Impossible car audio challenge?

[Antichrist]

I just finished building the port. I should be picking up the rest of the MDF tomorrow and starting on the box tomorrow as well, weather permitting

[TulsaGeoff]

Butt dyno lol.

[mukiko85]

i was have in my audi a3 car audio 2 x hertz 300 + magnat rx22+ magnat rx mono. i want sell.

[Antichrist]

Nice install, did you do that?

[mukiko85]

Nice install, did you do that?

 

 

not I. Firm car audio sound forge. if you want you can buy this??

Edited August 20, 2011 by mukiko85

[NoGooD]

What frequency did you decide to try and tune for? I'm interested to see how it turned out.

[Antichrist]

mukiko: I really don't have any use for your equipment, since I have my own..

 

NoGood: Tuned at 35 Hz, with a 2.02 cubic foot box. 1.5" x 8.4375" Slot port.

 

Amp is installed, Kenwood digital media HU should be in sometime later next week, and the sub should be here Tuesday-Wednesday I hope.

 

Box is being assembled now. Sides, Tob, and Bottom are clamped and glued now. No nails. No screws. 100% Gorilla Glue.

 

Port is assembled in such a way that It can be easily changed out at any time for a new one to change tuning.

[Antichrist]

Ok here are a few pictures of the build so far. I didn't take pictures of the box, because well.. it's a box. I figured people would be more interested in the overall design, as well as the individual components of the box.

 

Planning out the baffle on some 1/2" scrap:

 

 

Building the port:

 

 

Box is done, baffle is test fitted:

 

 

2 Coats of gloss black, wet sanded with 400 grit between coats:

 

 

And wet sanded the gloss black with 400, then 2 coats of clear coat:

 

I'll have to get some better pictures of the finished baffle in some better lighting.

 

I'm having a problem with finding carpeting that matches the truck's interior carpet (red garnet) so I've decided to do the baffle in gloss black, and the rest of the box will be painted in a flat black, textured armor coating of some sort. Similar to a truck bedliner.

[NoGooD]

Just a ?. What did you use to cut the circle? Did you use a jigsaw or did you have a jig made up? The box looks pretty good overall though it's hard to tell with the pics. Nicely done so far Anti. Curious to see how everything turns out.

[Antichrist]

Thanks:)

I just made a jig from some scrap 1/4" MDF I had. The cut was made with a jigsaw with a thin wood blade on it.

 

Anyways, the lighting in the garage kinda sucks, All I have is flourescent lights, so it's not the best for pictures. I might be able to get some better pictures tomorrow, it's supposed to stop raining.

 

I won't have the texture coating done for a day or 2, since I have to get out to Home Depot to actually find something that I like.

[Antichrist]

Sub arrived today. I just finished making final adjustments to the cutout to fit the sub. Specs online claimed an 11.125" cutout. I didn't have the sub yet, so I only made an 11" cutout, just to be on the safe side. Sub mount holes are predrilled. I just have to finish the coating on the box and it'll be ready to go this thursday when the headunit arrives.

 

Anyways, here's a test fit picture with the port and sub in place.

 

 

12" Power Acoustik PEN 12W.

 

450 RMS, Single 4ohm coil. Rubber surround. And only $35. I'm looking forward to seeing how this sounds later this week :D :D

[TulsaGeoff]

I like it. Should be significantly louder than a prebuilt box. Hope it sounds impossibly loud with good sq

[Antichrist]

When clearcoat says it dries to the touch in 20 minutes, and is completely dry in 24 hours, don't believe it.

 

 

EDIT: The nice finish on the baffle was completely fubar. Who knew that corrugated cardboard was hard enough to leave impressions in clear coat that's been drying for 24-36 hours...

 

Anyways, I wanted to be able to finish the box tomorrow, since the HU is scheduled to arrive Thursday, although it might come tomorrow, since USPS tracking info says it's currently in Depew NY (the main branch of Lancaster's post office is in Depew)

 

So I had to fix the baffle so it didn't look like complete crap. Stripping everything and starting over wasn't an option since I'm out of time, paint, and clearcoat. I didn't want to carpet the box, since everyone carpets them, so I used the corrugated impressions as a guide, grabbed some carving chisels, cut the clearcoat off in horizontal lines, and painted the cuts in red.

 

It's not perfect, but it looks decent for being done freehand.

 

One coat of clear on top of everything, Installed the port, speaker terminal, wires, and now I'm off to bed.

 

Sub will be installed tomorrow, with completed pictures taken outside, weather permitting.

[Fogarty]

Speakers work by moving air. Subs, speakers, it's all the same. This is energy. When something absorbs that energy, like a wall of a large box flexing, that WILL reduce power, and will most likely reduce SPL, efficiency, sound quality, etc...

 

What methods do you guys use for bracing in the netherlands??

 

Over here, I've only seen bracing done internally...

 

EDIT: And as far as vibrations, it shouldn't happen when internal braces are done properly.

We don't use any hardtops inside of the box, we use soundisolator instead;

 

- stops the wood from flexing, sound reflects because of the pyramid shape of the stuffing.

- + We use double MDF wood (20MM Thick) so 40MM each side, on the outside we use polyester with glue and alot of woodsnips in it to stiffen it up,in my opinion it sounds alot better when the hardtop is on the inside, i've tried both.

 

[Antichrist]

Done. and Done.

 

I'll get pictures of the completed installation tomorrow. I have to go out and do a catalytic convertor for someone, so I have a bunch of tools in my truck now.

 

180 watts RMS total, and it sounds like 300-400 RMS. It's punchy, deep, clean, there's no port noise/turbulence that I can hear. The bass response is amazingly smooth, and although I don't think it's louder than my girlfriend's system, I'm quite satisfied with it.

 

It also doesn't seem quite powerful enough to give you that tickle inside your ears, but it works. For a $35 sub, $30 in box materials, an $80 Kenwood headunit, and a 10 year old 180 watt JBL amp, it kicks ass.

 

This is by far the most amazing sounding box/sub combo I've ever built.

 

EDIT: I tested a few songs that I typically would listen to, then tested the depth with the song "Lonely" by Attack Attack! Since it had relatively low notes, and because I really can't tolerate rap, R&B, techno, etc...