Hi all.
A bit of a brain dump incoming, so bear with me...
I've decided to embark on the DIY subwoofer journey and need some help getting started. I've pored over countless forum / reddit posts and looked at countless designs, and honestly...its a bit overwhelming. That urge to maximize every possible variable is dangerously alluring but also quite unrealistic for someone making their first DIY speaker i.e. me. I've been running things through Claude, but I'm not hugely trusting of what it spits out. It sounds good to my amateur understanding, but I'm reluctant to rely on it, which is why I'm here.
For the sake of simplicity, I will build a sealed box, which I want to fulfill both music listening and movie requirements; a general purpose sub (if there is such a thing). My space is 3.6m x 4.8m. I've gotten myself WinISD, but understand that I need to select a driver before the software can help me spec an enclosure. I'm thinking a 12" driver should be sufficient given my space and requirements - the exact species of which I'm needing help with. I'll be running the sub with Elac DB63 speakers and a Wiim Amp Ultra.
Living in New Zealand, there are next to no retailers servicing the DIY space and importing weighty and delicate audio components would be prohibitively expensive and risky. The local options that I've so far found are the following:
1.) SB Audience NERO-12MWN700D from https://buzzaudio.co.nz/
2.) Eminence LAB12 from https://www.livesound.co.nz/
Or, option 3. which is to snag something from https://www.wagneronline.com.au/, an Aussie store that I can pop by when visiting family. They stock Dayton gear which I understand to be highly regarded in the DIY space.
I'd love to come in under the $1500 NZD mark, which equates to $853USD. Worth mentioning is that any enclosure costs will be nil; I have access to a CNC machine and MDF through my work, and I'm handy on Solidworks for drafting things up, so we're really just budgeting for the electronic components. Note that things are FAR more expensive here, so budget offerings in the US won't be so cost effective here, nor will they even be available, for that matter.
Any pointers to get me started would be much appreciated. Even selecting a driver is fairly daunting given the lengthy specs attached to each product!