Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater crazy idea, need some input

ha, ha! No, Eric, I have the cocktail shaker welded to a custom butt-shaker driven by the subwoofer output. . .

Cheers,

Alan

This is all very informative. I think the direction I may take is to build the dual enclosure as if it could be a functional surface and incorporate as much vibration dampening as possible. And then if it is not at the level required, it becomes a girlfriend-friendly countertop... with wall mounted center channel and TV above.

Priority will be to err on the side of caution, and not destroy my electronics. Like the thread says: crazy idea! haha. At the moment, child safety is a lesser concern... although dog safety is also high on the list.

Still welcoming input, the more the merrier.

- Sam

I have sort of a similar situation developing, but not exactly. In my livingroom I built a small room (6 1/2 feet wide by 3 foot deep) to house all of my DVD's, CD's and loose wire. My 65 inch TV hangs on the outer wall, and all my electronics (reciever, DVD player, dual computers, etc...) are built into a cabinet over the TV. At the very bottom of the 'closet' is a rectangular cut-out where the EP800 will sit. The subwoofer will be inside the room facing out. It will not be attatched to the walls at all, but I am very curious as to how much vibration it's going to create. The walls are very sturdy, so I'm not worried at all about the thing falling apart or anything like that, but I do wonder if I'm going to be constantly picking up movies off the floor everytime I turn the music on. I also wonder if the vibrations will effect the TV at all? It weighs a good 120 pounds, so it's fairly solid, but the power of the 800 may just prove a bit inconvenient at times... we'll see.

I'm already plannning on having to reinforce parts of the wall once I get the EP800 in there and working it's magic. It will be a learning curve I'm sure. But what would life be without trial and error fun times such as these???

I take my martini igredients to the hardware store and ask them to put them in a paint can shaker.

I think they likely will but I don’t think proximity to the EP800 will be as important as volume as long as there isn’t any direct contact. When I first set up my EP500 I misread the instructions and set the volume to high. The second the test tone started playing windows, dishes and something inside of my DLP sitting across the room started rattling.

Lol, yes those rascally subwoofers do tend to 'shake things up' around the house don't they. At my old house where my HT was in my basement, whenever I'd play a movie or some music it was absolute chaos upstairs! And this was with a single 15 inch 210 watt downfiring Cerwin Vega subwoofer running things. It was positioned directly behind the couch, and sitting 3 feet away from it the bass output seemed very level and integrated into the system. However the basement seemed to act like an amplifier, and upstairs it sounded like I had crazy levels of bass cranked up to MAX XXX!!! The dishes, pictures, silverware... anything that wasn't nailed down upstairs would rattle and shake like there was a level 8 earthquake going on.

I'm sort of curious as to whether or not having the EP800 sitting inside of this closet will create the same amplification effect? After all this monster uses dual 12 inch woofers and an 800 watt amplifier to move them. But I'm thinking the sealed nature of the EP800 will cut down on this some. Otherwise, I may have to turn it down to zero!!!

Alright, now I have some questions.

Essentially, Rythmik is out of dual DS1200 drivers (their metal 12" woofers) and only has the GR 12" paper cone dual drivers. Admittedly, I know very little about the more intricate differences between the two cone types. I do realize that the GR drivers extend higher better, and require less power to drive due to their lesser weight.

However, most of the music I listen to is not bass heavy. The films I watch are generally very very bass heavy. Will I be loosing kick in the HT scenario by going with the GR's?

On the music side, I actually like that the GR's extend higher, it should really fill out the low end of the music I listen too. Hell, there may even be significant bass in it, I just never would have noticed before, lol.

What have your experiences been with paper vs metal drivers, specific to subs? Any input would be great.

Oh yeah, the other thing I like about the GR's are that they are a lot cheaper and can run off the smaller amp equally well to the DS12's.

- Sam

Have you considered any other drivers? There are some very very good drivers out there. Creative Sound Solutions makes a very linear 15".

You might want to check out Home Theater Shack's DIY Subwoofer forums.

Elemental Designs also sells some very good drivers.

I'm not gonna lie, I very much like the idea of the servo technology. Especially due to the somewhat restricted size/space issues this DIY project will entail. I am also limiting myself to 12" drivers for the same reason.

That said, since this has already become more complicated than I had hoped, I am all ears to other driver's as well. I'll take a look at the ones suggested above.

Of course, by the time I decide on a final design, this could very well be a single 18" woofer design, haha.