Building a Sub-Woofer box

[hondafox440]

Hey, my friend just picked up 2 Kenwood 10's for his 01 Celica GTS. Do any of you have some good plans or know of a good site for plans for building a sub box? Or do you think we can just measure his trunk and draw up our own plans?

[sly400ex]

My recomendations.....build it to what the manufacturer suggest as far as how many cubic feet. I would also make a sealed box, much more accurate, tighter bass. Just get the proper cubic ft. , then start building it from there

[TheX1992]

i built an encloser for the back of a sunbird. pain in the arse. all i can say is get the cubic feet right. and when u put the wood together, use some sealant to make it air tight. use carboard cutouts before the acutal wood so you can make changes to make sure it fits

[hondafox440]

OK. The subs call for 1 cubic foot each, which equals 3456 inches cubed for the entire box (for 2 subs). So we were thinking of either just a 24"x12"x12" (Length x Depth(Width) x Height) box (3456inches cubed) or a 30"x8"x14.5" (3480inches cubed) box to conserve a little trunk space. Does the distance from the back of the actual sub to the wall off the sub box matter? Also does the height of the sub matter, ie the distance from the floor of the trunk to the bottom of the sub (like is it better to have the sub 6" off the floor or is 1" off the floor fine). Thanks.

[FourFiftyFour]

remember to use lots of liquid nails to seal that box shut :)

[mxdave28]

liquid nails Rules!!!!

[hondafox440]

Yep, they do.. lol. 3/4" ply for the frame should do, right? Any idea where to get that carpeting that the premade ones come covered in?

[FourFiftyFour]

Originally posted by hondafox440
Yep, they do.. lol. 3/4" ply for the frame should do, right? Any idea where to get that carpeting that the premade ones come covered in?

ask a place that fabricates the boxes..... thats your best bet... they will know all of the local areas that will have some available :)

i need to fabricate a box for my 2 12s and 2 10s :) right now they are in two seperate boxes... needless to say... i dont have a backseat anymore :D

[Trx4Life]

Usually a good idea to put a devider inbetween subs so if you go with 3/4in wood make it 3/4in longer so you can put the devider and not loose air space and dot forget too air space in meseared from the inside of the box of if you just did 24 x 12 x 12 you would loose a lot of air space you need. it should be 26 1/4" x 13 1/2" x 13 1/2" on the outside to allow for the wood and keep the air space...

[hondafox440]

Yea, I took that into consideration, and we re-measured his trunk and then remembered we needed to mount the amp ontop of the box, but we have it all figured out. And we are planning to put a divider in. He's going to go to a fabric store and look around for that carpeting stuff, or something similar. I'll get pics of it when we build it tomorow.

[wilkin250r]

Sealed boxes are accurate, but they may not give you the best sound for your type of music. They are great for a rock and roll, which requires a nice tight sound. However, hip-hop sounds best in a ported box, which is a little looser. If you want rap, go with a bandpass, for deep loose base. I personally think rap sounds terrible from a sealed box. Also, sealed boxes are the LEAST efficient enclosure type. You will get more sound from a ported or bandpass.

By making a sealed box slightly bigger, it will loosen it up just a little.

Be careful about mounting your amp on top of a sub box. The constant vibration could cause problems. If you DO mount it on top, plan on sending your amp in for repairs often.

The shape of a box DOES make a difference. The "golden" dimensions, depth should be 0.7 x width and height 1.4 x width. A perfect "cube" is one of the worst shapes possible. However, internal volume will have a much more significant impact than the shape.

[TheX1992]

i believe www.sounddomain.com still sells carpet in different colors

[Diedrich]

alright look and see if it says about a ported enclosure..like he said a sealed enclosure will make tighter bass..but a ported box will most of the time make the bass deeper..all depends on the speaker..just look it up..build it close to the specs..dont have to be completely right..sometimes they also give choices on the size of the box for what kind of set-up you want(spl, db, etc..)..also try to get some mdf to make it out of..lowes carries it..its 3/4" i think and alot better then plywood..put silicone all around the inside.make sure its sealed good or it will sound like chit..if u have any problems drop me a pm

[stocktires]

I'm not speaker genius, I just do my own installs and help out friends.

dont use plywood, it's crap!
Use 3/4" MDF board, it's much more solid and dense. It'll hold up much better and sound alot better becuase it wont flex. Its about $20 for a 8'x5' sheet.
Liquid nails is awesome, must have! Also, get some liquid nails brand silicone (for sealing the box from the inside).
Build it ported! Thats a personal preference cuz I dont like punchy bass (its aggrivating and sounds crappy to me).
ported boxes are much more efficient and just have a better lower sound. Hard to explain
Ported boxes are harder to build though. they must be almost perfectly square and you must tune them to the right frequency for the sub. Worth it though, will normally get 3-4db louder too.
Remember, when you build a box, your sub and port (if you port it) will take up space. If you dont calculate for this, you box will be too small.
Always build the box slightly larger than needed. Way too big of a box will lower the powerhandling of the sub and wont sound perfect (cant recall why).

So much to learn, check this out www.caraudioforum.com

[wilkin250r]

$20 for a sheet? You can get away with 3/4 inch particle board for $4 per sheet

[hondafox440]

So we need to take into account the volume of the sub as well? The manual said a "1 cubic foot enclosure for each sub"..

Also, that caraudioforum.com site talked about ported/bandpass/sealed boxes. If we were to build a ported, how would we determine port placement? Also, are the ports just holes drilled into the side, or is it like a PVC pipe protruding in a few inches?

[Trx4Life]

Most owners manuals on subs will show you how long and how big to make a port and yes it is usualy a pipe, or a rectangle ressessed into a box, what ever you do not just drill a hole in the box... that would be bad.

[hondafox440]

Ok. Sorry for all the questions, I just don't know anything on the topic and I don't wanna screw it up, and all those car audio sites are written in a manner so you have to know something about installs it before going there.

[nakomis0]

I have a single 10" ported subwoofer box I'd sell ya for cheap. You can copy the design and make another one if you want.

Its a bad arse box too, its 1 cu.ft. with a speaker loaded in it. And its a slot port tuned to 30hz. no carpet or nothing, $20 + shipping and somebody can take it.

I actually just threw it in my bonfire pit today (didnt burn it yet :)). This weekend I burnt a dual 10" f-150 box, that replaces your rear seat in an ext. cab, and burnt a pre fab ported box.. just have no more room in my garage for suboofer boxes and all this mdf.

But if you do build a box yourself and want to do it right use MDF. If your pretty mechanically inclined, make a ported box, tune it to about 32hz. If your not that good at it just stick with a sealed box its easy to do and make it a little over 1 cu.ft and if you wangt you can always just port it later.

Do a google search for ' ported subwoofer calculator"

This looks like a pretty simple one.
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/spboxnew2.htm