My Fi Sub

**ebr** · **09-17-07, 09:26 AM**

Just to add to the Fi experience out here - this is my sub with 4 Q18s in a ~70cuft sealed enclosure.

Unfortunately, Scott, the drivers are not normally visible in the room

...as they are hiding beneath the screen:

I started with these drivers in an IB setup but the leakeage to the rest of the house (because I was using the unfinished basement as the "enclosure") was too severe. They perform extremely well in this setup also, however.

[Edit] At the request of the moderator, here are a couple of pics of the build process for this sub. Very simple, really - just framed in and enclosed the area under/behind my screen:

As I mentioned, this started out as an IB but after a couple of months of not really being able to use it (due to sound leakage) and not really being completely satisfied with the sound I get from either the IB or the SVS by themselves, I decided to take Thomas' (of "The Cult") suggestion and build a box inside the room.

Here it is as I'm framing it out. Just the lower portion as I need to put the main speakers in the upper part and I don't want to completely eliminate the bass trapping I'm using that space for.

Box complete. I put some of the fiberglass I was using to try and muffle the IB backwave inside.

And, finally, with the drivers installed and ready to go.

This is where it got interesting. I'm convinced that there was something in my IB design that was compromised. This thing rocks. It gives me the punch of the SVS and the gutteral, house shaking lows of the IB and all with what seems to be a smoother and more natural sound. Whats more, I can tear down my room even more with this setup than I could my IB - without pushing the amp any more than I was before.

Maybe the manifold was too small or maybe those studs in the opening were limiting me or, maybe, the hybrid setup of opposing and non-opposing drivers was fighting each other. I don't know. What I do know is the experience inside the room now is downright terrifying on scenes like the door banging in "The Haunting". And, while it does still affect some of the rest of the house it is pretty much limited to the dining room because it is directly above the Theater. The rest of the house does not shake and rattle nearly as badly even though, in the room, it is an even more severe experience than it was with either the SVS, the IB or both.

My wife came home as I was putting little felt feet on all of her pottery that is on shelves and stuff in the dining room and saw the stupid grin on my face. It still won't be her favorite thing, but the leakage is not nearly as bad as it was. This is especially true with music, which doesn't really cause any rattling anywhere else in the house but is knock you in the chest awesome in the room.

**Sonnie** · **09-17-07, 09:34 AM**

Nice setup...

Did you know there is a big gorilla lookin' in your window?

**Egil** · **09-17-07, 12:57 PM**

Wow. Very nice theater/setup you got there!

**photocrazy8** · **10-19-07, 07:29 PM**

how do you like the q's for HT?

**ebr** · **10-21-07, 02:52 PM**

Quote:

photocrazy8 wrote:

how do you like the q's for HT?

I like them a lot but I only have stock subs (SVS PB12+/2 and an Atlantic tech one) to compare them to.

**cynical2** · **10-21-07, 03:42 PM**

Quote:

Egil wrote:

Wow. Very nice theater/setup you got there!

I agree! Absolutely beautiful!

**ebr** · **10-21-07, 04:43 PM**

Quote:

cynical2 wrote:

I agree! Absolutely beautiful!

Thank you very much. Built it myself.

**Rob D** · **11-12-07, 12:46 PM**

Awesome setup brother. Would you mind sharing the outside dimensions? Also, what size screen is that? Thanks.

**ebr** · **11-12-07, 01:22 PM**

Quote:

Rob D wrote:

Awesome setup brother. Would you mind sharing the outside dimensions? Also, what size screen is that? Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Interior dimensions of the room are 14'8" x 17' finished. I say finished because the wall treatments eat up 4-6" of the original dimensions and the screen wall is about 2 1/2 feet out from the actual front wall.

The screen is 96" wide (92" visible) 2.35:1.

More details are on the site in my sig.

**thxgoon** · **11-12-07, 09:36 PM**

Hey very very nice setup you have there! You forgot to mention in your thread what kind of main speakers you are using. What do you think of the sound of the QSC's on your mains? I know there are at least a couple of threads on this forum debating the quality of pro amps in the home, maybe you could comment on them???

Back OT - What do you think of the FI's so far? How do they do in that sealed enclosure? Is the one 2500 enough? Last.. sorry for all the ?'s, have you had any time to take REW measurements?

**Rob D** · **11-12-07, 11:57 PM**

Quote:

ebr wrote:

Thank you very much.

Interior dimensions of the room are 14'8" x 17' finished. I say finished because the wall treatments eat up 4-6" of the original dimensions and the screen wall is about 2 1/2 feet out from the actual front wall.

The screen is 96" wide (92" visible) 2.35:1.

More details are on the site in my sig.

Thank you. I visited your page, lots of good detail in there. Congrats on a fantastic HT... wonder what build #4 will bring

**ebr** · **11-13-07, 09:15 AM**

Quote:

thxgoon wrote:

Hey very very nice setup you have there! You forgot to mention in your thread what kind of main speakers you are using. What do you think of the sound of the QSC's on your mains? I know there are at least a couple of threads on this forum debating the quality of pro amps in the home, maybe you could comment on them???

Back OT - What do you think of the FI's so far? How do they do in that sealed enclosure? Is the one 2500 enough? Last.. sorry for all the ?'s, have you had any time to take REW measurements?

My main L/R speakers are Ascend 340SEs and my center channel is a Rocket Bigfoot.

I replaced an expensive Lexicon NT512 (re-badged Bryston) amp with the QSCs and couldn't be happier. More clean power by far and it was a free upgrade as I was able to sell a Lexicon 2-ch amp used for the same amount it cost me for the two QSCs.

I think the Fi's do better in the sealed enclosure than they did when I had them setup in an IB - in my situation anyway. With four of them I have so much displacement that I don't need to even think about a port.

Here is a REW plot - but its old. This is before I replaced the BFD with the DEQ2496. I have since been able to tame the peak at 28 a bit and the overall response extends a little more than this now. The null at 40 is still my biggest room issue.

**thxgoon** · **11-13-07, 01:34 PM**

Wow, sweeet. I think I might be steering in that direction for my next build. Thanks for the pics.

**Blaser** · **11-13-07, 04:38 PM**

WOW...I like the equipment rack as well. But where are the speakers? Are you running subwoofers only????

**Ilkka** · **11-13-07, 05:57 PM**

Quote:

ebr wrote:

My main L/R speakers are Ascend 340SEs and my center channel is a Rocket Bigfoot.

I replaced an expensive Lexicon NT512 (re-badged Bryston) amp with the QSCs and couldn't be happier. More clean power by far and it was a free upgrade as I was able to sell a Lexicon 2-ch amp used for the same amount it cost me for the two QSCs.

I think the Fi's do better in the sealed enclosure than they did when I had them setup in an IB - in my situation anyway. With four of them I have so much displacement that I don't need to even think about a port.

Here is a REW plot - but its old. This is before I replaced the BFD with the DEQ2496. I have since been able to tame the peak at 28 a bit and the overall response extends a little more than this now. The null at 40 is still my biggest room issue.

So is that subwoofer only or why there is so much material above ~130 Hz? If that's with mains, then the very small dip at 40 Hz certainly isn't your biggest problem.

**ebr** · **11-13-07, 06:33 PM**

Quote:

Ilkka wrote:

...then the very small dip at 40 Hz certainly isn't your biggest problem.

lol - yeah, that would be pretty terrible, huh? That is just the sub and I ran a sweep from 10 to 200hz. This was before the 2496 and its shelving filter so I just hadn't bothered to touch those higher frequencies with the BFD since the sub would never actually see them.

I guess I should haul the equipment out and make a new plot.

**Warmon** · **11-13-07, 07:35 PM**

Man that room looks sooooo comfy...looks like a nice place to hide and catch a few Zzzz's. My favorite line from the website: " I can pretty much make anyone crap their pants with this setup and the right demo"...

**Captain Crunch** · **11-14-07, 08:05 AM**

Now that is one of the best Home Theaters iv seen to date.
Nice color scheme
Great layout
Great design
You have a lot of envious people here drooling over this theater.......
Very Very nice job you should be very proud of the work youve done here.
That's a 5 star set up.
I'm jealous.

**evilbeaver** · **11-14-07, 10:40 AM**

Quote:

Sonnie wrote:

Nice setup...

Did you know there is a big gorilla lookin' in your window?

lol

freakin sweet set up ebr!

**ebr** · **11-16-07, 12:09 PM**

Thanks all for the comments. I dragged out the measurement gear today and took a plot of my sub with the 2496. Here is the current measurement:

Better extension than the BFD. Not as much as when I had an IB setup but, in practice, it has as much real impact and works better for my setup.

**Fi Audio** · **11-19-07, 05:15 PM**

Amazing setup.
Glad the logos arent visable all the time... it would simply ruin the overall look. New IBs we are doing are blank. I have had a couple of people "complain" (very loosely used) that they could see the white logos flailing through the grill cloth

Did you really notice the bottom end loss? Id imagine things would still get fairly visceral, yet the higher .7 qtc would add a little more impact.

**ebr** · **11-19-07, 06:29 PM**

"Visceral" is a good way to put it. I'm used to it now but, when I first fired this thing up and ran a few intense explosion type scenes through it, I was pretty sure I was going to knock my projector off the ceiling

.

I'm actually happier with this sound now than I was with the IB. That "impact" was missing somewhat from the IB configuration. Maybe its not as natural, but it sure is more fun.

On the low end, the graphs with the IB were amazing - flat out past 10hz, but, with real life material not really that noticeable. Maybe my wall sconces don't vibrate quite as much but, the additional higher bass impact makes up for it.

Thanks for producing some great drivers that made it reasonable (monetarily, anyway) to put this thing together.

**Avus_M3** · **11-21-07, 07:09 PM**

:drool

Gorgeous room!!

**Sprtex** · **11-22-07, 11:22 AM**

OMG!!! What an incredible set up! And you did that yourself? Wow...I'm happy for you and wish you were my neighbor. Definitely an inspiration and without question one of the best looking rooms I've seen. Congrats and happy holidays!

T.

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