noob project - for a friends birthday - 'bush doof' subs?

hi guys,
a little background on the project id like to start... a friend i have runs his own 'bush doofs', trance parties in the bush! he mixes all his own stuff, and takes that pretty seriously [been doing it for the last 15+years], spending thousands on the decks and amps etc etc, but he just uses some cheap, no name brand 15" subs and some other no name PA speakers for his doofs.
id like to build him some subs for his birthday [mid-late next year, luckily smiley17 ] but i have no idea about pa gear, iv got a pretty good backing in car audio, but i know there is alot i dont know... particularly about outdoor systems.

budget? i dont know, id like to stick to around $400AUD tops for 2 woofers, plus materials for 2 cabinets [dreaming?]. i dont want hi end, because if he wants he can upgrade later on.

his doof sizes vary, sometimes its only 15~ of us, sometimes a couple hundred.
music is mostly psy varieties, dub-step and trance/electronic.

im thinking 18" hog's, but open to anything really because like iv mentioned, i dont know what will work wonders and what will be just duds...
for wood, how is MDF? not so ideal?

im located in australia, and overseas postage for subs is exspencive and would churn up the budget quickly, so if you could recommend locally sold ones that would be wicked, but if you just throw out suggestions i can research myself.

thanks ahead,
i cant wait to start digging through threads!

g'day

small and simple is gonna save you money on materials.

we need to know what midtops are being used, and thus how low they can play in the frequency.

Im thinking you should get a couple more mates involved, double the budget, and build 4x ES18s loaded with some suitable, locally available drivers, cos i don't think 2 bins will be saying much.

there's loads of other designs as well. the cubo boxes are also very simple to build, but i hear they dont kick so well, which could be an issue for that music type

thanks for the reply! 'kick' of the bass usually isnt an issue, being mostly psy based versions of the music, its all very smooth, thick sub bass. of course, a more universal sub would be great... thats asking alot, ay? lol

mid tops? lol, this is where im rooted, i dont know what midtops are.

getting a few mates together for this sounds like a plan, even if i end up doin the build, the finacial support will be great!
im quite skilled at more complex car builds, and happy for a challenge [other than the fiberglass work iv done the most interesting box i built was a wicked one www.decware.com/whorn.htm for a diahatsu charade...]

ill research more and more, try and see what speakers he's got [last look, they dont have ANY stickers or anything on them].

midtops, as in, what covers the sound from say 100hz up to 20khz?

or are you saying the boxes currently being used are full range cabinets?

either way, assuming you want to keep this as cheap and as simple as possible, i'd say 4x ES18 or 4x CUBO18 (plans of which can be found on the plans page of this website).

The reason i ask about midtops, is you need to know how high you can run the bass. (i hear that the CUBO 18 for instance, doesn't play well above 100hz)

kick will be important............

think ES18 x 4 will go low enough for psy bass lines, and will go high enough to not limit what midtops can be used too much. load them with secondhand fane/celestion/rcf/ what ever is available in aus, and is suitable.

+1 on that

thanks guys!
id say 2 of them are full range cab's [4 tweeters, 2 horn tweets and the 12" in each cab with no port], the other 2 are 15inch ported subs with 2 tweeters each.

ill look around for woofers before i build i guess, not finding much yet, but i havent really looked too hard beyond ebay atm.