subwoofer minimum displacement?

[briantech]

I already have a set of 10" Kicker Comp's in a ported box that I had in my old blazer. This big huge box does not fit back in my firebird. However I'd like to still put some low end bass in my system, without giving up the functionality of the t-top holders.

I found this box here for $112:


It says it fits a 10" sub, which would let me just recycle one of my comps. However, according to Kicker's websites, the 10" kicker comp requires a minimum box displacement of 1.0 cubic feet... and this stealth box here i'm looking at only has .5 cubic feet. anyone with an audio background know how big of an issue this would be? i'm not concerned with winning any audio shows or even impressing my friends, i just want a little bit of nice bass to go along with the apathetic stock sound system.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

A little. If you stuff some fiberglass in there before you put the speaker in, it will effectively multiply the air space by 1.3. That helps a little. 6.5

You don't have a lot of choice if you want to keep the T top rack. I hate it too.

How do you plan to drive the speaker?

[tabahr]

If you don't mind ditching your spare tire, I've seen boxes that fit in that cavity also and hold 1 10" sub.

That would give you a total of 2 10" subs without t-top storage problems.

[MN6WS6]

First of all that sub box is too small. .5 cubic feet is a disgrace, it should have been better built to begin with. I have the high dollar JL box made out of wood that came with a 10w6, and that thing gets NASTY. It comes filled with polyfill to "trick" the woofer into thinking it has more air, and it works great. Regardless, I believe the original box design is somewhere in the .65-.75 range, which is what a lot of 10's need as a minimum.

The smaller the box, the less low bass it will play. The reason is there is a limited amount of air in the box, and the woofer cannot come out to it's full length (called excursion) so it cannot play as low a frequency as it is designed to do. The only way to overcome a small box and retain low bass is to put a lot of power on it. Now you're talking about big bucks and big bass all the time to overcome a box not built right to begin with.

To maintain sonic accuracy at normal listening levels, you must have a woofer that is designed to be used in the box you make or purchase. There are some woofers that CANNOT be used in a sealed enclosure, and if your Kickers came in a ported box, then that's probably the way they were designed. You need to find a better box first off, then find a woofer that is designed to be used in a small sealed box.

I know your next question is "Does anybody make a ported enclosure for the cubby on an f-body" and the answer is no. Ported boxes are .5-1.0 cubic feet bigger than a sealed box, so it is physically impossible to put one that will sound right in that small space.

They do make sub boxes for the spare tire well of the f-body, but we all know that is where 10 and 15# nitrous bottles go, not woofers :-)

[99WS6TA]

subs

here is the box that im going to use it has a little more air space. it costs about 150 at any shop that sells JL Audio. here is the link.

http://www.jlaudio.com/stealthbox/va_firebird.html


here is the sub that im going to use its a alpine type R 10" 1000watts peak, 300 RMS, and it only requires .55 - 0.8 cu. ft. of air space. sub is normally 150 at circuit city. but on pricegrabber.com you can get it for 100.

http://www.alpine-usa.com/html/D2_n_1_n_n.html

[briantech]

I know your next question is "Does anybody make a ported enclosure for the cubby on an f-body" and the answer is no. Ported boxes are .5-1.0 cubic feet bigger than a sealed box, so it is physically impossible to put one that will sound right in that small space.

Hmm... ok, dont flame me for my incredibly ghetto idea but...

what if i just cut out one flat peice of plywood in the shape that would fit in that space, ie, something that would look like JUST the front part of this enclosure:


... and then just fitted it in there, with the sub mounted to that peice of plywood? I'd carpet the one side of it that was facing the interior of the car, and just mount the plywood flush against the opening. Would this not effectively use ALL the space that is inside that hole / opening? It'd basically be like using the frame of the car itself as the box, instead of building a seperate box that then has to fit inside the hole?

How do you plan to drive the speaker?

A Boss CLR70 300Wx2 amplifier, also scavenged from my system in the blazer. It was driving the 2 comps just fine so i figured it would be able to run just one of them even better.

[MN6WS6]

You can't do your "flat panel" idea. The reason is, there is nothing sealing the back of the woofer, as that open space behind that board opens up to the rest of the car. So not only will you not have a sealed enclosure, you will also have the negative frequencies of the back of the speaker interfering with the positive frequencies of the front of the speaker. So you will cancel out some sound. Not to mention your woofer will basically be "free air", and if it's not designed for that, it will eventually blow.

This is just my opinion, but that amp needs to be a boat anchor. Boss has never made anything worth a crap. Get a Rockford Fosgate, Orion, PPI, etc., something that is decent. Stay away from Boss, Pyramid, Pyle, Legacy, Lanzar, etc. A general rule of thumb, if it's 200 or more watts and costs less than $100, it's a piece of junk. There are exceptions, but that's a pretty general rule.

Perfect example, my 180 watt Rockford amp cost about $550 new. But it sounds better than a 1000 watt Power Acoustik amp that costs $200.

[tabahr]

Originally posted by MN6WS6
You can't do your "flat panel" idea. The reason is, there is nothing sealing the back of the woofer, as that open space behind that board opens up to the rest of the car. So not only will you not have a sealed enclosure, you will also have the negative frequencies of the back of the speaker interfering with the positive frequencies of the front of the speaker. So you will cancel out some sound. Not to mention your woofer will basically be "free air", and if it's not designed for that, it will eventually blow.

This is just my opinion, but that amp needs to be a boat anchor. Boss has never made anything worth a crap. Get a Rockford Fosgate, Orion, PPI, etc., something that is decent. Stay away from Boss, Pyramid, Pyle, Legacy, Lanzar, etc. A general rule of thumb, if it's 200 or more watts and costs less than $100, it's a piece of junk. There are exceptions, but that's a pretty general rule.

Perfect example, my 180 watt Rockford amp cost about $550 new. But it sounds better than a 1000 watt Power Acoustik amp that costs $200.

Absolutely correct.
If you have no $$ to spend on this project, go ahead and do it ghetto style. It will sound ghetto fabulous.

If you want it done properly, go get a good amp, enclosure and a sub designed for that size box.

I would recommend a JL sub and a used Soundstream reference 200 bridged mono. Look on Ebay.. the price wont $uck too bad.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=18796

[Mr Nice Guy]

Hmm... ok, dont flame me for my incredibly ghetto idea but...

No that would not work well. You would have to seal it air tight or it'd sound horrible. Basically you'd have no speaker box at all. You could probably form something out of fiberglass to make use of all the space available. I don't think you want to get into all that. Check out this website http://www.subthump.com/acamaro.htm especially the T-topbox and the milhouse box. These both have a good amount of airspace and allow T-top storage. They also have a stealth box for driver and passenger sides if that is the way you want to go. Hope this helps..............Later

[Mr Nice Guy]

If you are looking for a good sub amp check out the JBL BP1200.1 or BP600.1 at www.ikesound.com or www.onlinecarstereo.com . Good amps at a nice price. I believe about $290 for the 1200.1 and $189 for the 600.1 Later

[briantech]

wow.... i was looking at subthumb.com earlier but i guess i just skimmed over this one


thats freakin sweet! you can't even see the subs or the amp during normal operation, and they flip up to allow t-top storage. That was beyond my expectations for what could be done.

however... it comes in both the single sub variety as well as the dual. With the single sub you get 1.25 cf, but if you put two 10's in there it drops down to .65 for each. Even with the fiberglass stuffing that brings me to .85 cf for each sub. Is that good enough?

And heck... if i get the non-logo'd version, and just get it carpeted (which in my opinion would be better) its only $185. Thats a tad expensive for a box but who cares, i wasn't ever really worried about how much it cost, i just wanted it to look / work really well.

anyway thanks fbuds you guys rock

[99WS6TA]

briantech,
if you get that box let me know how it works out for you. I was thinking about getting one for a while now but i have never seen or heard one.

[Mr Nice Guy]

If you get the right sub in a box that has correct amount of air space you'd also be surprised how loud one ten or twelve can be if it's a good speaker in the right box. Check out this sub http://www.edesignaudio.com/ep2/12k.htm . Not too expensive and will make those kicker comps sound like crap. One of these with a JBL 600.1 would rock. I'm getting the 12" version and the 600.1 as soon as I can afford it. This one should do nicely in a Milhouse box. Later

[PhantomZ28]

ive been thinkin about putting one of those in my car.. but behind it hiding a big ol bottel of nitrous ^.^ and i already have planes for a completely stealth nitrous setup. but for the doubters i would splice the speaker near that box adn add a wide speaker so it really works ^.^ what do you all think? and when i need to refill it i jut unscrew the box and take out the bottel ^.^ (not that thisis any time soon i stell need to get headders anda new y-pipe

[Camaro4-2]

About to install a JL Stealth???

I went to my local car audio place, they want to charge me $900 for the JL Audio Stealth box with the sub, and a JL amp and installation to my stock head unit. I'd like them to install it because i'm used to dealing with RCA and have never done a system with a stock head unit. This sounds like its a little over priced...

Has anyone heard this stealth box? How well does it perform and is it worth the $900 dollars?