DEVOTED

iTrader: (1)

A friend of mine told me that 3/4" pine is good wood to build a box with. When I built my last box I used 3/4" compressed wood. Whats better? Why don't they just make more boxes out of plastic, like Bazooka?

SpeshalK

iTrader: (1)

Plastic is no good, depending on the thickness it isnt hard enough and when it is hard enough it does have the pores and flexxing ability that wood has to make a good enclosure. MDF or medium density fiber is said to be the best in the magazines I have read, and one thing that i have discovered after going to the lumber yard is that they make wood called MDF Lite, it is very light and allows your box not to weigh down the trunk, every little bit helps when it comes to weight..Hope it helps i have also heard of using PBU, its a special type of particle board.....3/4 inch on both of them though

DEVOTED

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm... interesting. Ok, I have a few more questions now. Basically I just want to add a lot more bass with minimal amount of weight. I only want to use one amp, one sub and my stock head unit. Alltogether I don't want to spend over $300. Is it possible?

Also... on the ported boxes, has anyone ever routed the port to the inside of the car? (ie. right below the rear window inbetween the two rear speakers) Would it bring more bass into the interior?

SpeshalK

iTrader: (1)

Anything is possible, check www.thezeb.com, they have some good deals.....300$ will be hard but you should be able to work something together......Any amp and sub will be reasonable good, its the enclosure that counts...Keep that in mind

cupOZnj

actually, i think porting it to the interior will be worse. bass is omnidirectional so it travels in all directions (unlike treble where you need a direct line to get the most volume), so directing it to a certain location does no good. loudness is also dependant on air pressure (which is what produces sound waves in the first place). the more air pressure you have, the louder it will be. by containing the sub/port to the trunk, you will achieve maximum air pressure and therefor maximum loudness. think about if you turn your stereo up real loud...then open your windows. it is less loud with the windows open because there is less air pressure.

pinoyesv6

you can also make a box out of some thick plexiglass or lexan but then that starts to get expensive...but it looks hella good

SpeshalK

iTrader: (1)

Actually in response to cupOZnj opening up the windows sometimes allows the bass to be louder. Due to the fact that subwoofers need airspace, to like what you said produce bass waves and distribute and form throughout. So i have seen when using more than 2 woofers, 15inch woofers, and also some expensive 12's they require alot more airspace in the cabin of the vehicle that the lancer doesnt have, so infact when you lower the windows the bass waves have more time to form and thus sound louder. If you live in a small town and if you have ever been in a house right near the rde thats the reason why when someone drives by with the stereo the windows shake...Bass Travels....Your ears arent a good measurer of bass because we can hear different frequencys better and most often or not the loudest bass wave or most pressure is one that doesnt sound loud to you.

cupOZnj

well to be completely correct....it really depends on air pressure. more air pressure=louder. competition stereos have crazy sealing to keep sound inside a closed space. if you look at the loudest cars, they are like reinforced 2" steel and submarine hatches. true, more air can get you louder, but only if the air is at high pressure. so if you can get a 3cubic foot space to be at 2atm, it won't be as loud as a 10cubic foot space at 2atm. but it takes a lot more to make a 10cubic foot space at 2atm than a 3cubic foot space. that's why sometimes a smaller space is better for compression. my friend had a minivan that he took the back row out, put in 10 12"s, and it was loud as ****. but now in his mustang, he has 2 12"s (really good eclipses), and it is probably louder because there is a smaller space to compress the air (plus he has better sound deadening to keep the bass in the car). windows rattling, car panels buzzing=bad because that means bass is leaking out. if you really want it loud, sound proof your trunk and stick your head in there. opening the windows in affect increases the volume of air that you have to compress (volume going from the inside of your car, to basically the world). keeping sound inside your car will afford maximum loudness.

Higgity Hank

1. When building boxes MDF is reccomended for a few reasons, it's cheap, and it's easy to work with, but accoustically it's not an ideal wood. It relies on it's weight to keep from vibrating, and it's not the strongest stuff when it comes to holding screws or heavy woofers. Personally I prefer using a nice void free plywood of at least 5 layers, 7 for my comp boxes. (AC or ULF are known void free plywoods) These work better due to their construction. The layers are cross grained, and make for an exceptionally strong and rigid board with less weight than the afforementioned MDF. Also plywood will hold a screw better, and require less *****y work than MDF. It's downfalls come in sealing and in price. A sheet of MDF can be had for less than $20, in AC or ULF you could pay as much as $40. The sealing factor has never really become an issue for me, as I like to give my enclosures an interior coat of fiberglass resin for good measure.

2. Don't port into the car and have the subs fire in trunk. They need to fire into the same air space for it to work well.

3. Sound deadening isn't always the answer. I know guys that have lost upwards of 1db in the lanes from "soundproofing" their vecihcle. One of the reasons is because the soundproofing material can lower the vechiles resonant frequency to a point below where your sub can play. This really doesn't matter to your non-competitor, but for some of us it's a big deal.

On the one amp one sub deal for $300 I'd have to suggest an Image Dynamics IDQ v.2 in either 10" or 12" (size is really up to you) and a JBL power series amp. The JBLs can be had very cheaply right now, and are a quality product.

cupOZnj

you are gonna need a tri-way crossover too. and lots of speaker wire. and various other things. maybe a cap? it's hard to build a complete system for low cost. check for big sales at 6th ave electronics.

sound deadening should be done in key places, i.e. liscence plate.....install the system first, turn it up loud, and see what shakes. then put dynomat in those areas. i agree too much is bad. only put it where it is needed.

Pimpson

I agree, MDF isn't the what it's cracked up to be, i like particle board because it's nice and light

zlancer

iTrader: (1)

oh man.....you don't need a crossover...you don't need a cap...you don't need lots of speaker wire...for $300 you can get an ok probably used system off like ebay....as long as you keep the wattage under 500 watts you don't need a cap.

the best positioning for a sub in the lancer is all the way in the back firing up. its called bass reflex. the pressure waves move upward and reflect off the trunk lid which also compresses the air even more. also it IS good to port the trunk but it depends on the sub. if you have a sub ment for SPL you want the air to move...allowing as much air as possible to move out of the trunk into the car will produce the most SPL. if you have an SQ sub then you don't want as much air to escape out of the trunk. the more air that is moved will disrupt the distributation of frequencies and you will have sloppy bass...

another note....in order to have the best compression of air at a certain frequencey with MULTIABLE subs you need the proper spacing...since sound is a WAVE it has peaks and troughs...for sub frequencies the proper spacing is 3 feet( that is the space from peak to peak distance)...between drivers not paired up. most trunks don't have this room so it is hard. if you don't believe me look up Vladimir Gavreau and his infrasound weapon. every 3 feet if done correctly will amplify the sound pressure by 10 since sound pressure is exponential. his weapon used a cylindar which looked like a organ tube..and pulsed the air every 3 feet at 10 hz causing people's insides to be distupeted...you can die from this...it keeps increasing in presure and increasing and increasing ad increasing...until you reach the limit of pressure the machine (or sub driver) and output.

on back on topic....since you don't want to dump cash into a system..then get a cheap 300 watt amp for $50..a like...poineer sub off ebay for like $75 (or you can get a farenheit....damn those things are loud by themselves, and they are like $120) and please buy a box from like www.speakerhole.com don't build one since drivers are very very sensitative to enclosure volume. thats like $25...there you go..also if you don't want a headunit get an in-line converter...its converts your speaker signal to RCA......ok.....there you go

cupOZnj

you get what you pay for. that's all i'm gonna say.

if you want cheap...go ahead. i would save up and do it right.

zlancer

iTrader: (1)

yeah i agree...jus save up and get the right stuff..

DEVOTED

iTrader: (1)

Hey thanks a lot people, I have an idea of what I might do now, but I now have even more questions. What are the difference in the number of voice coils a speaker may have, and if I got one speaker with the max watts at 500, what would my amplifiers max output need to be? Again thanks for all the information!