 4.302
Qes 0.445
Qts 0.403

I was originally going 4.5 - 6ft sealed because I don't have room for a huge 17cuft enclosure right now. Now I think that I'm going to split the difference and do roughly 13ft(370L), after bracing port displacement etc,tuned to 17hz with a slot port of 55" area and 36" length. When I model it in WinISD this looks pretty good to me. Plus this is about the biggest box I can go for right now and honestly I don't really think the sacrifice in the upper bass and larger cabinet required are really worth it for the little bit of content below 15hz. High output down to 15-16hz is fine for me. Basically it will be a similar but slightly bigger version of a Epik Conquest. Here is the proposed cabinet as of right now... 13ft assembled.jpg
Does this look good? Should I do 2 6" ports instead of the slot port? Should I be doing something different with this sub? Opinions please! I can provide more info if needed.

[WillyD]

That volume and vent sound like a good plan (I looked at it in WinISD). Looks like it could take a 2000W pro amp bridged too, with a highpass of course.

[Ricci]

An amp like this maybeHPIM1262 resize.JPG...

[WillyD]

Gee, I think that would get the job done.

[bonehead848]

That design looks great to me, I love the look of slot ports. I may have missed it but what kind of finish are you thinking?

[Ricci]

The finish is what I'm worried about! I've never done any kind of veneering or put a high quality finish on anything. All I've had experience with is car audio boxes using carpet or flat black paint. I'm confident that I can get this thing built well, but after that. I am thinking that I might try the truckbed finish everyone uses since it might be more forgiving to a newb.

Because of my lack of finishing experience I'm looking into the possibility of having ED or somewhere else construct this thing. Looks like the wait from ED will be months though and although i haven't got a quote yet, I'm sure that it will be WAAYY expensive. Any ideas?

[Ricci]

By the way here's a gratuitous shot of the driver...

SSIresize.JPG

[Mike P.]

Nice looking sub. I've always been curious about Treo subs. You don't see many builds with them. Can't wait to hear what your impressions are when your build is done.

[collo]

You might want to round out the corner of the slot port and route a flare on the exit. Here's a few ideas......
http://www.subwoofer-builder.com/flares-rectangular.htm

[bonehead848]

Ricci wrote:

The finish is what I'm worried about! I've never done any kind of veneering or put a high quality finish on anything. All I've had experience with is car audio boxes using carpet or flat black paint. I'm confident that I can get this thing built well, but after that. I am thinking that I might try the truckbed finish everyone uses since it might be more forgiving to a newb.

Because of my lack of finishing experience I'm looking into the possibility of having ED or somewhere else construct this thing. Looks like the wait from ED will be months though and although i haven't got a quote yet, I'm sure that it will be WAAYY expensive. Any ideas?

I would build yourself if you can. It is really a ton of fun and adds so much meaning to the sub that you built it yourself. If you do a decent amount of reading and plan well you can get a great finish without any experience. I went with a flat black on my mains and they came out looking gorgeous. I bought a hvlp sprayer at harbor freight for 25 bucks for my air compressor and it really did an outstanding job. Veneer is not that hard either, just read as many tutorials on how to do it as you can.

[Ricci]

I'm probably going to do this myself and just chalk it up as a learning experience. I'd just rather not wait 2+ months for this to get finished and the cost of having someone else build it is going to mean taking a serious to the wallet. I'm still on the fence about how to port this beast. I've already got a cut sheet and everything for the slot ports, but dual 6ers may perform slightly better and would weigh less. Are round ports worth re doing the whole cab design?

Anybody ever use the 6" PNR ports? PE has them. I could probably rig up something to extend their length and bend them.

Time to start researching my finishing options...

[Owen Bartley]

Josh, what does the rest of the furniture in the room look like... do you have to match it to anything? You could always keep it simple and do a plain paint (textured or not) finish, and throw on some nice wood trim around the edges if you wanted to class it up a bit. Actually, you could even just do a wood finish where the slot port opens up or something to show it off and leave the rest plain.

[Ricci]

Owen,
I don't have to match it to anything. I'm planning on moving in the next 1-2years anyway. I don't think that I'm going to try anything too extravagant. I'll probably just try the truck bedliner finish for this. I just want it to look like something that was manufactured and well put together. I do have 2 smaller projects coming up too and I may try something nicer on those. 1 is a 10" PR system with a plate amp and the other will be a sealed 18. I'm planning on starting construction in a few weeks. Been too busy lately...

[Owen Bartley]

Probably best to start simple. My Tempest just uses the Rustoleum "Hammered Metal" paint because I wanted something nice and easy too, but a little different. On my next sub I think I really want to make a nice veneered, finished furniture quality enclosure... but we'll see about that when the time comes. I was certainly very happy with how my current sub turned out.

[thxgoon]

You can't go wrong with flat black IMO. Just put on a bunch of primer first to save yourself a lot of paint.

As to the pic of your driver... WOW!