Author Topic: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration (Read 7240 times)

sebr023 · « **on:** August 30, 2023, 03:22 PM »

Hi guys!

I’m build a subwoofer living room table.
It will house 2x 15in driver. One on each end.

I modelled a speaker grille but I’m second guessing it.

I’d like to pick your brain to know what would you guys do.

I’m not really concerned about sound transmission thought the grille.

Here’s the design and what I came up with for grille

The things that makes me second guess this is

1-the grill will be heavy. Each grill with be made out of 2 thickness of 3/4 mdf in order to have the spacing necessary for the driver to operate. And I would prefer not to have visible hardware, and when grille removed, having a clean baffle (no hole or hardware). So there’s not much method to do this, only one I can think of it magnet.

2- it add 8” overall the the subwoofer box. Our living is small, so if I can reduce that amount, that would be nice.

3- I’m afraid that the top will not look very clean with the different layer showing. I’ll do my best to make this as flash and clean as possible, but that’s a concern.

Thanks for replying and giving out your ideas!

Let’s discuss!

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Packard · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2023, 03:42 PM »

For me, the room decor would dictate the design. So I would want more information on where it was going and perhaps a photo of that location.

The main advantage of a custom build is that you can make it to the size required and in the style that the room dictates.

To consider a custom design without consideration of the location, is in my opinion, cheating yourself of the best reasons for custom work.

sebr023 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2023, 03:50 PM »

Quote from: Packard on August 30, 2023, 03:42 PM

For me, the room decor would dictate the design. So I would want more information on where it was going and perhaps a photo of that location.

The main advantage of a custom build is that you can make it to the size required and in the style that the room dictates.

To consider a custom design without consideration of the location, is in my opinion, cheating yourself of the best reasons for custom work.

Here the living room. It’ll replace the current table.

Sorry for the mess.

The table is the only design my wife accepted.
We might move in a bigger house next year. But for now that’s the Space I work with.

The subwoofer box is roughly 16.5x16.5x 40in.

Hope it helps.

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squall_line · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2023, 04:56 PM »

Which table is it replacing in that picture?

sebr023 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2023, 04:56 PM »

Quote from: squall_line on August 30, 2023, 04:56 PM

Which table is it replacing in that picture?

The round one.

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woodbutcherbower · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2023, 05:02 PM »

Make sure you wire one driver out of phase with the other so that they're pushing and pulling the internal cabinet air in the same direction. If you don't = almost no bass from that box.

Better still - modify your design so that both speakers are facing in the same direction and wire them in phase. Google 'Isobaric loading'.

sebr023 · « **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2023, 05:09 PM »

Quote from: woodbutcherbower on August 30, 2023, 05:02 PM

Make sure you wire one driver out of phase with the other so that they're pushing and pulling the sealed cabinet air in the same direction. If you don't - you'll have two drivers whose back-waves are out of phase, cancelling each other out. Result = almost no bass.

Better still - modify your design so that both speakers are facing in the same direction. Google 'Isobarik loading'.

The box is seperated in the middle.
Also, I haven’t include that picture in the fist post, but the separation will be at an angle to reduce standing wave.

I designed the type you suggested first. But I was left with not much volume for 15in.

Dont remember the math, but the space between the too driver needed to be larger than this, and it was going to have a much larger foot print in my small living room.

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Cheese · « **Reply #7 on:** August 30, 2023, 05:22 PM »

I'd start with the size of the drivers, could you be happy with the output of a couple of 12" drivers instead? I know you'll have a slightly extended frequency response with the 15" drivers but I don't think the difference in sound will be that great. It depends a great deal on what type of music/sound reproduction you listen to.

I just don't think the sound difference will be huge but the space saved using the smaller drivers will be huge...I'd guess 25%-30% less space needed. There has been much discussion on the size of sub woofers vs room size. There is a lot of furniture in that room so a double 15 may not be warranted.

I'd also recommend taking the additional $$ saved using the 12" drivers and apply that or more to a very robust amplifier. You certainly don't want your sub to start clipping the signal.

sebr023 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 30, 2023, 05:30 PM »

Quote from: Cheese on August 30, 2023, 05:22 PM

I'd start with the size of the drivers, could you be happy with the output of a couple of 12" drivers instead? I know you'll have a slightly extended frequency response with the 15" drivers but I don't think the difference in sound will be that great. It depends a great deal on what type of music/sound reproduction you listen to.

I just don't think the sound difference will be huge but the space saved using the smaller drivers will be huge...I'd guess 25%-30% less space needed. There has been much discussion on the size of sub woofers vs room size. There is a lot of furniture in that room so a double 15 may not be warranted.

I'd also recommend taking the additional $$ saved using the 12" drivers and apply that or more to a very robust amplifier. You certainly don't want your sub to start clipping the signal.

I have two Behringer Inuke6000dsp to power the two 15’s.

Also, the driver are already bought and waiting in their box in the garage.

The living room is open on the kitchen.
Which is roughly 20x20 and the living room is roughly 12x12 with 8.5ft ceiling. It’s a relatively « big » space to pressurize.

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Spandex · « **Reply #9 on:** August 30, 2023, 06:49 PM »

I know nothing about speaker design, but would downward firing drivers allow you to make a nicer looking table design where you don’t have to worry about grilles at all?

sebr023 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 30, 2023, 07:00 PM »

Quote from: Spandex on August 30, 2023, 06:49 PM

I know nothing about speaker design, but would downward firing drivers allow you to make a nicer looking table design where you don’t have to worry about grilles at all?

Down firing would cause the table to shake/vibrate while having two opposing driver will cause almost no vibration, that’s the goal at least.

But yeah, down riding would be more simple to design. Would probably be fine, but there’s a suggested distance between driver and floor. With the Xmax (total excursion of the sub) the table would need to be a lot higher than it is now.

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Vtshopdog · « **Reply #11 on:** August 30, 2023, 07:30 PM »

Could the table top and sides extend beyond the driver baffles, effectively recessing them? You could then try to find some sort of stealth hardware to mount the grills.

Would you consider a material other than MDF for the grills? Something lighter would be easier to mount on your box.

2x 15” drivers will have a lot of SPL - do you use system for home theater?

sebr023 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 30, 2023, 08:38 PM »

Quote from: Vtshopdog on August 30, 2023, 07:30 PM

Could the table top and sides extend beyond the driver baffles, effectively recessing them? You could then try to find some sort of stealth hardware to mount the grills.

Would you consider a material other than MDF for the grills? Something lighter would be easier to mount on your box.

2x 15” drivers will have a lot of SPL - do you use system for home theater?

Yes. I’m thinking of this (extending the side)
Thing is, pannel are already cut.
So if I go this route, I will loose a bit of internal volume. But will also secure the grille a lot more.

I posted on a Facebook group, and a lot of people mentioning that these driver are not that fragile. So I might go much simpler route and maybe less protective.

I would use foam if I could, but it’ll dent easily

I’m trying to speak with my gf and see what option we can have.

For my front stage speakers, I laser cut the grille and got inspired by the paradigm design.

Know I’m thinking of maybe cutting a pattern in white acrylic and “folding” it to make a box.

Let’s say where’s the logo is is all hole or laser cut pattern. Folded like this, all 4 sides would be let’s say two inch (enough for max excursion of the subwoofer). Would be lighter than mdf and birch ply.

In fact, only the frame of the slat would be mdf. The slat in itself would be birch plywood.

So :
Subwoofer box (birch plywood) / baffle baffle (birch plywood) / grille frame (mdf) / slat (birch plywood).

If that makes sens.

As for management, it will be pre-out of my denon avr, to two Behringer Inuke6000 (or 3000, can’t remember which I bought) to power the two driver.

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sebr023 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 30, 2023, 11:21 PM »

From what I read online, subwoofer are not that fragile and I stared thinking of how I could change the designs bit. That’s not wood working, but I could “heat and “fold” acrylic to have a semi box in front of the woofer. Would attached with magnet still, but would be way lighter that way.

Pardon the hole pattern that my computer really didn’t like to model, and my limited fusion360 skill to not be able to constrain the pattern where I wanted. But basically all the front face would have holes (spurns 5mm and 5mm spacing in this screen shot.

Or I could go with something like this, covered in fabric. It would “wedge”
Into the Fran, and with the fabric I’d try to make it pressure fit.

But I don’t know how would I remove it 🥲

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bobtskutter · « **Reply #14 on:** August 31, 2023, 04:51 AM »

I like the design questions and different options that are coming out in this thread. I notice all the current options are "square" boxes, some of the designs have baffles to make the internals into a triangle shape to eliminate standing waves.

I always thought sub woofer design was about deliberately making the air resonate to make more "boom" from a smaller size? Then you made the box strong enough so the vibrations didn't break the box.

What might a design look like if the box wasn't actually square? You could angle the speakers and then use the grille to make the box appear square.

e.g.
https://6moons.com/audioreviews/tannoy6/02.jpg
https://www.vintagechief.com/tannoy-607-speakers-22528
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-3d-blue-pyramid-grunge-old-speaker-sound-system-74913353.html

(I had a pair of those Tannoy 607 speakers and they were excellent, right up until my Rotel power app failed and blew out the cross over in one of the speakers

)

Bob

Packard · « **Reply #15 on:** August 31, 2023, 03:29 PM »

I’m comfortable using cane webbing and that would be my first choice. There is a learning curve, but once learned the individual steps are not difficult.

I built this linen cabinet with “radio weave” cane fabric. That design was created to go over sound grills.

What you cannot see in the image is that the cabinet is painted white. However I made the door frames in oak. I found that the process of pressing in the reed would sometimes chip the paint and touching up the paint is fraught with suspense. If you get paint on the cane fabric, it will never look good.

The cane fabric allows the air to circulate in the rarely used cabinet (it is the guest bathroom and I’m not so popular that I have frequent guests

).

You do want to use a hard wood for the frame. The pressure of pressing in the reed spline might damage the groove on a soft wood frame.

Many sites, especially those featuring Ikea hacks, show staples. In my opinion, those will never look professional. Reed splines are the traditional way to do this.

I use miters and dowels, which allows me to cut the grooves prior to assembly.

In any case, the light color of the cane fabric along with a light color on the woofer box would seem to fit the decor of the room.

I will shoot another photo. I added cabinet pulls and they improve the appearance of the cabinet in my opinion.

Lincoln · « **Reply #16 on:** September 01, 2023, 01:27 AM »

Love the folded acrylic idea, @sebr023.

Author Topic: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration (Read 7240 times)

sebr023

Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

Packard

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

squall_line

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

woodbutcherbower

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

Cheese

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

Spandex

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

Vtshopdog

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

sebr023

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

bobtskutter

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

Packard

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration

Lincoln

Re: Subwoofer grille - need inspiration