An Intresting Idea *Please Look*

[Razors Edge]

Alright, I was looking at progbuddiez cannon speaker idea or whatever. And It gave me an Idea.

Making a nice 5.2 Speaker system..... I heard its possible, But I was just wodnering how.

Basicley, Ill buy 3x 2.1 speaker systems. Now the Subwoofer. I can build a wooden frame to hole 2 subwoofers plus the electric panel. But how would I hook 2 up. Now I took a look at my creative subwoofer panel, and the subwoofer speaker is soldiered to a negative solder point and a positive soldier point. If I was to solder another speaker there, Would the panel provide enoguh power for 2 and would it work?

I can manage the rest.

As for that, If anyone has any information or sites that provide information on speakers, please let me know. Thanks!!

*edit* Sites that offer information on speaker WIRING more specificley.

[jdbnsn]

Rockford Fosgate has a really nice wiring wizard which will show you lots of different configs based on the ohms, granted it is based on RF subs but it should work for yours too.
http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/wiringwizard.asp

[Razors Edge]

Intresting. But I still have to figure out if 2 woofers will meet the voltage the soilder points put out.

[CanaBalistic]

If you wire it in parallel, you'll keep the same ohm's. The distribution of the watts will be spread equally but if the amplifier puts out a half decent amount of watts(more than 100 on the sub channel), it should sound really good. And btw, it would still be 5.1 since your not running a dedicated channel for the second sub. You could do what i did and run the audio through a home thearter reciver, asuming you have one.

[Omega]

Heh, i used to run a "4.2" setup that was really just 2 subs on the same cahnnel like you proposed.

I used a headphone jack splitter to do the job.

It ends up sounding really nice and REAL bass-heavy even with two mediocre subwoofers. It's good if you like bass (which I do, alot).

[Razors Edge]

Brings me to my next point. How would I go about wiring 5 speakers to a 2.2 system?

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

ummm......................... very carefuly??? :P

[jdbnsn]

Razors Edge-

Cana-B has a good point, you can wire as many subs as you like together and they will still be one channel. The .2 part would have to be accomplished by the recording software as two independent subwoofers which is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it would sound better as bass might be ruined by destructive interference.

[Razors Edge]

I don't literley want 2 basses on differnt channels, I just want to hear the MOST BASS POSSIBLE. Somthin about 'woofers that just gets my attension. As soon as my dad hands me the keys to his mustang Im ganna stick in liek a 2000 watt Woofer. Im upsessed.

Anyways, I THINK I know what Im doing. I took apart the 5 speakers I needed. I just got to buy a 2.1 system and wire the **** together. The coolest part about this I think, Would be my enclosures. Im ganna build my custom system a costom enclosure. Out of wood ofcourse, Ganna spray it blakc and add mesh. It'll be neat.

[jdbnsn]

Ah, I see. Well to tell you the truth I am kinda hooked on bass too. I used to have a 15" Velodyne powered sub for the home theater which I tried on the computer, it was good. Even better was my friend Craig who hooked his Klipsch 15" w/ passive radiator to his comp, real wall shaker. But the best I've heard to this day is the use of automotive subs for the computer. You have to be careful because the impedence is usually different but wow, my old neighbor's son took 4 10" subs (Rockford Fosgate's I think) and ran them through a Punch amp wired through an inverter. It was ridiculous, but to my suprise sounded excellent, perfectly clean and sharp bass and sounded better than our expensive home enclosures. You might want to look into this route.

[dgrmkrp]

... sorry to butt in.. but are you trying to put more speakers (drivers) on the sub output on your soundcard? or just pluggin stuff in? i see 2 scenarios:
1.)you can use lots of nice 2.1 systems, use the front and rear jacks.. and add a separate amp on the sub/center to output to a sub and center speaker cabinet(s).. this means you have control over the type of sound you make: party boom-boom or movie watching..
2.)take all your stuff out of their boxes(amps, speakers) and redo everything.. there is a nice thing you can do to get more from a small amp.. first.. look at the size of your speakers and their build type, buy pairs of them.. for instance.. if you use 2 speakers in parallel instead of one, you get more sound, at the expence of half the impedance... so, you use 2 speakers in parallel in series with 2 identical in parallel.. so, you get higher sensitivity and the same impedance.. this way, your amp will stay in normal working conditions. Works better with 8 identical speakers.. wire them in such a way the impedance stays the same, but the sensitivity goes up by +9db (double the sound at the same wattage)

so, if you wanna use the same amps you have.. buy lots more speakers.. then make nice towers for everything.. remember to match the outputs for all channels (gonna go expensive for subs...) :) have fun and google :)

[a.Bird]

I'll agree that you generally get more bang for your buck with automotive speakers. I went to bestbuy and picked up two 10" RF subs (P1) with an RF amp (300w 2ohm punch) AND an enclosure for two 10" woofers... all for $300. For another $100, I put two 5.25" Infinities in my doors. It's very yummy.

[Razors Edge]

Yeah, I have an automotice speaker, But I can figure out how to hook it up. Anyone got any guides?

[dgrmkrp]

just follow the same wiring convention for all speakers.. generally, it's red for plus... i mean red to red... black to black... this way, you keep them in phase...

[jdbnsn]

Well what my neighbor did was simply run the subs through an automotive amplifier which was powered by a power inverter plugged into 110V AC and converting it to 12V DC, he then had RCA cables run from his soundcard to the amp. Switch the amp to low pass and see how it sounds.

[progbuddy]

I have yet another idea (lol :p). Try "splitting" the sound by having some Y-shaped setup. Oh, and if you decide to get more speakers for this project, get ones with bigger heads for a better bass (I have two dual drive woofers w/ large diameter heads and each are 180 watts).

[Omega]

First off, please, spell better. Upsessesd is "Obsessed", Attension is "Attention", etc.

Bad spelling is a pet peeve of mine, and don't feed me this "go easy i'm 13" crap, 'cause I don't care.

Now that that's off my chest:

Just hook up two 2.1 systems to a single channel and there you go. That "Destructive interference" somebody mentioned is BS. If anything, the interference just amplifies the intensity of the bass, but to a reasonable level.


I used to have a 12" CF woofer, when I was at boarding school, but somebody took the woofer and electronics and left me with a big, heavy particleboard box. I wanna get another 12" woofer but this time go for Vinyl or Wood if I can.

[jdbnsn]

First off, please, spell better. Upsessesd is "Obsessed", Attension is "Attention", etc.

Bad spelling is a pet peeve of mine, and don't feed me this "go easy i'm 13" crap, 'cause I don't care.

Now that that's off my chest:

Just hook up two 2.1 systems to a single channel and there you go. That "Destructive interference" somebody mentioned is BS. If anything, the interference just amplifies the intensity of the bass, but to a reasonable level.


I used to have a 12" CF woofer, when I was at boarding school, but somebody took the woofer and electronics and left me with a big, heavy particleboard box. I wanna get another 12" woofer but this time go for Vinyl or Wood if I can.


Omega-
The destructive interference was only being considered is there were 2 subs with separate channels of independent recording. If they are both connected to the same channel then yes, D.I. would not have much affect (I have been told it still can if the subs are not equidistant, but I haven't been able to notice much). But if recorded with the theoretical X.2 discussed earlier where you have two subs playing different notes at diff frequencies, I'll bet it would have an effect. But I don't know for sure, just a consideration. Why do you think D.I. is BS?

[a.Bird]

You want to send the same mono channel to both subs for a clearer, heavier sound. Low freq noise isn't directional, thus stereo is pointless for bass and kicks drums. Each sub throwing at the exact same rate is what you want to shoot for in order to get the most out of your speakers. When you start dealing w/ an amplifier, there are even more ways to really crunch every pretty penny you've spent but this is really the most basic property of subwoofers.

[progbuddy]

I think a neat idea for this sound system would be to incorporate ELS surround sound. My mom's car has this feature (Acura TL), and it runs off DVD-Audio. I thought it was neat because instead of just wiring each speaker to two wires and blasting it all on the same channel, this type of surround sound produces crystal clear, multi-channel sound with some nice delay effects and audio adjustments built in.

[Omega]

Omega-
The destructive interference was only being considered is there were 2 subs with separate channels of independent recording. If they are both connected to the same channel then yes, D.I. would not have much affect (I have been told it still can if the subs are not equidistant, but I haven't been able to notice much). But if recorded with the theoretical X.2 discussed earlier where you have two subs playing different notes at diff frequencies, I'll bet it would have an effect. But I don't know for sure, just a consideration. Why do you think D.I. is BS?


Ah, i thought you meant two subs playing the SAME note.

Anywho, Two subs on two different channels playing two different notes won't nessacarily (sp?) create interferance at all unless you hit the natural frequency of something nearby, which a single sub can do by itself.

Now, even with two channels, I highly doubt you'll hit a reverbative frequency of something large with both subs at the same time, but if you do, yeah, that could be rather bad.

I think the only problem with two bass channels playing two different notes is that it'll probably sound like ****e when the two notes mix. Well, either ****e or a nice, low harmonic frequency. It depends.

EDIT: I just got to thinking about bass and how it's kind of cool, I mean, how many things do you know have high natural frequencies (aside from wine glasses, of course)?

For those who don't know what i'm talking about when i say "Natural Frequencies" or "Reverbative Frequencies" i am referring to the natural movement by an object, which is the rate that the object essentially moves back and forth naturally. As a result of this natural frequency, it affects the air (or water) around it, and if you can precisely match the major frequency of an object (Major frequency being the most important frequency in a harmonic set of frequencies) with a speaker or hydraulic/pneumatic actuator, then you can actually cause the object to reverberate.

When the object begins to reverberate along with the outside force, the two frequencies supplement each other, and in turn, amplifiy the, well, amplitude of the frequency that the object was at before.

To give an example:

If you have an object with a natural frequency of 5Hz then you either have a subwoofer or a hyrdaulic/pneumatic actuator near the object and operating at 5Hz, the two, in perfect timing, amplify each other exponentially.


It's a rather perplexing occourance.


This reverberation is also why playing bass-heavy music really loud might make the house shake a bit -- some of the frequencies from the subwoofer might be reverberating with the house -- but not long enough for anything really bad to happen.

[progbuddy]

Ah, i thought you meant two subs playing the SAME note.

Anywho, Two subs on two different channels playing two different notes won't nessacarily (sp?) create interferance at all unless you hit the natural frequency of something nearby, which a single sub can do by itself.

Now, even with two channels, I highly doubt you'll hit a reverbative frequency of something large with both subs at the same time, but if you do, yeah, that could be rather bad.

I think the only problem with two bass channels playing two different notes is that it'll probably sound like ****e when the two notes mix. Well, either ****e or a nice, low harmonic frequency. It depends.

EDIT: I just got to thinking about bass and how it's kind of cool, I mean, how many things do you know have high natural frequencies (aside from wine glasses, of course)?

For those who don't know what i'm talking about when i say "Natural Frequencies" or "Reverbative Frequencies" i am referring to the natural movement by an object, which is the rate that the object essentially moves back and forth naturally. As a result of this natural frequency, it affects the air (or water) around it, and if you can precisely match the major frequency of an object (Major frequency being the most important frequency in a harmonic set of frequencies) with a speaker or hydraulic/pneumatic actuator, then you can actually cause the object to reverberate.

When the object begins to reverberate along with the outside force, the two frequencies supplement each other, and in turn, amplifiy the, well, amplitude of the frequency that the object was at before.

To give an example:

If you have an object with a natural frequency of 5Hz then you either have a subwoofer or a hyrdaulic/pneumatic actuator near the object and operating at 5Hz, the two, in perfect timing, amplify each other exponentially.


It's a rather perplexing occourance.


This reverberation is also why playing bass-heavy music really loud might make the house shake a bit -- some of the frequencies from the subwoofer might be reverberating with the house -- but not long enough for anything really bad to happen.

lmao watch his house shake to the ground.

[Omega]

lmao watch his house shake to the ground.



Funny that you say that -- I just plugged my speakers back in and this song "These Colours Don't Run" by Iron Maiden has a bass line that reverberates on one of the off-frequencies of my house, but only slightly.