I decided to list my dual Velodyne's for sale and go the DIY route for subwoofers. I bought QTY (2) Stereo Integrity HT18D2 drivers, and I found someone to build my cabinets for me. The cabinets will be custom flat-packs and I'll need to assemble them. But I found another person who has all the tools and knows how to assemble them. I just need to buy the amps and other parts. All-in, I should be around $1,250 for everything.

Have fun.

You may want to check out the AVS Forum review of the ForceField 5, which the reviewer compared to his gigantic DIY subs. No contest. There is actually some serious science involved, not to mention design tools, necessary to yield good results.

When I was a kid I built some DIY speakers - when I started working in audio when I was in college I discovered my big DIY speakers that I was so proud of did not sound even close to as good as a $200 pair of "speaker brand" speakers of the day (Advents or Polks maybe). That was an enlightening moment, I have never heard any DIY speaker project that violated this fact.

Have fun, but don't expect performance on par with a real subwoofer.

Have fun Murphyslaw and all the best to you!!!!!
I would love to try that new Sub XXL myself.
God Bless,
Wayne

Moderator wrote: Have fun.

You may want to check out the AVS Forum review of the ForceField 5, which the reviewer compared to his gigantic DIY subs. No contest. There is actually some serious science involved, not to mention design tools, necessary to yield good results.

When I was a kid I built some DIY speakers - when I started working in audio when I was in college I discovered my big DIY speakers that I was so proud of did not sound even close to as good as a $200 pair of "speaker brand" speakers of the day (Advents or Polks maybe). That was an enlightening moment, I have never heard any DIY speaker project that violated this fact.

Have fun, but don't expect performance on par with a real subwoofer.

Yeah, I actually did look long and hard at the FF5. The problem is, in my room, I would need more than one, so cost is a big factor. That and I already have the Triton Twos for high quality stereo output with good base.

The contest on that thread had more to do with sound quality and preference, at least that's how I read it. When it came to output and very low frequencies, it was no contest because the FF5 was no match for DIY in those two areas (according to the OP). I would challenge part of the claim and say that a fair fight on output should have been 4 FF5s to match DIY options. So for output, at least above 25Hz, I'm guessing the four FF5s could have actually done better than DIY. And sound cleaner too...

However, the biggest reason I'm going DIY is for truly infrasonic response between 10-20Hz, which is where I want to improve. There is just no way around physics at that octave, which requires big amps, big boxes, and big drivers...

Although rare, there are more and more movies coming out with effects in that 8-20Hz range, so I just wanted to cover that range.

Understood. Significant sub 20Hz bass output only comes with big and/or multiple drivers and lots of power. Not very "home friendly" for most of us.

Update - I am not finished painting and finishing my cabinets, but the DIY subs I assembled are installed and have been tested. I still need to EQ and DSP-correct the environment in order to flatten the response, but overall, I have gained significant output with lower distortion across the board compared to my Velodyne subs (which are now up for sale). Here's a link to the build thread in case anyone is interested: www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-...angles-man-said.html

In summary, I am getting 20-100Hz at 100dB output with 0.7% distortion. Going up 10dB to 110dB average from 20-100hz, distortion climbs to 1.2% peak. The big difference, though is that I now have excellent output in the 20-30Hz range, whereas before, there was quite a downturn at this level. I even have usable output in the 7-20Hz range for the rare occurrences where movie and music have content that low. Humans can hear down to 12Hz, but the real benefits is the feel at these subsonic frequencies.

Music still sounds good with these subs, but I still prefer by passing them completely and just letting the Triton Twos handle full range for the top audiophile tracks I play for extreme quality listening.