RL-P 15 Project (PICS)

[Jerm357]

I just thought I'd post some pic of the work Ive got done so far. Its a 8.5 CF enclosure with a 6" port. Its going to be a down firing subwoofer kind of like the sonotube type design. The port is 26.6" long for a 17hz tune. I will be putting an RL-P 15 D2 in the enclosure and powering it with an EP 1500. The measurements are going to be 20.25" X 20.25" X 48" then Im going to add a piece of 3/4" MDF to the top and two more to the bottom with 1.25" X 5" legs and a 1.5" bass plate. Its realy starting to come together, sure is going to be heavy though . What do you guys think.

[Exocer]

Welcome to the shack Jerm!

Looks awesome. I've been toying with the idea of going ported lately myself.

Do keep us up to date on your listening impressions.

[Jerm357]

I will, dont worry about that.. I will have more pic tomorrow when it starts taking shape.

[Exocer]

Exciting, I am looking forward to seeing those pics.

[Sonnie]

Nice work Jerm This should be interesting. I've got 4 of these drivers just sitting here for now. I've been wondering what one would do in a larger box.

[Jerm357]

Heres some more pics..........I got the last wall up and is gluing now all that is left is to glue the leg frame/ driver mount on, screw on the bass plate, sand the out side corners, Install the speaker terminals and wire it up. (Oh and finish it some day) Man this speaker building thing is tiring

[Jerm357]

And a few more..........

[Exocer]

Well, i cant wait for you to finish this thing already...so we can hear how awesome it sounds :-)

[Pupton]

You have an awesome project going there... once your finished and bored, you're welcome to visit me in Columbus to "mentor me" on an LLT project I want to kick off...

[Jerm357]

Here are the finished pics (well almost finished Im still giong to paint it with something nice). It realy turned out very good for only my second enclosure. It ended up not being as heavy as I thought it was going to be. Its probably around 150 to 200lb (not weighed) but moves easy with the bass plate on carpet. I also rounded all the corners with the power sander and it took about 2 1/2 hours to get it where I liked it. The whole build took 4 days straight and I can realy feel every single day right in my lower back. It looks 10X better then the pictures turned out. Im still going to add a 12" grill from my old Polk Audio subwoofer to the top of the port. Standing back and looking at it I still cant believe I built it. Im very happy how it turned out

[Jerm357]

These pics are realy bugging me but just to let you all know the whole thing is straight as can be and as smooth as a babys **** even though the pic dont show it.

[Exocer]

I like that you wired the voice coils on the outside.
have you listened yet??

[SoundSplinter]

Lookin' sexy, lovin' that last pic.

[Jerm357]

Yes I have and it sounds great. This thing is a beast, the bass is so tite and low. It sounds soooo much better then my 4cf sealed box I built. Im still messing with the levels but so far I could not be happier. I have it wired for a 4ohm load and its only seeing 450watts but it is so much louder then the sealed that was seeing 1400watts. All I can say is all of you with a sealed RL-P that are getting low output and think its your receiver you should realy build a ported design. You wont be sorry.

Jerm-

The sub came out great! I'm gonna be starting mine in a few weeks.

1. Did you use any sound damping material around the port cone?

2. Did you end up adding more cabinet bracing?

Thanks!!

[Jerm357]

No I never did put anything inside, but I could never tell by the sound. It sounds awesome even with out anything. And yes I did add some vertical braces that were 1.5" x 3/4" all around.

Cool...you make it look so easy

I am trying to pick up a high quality cable to connect the driver to the binding posts (internal wiring). Can I/should I use bananas or spades? (I was at my dad's place this weekend and took a look at the driver...forgot what could go with it).

On another note, I found this acoustic treatment on parts express that I think I'm gonna line the cab with:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=260-535

BTW, you only used two pieces stacked of on the bottom (where the driver goes) and just screwed the driver into the one piece of MDF, right?

Thanks!

[Jerm357]

Well I just used 10Gauge for the wiring with no bananas or spades. I figured that there was a better chance of them to come loose then bare wire (that and I did not have any). About the acoustic treatment I would probly use this http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=260-516 or the 2 1/2" stuff. On my enclosure I used 3 pieces of mdf for the bottom. 2 for the driver to screw in to and one to flush mount it (all 3/4") I took the part in the first pic then I added the part in the second pic and glued it together. It takes a whole 3/4" to get the driver flush.

Looks awesome. Every time that thing thumps, you'll feel like a proud papa! Do you have the design you used? Any chance we could get some test results from that thing? What are you leanindg towards for the outside: paint, stain, vaneer?? And finally, What's his name?

Is there any reason you went with a box design instead of the sonos?

[Jerm357]

The design I used is on the first post (8.5cf and a 17Hz tune) Im working on some graphs but I dont have a laptop so I cant realy do a REW one Ill have to do It manual. On outside Im planning to paint because all the work I put into rounding the edges. I think Im going to go with a Piano black finish. I haven't realy thought of a name yet but Im working on one. Oh and the reason I didn't go with a sonotube is I could not realy find one at a good price. But I looked. Heres some pic of the fiberglass I installed after the build was complete (What a pain in the A$$ do yourself a favor and put it in before you seal it up). I could not reach all the way up to the top of the enclosure so I lightly stuffed the top with polyfil.

[Jerm357]

I started to paint over the last few days but ran out. I got about three coats on and it looks good where it stands but I will probably wait untill spring when I can get it out side to sand it down and spray the final coats on. The edges of the MDF are a real pain to get smooth they soak up the paint like crazy and leave a very bumpy surface but I can live with it for now. Where it is in the room you cant realy see it anyways so I am the only one who knows (or probably cares) but it will make me nuts till I can finish it. Also where it is and being black in a black room it is very hard to get good pictures but this is the best I can do for now. Next job is to get the room painted hopfuly before spring. The good thing is you cant see any imperfections when your watching a movie in the dark

[Jerm357]

"UPDATE" I just wanted to tell all of you my experience with my sub and my new ART Clean Box. Well I just installed an ART Clean Box in my system which consist of an Onkyo 600, an EP1500 and a RL-P15 D2 in an 8.5cf enclosure with a tune of 17hz. I have to say this has made such a large improvement to my bass its crazy. It sounds way better than it ever did before just because of one little box, I cant belive the difference it made, I realy couldent be happer . My Onkyo receiver must not have been putting out a strong enuff signal even though the signal lights on the amp were lighting. With out the clean box things just never realy sounded right, the bass was there but it just sounded kind of thin (hard to explain). First I was using a 4.5cf sealed box and though the output was pretty low, so I figured it was because of the sealed enclosure. (since I never had a sealed box before I dident realy know how it should sound) So I decided to do a ported design which turned out better because I got more output but it still sounded thin. So I left it the way it was for about 1.5 months planing to try a clean box some time later. Well on Christmas the day came, I hooked it all up and I was floored I could not belive it. The bass sounds so thick now and even more out put than before. If any one has built a subwoofer and using a pro amp to power it but you think it sounds just a little off, try one of these quick. A good driver and a good amp should never sound off even a little. After its fixed youll finaly hear what you were missing just as I am.

[Sonnie]

Excellent news... and I forgot to tell you that you did a great job on the finished project...

[Geoff St. Germain]

Nice sub! How does your iguana like it?

That's funny Geoff, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the sub and iguana in the same pic... Hope he likes bass...

Jerm, question about the Art cleanbox... I'm assuming you have it between the Onkyo and the Behringer.. Were you just using RCA to 1/4" connects before?

The reason I ask is I've picked up a BFD to throw between my old Onkyo (TX-SR504) and Audio Source AMP, which means I'll be going from unbalanced, to balanced, back to unbalanced again... Am I just asking for a bit of trouble, or?

I'll check the rest of the forums to see if I see more info on the ART, as it's not something I had thought about previously.

*edit* --- Thinking and reading a bit more, I should be able to deal with this by playing with the BFD's gain. Still, this little box would have been nice back when I was using an old Carver rack mount amp directly from by receiver to my sub converting RCA to XLR... It just never put out like similarly rated consumer level Carver amps I demo'd using native unbalanced connections.

Anyway, killer looking sub. Can't wait to work on my next one...