Trying to build dipole sub - a la Celestion 6000

Wow,

Thanks a bunch for all the tips.

I was looking into direct drive woofers to deal with potential ringing problem of the drivers.

I have the behringer dcx2496 serving as the active cross over in my setup. So it can do some degree of DSP and filtering if need be.

I currently have more great amps than I should. I'm using my mccormack DNA 500 for bi-amp for my bass currently. I also have another pair of VTL 450MB and nuforce amp on standby as well. My primary amp is a pair of Ampzilla 2000 MKII driving my electrostats right now.

I probably will go with with a crown or peavey in the long run and sell the other amps if this sub arrangement works out.

I don't know if any of you has seen/heard the Celestion 6000 bass system. It is configure with the woofers firing directly into each other with only about 6 inch gap. Haven't figure out how all that works, but what comes out is clean tight bass that can really rock a room. My friend drives his system with just a old Krell 100 watt KSA amp; and that 100 W was more than enough totally roch his music room. Although the 100w krell can be deceiving as it can pump linear amount of juice as impedance goes down; all the way down to 1 ohm.

Does anyone know of a design for dipole sub where the woofers fire into each other like the celestion?

NgJockey,

Interesting point you raise there...

I am amazed at the results the Celstion 6000 subs have been able to produce.

I'll have to look into the links provided above to research this better.

Drew,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Linkwitz Orion.

I like the effects I heard with the Celestion but I'm not confident I can reproduce the same results by just mocking up the design. I rather play it safe and go with a tested design.

I can't tell how significant it is the Celestion Subs have their drivers facing each outer is. I don't know how much of a factor it is in creating that dramatic mid-bass cleanness and punch. I figure I should be able to replicate the punch if I also use 4x12" drivers and perhaps use one of the designs that don't have them firing at opposing ends.

The physics of having drivers firing directly at each other seems complicated to me. Whether they will cancel, reinforce or interfere with frequency output. I can't tell if the gap distance in that configuration matters. I guess, I can experiment by building a rig to have two woofers facing each other and play various tunes through it as I manipulate the gap separation.

My room is only 22'x24'x8' and it is pretty well damped as it's right next to my master bedroom and I had to insulated well to allow my wife to sleep during my late listening sessions. But I can't imagine having 24 15" bass drivers firing off in my music room. No amount of sound insulation is going to hold that back :-)

I think I looking for more dynamic impact and fullness in the sound than just deep seismic bass. I'm a jazz/pop/light rock kinda guy, so I'm not a total bass freak.

The Sanders Sound panels covers a wide freq range pretty well on it's own. It covers 173hz-> over 20Khz. So I'm really just looking for the bass rig to cover 20hz->173. I would like to find dipole drivers that can serve this range well and I am concern about the ringing of the woofers as it will be box-less design. It will have to be something that provides servo/braking to keep the bass notes true.

DanielK141

thanks for the heads up on the offer on ebay.

The price on that listing is already >$500 and $250+ on shipping. So I'll keep an eye out on that as long as it doesn't get too expensive. I will make a bid on it.