Sunfire Junior sub still inspiring designers

[Bean 384]

Thought you guys here might appreciate this...

There is a company called Stereo Integrity that is coming out with a new 11" sub.  My comment when I saw it was that it looked REMARKABLY similar to Bob's old designs of a long throw woofer with LOTS of power capability.

Here is what the owner just commented on this same thread:

_______________________________________________________________________________________

The 11" woofer came about because of a need of mine. I had plans to put an HS 24" at the end of my master bedroom closet and fire it through the wall into the bedroom, etc. But then my 2 year old son loved my sister and her husband's theater room so much that I decided to turn an un-used bedroom into the media/movie room instead. That room is a pretty small room measuring a little under 12'x12' with an 8' ceiling. When you actually sit in the room with a decent sized couch of love seat there isn't much room for anything else. I was planning on putting a DO 18" box in the room but that wasn't happening nor was a DO 15" box.

 

Then I was reminded of a long ago favorite sub of mine when I was younger and that was the Sunfire Jr subwoofers. They had their downfalls (not a very lienar motor and the PR helped the enclosure dance around the room, etc) but it was a fun small box subwoofer solution. Fast forward to today and power is very affordable so a small driver can be rather inefficient to get the bottom end out of it. But the driver must be robust enough to handle the power. I thought "why not take the HS 24" motor and use Sundown's 11" (they still call it a 10" but there is nothing 10" about it even measurement-wise) frame and cone/surround as that is the only frame/cone/surround that will handle the 5" p-p throw the HS 24 motor is capable of?

 

A driver in a small/tiny sealed cabinet needs one major ingredient to play low - mass. You can not have a sensitive woofer in a very small sealed cabinet play really low. Case in point is a document by Dan Wiggins that I have hosted on my server for many years now. Click this text to read the document. Only after completely reading that doucument proceed to the remainder of this reply. :bigsmile:

 

So how was I going to get really good LFE out of a tiny package so I could have full bass in my small 12x12 room? I modified the suspension, coil, and mass on the driver and produced an 11" woofer in a 0.4 ft^3 sealed enclosure that would play as low as an HT 18" plays in a 6 ft^3 sealed enclosure. The F3 of the HST 11" in a 0.4 ft^3 sealed box is a spot-on 30 Hz. Same with the HT 18 in 6 ft^3 sealed. 

 

As I said above, power is very affordable these days. IIRC you can grab an iNuke 6000 DSP for under $400 shipped. That amplifier will provide enough power for two HST 11's and have EQ to boot if you need/want it. After measuring my room the 12"x12"x12" cubes are going to take up an average amount of space. Thank goodness I didn't go the DO 15" or DO 18" route of I would have been sitting a few inches away from the screen after the enclosure was installed.

 

Will this HST 11" keep up with an HT 18, HST 18, HS 24? Absolutely not! But it will provide a serious amount of LFE in a small room in a very tiny enclosure and very small footprint.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

 

[fill35U 1,848]

Cool news, Dan! 

 

The thread on AVSforum is HERE .

 

That driver looks like it's all surround! 70 lbs, $389 each. Mms is 626g! 

 

It would make things *very" interesting if SI started offering compatible passive radiators... 

[Bean 384]

 

 

Cool news, Dan!

The thread on AVSforum is HERE .

That driver looks like it's all surround! 70 lbs, $389 each. Mms is 626g!

It would make things *very" interesting if SI started offering compatible passive radiators...

 

Your already on my wavelength...

 

 

Or maybe we try to marry the two.....

 

[fill35U 1,848]

It would make things *very" interesting if SI started offering compatible passive radiators... 

Your already on my wavelength...Or maybe we try to marry the two.....

 

Come to think of it, an Earthquake SLAPS ought to be compatible:

 

SLAPS passive radiators from Earthquake Sound 

 

10" and 12", so they'll fit the box. And 4" of peak-peak excursion! Designed to be easily tunable, and affordable, too.