15" vs 18", 1 driver vs 2 vs 4, 1 enclosure vs 2

[atledreier]

Hello!

I'm in the early stages of planning a DIY subwoofer. I'll most probably do it in stages, so I can stagger the cost and gain building experience along the way toward my main build in my new house some 2-3 years from now. So I figured I might try 1 18" or two 15" to get me started.
I have planned maybe replacing a double door with a sub, discussed in this thread. Then I thought maybe splitting it up into two enclosures so I can even out the response in my room. THEN I thought maybe I should go for 18" drivers. Then I looked at some 18" builds, and figured I won't be able to fit very many of those boxes in my current HT. So I'm kinda back to the 15" idea, and do 2 or 4 Rl-p15 in LLT. The new wall/door is attractive from an aestetic point of view, and overall use of realestate. The single driver boxes is much more flexible in terms of placement, and cost staggering.

I plan to use EP2500 for amplification, as many as it takes.

What do you experienced folks think?

[Geoff St. Germain]

The 18" RL-P18s offer more bang for the buck that the RL-P15s. Four RL-P15s give about 20% more displacement than two RL-P18s but cost about 60% more. I think that the single large box is the best way to go. If you go to the REW section you can see that most frequency response problems can be taken care of with the REW and from there you could move on to room treatments.