I work outdoors and even then, MDF dust is a problem. Last I heard, you'll working with a rotary-tool instead of a real router, which can't be easy. Honestly, I don't recommend this T18 as a first project unless you have a lot of patience, willingness to learn, enjoy the process, and time to spend on it. For the right person, this can be a great and enjoyable learning experience. For others, it might be better for them to build a bass-reflex design.

Below is a thread where I worked with Bill to toubleshoot my T18. The thread contains the amp and driver used. I found the sub to be sensitive to placement and settings, but not difficult to set up.

I don't have a lot of benchmarks to judge how the T18 as I have no prior experience with other dedicated self-powered subs. I found the T18 to be a great match for my Studio One-PI's and also can go low enough to augment my Theatre 3-PI's for home theatre. There's plenty of headroom to match high eff speakers. With the PI speakers, gain setting on the plate amp was only at the 1 o'clock position.

In my rooms (and bass is very sensitive to rooms), I found the bass to be more laidback than forceful, enough to provide a foundation but not drawing attention to itself. I think some people would be very disappointed by this as it has very low "wow-factor" in its sound. For me, I'm more than happy to trade in "wow-factor" for livability, which this T18 has plenty of. It's hard to tell it's there, but you'll notice when it's not.

I would rate the output of the T18 to be better than my Theatre 3-PI but poorer than my JBL 2235H cabinets. The JBL goes deeper and sounds better than the T18, but the JBL's sit in 5 cubic ft cabinets and each driver costs $300-$350 used.

I think the T18 is a competent sub that's able to give very good performance with a $30-$50 driver in a relatively small package. If you enjoy woodworking, it's a fun project to build, but you've got to enjoy the process. Also, the design has high cool-factor and can certainly be a converation starter. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a novelty design because it does deliver on performance and value.

Gar.

• Troubleshooting Tuba 18