21″ Dayton Audio PSS555 Subwoofer
- This topic has 40 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 6 months ago by
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Is the Earthquake 21 build good for it?
I’ve done a few demos of the system as it’s stands, and it’s impressive, but everyone says the same thing: NEEDS MORE BASS!!!, and I agree… Plus it’s a great excuse to keep building lol
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Let me model it and get back to you.
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Sounds good!
I know DIY HyFy just did a ported build with one, but I want to stay simple with sealed… As I compared the parameters of the PSS555 to the driver you used in the Earthquakes, they’re actually pretty darn similar.
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@UnknownSpectre Pre room gain, the responses look almost identical. I would give it a go. In fact, they could actually use a little smaller box if you need it. It kind of makes me wonder why I didn’t use this driver. Great find!
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Sweet! Time to order drivers and purchase build plans!!!
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Drivers and build plans purchased
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Sweet! This is going to be epic!!!
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I’m sure it will be!
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Hi, I’d be interested in purchasing build plans for 18 & 22 inch subs. I’m basically looking for Marty’s. How can we go about it, could you design em for me please. Thanks
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I bought Toid’s build plan for the Earthquake subwoofer, and just doubled it.
In hindsight, I actually would recommend to make two single Earthquakes
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Still waiting on drivers, but I intended to go to a friends’ place today and cut the MDF for these… but, plans changed. We’ve rescheduled for next week.
I’ll keep everyone updated
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Yo! These things are MASSIVE!
For perspective, that’s the 10″ Eminence driver next to it 😳
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Questions…..
Would this driver be a good candidate for a monster ULF Sonosub? I know it’s one of the budget woofers that GSG offers for their kits… IF SO, is anyone interested in modeling it for me?
Also, I live VERY remote, so ordering in Sonotube, though possible, isn’t ideal. I would pay nearly twice the price of the tubes in shipping costs. So, what I’m thinking, is I could kerf a full sheet of MDF or baltic birch plywood to make ultra sturdy and massive tubes, and use PVC for the ports.
Is this a pipe (tube) dream, or would/could this work out well?
If feasible, I’d run them as the main subs, and move the 2x Ultimax 18’s to near field duty.
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<div>I’ve posted elsewhere on here and on FB, but just thought I should post something on this thread as well, to make it more searchable for anyone scouring the ol’ interwebs for information about the driver or builds for it.</div>
I did finally finish my Dayton PSS555 build, and ultimately decided to do a single cabinet dual driver build, to make it less of a hassle to wire the subs down to a 4 ohm load. I do not have measurement equipment, YET, but I can tell you they output SO MUCH bass with fairly little effort.
What made me think to come post here is that I had a friend come by last night and he wanted me to do a demo. I pulled out my Ready Player One Blu-ray, and played the scene for him… I could literally feel my beard moving with the bass hits! Not like a full-on car audio subwoofer “hair trick” but it was definitely moving my beard! And what should be a surprise to no one who is around any of the other home audio forums, I want MORE!!!
*That is a standard paper towel roll on top. for a size comparison
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Cue up Pink Floyd, Welcome To The Machine. Tell me what you think of the beginning with your subs. Inquiring minds want to know, 😁
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I’ll check it out when I get home from work tonight!
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I had a very similar experience the other day. A friend of mine came over to demo them and asked me about my bass shakers. i assured him it was just the subwoofers. He was shocked! He could not believe that mount of bass came out of those subwoofers without hearing the staring that is typically associated with it. He could feel it, hear the bass, but not the subwoofers. It was definitely an eye opening experience for him. He said, okay, now I get it.
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Yeah, it’s a very “different” kind of bass. You DEFINITELY hear and feel it, but I’ve noticed that I can’t localize it, which I thought would be a big issue actually. Also, the way you described it as “energy” or a feeling is very accurate. Though it can be violent if that’s what you’re after, it can also be very abundant but smooth I guess
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These look phenomenal..!!
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What are the dimensions of the box?? I want to build something similar.
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I’ll measure it for you in a few hours when I’m home from work
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Outside measurements are 24″x24″x46.5″
Basically I just stacked two Earthquakes, minus the top and bottom panels. I improvised on the bracing, and though I could have calculated the volume displacement, it was getting to be too much of a pain, so I didn’t. But, I’m sure it’s less than Nick put in the plans. To make up for the lessened bracing, I used brad nails and screws in construction, and I also used L-brackets to make the braces I did use extra sturdy. So what I lack in amount of bracing and structure, I made up with super strength (I hope)
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Thanks!!
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I should be able to take and post measurements/frequency response in a couple of weeks, as I’ve ordered a UMIK-1. In the meantime, I actually need to take out the drivers and put in some gasket tape, which I really don’t feel like doing lol
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I actually already bought earthquake 21 plants but never thought about doing a dual set up. But I want to do an acoustic transparent screen. I’m going to make it 17” deep instead of 24”. So it’s has to be taller maybe 58”-60” . Planing to run 2 dual 21”.
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It’s REALLY massive… Like, absolutely, impractically, and comically massive lol! I want 2 more 21″ subs, but I will definitely do singles next time. I’m pretty sure this dual is more than 400lbs
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Hi, did you happen to build your dual 21’s?
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Opinions on whether or not this would be a good enclosure for the PSS555?
Right now I have the 2 sealed Ultimax’s and the dual sealed 21’s, but am getting curious about maybe having some ported woofers.
https://josephcrowe.com/products/kraken-gold-subwoofer-plans-no-1237-for-dayton-audio-hts545he-4
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Is this considered to have 1 port or 4? When measuring it, do we measure each port individually or just measure one and add 6db for every port ?
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Looking at the expanded view in the plans, it appears to me to be a single port, and the vertical boards are there for bracing
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That’s very interesting, I would have guessed it was multiple ports… Do you have any explanation as to why the bracing doesn’t end up creating multiple ports ? I guess, how can we call it 1 when it was sectioned off by the bracing ? Because now I wont know when to say a rectangular port is just braced or if its multiple next to one another
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On the website it’s described as “Bass reflect (reflex?) slot port (24Hz Tuning)”…
But, after searching through some Devastator builds on AVS, it seems they are separate ports, as there is a thread with someone explaining the different tunings when plugging different numbers of ports
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Okay, I’m back with more brainstorming/ideas for these subwoofers… I should probably just slap them in some Earthquake enclosures and call it a day, for the sake of simplicity, but where’s the fun in that? Also, it would end my build journey more quickly, and I don’t really want that.
So in doing more and more research, I starting seeing things about LLT (Large, Low Tuned) subwoofer enclosures. I won’t try to sum it up in my own words… Here’s the link to the LENGTHY explanation https://www.hometheatershack.com/threads/llt-explained.1820/
Now, my question is… If the major drawback to LLT is the massive enclosure size required, wouldn’t going isobaric solve that issue? Would I not be able to half the enclosure size, keep the same tuning, and get the same LLT effect? The PSS555 is regularly able to be purchased for less than half the price of all other 21″s, which in my mind makes it an ideal candidate for isobaric builds, cost wise
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Yes, isobaric would halve the enclosure size for a single pair (two drivers coupled as one, just for those new to isobaric). When you do this, all basic parameters that are actually used to calculate box size stay the same, except for Vas. That gets divided by 2. Qts and Fs (or Fo) stay the same.
Here’s the cool thing – if you have the room for the “LLT”, put 2 pairs in the enclosure and you can then treat the calculations as if you are using a single driver with 4x’s the power handling.
If you were to do this, don’t blame me when your house gets listed on the USGS Earthquake Map as a recurring epicenter. 🤣🤣🤣
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@UnknownSpectre One thing to keep in mind, is that although the box size is smaller, the maximum SPL is lower. As an example, I modeled four 21″ subwoofers in one box. And one with dual pairs of 21″ in an isobaric configuration. As you can see the 4 normal sealed subwoofers can get up to 10dB more SPL versus the same amount in an Isobaric configuration.
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If size is the main limiter, we should compare by enclosure size right? It would look more like:
1x PSS555 in 300L
VS
2x PSS555 IsoPairs, each in 150L
***300L is a random number
There’s no doubts about which wins that.
Next if we look at size and price limitations… You could compare 1x NSW6021 ($1209.99) vs 2x PSS555 IsoPairs ($1099) in identical sized LLT enclosures. I’d still be that the PSS555’s win, especially when you also take into account room gain, corner loading the 2 IsoPairs.
Or, maybe my n00b brain is looking at this all wrong
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I don’t disagree with you at all.
Just to make sure we are all on the same page. 2 pairs ( 4 woofers) will be in the same size box as 1 woofer. 1 pair would be in half the box. So I did some calculations. It looks like 1 woofer would use somewhere around a 660L box, where 1 pair (2 woofers) is around 311L box. That would tune them to about 18Hz.
I might pitch the idea to PE about doing a build with two of them in an ISO LLT build. Mainly due to the fact you could wire it to a 4 ohm load. And I think there would be a lot of interest in something like that. Even if the box is still 11 cubic feet 😮
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This is awesome, because your interest means I’m not a complete bafoon 🤣
And really, 11ft³ is roughly the same outside dimensions as my dual 21s. It’s BIG, but not terribly offensively big… Though, I’m lucky to not having to worry about the dreaded “WAF”.
What does the graph look like at 18hz tuning? Is there a specific reason why you chose 18hz? It appears that the community has very clearly defined what “LLT” is with the following set of requirements:
– Tuning <=15hz
– Cylindrical port diameter >= 6” for 15″ drivers and >=8″ for 18″ drivers
– Port opening clearance equal to at least the port diameter in all directions
– First port resonance >=190hz
– No discrete high pass filter
– FR with a ~4db/octave rolloff between the tuning frequency and the lowest room node
– Minimal resonance enclosureI’m sure it would be a best of a build either way! I just think if someone took the time to define it, people will be sticklers about it… and I think we know how audio guys can get lol
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I am not sure about the rules. I have never heard of those rules. As a generality a LLT exactly what it says, a Large Box with Low Tuning. A generality, saying use x size port for x size driver scares me. GSG sells what they consider LLT’s and use a slot port, which is what I would recommend. Using even an 8 inch port it would need to be 48″ long with a First Port Resonance of 140 Hz. By contrast, the slot port has a first port resonance of 194Hz.
I choose 18hz, due to those particular drivers doing better at that tuning frequency. You could tune it to 15hz, but you lose about 2 db on the low end.
I would never recommend anyone not use a HP. But to each their own. You just really risk damaging the drivers. Heck not a good enough high pass is what has destroyed many peoples subs when they first watch the opening scene of Edge of Tomorrow. But I also will not tell anyone how to run their gear. As long as they understand the dangers, then the decision is up to them.
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Yeah, I was just quoting from the forum post I linked a few posts up. Regardless of name, specs or anything else, this seems like it’s going to be a helluva performer, and that’s what matters.
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Any word on this project?
I’m antsy, so I’m going to go ahead and build another Double Earthquake. Getting started on it tomorrow.
If this will still happen in the future, let me know so I can go ahead and start pre-ordering 4 more PSS555’s, that way I’ll have them on hand when the project launches. I just know either way, there will be 8x 21’s here. They’re so cheap, and by my calculations I think 8 is where we reach the point of diminishing returns in the cost/benefit analysis for adding more output
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