Rise of the Eighteens

**Sonnie** · **06-14-09, 12:33 AM**

We watched a clip of Cloverfield tonight, the girl that works with me, her husband and myself, and there is absolutely no doubt that it was all over us. It literally vibrates the body... we could feel it in our clothes, hair, chair... everywhere. It is everywhere in the room, including on the body. It is just ridiculous... and it is clean and effortless. I am somewhat overwhelmed by it.

**SteveCallas** · **06-14-09, 01:06 AM**

Fit and finish looks great Sonnie

The clearance around the port openings scares me a bit, as the air flow is going to be much more turbulent than it needs to be, but I can understand the want to tie things in to structures that will be existing in the room regardless. You did go with the 12" diameter ports, yes?

**Sonnie** · **06-14-09, 10:20 AM**

It ended up at 80ft^3 and the ports are 8", but I have not noticed any noise from them.

I am wondering if the cavity behind the port, which is 10.5" x 18" x 30" is acting as a port in combination with the 8" x 17.5" round port... due to the strange measurements I recorded. I plan to test the tuning frequency today. Of course the overall measurements are nice, so whatever happened, I ain't complaining.

**SteveCallas** · **06-14-09, 05:57 PM**

Two 8" diameter ports for four FiQ 18s?

**Sonnie** · **06-14-09, 06:26 PM**

Yeah... we modeled it and it looked okay, so we went with it. We modeled with a 10HZ HPF, so that helped with the port air velocity and excursion.

I just checked and I believe the tune ended up being closer to 9-10Hz instead of the planned 12Hz, which if you look at the nearfield driver and port measurements, it makes sense.

Oh... and we originally only planned for two drivers... and later changed to four, after I had already built the riser with ports.

**Mike P.** · **06-14-09, 07:12 PM**

Quote:

It is just ridiculous... and it is clean and effortless. I am somewhat overwhelmed by it.

It took me 2 18's and 2 15's to get to that point in my HT. Nothing else needs to be said.

**Ricci** · **06-15-09, 10:03 AM**

I don't know how I missed this thread.

. Any way it looks good Sonnie. The graph you posted does look like the tune is around 11-12hz. The ports will still have significant output a bit below tune. You probably get a nice tactile feel off of the riser as well, no?

**Sonnie** · **06-15-09, 10:35 AM**

Well... that riser is so well connected to the floor and braced so heavily that when it moves, the floor moves with it. It seems to me that there is about the same tactile feel out of any seat I sit in. I do not notice any more out of the riser seats or any less out of the seats in front of the riser, however, there may be a slight difference.

**Fi Audio** · **07-02-09, 01:01 PM**

Wonderful looking build. Can I borrow you to work on my HT?

The response does look a little odd, and you might be right about the cavity acting as an extension for the actual port. Not a super straight forward setup, so it might be a little more difficult to put an exact finger on where in the enclosure it is effecting things. But, you are right... overall it is definitely an effective package

Glad we could be part of it.

Thanks,
Scott

**cburbs** · **07-02-09, 01:38 PM**

Wow that looks great!

**sub_junkie** · **07-03-09, 07:55 PM**

Why did you decide to go with 4 Fi's instead of the Mal-X??

**Sonnie** · **07-03-09, 11:08 PM**

It has been my plan all along to try to do something with the Fi Q 18's and the Mal-X 18's. Kevin was running short on his first order and the second shipment was not in at the time I was getting everything ready for the install. Scott was able to customize these for me and it worked out better for me to go with the Fi's. They are truly unbelievable subs too... and that is not to take anything away from the Mal-X's, which I am sure are as equally good. It's like a kid at Christmas with all these great drivers we have from our sponsors.

The Mal-X 18's are not out of the picture though. I still want to do a pair of those in the middle on each side of the room... or perhaps replace the Audiopulse 15's with the Mal-X 18's for the front, which may be the better option so that I can tune the fronts a little lower and close to what the backs are tuned.

I would really like to be able to support all of our sponsors at some point in time because they all have great drivers. It would also be nice to maybe try out a couple of 21's.

**willy-be** · **07-04-09, 12:15 AM**

Quote:

Sonnie wrote:

The actual driver vs. port measurement are very strange it seems.

That's to be expected with this bizarre design. Once the distance from the driver to the port exceeds 5' there's a disconnect between the two, as a result the port doesn't function as predicted in a standard sim.

**sub_junkie** · **07-04-09, 12:19 AM**

Quote:

Sonnie wrote:

It has been my plan all along to try to do something with the Fi Q 18's and the Mal-X 18's. Kevin was running short on his first order and the second shipment was not in at the time I was getting everything ready for the install. Scott was able to customize these for me and it worked out better for me to go with the Fi's. They are truly unbelievable subs too... and that is not to take anything away from the Mal-X's, which I am sure are as equally good. It's like a kid at Christmas with all these great drivers we have from our sponsors.

The Mal-X 18's are not out of the picture though. I still want to do a pair of those in the middle on each side of the room... or perhaps replace the Audiopulse 15's with the Mal-X 18's for the front, which may be the better option so that I can tune the fronts a little lower and close to what the backs are tuned.

I would really like to be able to support all of our sponsors at some point in time because they all have great drivers. It would also be nice to maybe try out a couple of 21's.

OH, so you get these subs for free? Man, that would be awesome...
Do you keep them, or just try them?
I wonder if someone would sponsor me for my r/c car racing...lol

**Sonnie** · **07-04-09, 07:02 AM**

Well... I did not say "free", although I might get a good discount.

**sub_junkie** · **07-04-09, 01:51 PM**

Ok, but that's still good

Very Nice subs btw...

**SQCherokee** · **07-09-09, 05:12 PM**

so are you ultimatly trying to do a sub per chanell setup like dolby originaly did when they first demoed their 5.1 tech?

or are you just filling the room because its so big?

**Sonnie** · **07-09-09, 05:27 PM**

Nothing fancy... the more the better in my book.

**bpape** · **07-09-09, 09:27 PM**

No such thing as too much sub...

Bryan

**SQCherokee** · **07-10-09, 03:00 PM**

You should build an identical stage structure up front with 4 more on either side up front....then on both sides, and then in the ceiling.

**robertcharles123** · **07-10-09, 09:22 PM**

Very cool setup. What kind of db readings do you get with the setup?

Good use of wasted space. Looks very professional.

Good luck,

Robert

**Sonnie** · **07-11-09, 11:20 AM**

Thanks!

I have not checked the max SPL as of yet. I haven't really thought about it. I will try to remember to check it sometime here in the near future.

**XxxBERRYxxX** · **07-16-09, 09:19 AM**

WOW, I just went through you galleries. Very nice work on your theater. I would really like to do that to my garage. We never use it for cars.

**brandonnash** · **07-18-09, 12:25 PM**

Very nice work on these sonnie. I'd love to experience your theater. Have you done any spl readings from seating location? I'm guessing with the size of your room and the amount of drivers you have you're hitting at least in the 125 range.

Now I can't let my wife see these or she will ask why we couldn't do that with our subwoofer.

**Sonnie** · **07-18-09, 12:38 PM**

Thanks again guys!

I have not done any SPL readings as of yet. I suspect 125db would be no problem though. I plan to check it at some point in time, providing my memory serves it up.

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