Alright fellas, I'm new to the board but have been doing this stuff for years, so I'm looking for an intelligent conversation.

I have right now 2 - 12" Soundstream SPL's in a sealed box powered by a 700W RMS Soundstream amp. It pounds! My problem here is I actually want some trunk space (yeah, yeah, I must be getting old) and would like to replace the speakers with either 1 - 12" in a bandpass box (and stick the port directly through the plastic behind the rear armrest) or a 12" in a sealed box (maybe Kicker solobaric) and cut out all of the plastic behind that armrest and use as a giant port. I'm keeping my amp either way, I'm just wondering your thoughts on sound quality vs added trunk space. Just for the record, I would like to be able to fit a laundry basket in the availible trunk space.

What are your thoughts?

 

i like the idea of using the armrest as a port . . . . i would say go with the bandpass box - - i had 2 10's in a bandpass box in my old car and love the quality of bandpass boxes compared to a simple sealed box . . . .

 

if you are going with one woofer why not use a tube they tend to sound good and leave a good amount of space

 

Good thought, but I really wanted to make good use of the opportunity to (easily) put a port in the armrest for better trunk to passenger compartment bass travel and do my best to eliminate trunk rattle (I got some of that right now). If there is a good way to do that lemmie know. Also I am not aware of any tubes that can compete with the above mentioned components. I am not afraid to throw down some cash on a good woofer.

 

Well, if your conserned about trunk space I would most definatly stay away from a bandpass box, especially 5th and 7th order. i used all sealed boxes in my trunk, 3 to be exact, and i completely cut out the fold down arm rest plastic and metal..it was a bi*ch. but like i said in another thread, if you want tight hard hitting bass that hits every note get a sealed box. if you want sloppy (i use that term loosely) window breaking bass get a ported box and if you want super deep bass heard from 2 blocks away and not that loud in your car get a bandpass box. And for trunk rattle, when you "port" your trunk you actually give the subs more airspace which allows them to move more and makes even more trunk rattle. just ingore the rattle...you'll never get rid of it.

 

with the vast improvements in the 12" marketplace, you should be able to find a sub that will work well in a small box with your amount of wattage leaving you plenty of trunk room for "old people things" (laundry basket... Hell, you are old! )

 

SS subs are recommended in a ported box, if i recall.


With the added space you may even get a better sound, since subs work best in open environments.

 

Bandpass always sucks nuts IMO

 

www.polkmomo.com

had a 12" of this in a sealed box and it was sooo butta. i couldn't believe the sq i got from it
i put a friend's pioneer bandpass in my trunk and it sounded like ****. i could hear booming every time bass hit, but nothing audible. it was like putting someone in the trunk and having them hammer on the roof every time bass hit... the 12 in the sealed box made sweet sweet music.

 

sealed...bandpass sux...unless u like trance.....if u play a lot of rock...go 10 inches...if u listen to hip hop....12 inches....and dun get tubes...dey stink too....if u goto car shows and u see da cars in "ICE" catagories...dey dun use bandpass nor tubes....

 

Well, thanks guys.
I think I'll have to go with the Kicker Solobaric in a sealed box, but I'll look into that polk sub as well. I've got the air-space requirements, so I think I'll make my own box and maybe setup some sort of baffle system as well (I'm going to have to play with this one a bit). Thanks for the heads-up on the pain it is for cutting out that plastic (I haven't taken it apart yet, so I didn't know there was metal back there too).

 

You might want to think again about the Solobaric, unless you're talking a D series, the new L5 or L7 series tend to be a little space and power hungry.

If space constraint were a problem I'd tend to look more at an Image Dynamics IDQ, or an Adire Audio Shiva. If you have a little more space, you could bump it up to a Resonant Engineering XXX, Adire Audio Brahama, or Image Dynamics IDMAX, or a Digital Designs 3512.

The choice is ulitmately yours, I'm just kicking down a few doors for ya. If you've got any questions I can help with, don't be afriad to ask. (I know you're not a noob, but we all need a little help sometimes)

 

hmmmm..... I looked up those subs you guys are talking about, the Polk Momo and the Image Dynamics IDQ looked good, with about the same airspace requirements as the Kicker solobaric and more power handling, and while the Adire Audio subs looked pretty good, they actually require more space (if my conversions are correct about 1.5 sq ft. as opposed to the Kicker's .88 sq ft.), and the Digital Designs website tried to load all sorts of spam on my cornputer so I didn't even stay to find out about them. I may seem a bit partial to the Kicker, but that's only based on personal expirience. Plus the square design adds more surface area to the "air pumping surface" allowing more air to be moved (sounds kinda wierd, but I bought it).

 

i know what bandpass looks like but whats the difference between ported and sealed? and why is sealed better than band-passes?

 

ported has an opening (Port) on the magnet side of the sub rather than on the cone side... (on the side with all the metal rather than the side with the pretty picture on the cone). on ported boxes you can touch the front of the sub... band pass boxes are pretty much 2 boxes in one... the back of the sub goes into 1 box, and the front sticks into the other box... the ports are on the front side
i like sealed better because they require far less space, and make up in sound quality (many times over IMO) what they lack in rediculous thumping.
sorta explained that like ****. just go to like crutchfield.com and look at ported and bandpass and you'll see the diff