Truck Tuba by a Teenager

[88h88]

...my dual TT will become the mini party sub...

Mini in the same terms as this piece of shit is mini?

[bassmonster]

Well, I finished it up today, installed the driver and terminals etc. And the new SD300 amp came in. Yes, I'm overpowering it, but maybe I'll drop in a nicer driver later...

This thing hits hard. My roommate is confirmed to hate me. This thing makes everything on my desk vibrate and apparently the people living upstairs too. It definitely doesn't go as low as my dual TT, but it's good enough for most music. I just need to put some paint on it.

[bassmonster]

Well, after a little bit of abuse today, I must say I'm kind of disappointed in the MCM. This thing reached its excursion limits a lot faster than I expected it to. At least the chuffing was audible and it didn't just blow out, but I think I'll eventually replace it with a GTO804 or Infinity 860w. Of course, after no more than 30 seconds of pushing it to the limit, people came in from other rooms and told me "WAY TOO LOUD!"

[Tom Smit]

Oooooooh, you been spoiled! That TT is a lot more than most. Your TrT is probably just right considering the others telling it was too loud.

[bassmonster]

Honestly it's way more than enough for a dorm room. You can't get past 5v before people come and tell you to turn it down, so really I would have been fine recycling that old amp, but . I know that this TrT will eventually make its way into my car, and it'll be perfect for that. It's obvious that it will greatly benefit from the cabin gain of a car, but the dorm room is so small I'm probably getting some of that gain anyway.

The MCM has 8mm xmax, the GTO804 has 11mm, and the Infinity 860W has a full 13mm, so there's that. The Infinity will be my choice of driver from now on. Plus, it's only $15 more than the MCM.


More pics to come. I still have a sheet of 1/2" MDF laying around...hmm...

I would like to note that this has been the easiest build I've done to date. I have about 5 hours total into it, and I cut everything freehand with a circular saw. Not having to use hurricane nuts makes mounting the driver so much easier, and having 7" wide internals means I didn't need bracing other than the driver baffle.

[jimbo7]

Infinity 860w............hmmmmm? Why didn't I get that for my AT instead? The mounting depth looks huge but it spec's only an inch taller. Are my eye deceiving me?

[caddylackn]

The infinity 860w fits and with the higher sensitivity and higher wattage rating than the MCM, it goes louder. There is a rubber sleeve over the infinity woofers magnet that is removable. It makes the magnet look much larger than it is and adds a 1/2" of mounting depth. The 860w will fit with the magnet cover on. The infinity 1060w is another story, it will not fit the AT but it will fit the TAT if the rubber sleeve is off. I am going to do a side by side comparison of my AT with the 860 and my TAT with the 1060 and post a review shortly.

The infinity 860w is not a bad driver. I started my first BFM build with my old 860w driver that was in a ported box in the back of my wagon for five years and put it in the AT. Like a night and day difference. It went from sounding like a $50 8-inch entry level sub to a $250 12" sub for the price of a set of plans, a sheet of ply, and a tube of PL. The quality control of infinity subs has gone down a little I noticed by looking at amazon reviews, so I would buy it through Amazon to get the best warranty and price.

[bassmonster]

Mounting depth isn't really an issue with the TrT. You can fit any depth driver if you build the cabinet wide enough. Sensitivity of the driver doesn't matter when it's in a horn box, it's the box not the driver. The thing that kills the MCM is its 8mm xmax, which really hurts the low end volume capability even when I'm within the intended passband of the cabinet.

The MCM isn't exactly the pinnacle of quality either. Mine had a little piece of solder wallowing around in the pole vent.

[jimbo7]

The MCM isn't exactly the pinnacle of quality either.

But you can't beat it for the price (and Bill told me it'll work). I bought a 2nd and I'm in the process of build another identical AT. I just wish I knew about the Infinity sooner.

[bassmonster]

More progress pics I forgot to upload earlier:

Before attaching the final side:




Final side attached:





I brought it home over fall break to finish it and give it my typical paint job. Black Duratex on the outside, red latex inside the horn mouth. My garage was very messy because I'm currently doing an engine swap on my car in the background.

[SimonD]

Hi Bassmonster
Looking very nice, I was thinking of doing the same colour scheme on my speakers, you've sold me on the idea
Cheers Simon

[bassmonster]

Thanks, I tried it with my dual TT and decided to stick with it as a theme. The red paint is color code "Barn Door Red". It looks even better when the mouth braces are painted black also, but this width TrT does not require mouth braces.

[bcdaffin]

I feel you on the college kid budget. I've got dual TT in my dorm, which is luckily big enough to fit the beast. But it's made of MDF.... was a pain to get up 4 flights of stairs. But oh so worth it. Luckily I live on my fraternity hall (we don't have greek houses on my campus) so people rarely complain about the noise. If you need a cheap light show, you can use this to rig some christmas lights to flash along with the bass. Cheapest dorm light show I can think of.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To- ... The-Music/

[bassmonster]

I have LED strips around my bed, so that's covered. I'll bring the dual TT down when I move into the frat house sometime next year. My current dorm room would fit the dual TT, but I can't use the TrT to its full potential here, so there would be no point.

[bassmonster]

Well I brought the TrT back to my house to work on it over Christmas break, and I just had to drag it up to my room and play it alongside the TT. It smoothed out room modes a bit and absolutely pounded, even if the differences might have caused cancellations. IIRC Bill said the designs were similar enough that they could be played in unison without that problem?