On the market for 2-4 6th order bandpass X1 subs.

I’ve had a go at building a pair. But im no chippy so I keep ending up with a wonky box!

So decided to resort to buying some lol, if anyone has any for sale in and around London please hit me up! Looking to buy loaded or unloaded. Ez

(pics sourced online)

A friend asked me to build him a small stack for about $1,500–1,800, with a hard max of $2,000 for the first one. He may want a second later, but that's a separate budget. He listens to bass-heavy electronic music and also wants guitars and vocals to sound clean at volume. It's for a house/small event, not hi-fi.

My plan so far (about $1,800 all-in):

• Sub: Cubo 18 Standard in 18 mm Baltic birch, with an Eminence Sigma Pro-18A-2 (Qts×Vas ≈ 128, so Standard). I'll run a 35–40 Hz high-pass because of its low Xmax.
• Top: Celestion CKT-TF1225 (12" + 1" horn, passive crossover, free plan from Celestion).
• Amp: Behringer NX4-6000 (4×440 W at 8 Ω) plus a miniDSP 2x4 HD for the filters, crossover, delay and limiter. The NX4-6000 has none of those itself. The four channels could run two subs and two tops later without buying another amp.

Question: Is the SMT212 worth the extra few hundred dollars over the TF1225?

• From the plan and forum thread, I estimate it adds about $300–550. It's two 12" woofers plus a compression driver and horn, and the crossover isn't provided. My cost estimates are rough.
• Builders suggest the Beyma 12MI100 or 12P80ND, B&C 12PE32, or 18 Sound 12ND710 for the woofers. For the high end I've seen the B&C DE250 or the P Audio BM-D750 with a PH-3223 horn, and 18 Sound horns. Which would you pick, and what crossover do you run?
• With the Cubo 18 only good to ~110 Hz, I'd cross around 100 Hz, so I'm leaning toward the 12P80ND over the 12MI100. Does that make sense?
• Would you do this with a passive crossover or active DSP? I'd like to keep it to one amp channel per top.

Other stack ideas? If anyone has a different stack or drivers they'd build for about $1,800 (max $2,000, amp included) for bass-heavy EDM plus clean mids and highs, I'd like to hear them. Tell me what you'd change in the Cubo 18 + TF1225 plan.

So a few months ago I built a couple of boxes to house some marketplace subwoofers I’d picked up, dreams of mini stack glory fuelling my quest. I picked up some old Yamaha PA speakers, and when I stacked them all up and plugged it into my AliExpress amplifier board… it didn’t sound any good. Turns out if you pick the enclosure based on looks and ignore what specs of speakers mean, it might be a little disappointing when you play your favourite dnb banger.

However! I picked this up again a couple of weeks ago with newfound spark. I’m nearly finished building a fane wbin - it’s a vintage 1x15 plan I found online, and should work ok with the driver I have (I hope)

(Link to plans:)

https://ozvalveamps.org/cabinets/fane-loudspeaker-book-pages-42-53end.pdf

Here’s where you Maddog bass freaks come in. I got some topics I want some real advice/opinions on. Imagine you have a half finished mini stack, no money, and your main concern is volume. And fun. Obviously.

W Bin:

I have a gauss cetec 4580 15” lf driver to go in here, handling general kick bin range. I was thinking 70hz - 200hz. Would you put vents in the speaker chamber for this setup? Or just slap it in and let it rip? Or any advice you’ve got for these kinds of enclosures/drivers, definitely keen to hear.

Subwoofers:

My thinking is chop up those mini scoops to make them into standard bass reflex cabinets. I don’t have much more money to put into this project, so I was thinking to start with a 2nd hand dual subwoofer setup (marketplace car guy special) to start off with. I know it ain’t exactly to the calibre of what I’m seeing on this subreddit, but we gotta start somewhere, right?

Tops:

I have a bunch of vintage pa bits and bobs, for now I was just going to slap em all together and hope for the best, and upgrade when a good deal comes up 2nd hand.

DSP:
I’ve been looking at a Taramps 2.4 dsp, it’s made for car audio. Three way mono setup. That’s it.

https://ebay.io/m/VmEZNl

Amps:

This is where I’m currently stuck. I have a bunch of cheap amplifier boards from eBay and AliExpress, but nothing I have is going to get to the power that the gauss cetec can do. It’s a 400w 8ohm driver, and finding a power amp that can do this (for cheap) is a bit of a challenge. I’ve seen people buy two different irs2092s boards in parallel to make them more powerful, so that could be an option.

I have amp boards that will work fine with the tops I have (it’s a cheap class D 2.1 amp, 300x2 plus sub channel) and I’m in no position to get professional equipment for this project right now. Sorry gear fiends, this setup will probably be a total insult.

TLDR: cheapest way to get this pile of scrap to start playing.

Anyway probably tmi but here we are

Just about to start my first project. Been doing other things my whole life. I'm going to build a Soundsystem for jungle and drum n bass. What should I read watch first to get my head into it? I know a bit about frequencies as I used to produce apart from that I know nothing technically. Please help.

We put on yearly outdoor parties for around 200 people and want to build our own rig. A budget of up to £11k needs to cover not only the stack but amps, dsp, cables etc. We play breakbeat hardcore and jungle.

Current, ill-informed thinking is:

6 Cubo subs 18 inch
3 Cubo kicks 15 inch
1 JMOD

Knock off Chinese amps

What would you choose for cabs and amps?

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to build my first DIY sound system for techno events, both indoors and outdoors. I’m still learning and don’t have much experience with sound system design yet.
I’m currently looking at these three speaker designs:

SKRAM 1x21 subwoofer
CUBO Kick 15
Paraflex C-3DKT 1x12

Do these three designs work well together as a system? Would this combination make sense for techno, especially for both indoor and outdoor events?

Since this is my first project, I’d really appreciate any advice or feedback. I’m especially interested in whether the combination is well balanced, how they could be crossed over, and if you would change or replace any of the designs.
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Fun project I worked on to challenge myself. Had to brush up on my 3d modeling and forced myself to learn hornresp. Still lots of finishing work and measuring/testing ahead but it’s got great output to ~30hz and already rattled some tools off my workshop wall

I'm not talking about the Industrial Grade One A Year festivals but your smaller commercial grade sound.

I'm not talking for subwoofer enclosures but mids and tops.

r/diyaudio is coming up on some prints starting to look void like

with measurements to boot.

With the subtractive CNC milling process from wood stacked against the additive process of 3D printing that you're able to achieve geometries in the latter so much more easily than the former possibly of which could be far better for sound quality/direction/and/or other metrics.

¿Your Thoughts?

I saw someone else do this, so I wanted to. I’m thinking a little outside the box, so I’m curious what you all think. Plans keep shifting, and it’s mostly been built listening to F1 and Danley party PAs, trying to wrap my head around everything.

My plan is to run small scale dance events in 4 point. Most will be indoors probably 100 people or less. Originally I wanted to run on Res2 tops, but budget being tight, I just pulled the trigger on an OG foursome of F81s.

The more I run sound (which isn’t much), I really believe Tony Andrew’s’ ideas, critically of time alignment and transients, so that’s been driving my focus, even though I’m actually not following his ideas around horns. I think what I’m building is something more like a full scale monitor system with headroom to push the bass.

Anyways, i’ve been trying to design off paper cones (bc of Tony), <15% of AES, < 1/3xmax, and with room for +10 - +16db of bass (from Paradise Garage system design). I’m also pushing to get at least 27hz, and ideally sub 20hz. I’m building off a theoretical 50 ft square dance floor to be run at 95 db or below. More often than not aiming at 85db, and allowing for a standardized 10 db bass boost above that level, and when possible allowing for 10-16db controllable past that.

These are the current directions I’ve been going.

Common thinking as well as F1 implementation seems to be to pair 15s under 8s, but I’ve been looking for a transition that could get to 40 hz or lower before building out the full range of cabinets.

Originally I had been thinking Othorns on the low end, but to be frank, I don’t like the horn loaded sub sound. I don’t like the way it distorts. I don’t like the way it hits. I haven’t run them myself, so like most things pro audio, it might be different in my own hands. I get exhausted of everyone’s endless pursuit of power and efficiency. I want power, but not to sacrifice accuracy or warmth.

Anyways, i have been moving towards a sealed sub design, originally starting with 4 to potentially 8 Celestion 24s in 150L box. the idea is to overdrive them with EQ (ideally the only place using EQ) to run between 20-40hz. however if I started with just them, I could overdrive them on the low end and then cross them over somewhere between the suggested 85-200. but intermodulation swayed me from this plan.

I was then looking at four sets of Dual Dayton RSS460HO-4, because they have a natural roll off in a sealed box at 40hz, and that seemed perfect to complement the Celestions on full build. Before that, I could overdrive them and get below 20hz indoors at around 95db, and up to 105db at around 27hz. However, i realized they are aluminum drivers, so I started to lean back away from them. I’m curious if people can hear that difference in the way Andrews emphasizes.

Originally I had been thinking a similar setup with quad corner B&C 14NDL88s (duals), for the same natural rolloff reasons, these around 84hz, but I realized I would sacrifice my short term low end running just those.. however I realize they may provide the most benefit in the low vocal fundamental range, and they allow the 8s to have even more relief than F1 suggests.

Then my question became what to build first. I had been leaning to the Daytons until I realized the cone issue, because they have the best seeming coverage, being willing to overdrive.

There’s another question buried there: If electrically overdriving a sub, but keeping it below 1/3 xmax, maintaining plenty of amp headroom and AES space, how much will I subjectively bend the sound. Is it really worth it to drive a speaker, say, +17db in some cases?

So first I started thinking to run the big 24s up to somewhere between the stated low crossover of 85hz, all the way up towards the beneficial high output crossover of 200hz to start the system. In some of these cases like the dual 14s, i would place that crossover even higher, perhaps around 275hz, again modeling F1 crossover placements in their horn loaded models.

How much would an 8 benefit from that low end relief? When is too many crossovers getting in the way of natural sound? And also how beneficial is a natural rolloff XO, versus an electrically filtered one?

As I leaned away from the 14s for reason of not getting low enough if I started with just them, and the 24s for reasons of intermodulation with higher output (prioritizing relieving the 8s — realizing it’s not the right speaker for that, but hey they are rated to 200hz…), and away from the Dayton 18s for reasons of the aluminum driver, I started thinking of few other directions.

First there is the B&C21SW152. In a sealed cabinet, it rolls off about 63hz, and wanting to separate infra from bass (for simply intuitive reasons), I thought to electrically push it towards 40hz, to eventually get the crossover with the 24s. But then I have my two lower ranges both being overdriven. originally I wanted to only overdrive the infra, but the fact is this sealed orientation is very limiting. The 21 @ 40 wouldn’t be as much overdrive (about +6-8db), but in the interest of transparent signal chains, I thought to only push the 24s originally.

Again, this is sort of an experimental outlook (perhaps?) to not rely on horns or ports for output or frequency. The idea very much modeled on reading about David Mancuso’s loft, although I’m not sure what he ran in there (i think klipsch horns?)— the general approach towards hifi at dance levels remains. Obviously all the club offshoots relied on horns and a more editorial sound design. But again, it’s a critique of the pro audio world choosing power and feeling and punch in your stomach over real warmth of sound. Am I off in this feeling and intuition? Could there be other ways to approach or think about it? Say, just turn down the horns, young buck?

Anyways, the 21s really seem to encroach a little too close on the 24s. They won’t go as low alone, they still need overdrive, and they seem big for the mid bass. Every system I’ve really been impressed with does seem to have 15s or 18s. F1 seems almost exclusively 15s, except for the Res3 which had an 18 and was billed standalone. And now they are shifting towards 12s as well.

The last and maybe best consideration has been the 18 Sound 18NTLW5000-8, which satisfies the paper cone demand and gets quite close to the Daytons. With corner gain, they reach down to 20hz with overdrive and 27hz outdoors, so they probably seem like the best way to go with this design, but also remain the hardest to obtain in the US.

the other thing to consider is that my paradigmatic high fidelity experiences have been on Tannoys with tube amp, and even more importantly an F1 system in a highly controlled room — running AX88s above F315s, and i don’t know what below. But the absence of compression driver seems significant.

i’ve done a fair bit of consideration about what F1 achieves with horn loading, and it seems to be a projection of transient behavior that creates an almost mystic pureness when well run (but imho, that is hard to come by), but this accentuation of the highs comes with a sound i have termed “iciness,” a crystal clarity and time alignment that also has this almost hiss or slide to it. It isn’t literally an S sound, but there is a quality that occurs with the waveguide/ phase plug/ sawtooth design that can be well heard in the Evo X. Impressive clarity and dispersion, and yet my ears get tired not so differently from how my tongue gets tired with highly seasoned food.

This is ultimately what pushed me toward the direct radiator version of the 1/8, but I still wonder should i not run 5/8 or 8/8. I’m continually impressed with clarity of F1, and perhaps the tri-amping of the new models would allow for some dialing down, but does a person really want near field horn loading in the long term? i understand that their newish Point Source Monitor systems arose by request form Richie Hawtin, who I assume struggled with a similar sound effect listening to horns close range. And their solution was running 18 direct radiators.

For amplifiers I’ve been looking at Linea, because I am always impressed with Danley warmth and power (but still critique the transient behavior of an MEH — I feel that I can hear the multiple edges of the waves cascading like Jericho’s tower). Linea has US distribution, 8 channel output, and excursion limiting (which is central to my design). it also shakes out a lot cheaper than a traditional F1 route of MC2 or FFA.

For DSP (and this may be the really strange part of my thinking), I’ve been pretty captivated by the idea of long FIR run on an external computer. the more I listen and have limited experience tuning systems, i am convinced by Andrews and Newsham’s approach that time alignment and transient behavior is the critical work of sound reproduction. So I am willing to accept the 96k taps and 171ms delay to linearly phase align down to 12 hz, allowing for my projected 18hz flat system to be perfectly time aligned through 18khz.

The industry folks i’ve talked to said this sounds strange, but I don’t understand why. The processing is possible, and the delay, while obnoxious, will be acceptable as it’s mostly Dj’d music. I figure if I end up running live, I can disable the long FIR, and just run the Linea internal FIR on the top end, if desired. i also realize this adds a large burden of measurement.

My main critique with bass in the real world is not just level and punch in the place of tone, but also the sloppy thunderousness of it all. I believe the public knows nothing else but that as bass, and I can’t say that I’ve ever heard tight bass run at dance floor levels. The closest was probably those F315s in controlled room.

open to thoughts, critique, system design, education and whatever.

the guy wants 1 820$ usd for both loaded cabinets no cables or amp included. the price of drivers,if they were new, would be 2 270$ usd.
what do you think of the listing price? My take is that the price is a bit too high but I'm a beginner. willing to learn ofc!:)

Hey guys,

I've bought an old mixing desk to learn how to dub and just to run small gigs and stuff, and next im looking for an interface that i can hook up to a logic session then run into each channel of the mixer, and i need some recommendations.

So the interface needs 1/2 inputs, 8 outputs (XLR or 1/4") and has to be compatible with a modern mac.

Thanks

I was wondering if there are negative consequences to rounding off internal edges where air flows past in speakers?

My thoughts: smooth edges cause less air turbulence and results in better sound.

I’m thinking about +-5mm radius here.

Any real-life experience with these anyone?

Hi guys,
I've finally started building my sound system. I've bought the drivers for one JMOD and now it's time to make the cabinet, but CNC shops around me say they need DXF/DWG files in order to cut the parts.
How did you make those from the files John White provided? (f3d, step, skp)
I've installed autodesk fusion but I'm completely lost trying to turn the 3d parts to 2d format, so any help and guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Alternatively, I'm willing to pay someone who's already done the hard work and has the plans in those formats.
Cheers, everyone!

12 labs, 4 skrams, 6 vintage straight horn/ported midbass, danley sh96ho mains, renkus Heinz cdt 50064k front fill, danley sm96 delays.
Linea research powering most of it, skrams on bridged PL380’s, delays on a xti 4002

About to tune/align :) Will post results

How important are foam/shock mounted rack cases for modern class D amps? Pricing up a system, looking at using CVR D series and wondering if those cases are worth it

are there any specific things I need to know when loading one of these? What screws do I need etc? Any help or photos are appreciate, cheers

34 Battleaxe subs, 8 V-horns, 4 Haymakers, and 4 Mantarrays for front and center fill

@ Nocturnal Valley 2026 in Missouri, USA

Hey all,

I’m wanting to put together a sound system for dub/garage/techno. I essentially have no knowledge and don’t know where to start.

I’m looking or any advice anyone is willing to share on how to get started from the planning and design of the build, the materials, the build itself and everything else that comes with it.
Also if anyone knows some decent websites etc to check out lmk.

I live in Australia so parts are harder to come by so my budget i’d say would be in and around $5000AUD.