352 replies to this topic

[20Hurtz]

Let me begin by saying that if you have never built a box before, then you should really consider getting some experience under your belt before giving Decware's 'Wicked One' a go. The design is complex as it calls for very very precise cuts, angle cutting, huge patience and forethought.

The results however are extremely rewarding

What you will need -

Consumables:

- 2.4m * 1.2m of 18mm MDF ($63)
- 2 Tubes of liquid nails ($
- 100 36mm to 45mm chipboard screws ($7)
- 10 Hours of your precious Saturday
- Speaker Wire ($5)
- Two 10" Subwoofers (sony penatagons in this case $75 each)

Non Consumables:

- Two saw horses
- Jigsaw (that allows you to adjust the angle of the cut)
- Table Saw
- Pencil
- Tape measure
- L ruler
- Drill with assorted bits

SAFETY GEAR IS A MUST.

When cutting mdf, both GOGGLES and A GOOD FACE MASK/RESPIRATOR are CRITICAL for your health and saftey.

Link to the Decware Plans

The woofer is a Sony XS-L101P5 350wrms 4 ohm single VC - any pair of 10" subs will do really. The box can be made to sound better for particular subs by playing with the volume in the sealed section.
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Now that we've read the plans and have all our equipment, let's get to it.

First step is to follow the instuction in the Decware link, it goes through a step by step guide as to where to draw the lines for your horn, which will be where the mdf walls go later on. You end up with this:
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My first thought when I did this was: "Bloody brilliant, that really narrows down where the walls are supposed to go." Took a bit to work out (the intraweb is your friend).

To make it easier for you, Voila.
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And to make it easier later on (read when it comes to screwing the top on) I suggest you lay your top board on top of your bottom and transpose, AS ACCURATELY AS POSSIBLE, the lines where the walls are going to go - this may take 10 minutes extra here but it will save you a good hour when it comes to screwing the top down!
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Now we know where to put all our walls, let's get building.
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Be careful to make sure that the walls are at an exact 90 degree angle as this will impact upon the sound of the box. If they are not at 90 degrees it will have completely defeated the purpose of the lines you've transposed onto the top of the box.

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I decided to use fibreglass for more strength throughout the structure, this is however not of fundamental importance.

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When using higher excursion woofers (woofers that will move more air) I would suggest angle cutting (or flaring) the horn opening to get rid of any unwanted noise (ie chuffing) that may occur.

The design highly recommends using a double baffle.

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Sides and Back on

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Note to self: Put the wires onto the terminals before you put the sides and back on, as on one of the woofers the terminals are on the bottom, so I had to use a mirror and stuff around to get the wire into the terminals.

 DSCF0417.JPG   86.97K   66 downloads

Want some music while you're installing? Just rig up a battery charger, battery, amp, iPod and you're laughing. Haha, this was more to break in the woofers a bit........ actually I'm not really sure why I did it, it is by no means necessary.

 DSCF0418.JPG   79.71K   89 downloads

Now note the strips of 3mm closed cell foam cut up into strips that have been in the last couple of pictures.

These are to seal the top of the box.

The single design flaw of this box is that if you screw and glue the top then you are unable to access your woofers - they could die and you would have to rip your box up to replace them!

The closed cell foam acts as a gasket and also allows for small variations in height differences between the walls. If you have large variations, about 2-3mm, then I suggest using a thicker closed cell foam or even better sand them so that they are all as close as possible to one another.

Apply contact adhesive to the top of the walls and stick on the closed cell foam, I used a dynamat roller to get any air bubbles out.

 DSCF0419.JPG   79.73K   101 downloads

Screw the lid on and put it in your car. Damn I hope you measured up your car before you started building the box . I did a quick eye measure, which I don't recommend, but I figured that if it didn't fit I could still use it for home theatre or something.

 DSCF0420.JPG   82.78K   157 downloads

Wire it to your amp and away you go, enjoy I know that I have so far!

Complete listening evaluation to follow but for now just let me say the SQ and SPL are brilliant - for cheap, crap subs this box makes them sound absolutely incredible. So far in terms of SQ I would put it on par if not slightly better than my DD9115c and Alpine Type X. It gets very low, is extremely accurate as well as quick, true to the recording and loud!

Cheers,

Lindsay.

Edited by 20Hurtz, 20 December 2006 - 07:38 PM.

[trism]

awesome....makes me wanna tackle one of these now....

what kind of power were they running off???

[Pulse-R]

I have had reasonably good results from my Wicked1, running a couple of pioneer woofers.

very smooth, tight bass.
I should really reduce the rear volume to preserve the woofers - but it would raise the tuning too far above the car's resonance.

I get up to 139dB from 500W or 141dB from 800W.(approx) at 46Hz

shakes the house quite well on 150WRMS too.

[20Hurtz]

blackices old jbl amp. BPx1.2200 i think is the model number, anyway i have ~2.5kw on tap, the power handling of the woofers however is pretty much the same as if they were in a sealed box, but because the horn design is so efficeint they Wang!

[trism]

im tempted to play..

that design is for any 10" driver yes???

[Pulse-R]

also, you should add the internal braces in the sealed section, they really help the rigidity of the mouth under high SPL loads

[20Hurtz]

Quote

im tempted to play..

that design is for any 10" driver yes???

Well get off your bum! seriously trism i was skeptical but to put it bluntly it is more than worth the effort. I can only imagine how good two high quality 10's would sound, fortunately i'm hoping to have some Brahma's on the way very shortly

Quote

also, you should add the internal braces in the sealed section, they really help the rigidity of the mouth under high SPL loads

Something that I completley overlooked! Thanks for that simon. The fibreglass should help in this respect but the bracing you mention wasn't in the design that i acessed.

All that atempt this should use the bracing pulse-r has highlited.

Simon feel free to post up pics of your box build if you have them

Same for all that atempt this design your pictures are more than welcome.

Cheers

Lindsay

[trism]

i think ill do it, but for HT use..

maybe with a couple DD 1010s, or something totally different......

[Alex (rbimdxe)]

excellent. my mate is looking at a system for when he gets his car. i have to convince him to build this. mmm, i want to build that monster!

[Pulse-R]

a good woofer for this is the focal 25A1 - good entry level 10" and doesn't mind a big box.



I have bought a couple of Peerless XXLS woofers to put in once the pioneers die, they seem to be ok for low frequencies, and quite inexpensive. I modeled this using bass box and hornresp (google it). both say nice and smooth



I don't have build pics, as I bought the box semi-completed from a member here.
I put the braces in myself, and rounded the edges of the horn throat (skinny part where the slot is narrowest) to reduce turbulence. The bracing and the rounding gave me an extra .5 dB or so, and much nicer sound.

Edited by Pulse-R, 20 December 2006 - 11:24 PM.

[Max_Power]

That thing looks pretty spesh, great tute 20Hurtz.

I wonder what makes this design so remarkeably efficient? I'm guessing the only drawbacks are the size, weight and ugly??

20Hurtz, you didn't happen to weigh the complete box (with subs in) did you?

[MetalPhreak]

Nice work I'd try one of these except I dont want to use my whole boot and i've got 12" subs

"- 2.4m * 1.2m of 18mm MDF ($63)"

Where did you buy that from? I just got a sheet of that for $29 from bunnings plus $1 for the cuts so i could fit it into my boot Maybe its cheaper in WA than elsewhere? I did get quoted $50 from a wood only supplier here though...

[20Hurtz]

Quote

I put the braces in myself, and rounded the edges of the horn throat (skinny part where the slot is narrowest) to reduce turbulence. The bracing and the rounding gave me an extra .5 dB or so, and much nicer sound.

well the good thing about the closed cell is i can still add the bracing, but it will probably be impossible to flare the start of the horn. From the start this was going to be a quick job, doing it very properly would probably take ~15hours. When i get some higher quality woofers (still can't decide wether to go dd1008's or go the full hog and get 10" brahma's) i will build the box perfectly. It is noticable in the pics that i got bloody sick of angle cutting so just used a sh!t load of liquid nails haha. Ok for a quick job but i can see myself upgrading and building a proper box in the near future.

Quote

I wonder what makes this design so remarkeably efficient? I'm guessing the only drawbacks are the size, weight and ugly??

20Hurtz, you didn't happen to weigh the complete box (with subs in) did you?

Horns are efficient.

They allow the sub to couple better with the air, this increases the efficiency.

Size yes, Weight yes but you could pimp it prett easily and make it look schmik, bit of carpet and paint in the horn mouth should make it look ok.

sorry mate didn't weigh it, i could carry i by myself but i needed the old boys help to get it into the car.

Quote

i've got 12" subs

it can be done, people on the decware support forum have scaled it for up to 18" sub use.

Quote

"- 2.4m * 1.2m of 18mm MDF ($63)"

Where did you buy that from? I just got a sheet of that for $29 from bunnings plus $1 for the cuts so i could fit it into my boot Maybe its cheaper in WA than elsewhere? I did get quoted $50 from a wood only supplier here though...

yeh i htink my bunnings is just a rip off as that is where i got mine from. I would love to be abel to score mdf for $29!

[Gonadman2]

Hmm I just happen to have a couple of Focal 27V2's sitting in 30L box's in my HT...

[josh87]

how would this design be if you did a tad bigger and put 2x 12's in it, would it work?