THE DIY SUBWOOFER NETWORK

  This website* is primarily dedicated to teaching you how to build your own subwoofer.  If you want to get into box building check out this blog post , and this podcast where some top DIYers talk about how to get started:    But, not everybody can do that.  You need tools, time, and skill.  There is no shame in ordering a pre-fabricated (a.k.a pre-fab) subwoofer enclosure from Amazon and installing your own speakers .  Here is some examples of good and bad enclosures along with a breakdown of what makes a good enclosure.  We will cover unloaded (no subwoofer included) enclosures in this post and save pre-loaded (subwoofer included) enclosures for another day. Unloaded:  BYOS (Buy Your Own Subwoofer) Before we get into reviewing boxes keep in mind that if you go with an unloaded enclosure you will need to order a subwoofer to go with it.  Your goal is to match the subwoofer to the enclosure.  Typically this is just a matter of looking up the manufacturer specifications and looking for

There seems to be a lot of confusion about how to design and build a subwoofer enclosure with multiple subwoofers in the same airspace.  This blog post is going to clear it up. A Single Subwoofer in one enclosure Let's start off with something simple, a single subwoofer in a 2 cubic foot enclosure tuned to 28 hertz.  In this example the port has been drawn outside of the enclosure for easier comparison.  The port is 1"X12" and is 17 3/4" in length.  Before you go out an build this enclosure keep in mind that a 1"X12" port is probably not large enough to prevent port noise.  This size was chosen just as an illustration.           If you wish to add a second subwoofer then you will need to increase the size of the enclosure.  If you increase the size of the enclosure you will need to make a shorter port.  This is because you tune the port to the airspace in the box, not the number of subwoofers in the enclosure.  So here is a 4 cubic foot enclosure with a c

Subwoofer ports (a.k.a vents) are interesting things.  In a previous post I provided some background into how ports worked , in this post I am going to dig a little deeper into port design, a.k.a. port tuning. Flared Ports with Wooden Connector Rings The Port Formula There is a formula that you can use to design a port, since formulas tend to scare people away and there plenty of tools available to do the calculations for you this blog post will focus on understanding the four main parameters that you need to think about when designing a port.  Tuning Frequency Enclosure Volume Port Cross Section Port Length We can manipulate any three of these four items and the formula dictates the forth parameter.  For this post we are going to examine how the tuning frequency, enclosure volume, and port cross section influence the length of the port.  It is very important to understand the impact of these four parameters as they will determine the size, shape and sound of our subwoofer.  We need to

There are a lot of great subwoofers brands on the market right now.  Most people are familiar with mainstream brands like Alpine , Sony , Polk , Kenwood , Klipsch , Yamaha , Kicker and JL Audio* .  But there are a ton of others that you may not know about, but you SHOULD!  Since this is a DIY page we are going to focus on raw drivers that will work well in both the home and the car.  These are the subwoofers that the insiders and the experts know and love.  So if you know these subs then you are either an insider or an expert.  #1 Dayton Audio  Dayton Audio 10" Ultimax Let's kick off the list with a brand that we have LOT of personal experience with.  Dayton Audio is the house brand for Parts Express, Parts Express specializes in DIY audio and they supply parts to OEM speaker manufactures.   We have personally built several projects using these drivers.     They offer the “classic” line of value priced entry-level subwoofers , these are great subwoofers for an entry leve