10" Dayton Budget Home Theater Subwoofer

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I built this sub for a friend who was looking for some better bass on the cheap. Movies were his only interest, so we chose a ported design. The project budget was about $100. That limited our driver and amp selections to only a few. We picked the Dayton 10" shielded DVC and the PE 70W plate amp. We chose the 10" over the 8" because of the higher sensitivity. On the flipside, to get the most out of this driver, a larger amp is really needed than the one we chose. The 70w PE amp that we chose runs out of steam pretty quickly, but he listens at very moderate levels, so I figured this combination would do the trick.

After plugging in a few numbers I began modeling in WinISD. The alignment we decided on was 2.58cu ft tuned to 25Hz which yields the transfer function below.

According to this simulation the F3 should be around 30Hz anechoic. Using a dual-flared port tube 3" in diameter required a length of about 9.25" to hit our target.

An impedance response plot of the driver installed in the box indicates that we came pretty close to our target tuning.

Overall I was very happy with the way this project turned out. Although it doesn't even come close to my Titanic MKII, it still produces some respectable bass for the $$. The Dayton shielded DVC drivers are a real bargain.

If you check out the pics below you'll notice I was going for a gloss black finish. It turned out ok I guess. I was hoping for a better result, but I have never been very good at painting so I wasn't really expecting it to turn out perfect. It was a lot of work though. Too much. Three coats of shellac to seal the MDF, two coats of primer, three coats of black lacquer, and finally three coats of a poly enamel on top. Lots of sanding and lots of steel wool. I don't think I'll try it again on a sub. Maybe a smaller set of bookshelf speakers...