Building Manifold for 1320 cu. ft. room.

[kingjamez]

Hi, I'm jumping in to the world of IB and need some advice. I have a small room dedicated to HT and music. It's 15'x11'x8', currently has 2 Exodus Audio Kit 2641 towers, that are the source of all of my bass (not too bad). It sits next to my single car garage in my townhome.

After reading the reviews of the Mach 5 18'', I bought a pair. My question is whether I should build my manifold to handle 2 or 4 of the M518's. I'm tempted to build it nice and tall to fit 4 between my 16'' studs, but I also wonder if that is silly for a room this small.

I want thundering bass, but I also live in a townhome, in addition even with the IB configuration, smaller is better according to my wife.

Any suggestions on 2 vs. 4?

-Jim

[Darren]

If you don't mind the larger hole, build it for 4 and block two off, much easier than rebuilding the manifold if you decide to upgrade.

[ThomasW]

IMO it's always best to error on the side of having too much instead of not enough....

So as Darren suggested, build a manifold large enough for 4, but start off with 2.

[jagman]

Just tell your wife that starting with the option of four will look much better than if you start with two but want to upgrade to four and didn't plan for it in the beginning. That and you'll buy her something pretty. When all else fails, use bribery .

[kingjamez]

Cool, then that's what I'll do.

Any opinions on how much SQ I'd lose by going to a 14.5''x22'' (4 18's in a square box behind the wall) VS a 14.5''x44'' (4 18's in a 2x2 configuration rectangle box) opening in my wall. The WAF on the former is much higher...

-Jim

[ThomasW]

kingjamez said:

Any opinions on how much SQ I'd lose by going to a 14.5''x22'' (4 18's in a square box behind the wall) VS a 14.5''x44''

This is impossible to quantify.