Nice work. I might have missed it, but was there a reason you didn't double baffle the front? (I do it to add to the strength and personally like the look of it).
I can build car ones at ~35hz and carpet finish with good results, but I attempted one for the lounge and the other half hated it! Trying to get the tuning low enough resulted in a very large box and couldn't get the finish good enough.
After planning on another build I decided to just buy one instead - it's amazing what the digital EQs can do these days! I went for a XTZ
https://www.xtzsound.eu/sub1217edge#skeletabsPanel1
I've just added it up and it cost me £630. Which sounds like a lot, but a half decent 15" home cinema sub is £1500. The time required to build it wasn't all that long, but there was a lot of waiting between doing things, especially the veneer faces.
I would more compare it to something like the Earthquake Supernova 15 which is £3600. Now yeah that will output a lot more volume given it has a huge amp, but I could get a 1000w plate amp for about £350. The £1500 one doesn't have a HEX driver (high excursion) so I reckon mine would slaughter it. That said even the 420w amp I bought is more than enough to shake the place to pieces. At full volume (I did try for a laugh) it is insane.
The biggest problem is that I wanted a veneer. None have anything like that. They are all black, and I would surmise there are none suitable in dimensions to double as a coffee table tbh.
Why didn't I double the front baffle. Good question ! mostly because there isn't enough of it to make it worth it.
If you go back to this pic.
You can see how little of it there is. Basically it's the smallest piece on the box, and once the driver hole is cut out there's hardly anything left. There are other reasons too though. Firstly 18mm MDF with the mute mat on is the far cheaper way to basically end up with the same result as 1". I am not sure they make Hidrafugal MDF in 1", and from experience with doing 1" cabinets you lose a lot of bass through the cabinet resonance. Which IMO does play a part of the acoustics. This is why Cerwin Vega never used to use 1" anything, and stuck to Finnish birch ply (similar to Brazilian birch). This is also the same reason I did not brace it more than it has from the port duct. In short? I am not going for SPL and I hate woofers that basically kick you in the back. This is all good for recording SPL, but when it comes to listenable acoustics IMO it ruins the sound. You lose a lot of warmth and depth to the bass by making it produce as much sound pressure as possible. Plus, ported cabinets allow this a lot more by not having to withstand every last sound wave being put through them like a sealed cabinet would.
Then of course the most crucial part? I live in a flat. And whilst it is fully sound proofed? I would not even consider blasting that thing at full capacity. For that you need a fully detached house miles from any one and that isn't in my future lol.
And of course, positioning is absolutely everything. Getting it as close to you as you can is critical. If it were on the other side of the room? I would need it at twice the volume to get the same effect, which of course would also end me up on the streets. It's exactly the same in a car. I knew guys who would have like four 5" mids along their doors. Firing right into their legs.Doh. It was a much better idea to create a pod that was tilted to point the driver to your ears. Because like I say, positioning is very important in audio. Like for example, getting the tweeters at ear level, toed in, firing right at your ear holes. Now I couldn't totally manage that due to the room I have, hence why I chose the Revel M105, as their wave guide makes it far less important. You can literally stand at the side of them and the measured treble response is the same. They put millions into that piece of plastic tbh.
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