Working out of a home office I'm always listening to my music collection (or streaming videos on youtube, I'll be honest), and lately my old speakers have been acting up. I was running a set of Klipsch promedia 2.1's (my second set), but the powered sub was acting up; not always powering on, especially after pausing music for a few minutes. Since they were acting up and fairly old (7 years on this pair) I decided to upgrade...
I'm a huge Definitive Technology fan (I run BP7004's for mains in my home theater) so I started looking at options they had for small monitors. I ended up scoring a pair of ProMonitor 800's on ebay for 90 bucks. For a "amp" I did some digging looking into the new small digital amps. Ended up getting a SMSL AD18, which should do about 40 WPC into 80hm, and has a sub out.
Sub I decided to DIY. The last one I built for my home theater I went WAY overboard.. a TC Sounds TC-3000 powered by 1200 watts... don't need that for a home office.. so I hit Parts Express and after considering going the 6" sub route, decided 8" might be a better choice. I ended up using a Dayton Ultimax 8" DVC sub, and a Yung 200w plate amp. I also ordered the feet and and flared port (3") as well. I used a few different modeling apps, and ended up coming to a 2cubic foot cab tuned to 25hz for a pretty flat response.
Cabinet I built out of 2 2x4sheets of birch ply. The front is double thick - speaker is recessed. Finish I ended up using truck bed liner (Herculiner) from Lowes. This took 3 coats, but worked out very well - seems pretty durable so if I end up kicking it or something it's not a big deal. I also used corrugated acoustic foam inside the cab as well.
The sound is awesome. This setup gets surprisingly loud! Sounds really good - after running ProMedia's for almost 20 years total I was very used to how they sound, and this seems a little clearer to my ears. Depth of the sub is crazy. I got bored one day and played some bass heavy tracks and DANG.. little 8" bumps!
Any how - figured I'd post about it if others have an interest in this stuff - going the DIY route is fun, and you get to really enjoy your work in more ways than one.
I'm a huge Definitive Technology fan (I run BP7004's for mains in my home theater) so I started looking at options they had for small monitors. I ended up scoring a pair of ProMonitor 800's on ebay for 90 bucks. For a "amp" I did some digging looking into the new small digital amps. Ended up getting a SMSL AD18, which should do about 40 WPC into 80hm, and has a sub out.
Sub I decided to DIY. The last one I built for my home theater I went WAY overboard.. a TC Sounds TC-3000 powered by 1200 watts... don't need that for a home office.. so I hit Parts Express and after considering going the 6" sub route, decided 8" might be a better choice. I ended up using a Dayton Ultimax 8" DVC sub, and a Yung 200w plate amp. I also ordered the feet and and flared port (3") as well. I used a few different modeling apps, and ended up coming to a 2cubic foot cab tuned to 25hz for a pretty flat response.
Cabinet I built out of 2 2x4sheets of birch ply. The front is double thick - speaker is recessed. Finish I ended up using truck bed liner (Herculiner) from Lowes. This took 3 coats, but worked out very well - seems pretty durable so if I end up kicking it or something it's not a big deal. I also used corrugated acoustic foam inside the cab as well.
The sound is awesome. This setup gets surprisingly loud! Sounds really good - after running ProMedia's for almost 20 years total I was very used to how they sound, and this seems a little clearer to my ears. Depth of the sub is crazy. I got bored one day and played some bass heavy tracks and DANG.. little 8" bumps!
Any how - figured I'd post about it if others have an interest in this stuff - going the DIY route is fun, and you get to really enjoy your work in more ways than one.
