Finally, a functional bass machine.

[spencers]

My bet is your box is to blame.. The single most critical aspect of a subwoofer's performance is the enclosure. If you dont get that right, you will make a great sub sound like shit. While you can get corner loading in your living room, trying to achieve this effect in a car is very hard and unpredictable due to the funky size of your trunk, the relationship between the trunk & cab, ect.. In my experience, the best solution is a simple sealed enclosure with a stout sub and lots of clean power behind it.

If you really want to do it right, download WinISD here:

http://www.linearteam.dk/

and you can get the specs for building the perfect box...

Look up a few posts to see my box.. I can't say that it's to blame. Didn't have anything go wrong when building it.

[mikeinsanmarcos]

Sure it looks ok, but that means squat when building a box.. What did you use to design it? Were did you come up with the internal volume? Is it sealed? Did you take into account the displaced volume that the subwoofer takes up? Pretty much, if you put a sub in the right box it will sound good.... In my experience, 90% of the time a sub sounds bad or is missing frequencies is due to the size of the box or problems with ports...

[spencers]

A friend of mine designed it with some sort of software. I'm not sure. We assembled it at his house one evening late last week. We did the calculations to come up with the volume. Yes, it's sealed. Yes, we took the reccomendations on Kicker's website.

[Axxe]

Jordan, is the box easily removable? I snowboard during the winter and actually use the ski pass through.

Great design BTW.

[Jordan]

Jordan, is the box easily removable?

Only those 2 bolts hold it to the car, but no... its not really removable.

[mikeinsanmarcos]

A friend of mine designed it with some sort of software. I'm not sure. We assembled it at his house one evening late last week. We did the calculations to come up with the volume. Yes, it's sealed. Yes, we took the reccomendations on Kicker's website.

So did you use software to design the box or did you use the reccomended size from kickers website? What are the measurements & what model sub is that?I am not trying to bust your balls or nothing, just trying to help figure out your lack of bass problem....

[spencers]

Kicker Comp VR: 1.0-4.6 cu.ft
6in mounting depth

[mikeinsanmarcos]

So what is the actual internal volume of your box?

Kicker actually says in their manual:

"As the sealed enclosure volumes increase, the response will shift from high impact
bass to a smoother and more extended low end."

They recomend a 1 cubic foot box for the 12" CompVR.. By the looks of it, your box is pushing the max limit of internal volume, probably somewhere over 3.5 cubic feet. What does this mean? You need to invest in a MUCH smaller box!! Go make a box at the recommended size they show in the manual http://www.kicker.com/images/manuals/03CompVRManual.pdf

A.) it will take up much less room
B.) it will hit alot harder
C.) it will weigh less

[mikeinsanmarcos]

here is a plot of the response difference between your box which is blue (assuming a 4 cubic foot volume) and a 1 cubic foot box which is yellow. As you can see, the smaller box would have much more output from 50 to 100 hz which is probably where you are having trouble.. As a trade off, you will loose some real low end stuff but your 3db down point is really only moving up from 38ish to 45ish hz which most music really isnt down there anyway. This box will give you a better overall sound and it will be really tight. Now a sound quality guy would tell you to stay put as you are flat all the way down but MOST people perfer that extra kick between 50 and 100 Hz (it is where most of the punching rock beats are hiding).. :shock:

[kylebes1]

I ahve yet to look into a sub or even a headunit, but where can i get all this information when i buy one? or can i just carbon copy what you know works?

[StereoInstaller1]

Mike, would you do me a favor and plot a 2.35 cu.ft. box for the kicker, ported, using a single 4" port 7" in length? That would be total internal volume, including port and woofer displacement.

I bet you will see more low bass, more extended response and better power handling above 30hz. You will of course see about 6db better sensitivity across the board.
Luke

[spencers]

Well, I did go from a .8cu ft box to a ~2.7 cu ft box.

I believe it's approximately 2.7 cu ft that my current box is. I'd have to check with my friend, whom probably still has the calculations.

I mean, we thought it sounded better than the old one when we played around with the songs and stuff.

I don't think rock has ever sounded really good on my setup anyway.

[mikeinsanmarcos]

I think you really want to build one right at 1 cubic ft.. Even use the dimensions that kicker gives you for the box. If this sub sounded well below 1 cubic ft, kicker would have put that in the specs because that is a desirable trait in a subwoofer.

Here is the plot with the ported box next to the 1 cubic foot box. It looks like it would be WAY better response and would play louder and deeper... While this is true, what you gain in DB, you will loose in sound quality... Its a flip of the coin, I personally would rather have a VERY TIGHT, Fast responding sub than a louder looser sub.. You also have a good chance of getting port noise if you are not careful..

[StereoInstaller1]

Mike, may I point out that 95% of all well respected home speakers, especailly those known for sound quality in the bass regions use a ported design?

Most ported boxes SUCK, because of lazy, no-tech installers, or worse yet, prefab crap. A well braced, well designed ported box makes an incredibly tight bass, far "tighter" than sealed...if it is well designed!

Qts under .45 = ported
Qts over .45 = sealed

All of this assumes the woof has adequate suspension to work.
Ported woofers move LESS, not more. If you feel a ton of air motion from the port, it is too small. Doubling the port area means doubling the port length...habitrail anyone?

Having had so many people tell me they want tight bass, then tell me that sealed makes tight, then I sit their ass in my car and teach them what tight really sounds like, I do a LOT of ported boxes....big ported boxes. Try it my way, you will be amazed. Just ask Jordan!
Luke

[spencers]

Yeah, my ported (dual 6.5") Klipsch 4.1 surround computer system has tighter bass than my car system. Thus the quality is a whole lot better.