Charlie's Subs



In Charlie's own words:

"The bass drivers are in a vented box - the vent is a slot that is pointing down from the protruding box. It is narrow and long enough that it should easily defend itself from things like preschooler french fry attacks.

Again - not pretending to be an interior decorator or anything.....

I threw in several duplicates - take your pick.

Charlie"

If you want to see the full-size pictures, click on the images below.

     



Charlie's Comments About His System: From the In-wall subs? thread at the Outlaw Saloon

When I built my house I made provision for in wall speakers, including subwoofers. It seems to work fine.



I can't say for sure, but it seems like I get some really low frequency stuff transmitted via the house frame - the furniture vibrates sometimes. Depending on how well coupled to the floor boards it is the effect is anything from subtle to obvious.



There are several ways to do it. You can use 2x8 construction in the walls that get subs or use the attic space. I went with 2x6 on several interior walls and the 20"x72" boxes stick out a few inches into the room. In combination with the plant shelves and other 'decorative' stuff it blends in OK.



(in response to question "So you can't just buy the sub-woofere kit and flush mount it to the wall? You need more room than a 2X4 gives you? What about placement. Can the sub go in the wall behind the couch? Thanks ")

As for wall depth, you could go with many smaller (maybe 8" - 10") drivers in a shallow wall, but the 15" drivers I used were 6.75" deep. Add rear box wall thickness and you'll need 2x8 construction to hide it.



One thing I'm not happy about and didn't foresee - the rooms behind the back theater wall can't have any type of CRT (computer monitors, for example) against that wall, due to the insane magnetic flux generated by a row of 90oz magnets. I think that whole wall would stick to a 'fridge.



Actually the speakers with 5 drivers are full range speakers, the 3 solo woofers are for LFE.

I've built quite a few speakers over the years, but this was my first foray into X.1 land. I read the documentation that I could find and since the 5,6,7 channels are 'full range, full power' I built the system with that in mind.

It turns out that while it is true, I've yet to see any program material (software?) that really drives much volume or bass to the surrounds.

But it does sound pretty good.

If I ever redo it I'll distribute resources differently, but this works.



Basicly center is the only 'small' speaker. L,R,RS,CS and LS are 'large' with the bass chores handled by the 15" driver that is physically within the same box.

The remaining 3 woofers are LFE. I toyed with the idea of tying center to one of the LFE drivers electrically, but I think this works better.


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