Update: Any concerns with this enclosure have been addressed. There is no longer a need to worry about enclosure thickness. The issue has been corrected. Thankyou.

As many of you already know, fiberglass enclosures have been popping up all over the car audio forum. You can thank MconsoliA4 for that because his shop has been providing them at a dyn-o-mite price. $250 shipped. Not bad huh.

For those who dont want to read and just want cliff notes, here they are.

Pros: 1) Fast shipping. 2) Fits like a latex glove. 3) Matches trunk pretty well. 4) Frees up lots of trunk space.

Cons: 1) Holy THIN enclosure Batman!!!!! 2) Speaker terminal may leak air. 3) This ultra light and ultra thin enclosure may explode if one installs a meaty subwoofer without reinforcing the rear wall and bottom.

The pictures do a pretty good job of explaining everything.

1, 2, and 3 are the front, inside and rear of the enclosure. The supplied (tiny gauge) wires are soldered to the terminals. Thats a plus.






4, 5, 6, and 7, are to show just how thin this enclosure is. In picture 4, that is light from a bulb that is about 20 feet in the air. In picture 5, you can see how close the terminal hole and screw holes are. Is that an area of concern? You tell me. 6 and 7 are actual measurements of the thickness of the rear wall. The bottom is the same. Sorry about the ruler, i couldn't find my calipers. This enclosure is so thin, it flexes from me pushing on it with two fingers. It also resonates like a drum. They say the thickness of fibergalss X2 is = to mdf. So double 1/8 of an inch and you get 1/4 of an inch. Thats a 1/4 of an inch of mdf.






In pics 8, 9, and 10, I got busy reinforcing that bi@tch. Thats just a special brew I mixed up in picture 8. A very nice pretty sage green. The rear wall and bottom were strengthend only. All other walls seemed adequate for my application. Some of you may want to use mdf and glue as a reinforcement. Others of you have used dynamat and other sound dampening materials. I used my brew. The walls dont flex anymore.





Pics 11 - 14 are shots of me prepping the enclosure for my application. I used a JL audio 8w7. Also used JL 8 awg speaker wire. This is a 10" enclosure so I fabbed up a mdf ring, wrapped in vinyl and installed it. Fits like a latex glove. The sub fits that ring like an extra small latex glove. Picture 14 shows the hole I drilled in the bottom of the enclosure for the bolt I used to secure it. You can see where the fiberglass ends and my special brew begins. Its gotta be 3-4 times as thick now. No flexing, and no resonance.






Pics 15 and 16 is my old enclosure built to spec. It just took up too much space in my trunk. That is a 16oz snapple bottle used as a reference.




Pics 17-20 are the finished product installed. Talk about a usable trunk now. I'm satisfied with the install and now need to fab up a semi-useful grill.






So people, take it for what its worth. I chose to be safe rather than sorry. I would gladly spend $300 + on a solid great fitting enclosure rather than $250 - on a flexable great fitting enclosure. If I could do it all over again, I would have my buddies at HF in Newington, CT build the enclosure. There was no "magic" in this magicbox. The only magic that may happen would be when this enclosure decides to DYN-O-MITE and take your sub along for a ride. Baby subs like JL W1's and Kicker Comps may be ok in this enclosure as it is shipped. Anything bigger like a W3 or Comp VR, I would worry about. Anything meaner like a Comp VX, JL W6 or W7 will grenade this box if it is not reinforced. Word!!!

 

i completely agree with you on both the pros and the cons of this box. Let me give you a little backround on this box real quick and kinda try to defend myself. FIrst off, i'm an installer at our shop, not the salesman, our salesman (also the owner) picks boxes he knows a lot about and sells them. I took a chance and tried offering them on the forum FOR THEM, i dont even get a cut and i do this all on my own time.
The major reason the back wall of this box flexes is because it is so flat. Everytime i blast the terminal cup hole into the back of those to ship them, i make a comment to my boss that i dont want to get crap from users about the build of this box because our guy sprayed one here and one there too thin. I have nothing to gain or lose by people NOT buying this enclosure, so i have no problem telling you all how it is.

1) I personally think the back wall is too thin, BUT i have installed these in house with W7s and while they may resonate (which is by no means OK) they absolutely will NOT blow apart, i guarantee that personally.
2) Our answer to the back wall being too thin is to have the glass shop glass in 1" wide by 10" tall pieces of half inch MDF to strengthen the back end.
3) The terminal cup will seal much better once the backside of this enclosure is modified, anyone who is having any air leaks through the cup should remove the cup, add some foam tape and re-install the cup.
4) We dont charge any extra if you ask for your box to be thicker than usual, now that i think back, we did have requests to make the box lighter to sell it in the first place, some of the reason for the thickness was to drop the weight from 20lbs for the empty enclosure to about 12-14lbs.

So like i said, i appreciate the feedback and trust me when i say i relay ALL messages to the owner, i know it's frustrating buying something and being dis-satisfied for any reason. I appreciate all feedback, positive or negative and hope we can do right by everyone who buys our product.

 

I'm just happy you guys are mass producing these things. Keep up the good work and make the necessary changes if you need to. I'll be ordering one soon and probably use a sound deadening paste on the inside.

 

Any "real" installation shop would NOT let such a flawed item leave the shop. Two different shops saw this box before I modified it and they both laughed at the flaws. These are big flaws. Then when I told them it came from a shop in New Hampshire, they imediately knew which shop it was. Pulled up your website for me and everything. They both said that they heard good things about magic boxes but after seeing the one I received, they were shocked. No real shop sends out a box like that for a W7. Ive seen a couple of well built reinforced wood and fiberglass boxes blow apart from these subs. It happens. I just wanted all future buyers to beware of what they were getting.

 

I think for a typical 10" subwoofer, the enclosure is adequate. I haven't had any issues and I'm running a 10" DVC Kicker Comp VX with a ZX1000.1 amp. When the speaker hits, I feel no air leaking and the rear wall didn't flex. Like I said, it's adequate for an entry setup and not a competition setup. I admit, I did feel it was thin and should've been more rigid, but the time and energy I put in to make my fiberglassed enclosure, I'd gladly pay the $ for this one and just deal with some reinforcement issues.

 

like i said, we're dealing with the issue with this box because honestly i prep all the boxes for all the cars that we build them for and this is the only one that ever comes out even close to thin, we sell a triple 6" box for a Supra and that box for some reason is always damn close to 1/2" thick. So i think it's more a consistancy issue with our glass shop and it definitely needs to be addressed. I can assure you that this is not typical fashion for our stuff to be "laughable". I may not give a crap whether i sell another one of these boxes or not, but i can tell you that i take great pride in the fabrication i personally do and would not necessarily write our shop off just yet. I'm also not trying to make excuses by saying it's the glass shop's fault, but we don't build these in house. If you saw the original we have in our showroom from this box you'd see that the handlaid box is just shy of 1/2" thick all around, you could set it on the face and stand on the back! I will personally make sure that this issue is corrected!

 

Thankyou. And I am sure if the issue is corrected, future buyers will also be happy.

 

Mine was a little on the thin side also, but I'm only running a 10W1 with 200 Wrms so I wasn't too concerned about it. I wanted my trunk space and something that I could remove with the quickness. I dynamatted all the exposed fiberglass sides to get rid of the drum sound and it sounds fine in my car. The seller also hooked me up with the JL Audio grill for the 10W1V2. I think it's a perfect setup for the Evo and something I don't have to worry about. And I got it less than a week after I paypalled him.

 

Okay. So I just received one of these boxes in the mail. And I'm a bit frustrated that people who posted information on this box before did not mention this thickness issue. I'm planning on putting a 10W6v2 w/ a PDX1.600, should I reinforce this SOB? And if so what should I use? I can mix up something and pour it in, whats the easiest?

 

Did you not see above what I posted about possible solutions? You don't have to pour anything in it. You could use it the way it is and take your chances. The seller claim its OK and it won't crack, break, or explode. Chances are, if I hadn't posted a review or mentiooned that these enclosures are not supposed to be thin, not one person would have been concerned or posted a concern. I pm'd the seller the day I got the enclosure to explain how dissatisfied I was with its constuction and he never responded. He responded only when I posted this thread. I have audiio experience and know that for max SQ, SPL, enclosure and woofer longevity, the enclosure should be solid and not flex. If it's a sealed enclosure, it should be airtight. TIFWIW.

 

I will post pics up later of what a propper custom enclosure should look like inside when I get home from work. Keep in mind that it will be for two JL audio 13w7s inverted and ported. Its a big heavy SOB but is necessary for what the installer/artist was trying to achieve.

I will also be posting an Orbital 2din kit / Clarion 2din nav setup review in a few weeks. Keep your eyes open. I will try to be as thorough as possible. Many pics included.

 

Post up the brew recipe !

 

LOL! Sorry. Can't post that up. Someone else with a keen eye may do so though. I won't confirm or deny it though.

 

NoTec - what I was trying to get out of you was that formula. I don't know what I can purchase to stiffen this bad boy up. I don't want to glue MDF in there. Bondo?

 

Bondo by itslef will surely crack or powder when exposed to those many different pressures. What I suggest to everyone who has purchased this enclosure and has concerns should do is contact the seller about possible solutions. He is a professional installer and I am sure his advice will be the best. I am NOT a pro installer. I did it in the past for a few years while I was in school. My friends who advised me, the ones who's shop I did all this work at are the people who advised me. My thread is a review and nothing more. I recommended a few possible solutions above but for the best advice, please consult with the seller.