BFM Home Theater Build: Line Array Mains and 20hz Folded Horn Sub!!! (Lots of pics)

[DLHgn]

Those are some sexy towers you got there! I would like to mess with some different designs depending on the success or failure of my current planed design (my first one!). Question though, could you design your own horn loaded or other designs y'all are talking about or would you just suggest getting one of the pre made designs y'all are talking about on here?

[Triticum Agricolam]

Those are some sexy towers you got there! I would like to mess with some different designs depending on the success or failure of my current planed design (my first one!). Question though, could you design your own horn loaded or other designs y'all are talking about or would you just suggest getting one of the pre made designs y'all are talking about on here?

Its certainly possible to design your own horn enclosures, though its significantly more difficult than simpler designs like sealed or ported.

There are pre-made designs out there (like those done by Bill Fitzmaurice, who designed the enclosures in this thread) and they can work very well as long as you use the right subs in there.

[DLHgn]

Those are some sexy towers you got there! I would like to mess with some different designs depending on the success or failure of my current planed design (my first one!). Question though, could you design your own horn loaded or other designs y'all are talking about or would you just suggest getting one of the pre made designs y'all are talking about on here?

Its certainly possible to design your own horn enclosures, though its significantly more difficult than simpler designs like sealed or ported.

There are pre-made designs out there (like those done by Bill Fitzmaurice, who designed the enclosures in this thread) and they can work very well as long as you use the right subs in there.

I've been looking at 1/4 tlines but I wouldn't want to do that if I'm trying to tune really low. Maybe some sort of horn loaded or more complicated design than sealed or ported. They just seem too easy and I want something more challenging as long as this ported design I'm working on turns out to be what I'm expecting.

[bigsausagepizza]

Those are some sexy towers you got there! I would like to mess with some different designs depending on the success or failure of my current planed design (my first one!). Question though, could you design your own horn loaded or other designs y'all are talking about or would you just suggest getting one of the pre made designs y'all are talking about on here?

Its certainly possible to design your own horn enclosures, though its significantly more difficult than simpler designs like sealed or ported.

There are pre-made designs out there (like those done by Bill Fitzmaurice, who designed the enclosures in this thread) and they can work very well as long as you use the right subs in there.

I've been looking at 1/4 tlines but I wouldn't want to do that if I'm trying to tune really low. Maybe some sort of horn loaded or more complicated design than sealed or ported. They just seem too easy and I want something more challenging as long as this ported design I'm working on turns out to be what I'm expecting.

If you're looking for a low tune horns and t-lines are not usually a good option unless size is of NO concern for you. The horn I built here is capable of 20hz, but it is GIGANTIC! Outer measurements are 36"x36"x24" and this is a mid-size Tuba HT, full-size is a full 3ft cube (get a measuring tape out if that doesn't sound big).

Designing your own horns can be down with a free program called Hornresp, you can find some tutorials on some of the audio forums, but as mentioned above designing horns is much harder than designing simple ported and sealed enclosures. I would definitely stick with a proven design for your first few builds unless you're ready to fail a few times and waste a lot of wood and time in the process. I'm currently working on a bandpass design from decware called the housewrecker that seems to have really low output, that might be an option for you but it's still pretty simple (and it's great for tinkering, houses 1-4 15s and has many different configurations to try). If you don't mind spending a bunch on wood you should check out the designs by Lil Mike on AVS forums, he has a 17hz tapped horn called that lilwrecker that looks pretty cool, but it requires 4 full sheets of 4x8 plywood, which can get pricey, and it's another gigantic design. He has a few smaller designs too but they don't go as low. There are some other cool tapped horns out there if you look, they're supposed to be very efficient and capable of getting very low if you make them large enough. Basically if you want to get into the 20s, or even below, you need something gigantic (and not cheap), and you can spend your money on drivers and amps for ported/sealed designs, or on wood and labor for horns/tapped horns/t-lines.

[bmwking]

this Housewrecker is an awesome design! I wonder if it'd be possible to mimic it with 4 8s? Obviously not enough to levitate a rug, but a better enclosure than most?

It would definitely be possible, people have scaled it up for 18s and down for 12s, so you could definitely do it with 8s if you really wanted.

any idea on how to do that?

I'm not certain, but I'll give it a shot. A 15 has ~ 56pi cone area and an 8 has 16pi. 56/16=3.5, so I would guess you need to scale the volume down by 3.5x. So you'd be looking for a net internal volume ~2.4 cu ft. The middle chamber would be about 0.73 cu ft and the outer chambers ~0.835 cu ft. The tuning and port size you'd have to figure out, but that would be fun to mess with anyway if you had some pvc or cardboard tubing. I bet some other guys on here would be able to help you with the tuning, I just don't have the time right now. I don't want to give you exact dimensions since this is a copywrited design, but if you want to buy the plans I bet Steve Deckert himself would help you scale it if you asked nicely, seemed like a nice guy when I was emailing him.

I actually emailed him last night and got a reply today saying he cant help me and hasnt scaled it below 12s "because thats where the generic qualities (ease of tuning) stop.

Any good suggestions on modelling software/freeware that will let me input 4 drivers and help me design something akin to this?

Having the internal chamber dimensions is a huge step forward, but arent the tuning and port size just as, if not more, important to this enclosure and therefore more difficult to discover? I'll be honest, if it wasnt already apparent, I've never had to do my own testing. Ive always used manufacturer specs and been pretty pleased, so this will be my first foray into a truly custom enclosure and i feel pretty lost.

I understand you not wanting to give exact dimensions, but being that he hasnt copywritten an enclosure for the 8s, i would be willing to pay you for a design that would do it justice.

[DLHgn]

I'm not too concerned with size but of course I can't have anything too ridiculous unless I want to turn it into a piece of furniture. I have enough confidence in myself that I could design on of these more complicated enclosures and it's always nice to say that you designed and built something, especially if it sounds good. I'll definitely make sure to check out that program you linked as well as some more threads on this forum about them.

[bigsausagepizza]

this Housewrecker is an awesome design! I wonder if it'd be possible to mimic it with 4 8s? Obviously not enough to levitate a rug, but a better enclosure than most?

It would definitely be possible, people have scaled it up for 18s and down for 12s, so you could definitely do it with 8s if you really wanted.

any idea on how to do that?

I'm not certain, but I'll give it a shot. A 15 has ~ 56pi cone area and an 8 has 16pi. 56/16=3.5, so I would guess you need to scale the volume down by 3.5x. So you'd be looking for a net internal volume ~2.4 cu ft. The middle chamber would be about 0.73 cu ft and the outer chambers ~0.835 cu ft. The tuning and port size you'd have to figure out, but that would be fun to mess with anyway if you had some pvc or cardboard tubing. I bet some other guys on here would be able to help you with the tuning, I just don't have the time right now. I don't want to give you exact dimensions since this is a copywrited design, but if you want to buy the plans I bet Steve Deckert himself would help you scale it if you asked nicely, seemed like a nice guy when I was emailing him.

I actually emailed him last night and got a reply today saying he cant help me and hasnt scaled it below 12s "because thats where the generic qualities (ease of tuning) stop.

Any good suggestions on modelling software/freeware that will let me input 4 drivers and help me design something akin to this?

Having the internal chamber dimensions is a huge step forward, but arent the tuning and port size just as, if not more, important to this enclosure and therefore more difficult to discover? I'll be honest, if it wasnt already apparent, I've never had to do my own testing. Ive always used manufacturer specs and been pretty pleased, so this will be my first foray into a truly custom enclosure and i feel pretty lost.

I understand you not wanting to give exact dimensions, but being that he hasnt copywritten an enclosure for the 8s, i would be willing to pay you for a design that would do it justice.

I might be able to come up with something, but it would depend highly on your choice of drivers and frequency response goals

[aculous]

this Housewrecker is an awesome design! I wonder if it'd be possible to mimic it with 4 8s? Obviously not enough to levitate a rug, but a better enclosure than most?

It would definitely be possible, people have scaled it up for 18s and down for 12s, so you could definitely do it with 8s if you really wanted.

any idea on how to do that?

I'm not certain, but I'll give it a shot. A 15 has ~ 56pi cone area and an 8 has 16pi. 56/16=3.5, so I would guess you need to scale the volume down by 3.5x. So you'd be looking for a net internal volume ~2.4 cu ft. The middle chamber would be about 0.73 cu ft and the outer chambers ~0.835 cu ft. The tuning and port size you'd have to figure out, but that would be fun to mess with anyway if you had some pvc or cardboard tubing. I bet some other guys on here would be able to help you with the tuning, I just don't have the time right now. I don't want to give you exact dimensions since this is a copywrited design, but if you want to buy the plans I bet Steve Deckert himself would help you scale it if you asked nicely, seemed like a nice guy when I was emailing him.

I actually emailed him last night and got a reply today saying he cant help me and hasnt scaled it below 12s "because thats where the generic qualities (ease of tuning) stop.

Any good suggestions on modelling software/freeware that will let me input 4 drivers and help me design something akin to this?

Having the internal chamber dimensions is a huge step forward, but arent the tuning and port size just as, if not more, important to this enclosure and therefore more difficult to discover? I'll be honest, if it wasnt already apparent, I've never had to do my own testing. Ive always used manufacturer specs and been pretty pleased, so this will be my first foray into a truly custom enclosure and i feel pretty lost.

I understand you not wanting to give exact dimensions, but being that he hasnt copywritten an enclosure for the 8s, i would be willing to pay you for a design that would do it justice.

I might be able to come up with something, but it would depend highly on your choice of drivers and frequency response goals

Bill has a couple designs for dual 8s. I am sure the autotuba enclosure would be fine for a HT install too. That would be the guess anyway right BSP?

[bmwking]

this Housewrecker is an awesome design! I wonder if it'd be possible to mimic it with 4 8s? Obviously not enough to levitate a rug, but a better enclosure than most?

It would definitely be possible, people have scaled it up for 18s and down for 12s, so you could definitely do it with 8s if you really wanted.

any idea on how to do that?

I'm not certain, but I'll give it a shot. A 15 has ~ 56pi cone area and an 8 has 16pi. 56/16=3.5, so I would guess you need to scale the volume down by 3.5x. So you'd be looking for a net internal volume ~2.4 cu ft. The middle chamber would be about 0.73 cu ft and the outer chambers ~0.835 cu ft. The tuning and port size you'd have to figure out, but that would be fun to mess with anyway if you had some pvc or cardboard tubing. I bet some other guys on here would be able to help you with the tuning, I just don't have the time right now. I don't want to give you exact dimensions since this is a copywrited design, but if you want to buy the plans I bet Steve Deckert himself would help you scale it if you asked nicely, seemed like a nice guy when I was emailing him.

I actually emailed him last night and got a reply today saying he cant help me and hasnt scaled it below 12s "because thats where the generic qualities (ease of tuning) stop.

Any good suggestions on modelling software/freeware that will let me input 4 drivers and help me design something akin to this?

Having the internal chamber dimensions is a huge step forward, but arent the tuning and port size just as, if not more, important to this enclosure and therefore more difficult to discover? I'll be honest, if it wasnt already apparent, I've never had to do my own testing. Ive always used manufacturer specs and been pretty pleased, so this will be my first foray into a truly custom enclosure and i feel pretty lost.

I understand you not wanting to give exact dimensions, but being that he hasnt copywritten an enclosure for the 8s, i would be willing to pay you for a design that would do it justice.

I might be able to come up with something, but it would depend highly on your choice of drivers and frequency response goals

Bill has a couple designs for dual 8s. I am sure the autotuba enclosure would be fine for a HT install too. That would be the guess anyway right BSP?

dual 8s is fine, however im going for quad 8s

[aculous]

Hey did I miss it but what Mids and Highs did you use on this one?