Home sub: Peerless XLS + Passive Radiator

Post by **stipud** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 10:47 am

Alright... not quite as nice as Jed or Nicos boxes, but hey...

Bought these Peerless XLS drivers from Brandon, and he was kind enough to offer me some precut wood panels with routered subwoofer holes, made out of birch. I had to make some adjustments with my trusty jigsaw, and cut out the hole for the amplifier, but it's come together reasonably well, bar a few sections of split birch and two air leaks that I am going to glue up.

Without further ado... here are the pictures, and a video.

Post by **bdubs767** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:42 am

great drivers...nice to see you fixed my f up

nico boom · Post by **nico boom** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:05 pm

Nice sub Tom; if you've got the 425 gram passive radiator, it should play 20hz. ,well over 100db....

I've looked at this combination as well, but always had a weak spot for closed cabinets for home setups.
My old laptop couldn't open the video[

], but I'm sure you get things rattling here and there in your home now..

nico

Post by **mr tibbs** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:15 pm

One of these days I'm gonna do some research and find out what a passive radiator is/does.

As for the build, looking good man!! Are you gonna paint the box or what is the finish going to look like?

nico boom · Post by **nico boom** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 1:28 pm

I'm not a expert, but I've learned that a passive radiator has the same function as a vent, having it's own acoustic resistance, tuned to a given speaker in a given enclosure.
It uses the energy generated by the back of the speaker.
Just as a vent does, but this without the chance of disturbing noise coming from the vent ,caused by the air moving through the vent [especially at very low frequencies].
The mass of the passive radiator determines the tuning-frequency [more mass= lower freq.], just again like tuning a bassreflex-port.
This mass represents the mass of the air, present in a port as in bassrefex- type enclosure.
It's just basically a bassreflex system, with some advantages IMHO.
nico

Post by **stipud** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:13 pm

nico boom wrote:Nice sub Tom; if you've got the 425 gram passive radiator, it should play 20hz. ,well over 100db....
I've looked at this combination as well, but always had a weak spot for closed cabinets for home setups.
My old laptop couldn't open the video[ ], but I'm sure you get things rattling here and there in your home now..
nico

Yep, 425 at 1.5 cubic feet. It sounds very similar to your setup, but looooow.

I will attach a different format video for you to try.

Post by **stipud** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 2:15 pm

mr tibbs wrote:As for the build, looking good man!! Are you gonna paint the box or what is the finish going to look like?

Still undecided... my stereo stuff is all black, but my furniture is all birch. Either way, it matches very well.

If I knew of a way to stain it black and keep the wood grain without f**king it up, that would be my #1 option.

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:57 pm

bah you didnt get all excited like the video with the woofer of doom in the cardboard box

ydnap · Post by **ydnap** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 3:58 pm

stipud wrote:
mr tibbs wrote:As for the build, looking good man!! Are you gonna paint the box or what is the finish going to look like?
Still undecided... my stereo stuff is all black, but my furniture is all birch. Either way, it matches very well.

If I knew of a way to stain it black and keep the wood grain without f**king it up, that would be my #1 option.

Get some flat paint, thin it down with spirit.. Then get one of them sponge things and it'll soak it in like stain leaving the grain showing. Let it dry, then add some clear. Job done, nice black piano finish

HoseHead · Post by **HoseHead** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:45 pm

Passive radiators. Here's a pair of EPI Model 500 Towers. These are in my Toy Room. I've owned them for 22 years. They were made in 1978. I replaced the woofers with newer items a few years back and now the mid membranes are pooched. Membranes back when were not as durable as today's materials. These stand 40" tall and each cabinet houses a 12" PR. They radiate lows around the room at all volumes but get really low at high volumes. I believe the theory is they "radiate" the sub woofer's physical movement. You can visually observe them move with low frequency passages. It's a shame I don't even have them connected to anything right now.

HoseHead · Post by **HoseHead** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:49 pm

More to do......

Post by **stipud** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 6:26 pm

Damn... I need to fit a pair of these into speaker towers too... That would be ultimate.

nico boom · Post by **nico boom** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 11:39 pm

Thanks for the video Tom; this one worked! [is there anything you can't fix on a computer?]...

I hope your plate-amp is better than mine, I only discovered it's subsonic-filter after I connected the sub to the MS2125; now it's hitting the lowest notes.
It does not play as low as your sub, due to the fact that it's a closed cabinet, and rolls off earlier.
It has however a very fast attack, and blends in very well now ,with the towers.
I just love the natural sound of closed cabinets, and I'm listening more to music, than that I watch movies.
Yours will really shake the whole room while playing a action-movie!
You should be able to hear the upgrades I've made in the last few weeks, playing the sub on the MS, new" Van den Hul" speaker-cables, new "Monstercables" interlinks, the brax cap[ in the new rack] ,and the eq215x for pre-amp and subfilter.
It does make a HUGE difference.

The mentioned way of finishing your sub [with a soaked sponge] sounds very good to me; leaving the texture of the birch plywood visible.
Don't wait too long with finishing it; if you don't do it after a short period of test-listening; you won't do it at all!!

[experience

].
Have fun with your monster-sub.
nico

joyride · Post by **joyride** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:14 am

As far as finishing goes, what you are trying to do is called ebonizing. Baically, you can go to the hardware store and get a dark stain. Leave it on for a minute before wiping it off. This allows the stain to soak in deeper. Here is a quick link on it: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/E ... _Wood.html

dedlyjedly · Post by **dedlyjedly** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:44 am

Looking good Tom. How do you like the Bash amp?

As suggested, just head to the hardware store and check out their stain selection. They typically have different types of wood sampled in several different colors so you can get an idea of what your results will be. Then test it inside the box or on some scrap material before committing to treating the whole enclosure. As with any other sort of detail oriented work it's all in the preparation. Sand off what you can of the burn marks along the cut edges of the birch and then use a block to lightly sand the rest of the surfaces to be treated. You can use all kinds of different applicators but I personally like the foam paint brush style. After that you may decide to go one step further and seal it with some self-leveling polyurethane. You can get them in gloss or matte finish and will really make the grain of the wood stand out.

Post by **stipud** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 7:38 am

The Bash amp is great for it's size, though it's obviously not capable of the same "500 watts" we are used to from our PG gear. However, I did measure 45 volts playing test tones with my multimeter, so it seems to make it's rated power... but it still misses something that the PG amps have.

I noticed the same thing you did with your cyclone. Once I got over cranking out amplitude, I turned things down a lot. My crossover is now at 50Hz, and my volume control is a hair over the lowest setting. Now it is much more transparent, but it makes ridiculously loud and clear low notes that I hadn't experienced before when I was using car audio subs. Home theatre explosions are a complete blast now.

I had to move the sub around my house, and I found a good compromise between transparency and volume. With the sub to the left or right of my speakers, it shifted the bass image to the side it was at, so it made a very biased stereo image. I couldn't mount it centrally, because the magnet would mess up my CRT television. Mounted against the back wall to the left of my sofa also sounded like crap. I eventually moved it to the far right end of my living room, in the hallway, aimed towards the TV. This way it sounds like the bass is coming from both of the speakers.

nico boom · Post by **nico boom** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:24 pm

Were the long rcs-cables you took home helpfull, while dragging the sub around..?
I can picture you, just like Wil saw me, listening, change position, listening, change position.....

She knows nothing stops me then, till it sounds to my liking [or I go to bed as a grumpy old man!

Glad you found the right position already after a few attempts..

nico

Post by **stipud** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:46 pm

Alrighty... Wendy and I glued and sanded the hell out of everything yesterday. I will try Pandy's method to ebonize the enclosure. Joyride's method seemed to be the best, but after looking into it, it doesn't seem to work well on birch. Bummer.

Now I couldn't find mineral spirits anywhere here... all they could give me was varsol paint thinner. Hell, the only flat black I could find was in Tremclad rust paint

So, what ratio of Tremclad to Varsol should I use to make this minimally shitty

Post by **Wakeup** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:08 pm

Test the paint on a small corner or back side of the box? or spare piece of birch? So you can get a good idea?

Post by **mr tibbs** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:17 pm

Wakeup wrote:Test the paint on a small corner or back side of the box? or spare piece of birch? So you can get a good idea?

Inside!

twisted · Post by **twisted** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:58 pm

nice setup.......ive been wanting to do my own home audio stuff but not sure what subwoofer amp to use or other low budget high quality stereo components to use.

any suggestions?

i will be starting from scratch as i have a sony home receiver and yamaha towers. so i want to replace them all....i was thinking about a denon receiver and cd player.