[Mastamoe]

Originally Posted by snekjumpr

I have dual subs, and the grills go over the liner. What works tho is that if you lower the back seats, you can lift the liner slightly and then slide it towards the front of the car to access the battery.

That's really not that bad. Are those 12" subs?

Did you get those enclosures from visual ice as well?

[snekjumpr]

JL W6s. Enclosures are Infinite Autowerks. For the $ the Visual Ice are probably a much better deal.

[AdonisP91]

Originally Posted by snekjumpr

JL W6s. Enclosures are Infinite Autowerks. For the $ the Visual Ice are probably a much better deal.

I’m pretty sure the W6’s come in 8”, 10”, 12”, and 13” variety. You don’t happen to know which ones you got?

[snekjumpr]

Sorry I meant to include that, those are the 10”.

[AdonisP91]

Originally Posted by snekjumpr

Sorry I meant to include that, those are the 10”.

Your setup looks amazing. How do the dual W6’s perform?

[snekjumpr]

Thanks! Really good so far. Just had to turn off SubExpander and a few other tweaks, but I’m getting there. The VX1000 sends about 300 watts to each dual coil woofer.

[BroDoze]

NICE! ^^

Bigger and/or MOAR is always the answer.

[it.g.ma_g87]

Nice seeing people pushing forward this thread and offering their knowledge!!

[Mastamoe]

Originally Posted by it.g.ma_g87

Nice seeing people pushing forward this thread and offering their knowledge!!

You feel like drawing me a wiring diagram for your set up?

[it.g.ma_g87]

Originally Posted by Mastamoe

You feel like drawing me a wiring diagram for your set up?

haha I think Adonis did a good job explaining everything.

btw a 10inch is plenty for our car.

[BroDoze]

Originally Posted by it.g.ma_g87

btw a 10inch is plenty for our car.

No.

The number and size of subwoofers rarely has anything to do with the type or size of a car.

It’s what you’re trying to get out of your audio system.

Silly blanket statements are.. silly.

[Mech Spec]

10 in is the minimum size for sub bass extension but typically some very clever packaging and a high quality sub is needed for good performance at that task.

If you could fit a 12 you're better off, but it does really come down to space available and what you're willing to give up.

[Mastamoe]

Originally Posted by it.g.ma_g87

haha I think Adonis did a good job explaining everything.

btw a 10inch is plenty for our car.

Lmao, yeah he went off

[Mastamoe]

Originally Posted by AdonisP91

I’m pretty sure the W6’s come in 8”, 10”, 12”, and 13” variety. You don’t happen to know which ones you got?

What are your thoughts on the stereo integrity SQL subwoofer?

I'm thinking about grabbing the 12", it only needs 0.65 cubic feet in a sealed enclosure. I see a lot of positive reviews about the company but I personally have never heard of them.

[AdonisP91]

Originally Posted by Mastamoe

What are your thoughts on the stereo integrity SQL subwoofer?

I'm thinking about grabbing the 12", it only needs 0.65 cubic feet in a sealed enclosure. I see a lot of positive reviews about the company but I personally have never heard of them.

I don't know the brand. But if you heard good things in terms of reliability and customer service, that's great. I can't say much on that front, but I can offer my general observations for whatever they might be worth.

I like brands that aren't afraid to publish the full specs of their speakers. Any brand that hides those numbers seem sketchy to me, like for example the BimmerTech Alpha One or BavSound stuff. With the full parameters published we can model the speakers in WinISD.

So, let's do that and compare a few subwoofers. I will note this modeling is how the subwoofers would perform in the open air. In the car and enclosure it will look different. To illustrate my point look at this:



Inside the car we get really nice cabin gain at the low frequencies, but it also means we won't be able to play them as high in the frequency band. So for my modeling, I have set a 80hz low pass filter. I can't project the cabin gain but I can illustrate how the speakers compare on some important metrics in the open air to compare them.

They all perform fantastic btw, but here are the subtle differences. For SPL, how loud they can play in the recommended sealed enclosure sizes and at the max recommended W rms, we get:







In terms on cone excursion, they all stay within limits, as expected in a sealed enclosure, so no issues there, here is 1 example:



This means no need for infrasonic high pass filters. You can play them as low as you want.

The group delays are all fantastic too:



I'd expect them all to perform really well in a car environment. However, if you are thinking of a Stealth Enclosure from Visual Ice on eBay you should be careful about what to expect.

He will custom build for either a 10" or a 12" enclosure. He claims the 10" is about 0.7 cu ft and the 12" is about 1.00 cu ft. When I asked him about it, he doesn't measure it exactly to spec, as he put it: he "eye ball's it". He also puts in wadding, which simulates a larger enclosure. ChatGPT estimates that is like increasing the internal net volume by about 10%.

Visual Ice will tell you the extra size is good for achieving more impact and deeper bass. That is true to some extent, however, if the enclosure increases past the manufacturer's recommended specs, it might start to sound loose and there might be a loss of control. The bass won't be as tight and responsive. You probably wouldn't notice it if you are going for big impact chest thumping sound, but if you care about sound quality and are paying for a high priced subwoofer, I'm not sure that is a sacrifice worth making. Everyone needs to determine that for themselves.

That is one main reason I didn't opt for the 10" stealth enclosure. I would have preferred the smaller footprint in the trunk, but the enclosure size didn't match the subwoofer's I was looking to purchase.

The Stereo Integrity in 12" says minimum 0.65, maximum 1 cu ft. The ideal right in the middle would be 0.82 cu ft. So the stealth enclosure at 1 cu ft works (in theory it is right at the limit), however if the stealth enclosure comes in already a little big, since it was "eye balled", so let's say instead of 1 cu ft it is 1.1 cu ft. Then you add in the wadding, you now are closer to 1.21 cu ft actual enclosure.

Is that pushing things too far? I don't know. Maybe you will like the deeper sound, it will play closer in feel to a ported box. Of course if the eye balling went the other way around, well happy days it brings it closer to the ideal 0.82 cu ft.

[snekjumpr]

Agreed, you def want to match the woofer’s recommended volume with your enclosure. The Infinite Autowerks was roughly 1 cf (again eye balled), and the 10” W6 I think recommends .55 cf. Once you subtract the volume of the driver itself, I still had too much volume, so my solution was to buy closed cell foam from amazon and just stick a couple of blocks of that to the sides to get the final volume as close as possible to .55.

[Mastamoe]

Originally Posted by AdonisP91

I don't know the brand. But if you heard good things in terms of reliability and customer service, that's great. I can't say much on that front, but I can offer my general observations for whatever they might be worth.

That is an excellent break down. Thank you

I wouldn't like to spend more than $500ish on a subwoofer. I found a lot of options that can easily cost 2-3x more. Its very assuring to see the SQL in your graph with those highly regarded speakers.


I gave up on a visual ice enclosure right around the time you mentioned the long wait times plus he was going on holiday

I decided that it couldn't be that hard to make myself. Well, it is actually kind of hard. Not sure I would do this again.

I've been working on it most weeknights, and I finally got around to measuring the enclosure last night. I got roughly 0.75 cu ft using packing peanuts. Once I add the baffle, I should get some more volume, bringing the total to around 1 cu ft. Taking away volume for the speaker ring, support, wadding, etc will definitely bring the number down.

It's going to be difficult to get an exact number, so I think I will also estimate the total volume to be around 0.65 cu ft - 1 cu ft

[snekjumpr]

Originally Posted by Mastamoe

That is an excellent break down. Thank you

I wouldn't like to spend more than $500ish on a subwoofer. I found a lot of options that can easily cost 2-3x more. Its very assuring to see the SQL in your graph with those highly regarded speakers.


I gave up on a visual ice enclosure right around the time you mentioned the long wait times plus he was going on holiday

I decided that it couldn't be that hard to make myself. Well, it is actually kind of hard. Not sure I would do this again.

I've been working on it most weeknights, and I finally got around to measuring the enclosure last night. I got roughly 0.75 cu ft using packing peanuts. Once I add the baffle, I should get some more volume, bringing the total to around 1 cu ft. Taking away volume for the speaker ring, support, wadding, etc will definitely bring the number down.

It's going to be difficult to get an exact number, so I think I will also estimate the total volume to be around 0.65 cu ft - 1 cu ft

Please post some pics, either when done or of your progress. Would love to see a new build thread of that. I guarantee you your sub will sound better with the satisfaction of having built it yourself!!! Just be sure to closely match your woofer's continuous and peak recommended watts with that of your amp.

[kenkamm]

Originally Posted by Mastamoe

I decided that it couldn't be that hard to make myself. Well, it is actually kind of hard. Not sure I would do this again.

So funny to hear you say that. I built one for my E46 M3 "back in the day" and swore I would never do it again, even though it was a good learning experience and the end result looked great and worked even better.

By the time I bought all the materials and some tools needed to do the job properly, I spent about 75% as much as one of these Visual Ice boxes costs today, and spent many hours on it. Working with fiberglass and polyester resin is a messy, smelly affair.

[Mastamoe]

Originally Posted by snekjumpr

Please post some pics, either when done or of your progress. Would love to see a new build thread of that. I guarantee you your sub will sound better with the satisfaction of having built it yourself!!! Just be sure to closely match your woofer's continuous and peak recommended watts with that of your amp.

Absolutely! I plan on making a post on the whole process.

So it turns out that stereo integrity does not have the subwoofer I want in stock. There is a 2-3 lead time on the 4 ohm subs, but they have the 2ohm subs in stock.

I don't know much, but I do know that a 4 ohm sub is preferred over a 2 ohm. I mean there must be a reason they sold out of the 4.

Not sure what I'm going to do, but 2-3 months of waiting is definitely not going to work for me

[snekjumpr]

2 ohm might work if it’s dual voice coil. If you wire the 2 coils in series, that would give you a 4 ohm load. I think a 1000 watt amp would deliver ~600 watts in that config.

[kenkamm]

Originally Posted by Mastamoe

I don't know much, but I do know that a 4 ohm sub is preferred over a 2 ohm. I mean there must be a reason they sold out of the 4.

Did you check to see if your subwoofer amp can drive a 2 ohm load? Maybe it can!