For those of you that have replied to "my car was gutted" thread thanks for the input and overall sympathy. I managed to get my insurance company to order me 2 12inch kicker solo baric L7's witht the kicker 1200.1 amp. And they're gonna let me get installed for free at the car shop of my choice.

So my question is whats the best i should have these guys intall my subs. They'll probably give me a sealed box unless i say something. I need to find some tricky ways about installing this stuff so it don't get stolen again.

 

sealed is going to give you tight bass response. ported will effectively double the loudness. if you want hair-raising bass with less power output, use a ported box and aim the port into the cabin (fold a seat down). if you want tight, smooth, precise bass, go sealed. personally i like sealed the best. i'd rather have accurate bass than overpowering.

 

Cup,
So ported u loose sound quality but get more of a rumble. If thats the case then i'm going sealed like i had. I'm sorta scared to see how loud its gonna be.

 

how many watts you pushing? IMO ported is good for large areas, like if you had a SUV or minivan. sealed is going to give you the best bass response though.

 

sealed is the better quality (versus ported). smoother response curve.

ported will give you more rumble, but you have to deal with port tuning and turbulence and an uneven response (for example, you'll get an EXTREMELY loud note at 45 Hz, which to me is not only unnatural but also quite annoying).

 

that port tuning is true, but is much more evident with bandpass boxes. that 45Hz loudness you are talking about is pretty much the same as any bass boost gain setting. on the amp it would have a 45Hz bass boost with a +-12dB characteristic, or on your head you might have "extended bass" or something that boosts the signal at 45Hz. it's not EXACTLY at 45Hz, there's a curve with a dropoff and 3dB point, etc. but yes you are right the ported will give you a boost at a certain frequency depending on port size, etc. this is not always a bad thing, however, if done correctly.

as for bandpass, it's just ****ful. sound is horrible and there is an even more pronounced level difference at the port frequency.

 

Sealed boxes do offer the tightest response. But I think you guys are a touch off on your ported and bandpass ideals. You're probably both thinking of those craptastic prefab boxes that come from the store. But actually a ported box, tuned low enough can offer nearly the same sound quality as a sealed box. For example in my car I'm running a pair of 12" Image Dynamics IDMAX subs in a ported enclosure tuned to 22 hz. It peaks right around 28hz. It's a straight up SQ ported box. There's no nasty peak at 45hz, no port noise, and no worries.

Bandpass boxes I personally find to be a pain in the *** to build, especially dual reflex, what with the 3 pages of equasions to figure out proper port lengths, and chamber sizes. But, if you do the math, and build a bandpass box accurately, you can make a GREAT box... for more info on how to do bandpass the right way head over to termpro.com and ask for ROB BOB... he's the man in the bandpass world.


So if the shop is going to build you a box, I'd have them go with a ported box. If they're gonna slap it in a prefab, go sealed.

 

i agree. ported boxes can sound really good. i was saying as a general rule of thumb.

bandpass i have never heard one sound good. but that's mostly because i've never heard one that was built by someone that really took the time and effort to build it correctly and to the specifications of the particular subwoofer. so in general bandpass is gonna sound ****ty.

and also, if someone is asking about which is better, etc., i tend to think that they don't know much about it, and either A. will buy prefab or B. will build a box but won't do a 100% great job on it.

 

Well cup usually is it true when you ask question like this you usually don't know dick about it. However in my case i sorta know what the answer is but asked anyway to get the complete details on ported vs. sealed. So do you think a ported box would be much more then a sealed box?

i'm running 2 12inch kicker solo baric L7's that peak at 1500watts and rms at 750

The subs will be powered by a kicker1200.1amp which is a 1200 @ 1 Ohm AMP.

 

If you want the best of both worlds you need to go with what is called isobaric or solobaric... I'm having a brain fart this morning.... but it's when you mate two subwoofers in tandem. The only one exposed to the air is essentially in a sealed box.. and the subwoofer that is completed enclosed is essentially in a ported box. So it basically like joining two boxes back to back. You get incredibly good sound quality and also get the benefit of the effeciency improvements from the two subs working together. It makes the best of what you have... and gives very very smooth response!

pm me if you need a drawing or want it explained better...

 

In our car sealed, no bandpass, no ported, no isobaric. Look at your trunk lid. See how nice it is. It is one solid piece of metal to the bumper. Use it. Subs pointed at the largest solid surface get that "hit" that everyone is looking for. Face the sealed box, of proper volume, straight back at that one solid piece of metal (the trunk) and hold on. For the port effect of "doubling the bass" as some people have said, reach back and pull down one of the seats.

If you want the "midget in the trunk with a spoon and a coffee can" overdriven sound use ported or bandpass with the hole facing the seat.

 

first of all, TONS of sound deadening. that's a lot of watts.

second, i enjoy sealed boxes. if you decide to go ported, take VERY careful calculations and make sure to get a box-building program. With all that power though, not sure that ported is necessary in such a small car.

 

Isobaric loading really only eliminates some unwanted resonances(which a bit of box stuffing can do) and it also eliminates a fair amount of cash from your wallet. Basically you're looking at double the price for the same cone area. there's a few ways to load them, but clamshell is the easiest and most common. What you do is cut a MDF ring and sandwich the 2 subs together such that the cones face each other. Wire the inside sub in phase, and the outer out of phase.

There's really only a few reasons to even bother with this. The biggest one coming to mind is bragging rights (I've got 8 12's in my car!) and the other I can come up with is the look. Exposed subs usually look pretty impressive, though you can do the same thing just inverting them.

 

I have my subs clamshelled. It hits nice hard and clean. I am running 2 old school punch 12's with a pheonix gold pro series 2420 bridged with a fosgate crossover.