Advice required on building a sub in big cabinet

Welcome!

What will the sub be used for?

Which model of Peerless 12"? There are about 6 different models.

What is your budget? If you can accommodate a 15" driver it would be rude not to, but its not an absolute must. As for the design you want to use, that really down to what you want to achieve, have a read of this:

http://www.danmarx.org/audioinnovation/theories.html

Then choose the design you feel would best suit you. Tell us what you really want to use the sub for (music/movies) and if you just want a nice sound or you want real low chest thumping bass, and we can advise on if your chosen design will best suit you or not.

I could easily just tell you what I think you should build, but this way you'll learn as you go :T

Hi, thank you for your speedy replies.

I am building a home cinema at the moment with projector and 90" screen, so in actual fact should have a subwoofer that compliments this set up for movies. Although I am an avid music audiophile and in the process of building a pair of Fostex full range speakers. I am not a bass junkie, so maybe an inbetween to compliment both music and movies would make me happy.

DIY building is not a problem for me, I feel my main problem is calculating appropriate sizes, placement and tuning.

After reading that web site you gave, I have come to think that a sealed box would be the most easiest to build. A passive radiatir set up would give me ease of tuning compared to a ported sub, but a transmission line sub woofer is very tempting (as this is similar to what I am building for my fostex speakers) but not sure the dimension I have given would fit a transmission line set up.

The speakers I have been looking at are the

Peerless XXLS-308ALU 12" ttp://www.europe-audio.com/Product

Or

Dayton High Fidelity Subwoofer 15"

With the following plate amp

http://www.bkelec.com/Modules/bsbpv500.htm

Money wise my max spend should be no more than £500 (approx $700-800 USD). But for this money I am wanting to create a much better subwoofer than the one in the link below, the link below is a subwoofer that seems to be highly rated in the UK for less that £500.

http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/Sub_Woofers/monolith-df.htm

Again, ideas and advice are very welcome on what you think I should do.

Bob

Your going to have your work cut out, especially if you are in the UK as I suspect you maybe. The Monolith uses the peerless 12" and gets just about the best from it, with the cab size and tune being pretty much optimal. BK did try bettering it themselves but the test build didnt deliver what they hoped and it was scrapped off. You might be able to tweak the design and gain some small improvements but nothing major.

If your based in the US, then there are more options available as components (mainly the drivers) work out cheaper due to not having import costs added. We're pretty restricted here in the UK when it comes to good affordable 12" drivers.

Again this advice is location dependant a little, but if you can use a 15" driver, you can build something like a Monolith sized sub that will give a comfortable performance leap.

Well this wont be much help, but in the UK, for good quality affordable 12" drivers, the peerless and the Eminence Lab 12 are about it AFAIK. As for 15" drivers, well I got mine imported from the US :scratchhead:

I'll try have a look about and see what I can find that may be of use.

As for the argument of sealed vs ported, it really depends on what results your after. Have a quick read of this and see what you come up with, then we can take it from there.

http://www.danmarx.org/audioinnovation/theories.html

There are euro distributors of drivers I can point you too ( the dayton link is broken), but you best deciding what you want to build first. I would go with a 15" driver if you can though, just my preference.