Building my own absolute budget bargain subwoofer

Vinod.R

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2010
Messages
1,459
Points
113
Location
Thrissur, Kerala
Hello friends in the forum and bassoholics,

I am now in the mood to build my own sub woofer with my very limited knowledge and experience. I have been prowling around sub woofer threads, reading about knowledgeable members (@mpw, @Hari Iyer etc.) about their builds and ventures.

I have limited knowledge and so I don't expect my DIY sub to be the ultimate sub for its price. I am sure to make a lot of noob mistakes along the way and hope that it will be a learning experience.

I had fixed a budget of about Rs 15000 for DIY sub and with the hope that I can build a reasonable sub for the price. Roughly Driver, Amp and cabinet split equally.

After research, I have found a 12 inch Dassaka driver (350W rms @ 8 ohms, 700W peak, sensitivity 98, B&C chassis, 3 inch voice coil, Glass Fibre CCA, 3 inch in/out, Magnet 190X85X25, Y35) priced around Rs 3500 per piece including shipping. The catch is that I have to buy two. There are no more technical details or parameters available at present.

I am touch with Extreme Audio New Delhi for a 500W rms amplifer board at a cost of Rs 6500 approximately. 1 board 10 transistor, 1 board 4 caps supply, torroidal transformer, 1 protection circuit.

I will attach pictures as time goes by.

I am Thrissur, Kerala and dont know how to get a decent sub cabinet/box made.

ANY IMPORTANT MISTAKES THAT I AM MAKING ETC OR ANY CHANGES CAN BE RECOMMENDED TO ME. I WOULD WELCOME IT.
Edit:
IMG-20200203-WA0005.jpgIMG-20200203-WA0006.jpgIMG-20200203-WA0004.jpgIMG-20200203-WA0007.jpgIMG-20200131-WA0014.jpg

Amplifier modules and Driver DX 12076 pictures attached. I hope you guys approve of it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi
Vinod
You are bitten by DIYbug :D . Well go ahead and please do post pictures as you progress. My sincere well wishes for your endeavour.
Regards
Bhaskar
 
Hello friends in the forum and bassoholics,

I am now in the mood to build my own sub woofer with my very limited knowledge and experience. I have been prowling around sub woofer threads, reading about knowledgeable members (@mpw, @Hari Iyer etc.) about their builds and ventures.

I have limited knowledge and so I don't expect my DIY sub to be the ultimate sub for its price. I am sure to make a lot of noob mistakes along the way and hope that it will be a learning experience.

I had fixed a budget of about Rs 15000 for DIY sub and with the hope that I can build a reasonable sub for the price. Roughly Driver, Amp and cabinet split equally.

After research, I have found a 12 inch Dassaka driver (350W rms @ 8 ohms, 700W peak, sensitivity 98, B&C chassis, 3 inch voice coil, Glass Fibre CCA, 3 inch in/out, Magnet 190X85X25, Y35) priced around Rs 3500 per piece including shipping. The catch is that I have to buy two. There are no more technical details or parameters available at present.

I am touch with Extreme Audio New Delhi for a 500W rms amplifer board at a cost of Rs 6500 approximately. 1 board 10 transistor, 1 board 4 caps supply, torroidal transformer, 1 protection circuit.

I will attach pictures as time goes by.

I am Thrissur, Kerala and dont know how to get a decent sub cabinet/box made.


ANY IMPORTANT MISTAKES THAT I AM MAKING ETC OR ANY CHANGES CAN BE RECOMMENDED TO ME. I WOULD WELCOME IT.
Why not a class D amp for the sub?
Something like a TAS5630 in PBTL will be far better suited and significantly more efficient for a sub i think
 
Welcome to DIY world... That Sub looks too good for the Price. & FM @superczar is right. A class D amp would have been better for a Sub Duty. And use speaker protection for the Amp as suggested by FM @saikatbiswas82 All the Best Bro & Enjoy ur Built Journey.
 
Easiest DIY sub is open baffles. Please check my H-frame subs thread. It was easy peasy considering that I didn't have to calculate any volume, port size etc. I spent ~10K for building two SWs including drivers. Considering speaker protection, I got an external PA amp with speaker protection and built in DSP. It was less stressful than a CNC phono Stage build
 
Thank you guys for all your inputs. There is going to be a circuit for speaker protection. Yes a class D amp would be more efficient, however I am not sure of how to go about it. Any links would be very welcome.

The H-frame sub sounds very interesting, what about WAF? Any problems there? On top of that exposed drivers given the Kerala weather are prone to damages as compared to sealed enclosures, despite the fact that sealed cabinets are a pain to make. We have all sorts of insects around waiting to do damage. :) My AVR and Speakers are subject to regular periodic inspection (Read Kerosene cleaning on the MDF) to keep them off! Drivers have to be cleaned on a regular basis here.

Arun, can you point me to your thread? Let me read and understand.
 
Thank you guys for all your inputs. There is going to be a circuit for speaker protection. Yes a class D amp would be more efficient, however I am not sure of how to go about it. Any links would be very welcome.

The H-frame sub sounds very interesting, what about WAF? Any problems there? On top of that exposed drivers given the Kerala weather are prone to damages as compared to sealed enclosures, despite the fact that sealed cabinets are a pain to make. We have all sorts of insects around waiting to do damage. :) My AVR and Speakers are subject to regular periodic inspection (Read Kerosene cleaning on the MDF) to keep them off! Drivers have to be cleaned on a regular basis here.

Arun, can you point me to your thread? Let me read and understand.
WAF - bribing works.. transferred my annual leave encashment to her account. No further complaints from my Lord.
You can make speaker grills with cloth for insects management (I am yet to do anything about it)
The biggest advantage is the simplicity of build and least issues to be mitigated. Works well only if you are able to bring it away from walls. Using them as center tables or tepoys would be best position and can be excellent decoy as well (if real estate and WAF permits).
The link
 
Welcome to DIY world... That Sub looks too good for the Price. & FM @superczar is right. A class D amp would have been better for a Sub Duty. And use speaker protection for the Amp as suggested by FM @saikatbiswas82 All the Best Bro & Enjoy ur Built Journey.

I'd like to mention some interesting facts here. My brother is a hardcore DIYer. He started off with connexion electronic class d amps for his diy sub. Later he settled with diyaudiocart class ab amp modules and a LPSU. He is happier now.

BTW...I'm not discouraging anyone of you to use or not to use any specific module. All of them have their own positives and negatives.
 
I am in the same boat, thinking of taking DIY route for subwoofer (for my HT). I don't want to distract the discussion here as I have few months. I will be watching this thread for my learning. Way to go @Vinod.R :)
 
Ordered the driver today. Driver will be coming by road transportation (total weight 30 kgs) in about 6-7 days. Hopefully they arrive safely. FINGERS CROSSED Total cost Rs 7000.

Will add the pictures on arrival. I am worried about the cabinet now.

Open baffle H cabinet? Ported? Sealed? How to measure cabinet volume etc.? Help me out guys once the driver comes. Confused Anyone here in Kerala good with wood? help!
 
Ordered the driver today. Driver will be coming by road transportation (total weight 30 kgs) in about 6-7 days. Hopefully they arrive safely. FINGERS CROSSED Total cost Rs 7000.

Will add the pictures on arrival. I am worried about the cabinet now.

Open baffle H cabinet? Ported? Sealed? How to measure cabinet volume etc.? Help me out guys once the driver comes. Confused Anyone here in Kerala good with wood? help!
30 kg ??
 
My sub drivers have come.
I don't have much experience but the drivers exude quality.
Rated @ 450 RMS @ 8 Ohms, 98db sensitivity.
I am attaching pictures in the next post after compressing it.
 
For excellent sound that won't break the bank, the 5 Star Award Winning Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Bookshelf Speakers is the one to consider!
Back
Top