First off I'd like to say hello. I found these forums last week and have been doing a lot of reading. Great stuff. Anyway, on to why I'm posting. I recently picked up an MB Quart DWE 254 (10" Discus DVC). Now the box I had for my previous 10 was one of the mass produced wedge style truck boxes. Being and older box, it won't fit the Quart (magnet, frame to deep).
But I digress...... My problem is this. Quart recommends a sealed box with a volume of 23L. Which is .81cuft. I plugged the thiele&small into WinISD and it says I .298cuft. Seems like a really big difference to me even though it's in 10ths. The WinISD numbers would be great given that I'd like to build a box to fit behind the console, and have yet to come up with a way with Quarts vol. as my goal.
Any ideas on how to approach this?
I looked at that driver, too. Downloaded the owners manual and entered the T/S parameters as given into WinISD Pro. This is a tough little subwoofer to work with. It looks to me like it would work better as a midbass driver. The parameters call for a vented enclosure, but it's absolutely impossible to build one for it...the port has to be huge, or the box has to be huge. So that's why the recommended sealed enclosure.
I don't see any way to get deep sub bass out of this driver. Looks like the best response would be gotten using a TINY enclosure, about 9.5 liters (0.335 ft^3) net...................but, that's why there had to be trade-off somewhere. You can't possibly build a box that small and fit the driver into it, unless the sides were angled or something.
My opinion, after looking at this, is for you to look at the space you have to work with and figure out where to fit the box. Normally with subs, it's the case where bigger is better...but with this Discus model it looks like the opposite. I just hope you like to listen to rock music, because at 80 Hz the curve is dropping fast.
Most likely, 23 liters ( plus subwoofer displacement) will be the best size to aim for. If your box has to be a little too big to fit the space, use solid wood filler to pack it out.
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Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.
Thanks for the info. For the moment I just cut a ring out of 3/4 mdf so I could temp mount into my current box. You are correct about the mid bass...the thing is punchy as hell. And that's just rigged in hehehe. While I do listen to rock, I tend more towards jazz....but occasionally I have that sick desire to make my eardrums throb. Guess I'll build to the space I have and either solid or poly fill until it sounds right. Seems like a strange method but it's all I've got.
The upside is the sub was clearenced for $50 So if I end up not likeing it no big loss.