Need Help With Custum Inclosure

[Pimpalero03]

ok i have a four door like most know. what i want to do is take off the big half of the back seat and leave little one so one person can still sit in back.. and i want to make a wall going across whole opening behind the seats and two subs facing toward the front of car where the big seat used to be.. i have never tried anything like making a box or any of that stuff.. i want my truck space since im going on a trip soon and want trunk space.. does it would good having subs face that way and is this hard? lol imput needed, anyone got any pics i can look at
thanks,
paul

[xsavyor1]

good luck! and have fun. It is a lot of work but just take your time and do it right. dont try to hurry and get it done, because it wont look as good or sound as good. put some pics up after you get some!

[Steve03TropicTeal]

do you plan on making the subs flush with the top o the rear deck or the side of the smaller seat.

something is going to look a little out of wack either way i think. and not very symmetrical.

obviously you will be leaving the lower half of the seat.. that may look odd to.. hard to say without pics.

ifyou want to conserve space, you may just go with one higher output 12" than say 2.

and put it in a sealed enclosure. I dont know what kind of setup u got in there now.

[Pimpalero03]

heres my current box

[Steve03TropicTeal]

d00d if you just want bass, and want to save space, just go with one 12" iin a sealed box.. Here is what i have, get a ncie sub and it hits hard.

you can do the same thing with your 2 12"

your box is so damn big cuz its bandpass. which are just massive. You can make a sealed box that only takes up 2 cubic feet for ur subs prolly. Depending on the sub.

[jonez]

If you want to look really nice you could go with fiberglass. Probally would want to get someone to do it for you if you have no experenice or not wiling to take the time. I don't think the on back seat will look good. Just my thoughts

[mikegett]

What are you trying to gain with the setup? The big reason for placing the sub into your cabin is to reduce your wattage needed and to get a cleaner sound. The trunk will mudy the bass and enduces all sorts of rattles. I, personaly, like the sound of a sub in the cabin over the trunk.
If you place the sub in the cabin then you should consider going to a sealed enclosure. This is where you should take the sub to a shop and have them place it in a sealed for you. You can then demo your entire system with this enclosure. A sealed box will produce a tighter bass and fuller frequencies than a bandpass but will not go as low. So be very certain that this is what you want.
If you still want to go in the cabing then you can do a number of things. One method is to leave the box in the trunk but place a port into your cabin from your box. Porting is difficult and requires proper tuning in relation to the diameter and the length of tube used. I would suggest contacting a installer before doing this.
Another method is to face the box into the cabin as you had stated. Instead of making a fake wall, you might concider building the box into the seat. Thsi is what I plan on doing. That is, whenever I buy a sub. The seats are made of a plastic shell. Cut a hole into the back of the seat so that you can slide the box into it. Fasten the box to the seat with some sort of a bracket. L shaped I would imagine. You will need to hollow out part of the seat in front of the box. Now cut a hole in the front of the seat. I am going to go with square. IF you hollowed out the foam properly you can fold the material down to the front of the sub in a square pattern and fasten it to the sub enclosure. The last step would be to make a grill. I was planning on a square that was covered with the same material and could be placed over the sub to allow a passenger to sit and still have pading. It can then be removed when alone and expose the sub. Be aware that if you did it in this mannor extra material will be needed. As you cut the hole and fold material will need to be sewn in place to cover the corners.

[sound_xtreme]

yea, i usually point it in the cabin, firing sideways helps with rattles tho. i have 1 10" in a ported box on a 300 watt amp. sounds like a 1000 watt amp. very pleased with it.

[Cyber Knight]

For maximum trunk space try a free-air set up. It's easy, cheap, and works surprisingly well. I didn't even seal mine and it pounds, and I have bargain basement subs. Free-air set ups are great, but there is no way you get as good as sound as you would with a dedicated box, and it's not as efficient either. Try it out, and if you don't like it you only wasted a $7 piece of MDF.

[sound_xtreme]

DONT do free air. he obviously hasnt heard a GOOD system. do NOT do free air. and there is no way to make those subs sound good, i used to sell them i know what they can do in any box, they suck period.

[b-spot]

Agreed, I've never heard of a sub that was designed for free air. Most have very specific tolerances for their enclosure size. Check what size for whatever you are putting in before you build anything. If I was going front facing in the cabin though, I'd go sealed for sure.

[sound_xtreme]

there are subs made for free air. but they all suck ass.

[Steve03TropicTeal]

free air is actually a term used only by Kicker. I believe the other term is infinite baffle

It requires that the front of the sub is completely isolated (as much as possible) wit the back of the sub.

So if you want to put an 8" in the rear deck for possible.. the area from cabin to trunk must be completely sealed off from each other for best bass. AND the deck obiosuly must be strengthed to prevent flex and rattling.

article on sub box types:

http://www.caraudiohelp.com/custom_car_aud...audio_boxes.htm (http://www.caraudiohelp.com/custom_car_audio_boxes/custom_car_audio_boxes.htm)

here is a kenwood sub that will work in free air.

http://www.justkenwood.co.uk/speakers01/kfcw3009.asp

[b-spot]

I thought most kickers were for sealed applications.. atleast with solobarics.

[Steve03TropicTeal]

ya, i never said that kicker subs are used for infinite baffle..

I said that kicker coined the term Free Air.

Kicker USED to be all about the free air, i dont think they make any dedicated free air subs anymore.

[sound_xtreme]

pioneer and some other companies also use free air

[b-spot]

Originally posted by Steve03TropicTeal@May 25 2004, 02:36 PM
ya, i never said that kicker subs are used for infinite baffle..

I said that kicker coined the term Free Air.

Kicker USED to be all about the free air, i dont think they make any dedicated free air subs anymore.
Ahhh.. gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

I think kicker has gotten better and better. It sounds like they must have started off pretty sh*tty :P

[BLK03GXS]

Kicker did usto be REALLY poopty.. IMO.. but then they allso usto be "all about the free air.."
Now with the solobaric line they have made some drivers that are on par with the other manufactures out there.. not that i would buy one... unless say one landed on my lawn for free....lol

But pimpalero03 you could get one good sub along the line of a Alpine r12, or Infinity Kappa perfect 12, or.... like rockford He2's... not a rockford fan, but they are O-k for subs... or maybe even a Audiobahn... depending on what you want to spend...
and use a small volume sealed box, and make it flush with the back big half of the back seat, and use a fiberglass trim pannel to match it up...
And then use an amp with lots of KICK lol... and keep your trunk space...

[mikegett]

Steve03TropicTeal, good correction on the free air. There are still quite afew manufacturers that produce subs that can be placed in a infinite baffle. You want to look at the Q of the speaker. The higher the rating the more flexible it will be with infinite baffles. Both, my eclipse 8700 15 inch woofer and my eclipse 8" aluminum cone were rated high enough to run infinite baffle. Neither of these subs could be considered weak. Just be sure to do as stated earlier and ensure that ther is no air leak.

[Steve03TropicTeal]

making sure there is no air leak is much easier said than done. Even when building your own box, preventing air leak can be difficult.

i wouldnt suggest free air unless u want to put a lot of time in caulking and looking for air leaks. just get a nice tight sealed box, for a single 12.. or even 2 10"s and it will take up much less room than that huge bandpass box.

[b-spot]

Originally posted by BLK03GXS@May 25 2004, 04:32 PM
Kicker did usto be REALLY poopty.. IMO.. but then they allso usto be "all about the free air.."
Now with the solobaric line they have made some drivers that are on par with the other manufactures out there.. not that i would buy one... unless say one landed on my lawn for free....lol

But pimpalero03 you could get one good sub along the line of a Alpine r12, or Infinity Kappa perfect 12, or.... like rockford He2's... not a rockford fan, but they are O-k for subs... or maybe even a Audiobahn... depending on what you want to spend...
and use a small volume sealed box, and make it flush with the back big half of the back seat, and use a fiberglass trim pannel to match it up...
And then use an amp with lots of KICK lol... and keep your trunk space...
I've been actually really impressed with Solo's for about 6 or 7 years now. Still unsure of their durability (haven't talked to anyone that has had the squares for long enough) but they are really decent subs.

I would however, drop some $'s on Alpine type R's in a second.

[BLK03GXS]

I have heard of quite a few L7's being blown...
I would personly rate the quality of Kickers product with that of the low-mid end Audiobahn stuff... sounds good, lasts for a while... but will blow eventually... lol

I Have allways liked alpine, the type r's are near impossible to destroy... if you know what your doing... unless you load them wit a LOT of power... or something stupid like that....

[b-spot]

Thats exactly what I love about the alpine stuff. I'm not nearly as nervous pumping alot of power through it or pushing it a bit as the other stuff. Too bad to hear L7's have the same quality problems. Great sounding when they are new, and the shape allows for some interesting applications, but yeah, if they still blow all the time, then count them off of my next shopping list. I'll stick with the R's.

[mikegett]

The problem with the square kicker subs is in the design. If you notice, Kicker has been increasingly adding support to the corners of the cones. They have to do this to ensure that the corner can withstand the force. A sound wave is spherical in nature. As the sub emits a sound wave it carries up the cone and to the edge. This is where it leaves the cone and exerts most of the strain on the woofer. A poorly made mid woofer will produce distortion from this location. Some ways that the manufacturers reduce the distortion is by cutting small sections of the woofer cone off. Making small straight lines at the outer edge. Others will make the outer rubber in a spiral design. Since a subwoofer does not need to reduce this distortion (low frequencies are exremely wide and are relatively unaffected) the cones are left spherical and have a plain rubber surround. Since kickers woofer is square, the sound waves hit the four corners and absorb all of the impact. After time, this means that the corner will break down. To avoid this, they just make the corner bigger. Since the corner is bigger, the woofer will not react as easily and needs more power to drive it. It is a cycle that many engineers have frowned upon. For some reason, Kicker has refused to give up on the design.