lightweight sub enclosure

[der affe]

this question is pointed at luke mainly, but anyone else with experience chime in too
could you use a thinner MDF (1/4"), 1/4" plywood, or 1/4" "flake board, for a sub enclosure and achieve the same dampening??? as 1/2" or 3/4" MDF if you lined/reinforced it with fiberglass sheets and resin inside and out?

i am building a 2cubic foot sealed enclosure for a DVC Orion 12" Cobalt, and driving it with a alpine V-12 amp.

is it a durability issue? or will there be a big performance difference?

i am just looking to build the lightest box i can.

[808BMW]

Well I haven't tried it, but if I were using anything other than MDF, I'd go with birch plywood. It's stronger and lighter (or so I've heard) just more expensive.

[der affe]

bump..........luke? andy?.........

[bignate948]

i dint see the point. subs are heavy as it is

[der affe]

it is only 1 dvc 12 (less weight than 2), and i am tired of not having bass at all since i removed the shitty box that was in there before. i can always remove it.......or just put in a bigger motor to make up for the weight.

i just want the smallest weight i can get to do the job....not sarcasm

[z31maniac]

Is 20 or 30 pounds really going to make that big of a difference for non-track only car? I say that because I can't imagine you putting a stereo in a track car. I can't tell difference with the 60 or so pounds of equpiment back there, I did remove the trunk tar as well.

If you want to use a thinner MDF, you'll need to reinforce it with fiberglass which will add some weight back.

If I were I'd do what I did. Get one of Luke's boxes meant for a 12". I have a 12" Exile DVC on only 180 watts and the motherfucker HAMMERS along with my JL components upfront it sounds great for every type of music.

[Van Westervelt]

So this is Luke, posting from Curts house.

Thinner, lighter material has an issue with strength. Box strength is 99% of bass clarity, thus "impact".

Celestion experimented with a laminate (back in the 70's) using aluminum, Styrofoam, and birch ply. Actually was stronger than MDF, but damn expensive.

If weight was more imprtant to me than bass performance, I would do 1/2" MDF, with tons of internal bracing. The srength of the box would suffer slightly, but you should be able to shave 10 pounds or so off.

Greg, just so you know, my boxes weigh about 45 pounds. If I were concerned with overall weight, I wold diet.

[der affe]

i actually had the sub in a sealed and ported box built to specs as per Orion, put them in the car and drove around for a day. it sounded better with the sealed with what i listened to. (the PO cut a 10" X 5" rectangular hole in the center of the rear deck already)

Luke's design is very nice, but i also want to keep my rear strut bar. i am kind of fucked there unfortunately. i actually noticed a little better mileage w/o the box.

no it is not a track car, but i am going to be putting a PAINTED cf hood and deck lid on it to try to save weight too. i am shooting for a stock weight E-30 with an M-30 swap....maybe lighter if possible. ;)

i can always take out the sub box if i have to.

[der affe]

thanks luke!

i guess it will all depend on how elaborate i have to get to circumvent the rear strut bar as to which material i use. i only need 2 cubic feet.

that gives me an idea of what to shoot for weight wise since i removed the trunk tar it could be a negligible weight gain by adding the box.

thanks again luke!

[NOMAD]

No spare tire and use the hole for a flush fit sub?

[StereoInstaller1]

Have you heard that setup in an E30?

Boom is all you can get. No upper bass at all, and in the midbass-challenged E30, that means shitty "Tinkle and boom" sound.

Greg, my boxes are 2.0 cubic feet. No way in hell are you gonna get 2 cubes and a strut bar, if the bar is off the shelf.

[der affe]

i was actually thinking of building a sort of "L" shaped box or wedge-ish to try to make it around the strut bar.....somehow. i'll probably end up with some sort of weird resonance from the sound bouncing off the corner of the box on the inside. my old roommate and i did some crazy experimental stuff like that and ended up adding a flat piece to the inside of the corner to flatten it out then added a wool padding to the inside of the box along with some poly fill. i wish i was still into stereo like i used to be and my old roommate didn't graduate from pot to meth. we did some crazy stuff. (my favorite was the surround sound subwoofer in the cement irrigation tube)

if the box actually works out i am sure i will have trunk resonating issues though.

[AndrewBird]

What about a triangular shaped box to "just" clear the strut bar?

[netcsk]

You can always try getting a free-air sub in there. Depending on how loud you really want it, this may be your best option.

[Erik j]

Here is a nice light weight one for you. Its not done yet, I still have to fiberglass in the box and mount the amp. But you get the idea.




It is a 6.5 inch bose subwoofer that I got for 25$, dual voice coil, really loud speaker.