[joorge]

The 10" sub may keep up with the output of your current mains. A 12" would do it for sure and would be the best choice. You have enough power for either. Optimum cabinet size is around .85 cu/ft sealed for the Dayton 10" and around 2.2 for the 12".

There is not much difference (per UniBox) using the more expensive drivers in a 10" or 12" sealed box with 350W. The Dayton is pretty well matched for that and reported to hard to beat for music.

I think ya need to get to the low 30Hz for max satisfaction from music. These should reach the high 30s per the design software. If you get the typical boost from room response, you will be real close.

There are a number of threads using the Dayton 12"HF in a small sealed box for music. Most people seem very satisfied. I think you would need to go ported to get the low frequencies found in movies, but that wasn't the question.

The good thing is the Dayton HF and your amp will get you there nicely, if ya swap to a ported box in the future.

 

[joorge]

That is interesting. Are you just speculating about the ability to tune in the upper 30's and increase SPL with a small ported box? I can't seem to make this happen. An example citing box size and port details would be helpful.

 

[joorge]

When I started building a sub I had a particular amp and box size in mind, too. All I needed was some quick advice on a magic driver to make it sound like I expected. I found out that these things follow certain physical rules, not my desires.

With that 6dB boost and the plate amp power, you no longer have a "cookie cutter" design that would be hard to screw up in a 1 to 2ft box. The 10" is not an option. I think Mike pointed out that you are liable to blow it before ya get to high listening levels. You need some real help with the design.

In particular, ya need someone with the experience to factor in room gain along with the amp boost and translate that to a musical box design. You won't find all of that in the design programs.

So, how am I helping?

Well, I hope it helps to set your expectations at an obtainable level. There is no magic box. All of the variables that could be changed to accommodate a certain box size are mostly locked in. You might find a driver that will help things along, but i doubt it will fit the $150 design criteria.

Since box size is all that is left, it will be the size it needs to be to sound good with the rest of the stuff. Hopefully, that will be close to 2 ft. It may not be. Could be this dog won't hunt without an equalizer, too. I don't know as It's over my head.

Mike P. is yer guy. He can give ya the best options and the smallest box size that will sound like ya want. I am looking forward to learning from your adventure.

 

[joorge]

A flat line frequency response doesn't mean it will sound "tight and musical". Probably the best way to forecast musical quality is from past experience. It doesn't make sense to select a mushy driver just cuz a program will tell you the frequency is flat.

Solving the power issues at the expense of the music is not helping. That's not what the OP wants. The solution needs to be tight and musical in a small box with the Stryke amp and a $150 speaker. Focus.

Looking at the Qtc used by the folks posting graphs raises some questions. I see they range from around .6 to about .9. This is quite a range and may have quite a bearing on the quality of the sound.

I have read that .7 is about "normal" and that designs below .7 are tighter and more musical. I don't know if that is true, but if it is, it points out the folly of relying on a frequency data as the main design parameter.

 

[joorge]

I donno about the practical effects of Qtc with these sppecific components. One thing that changes a lot as you vary Qtc is the box size.

Looks like anything over .7 is going away from the goals and below that may help put the boost to good use.

It's gonna take someone with listening experience to put this in perspective. I expect some box size will emerge that will be the smallest that an experienced person believes will produce tight and musical sounds.

Hopefully that box will be small enough to suit costanza. If not, some rethinking of original objectives or components will need to happen. I suspect an equalizer would go a long way to making things happy, but that doesn't seem to be a current option.

 

[joorge]

Here's a table for a Dayton 240. I am told that most of these plate amps have the same rumble filter circuits in them. The boost is part of the filter. The filter will start dropping off a few Hz below the boost setting.

I wouldn't be surprised if a little checking of the Stryke amp revealed that boost adjustments are possible as noted in the link. Maybe even with the values in the table.

http://www.parts-express.com/pdf/300-804boost.pdf

 

[joorge]

Why does the boosted signal produce less SPL? Is the output adjusted to remain within Xmax? How many watts to reach Xmax boosted and unboosted? I would try to figure it out myself, but can't find a way to do it with UniBox.

 

[joorge]

Any danger of exceeding xmax watching a movie with the boosted amp? Assume dialog is set around 70-75dB and the movie has loud effects in the 25-30 Hz range?