Well, my install is progressing nicely. I got my JL 500/1 in today and got it hooked up. Looks sweet butted up against the 300/4. My system is now as follows:

Alpine 7893 head unit
JL 300/4 (only using front channels right now)
JL 500/1
Image Dynamics 5 1/4" Chameleon components in front doors
Kicker 10" L7 in sealed truck box

Everything sounds great. My question is, where do I put a box? I have the amps mounted to an amp board up against the back seat area. I am trying to save as much trunk space as possible. The box I have is just too big and cumbersome. Should I make a small box, (the Kicker will go in .66 cubic feet), and tuck it in the left rear corner? That is about the only thing I can come up with without moving the amps or ditching the spare tire, (not an option). Any other ideas?

 

I think the small box tucked is a great way to go. I'm still toying with using a single 12 to save space. I'm going to build a box for the new 10s I got. Each needs .5 cf, so the entire box won't be too much larger than what one 12 will need.

Wood is cheap so I'll probably try both and see which I like better.

Do you have any pics of your amp rack setup?

 

ACurax2 make the box a little bit for effiecient. U remember where I had my box in the corner do that. THat provides the best bass. Bump your box up to .9 cu ft.

 

OK, I checked out Kickers recommendations on your particular sub. You're talking about using a 0.66 cf (their minimum recommedation for a sealed box) vs. a 1.0 cf (their maximum recommendation for a sealed box).

Unlike my personal favorite brand....Image Dynamics....Kicker doesn't tell you what to expect from each size box. After seeing the specs provided by Kicker, I'm inclined to agree with dnd2984. I wouldn't build the smallest enclosure recommended. I'd shoot for something in the middle. That would equate to a box roughly in the 0.83 cf INTERNAL volume. Keep in mind that your woofer takes up roughly 0.05 cf of volume itself.

You're obviously no dummy based on your posts!!! You know what is going on. Like I've said before, wood is cheap. You can get a couple of sheets of 3/4" MDF for less than $30 or so. Since you're running a single 10, you may be able to build two boxes out of one sheet. Build them, try them, and keep the one that sounds best to you.

Like you've said yourself, half the fun of all of this is building the stuff and experimenting.

Either way, keep us posted with verbage and more importantly...PICS!!!

Take care

 

Thanks guys for the suggestions. One note, Kicker's recommendations include woofer displacement. They say the only advantage in using the bigger sealed enclosure is a little more bass in the lower region. They do recommend as small as .66 and even give the blueprints for building a box this small. It will handle full power with the .66 with no effects whatsoever. Massive amounts of bass in a small space is what they say. I think I am headed to the lumber yard tomorrow for some 3/4 MDF. I am going to try the .66. Heck, this thing is like a 1 foot cube. Amazing that you can get awesome bass from a 1 foot cube. I will keep you posted.

Bozz.... I will get some pics of the amp board. I actually have to make a new board for the JL's. The one I am using was for the MTX amps and all their connections are on both left and right end of amps. The JL's are all on the bottom so, I need a new board with new holes to clean up the look. But, I will send you some pics of what I have for now.

 

Hey whatever did u do about the faceplate. Wernt u gonna change that out.

 

actually, one 4'x8' sheet is all you need to build 2 different boxes and still have leftovers

as for the .66cf sealed box, this is the way to go if you have alot of power going to them. for example, i had 3 10" solos(the round ones) and i had them in .67cf sealed chambers(per sub) in my setup, this sounded the best w/minimal bottoming out and i still had very low end output since i was feeding each sub 400wrms. the less power u feed them, the larger the box has to be so that you get that low end extension back, unless you dont care about subsonic frequencies...

as for location, putting it in the corner when only using one sub is the way to go. being in the corner allows it to be amplified giving you more bass just like in a ht setup w/ the sub placed in a corner of the room. the second best thing to do as far as low bass extension is concerened, is to place the sub by the back seat, but facing the trunk. surprisingly, this will kick major butt as well without having to get rid of the spare tire access.

major extension w/output to boot, but losing the spare tire would be to install the box along the very back of the trunk facing forward. since my setup isnt finished right now, i move my box around and this is how i have it for the spl comps, posting 147.7dbs this past sunday....a personal best!

the amps do alright in front of the subs and this is how ive gotten my best spl reading so far! all that changed was sub placement

this setup surprisingly didnt yield the highest spl, which is why i dont recommend having the subs firing so close to the rear seat.

 

Thanks systek for another corner vote. I will have 500 watts going to the Kicker which I think should be plenty. I think it is either that or pull the amps out and put a box up against the seats. I had thought about doing this is the small sealed does not work. I could make the ported box, have the sub fire upward into the factory sub spot and mount the amps to the trunk side of the box.


DND.....As soon as I get a chance, I will either post some pics here or on my web site of the finished face. I think it turned out pretty good. I ended up powder coating it but, it just did not match very good. It now has a light coat of flat black paint and the end result is pretty darn close to factory.

 

np