Rat Rod Dipole sub anyone?

[bolland83]

Don't laugh at this, or do laugh, I don't really care It's sounding pretty good so far. Those of you read the "Kenwood Car Subs?" thread know how this build came about.

[johnnyrichards]

I think its awesome, well done.

[J.Lee]

I like it as well - always dug that concept.

[Ryan]

I'm curious , why did you choose dipole over sealed or ported designs?

[bolland83]

The specs indicate that a vented box was a no go, and a sealed box would still be rather large. WinISD showed an 11 cubic foot box as the default sealed size, any smaller and a huge hump in the response showed up at 50hz. They have a rather high Qts for a sub-woofer, someone commented that might work for dipole or open baffle. I figured give it a try, it's always something I've been interested in, and the "box" was a quick and easy build. I have a second sub to play with as well, so if this works out well, I may build a pair out of MDF or some nice plywood. For the experiment stage, particleboard is perfect though, it's easy to work with and dirt cheap.

[bolland83]

Just a thought... if I make nicer cabs they won't really be rat rod, maybe I should use OSB instead? Now that I think about it, the particle board may be too nice to be rat rod too, hmm.

[jonpike]

I don't know, man... Really straddling the line with that higher quality particle board... Pick them up and drop 'em on a corner or two out in the garage, that might help...

On a more serious note, might be interestsing to get the dimensions, put them and the driver specs thru MLK's, H-box baffle calculator or similar, to understand what the baffle's doing for you. Pretty deep H, should give a surprising response for the package size....

[Soundslike]

I think you should do the same treatment that you used on the Tarkus -- they turned out so nice. By the way, what happened to the Tarkus (not sure how to make Tarkus plural, Tarki?) Are you pleased with the sound?

[bolland83]

Tarkus is still rocking out in the living room, this is the bedroom next to the garage that I'm turning into my office/studio. Not that I really need a 12" sub in an 11'x10' room, but why not? Then again, I could use two of these in the living room, in the back corners to combat some room modes/nulls I've been fighting with in there. If I go that route then a matching finish is in order for sure. I still owe everyone a tutorial on that finishing process anyways, so maybe I just might do that.

[Soundslike]

I think that would be a very popular topic. A lot of builders would welcome a way to avoid a complicated finishing process, especially one that turned out as nice as yours...

[6thplanet]

Your welcome!
I'm on the H frame bandwagon...the bass is so clean and natural sounding. The "enclosure" is stupid easy, no worrying about tuning a port/passive or how sealed up it is or what kinda damping material, blah blah blah.....just 5 pieces of wood that don't even need to be glued and it makes nice bass. Granted you'll have to cross it over below about 200Hz as they have a peak up there and if you want real low bass (which most music for the most part dosen't need) you'll need to EQ (al la mini DSP or equivilant device). Glad you gave it a try...

[6thplanet]

Oh yeah, as for the depth, you can prolly slim that up with out any real loss of low end, say 6" on either side of the baffle. This will help drive that upper resonate peak up. The baffle litterarly dosen't need to be any bigger than the size of the driver itself.

[bolland83]

It's actually pretty close to that now, it's only 14.25" deep, so with the baffle centered there's only 6.75" on either side of the baffle. Or did you mean something else?

[6thplanet]

Nope, that's what I ment, proceed....