theSteve

When I bought my car off the previous owner, he had built a 15" sub enclosure, which i soon filled with a crappy Pyramid 15 incher that I bought for 55 dollars.

I've since upgraded subs, but there was a problem. The magnet on the new sub is much much much larger.. almost 3 times as big.

So I ripped the bottom of my old box off and thats what I've been using, but the sound is no better / no louder than my last sub.

I need to build a new box that will accomidate a 15" sub, and I was wondering if anyone had some plans made up that would help me out.

I am already aware that the surface of the box needs to be raised to fit the sub, thats how the old box was made.

Any other ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

I've attatched a crappy picture, just for the hell of it. The mess of amps and wires infront of the box aren't there any more. I was just messing around.

theSteve

well without any replies to my post in asking for help in building a sub box for a 15" sub in my trans am, i've begun construction myself with the help of a friend.

so if anyone cares at all, i'll be posting my photos and plans and stuff here on this thread in case it can be of some help to any of you in the future.

later.

Polecat

Without knowing the woofer, and or specs of the woofer, we can't help you build an enclosure.
We need to know what the woofer manufacture recommends. Some woofers are made for small sealed type enclosures, some for larger enclosures. So if you build another enclosure, that is not matched for what the woofer needs, it won't sound any better.
Post what woofer it is......

theSteve

alright.. well the sub is a Lightning Audio Strike 15".. they're discontinued.. so you wont find any kind of info or support on the net very easily... but no matter.. like i say, i've started the construction of the box already... i've cut 8 of the 10 pieces of wood and theres no turning back now.. i dont really care much about building to specs.. in my experience (which i admit is pretty limited) , just building your standard ol' box, sealed or ported, and then cutting the appropriate sized hole in the top (12" or 15" or whatever) works just fine. We built a sweet one for my buddy's camaro for his 2 12"s and its sweet.

anyways any input would be super duper fantastic n'stuff.

buh bye for now.

-s

mike1986fyrbird

I and my friend our building a sub box for his 83' maro. Its going to fit 2 12" Cerwin Vega HED's DVC 4 ohm, Powered by a Lightning audio 500.2 Which puts out 500 watts RMS @ 4Ohm. These speakers will be getting 250watts rms/each. He also got the capacitor that 'hooks' onto the amp and makes it look sweet. The amp has 2 cooling fans.

Well anyways, Onto the point!

Measure twice, cut once. We learnt that the hard way lol.

Use ATLEAST 3/4" MDF board!

Use lots of glue, Pre drill holes! Go deaper than the screw so it doesnt split the wood! WE used #10 1 1/2" Wood Screw, That the thread went all the way to the head of the screw! We used a size 5/32 bit to pre drill the holes. Whut u do is pre drill all the holes, put glue on, put the piece together then then put the screws in so they are flush with the wood!

We used 200 Screws on the box! We put a scre every 1 1/2" to 2".

Silicone the Inside, And the outside of the box to ensure an air tight seal, Your do not need to be cheap with it.

And yeah thats about all the tips i have for you.

Later.

mike1986fyrbird

And dont worry too much about the size of the box. But if you want beter sound go bigger then the spec, It will give you cleaner bass I heard. And a small enclousure will give you 'boomy' bass, but it won't sound as good.

So I've heard.

Polecat

smaller than recommended, punchy bass
larger than recommended, lower bass


at least how much airspace is this new box?

theSteve

well like i say, the box is already under way... i've started the project with using 1/2 inch pressboard.... it seemed pretty sturdy and pretty tough to me.. plus i've used it in the past and had it work out pretty well, so i went with it.

thanks for your help, though, i'll try and stick to your ideas for all the other parts of the project.. but i've already picked and purchased and cut the wood, so the thickness will have to remain as it is.

as far as how much area my box holds.. its about 21" by 21" by 11" halfed... so thats about 2.78 cubic feet by my calculations... basically i made the box 11 inches wide, because thats roughly the width of the very bottom of the well in the back of my car. i didn't bother widening the box where the well widens, because that would involve too much measuring, too much cutting, and too manny pieces of wood - therefore too much room for mistakes.

so i just cut one large piece of wood, that spans the entire width of the car, at the level where the tailgate rests on the rear hatch.... i have a photo already, but its at home and im in california right now, so i'll post it when i return. i have the two most complicated pieces to cut when i get home, then i can begin piecing it together, and by my trials, the thing is going to piece together AND fit in the well like a glove.

that IS provided i dont mess up when im cutting the side pieces... but then again, theres always more wood to cut around somewhere.

wish me luck, i'll let you all know how it goes. it should all be done, if not carpeted, in about a week or less.

thanks for your help, guys.

-theSteve

mike1986fyrbird

When I was making the box, and where the well angles out, I used a 38 degree angle on the sub box on my car, and in a buddies Z.

theSteve

i'll keep the 38 degrees in mind.

my buddy who built a 2 12" sub box for his maro told me to use 45°... he said he found that out from some reliable source.

i dunno.. its pretty easy to check once the pieces are cut.. i'm doing it in such a way that it'll be easy to find out if im using the right angles n'stuff.

its hard to explain, but i like to think that i know what im doing.

going home tomorrow, probably will get the pieces all finished and cut by tuesday, then probably polish off the job (sans carpet) by wednesday.

laters.

ChevyLuva3

Not to be an @ss... but, what the hell is the difference between "punchy" bass and "low" bass???

Polecat

punchy bass is fast, hard hitting bass...low bass is just that, low notes.

theSteve

heres a quick pic.. box construction got delayed.

mike1986fyrbird

holy **** how big is that box lol.

stiers

iTrader: (1)

That is one hellla big box. Please tell me that under the top plate it is just a small box around the sub. Because if that is one big box you might as well have just used the plate and made it free air. Also, I don't see any screws in that box at all, you didnt use only glue to hold that huge box together did you?

theSteve

goodness no the box isn't that big.

i just decided that it would be easiest to make one large top-surface and fill in the entire area, as thats what i want it to look like... other wise i would have had to make 2 edge just-for-show pieces to fill in the large spaces at the edge.

to answer the second question, the box is not yet complete. that photo up there is just the top surface and THAT'S IT! i just popped the sub in the hole to see what it would look like.

heres some more pics.. the box is still not screwed together so there are no screws, but i have just today finished cutting the rest of the pieces

theSteve

and one more, still all just resting together to check for spacing.

turns out the large magnet on my 15" sub is gonna fit with space to spare. excellent

theSteve

i thought you all might like to see the car that this enclosure is being put in .. so here she is.

just bought new rims.. so if you dont like them, dont bother mentioning... because i love them to pieces and spent a whole lot of money on them.

new tires too.. :hail: Firestone Firehawk SZ50's, 255/40ZR17

89blackGTA

rims look nice man. I am not sure about the blue on them though, a buddy of mine has some like and and 1 year later you cant even tell that there was ever blue on them. Just something you might want to look into.

Brian

theSteve

hey.

the blue on the rims is just a reflection from the sky. at any other angle they give a perfectly mirrored reflection (non-blue-colored).

just had that picture made into a mouse pad at london drugs. it turned out nice.

89blackGTA

cool, I like them alot then. of course i am a big fan of black

FyreLance

chrisb62

The awesomeness that is my car......lol

....well...at least its a better pic then the guy who posted above me..

i'll post a pic of my subs when i get one..

btw...i'm the guy with the 2, 12" 's in he camaro

89blackGTA

you posted just to say that you think your car is better than FyreLance's car? interesting, or just stupid.

Brian

theSteve

chrisb62's my buddy.

he posted to get in on this thread, and he said his picture was better than the other guys, not his car. noones making judgements.

its just a message board, right


anywho, depending on how my days go i should get my box done this weekend. i have to go out and see if i can find some grey carpet to match the car.. im assuming i'll find something at a fabric store... and then i'll need some spray adhesive for it.

just thought i'd let you all know more pics are coming

drewkivela

are you using the same amp on the new 15?
how many watts?

theSteve

yeah im using the same amp.

i believe its rated at 250.. which is not really powerful enough, but im going to see how it goes, see how the new sub performs in an actual box environment (as opposed to a crappy top-frame of an old broken box) and then if i need a more powerful amp i suppose i'll get one

im not looking for noise that can be heard down the street... i just like lots of bass.

not that you'd hear it too well down the street anyways, my car does a very good job of keeping the sound in.

well.. when the window is rolled up anyways.

i say window (singular) becuase my other window doesn't work.

anyone wanna donate a new window motor ?

theSteve

so i finished the box last night... there was a lot more work left over than i thought.. but its done now..

somehow or another the actual box portion was nowhere near centered around the sub. im hoping it wont make a difference though... theres about 8 inches from the sub to the edge on the left, and bout 3 inches from the sub to the edge on the right.

asthetically speaking it doesn't matter at all.. cuz the sub is centered up top, and there will be carpet to cover up the fact that the screws are not an equal distance from the edges of the sub,

im just hoping it'll still work the same.
i dont see why not. i dont know that it would really matter too much.. to center it truly it would mean moving the sub a tiny 2.5 inches... which isn't all that much.

we'll see.. im about to go mount the sub and plug it all in.

mudaholic

it doesnt matter that it's not centered

theSteve

well thats fantastic

so i popped the sub in and hooked up the amp and all that

at first i was disappointed and didn't think it sounded very much better than before... but then i went away and whined about it abit to the girlfriend and friends... but when i came home after buying some carpet and adhesive, i turned it on, put in a nelly cd.. and it seems all good..

chris.. im thinking after hearing it the second time, it may actually be as loud as yours.

im hoping

that way i can justify spending all that much more extra dough.

will post pictures of semi-finished and finished products soon..

stay tuned

chevkid

Just curious, is the amp rated at 250 RMS or peak? I have 2 of the same subs and they're rated at 200watts RMS and 400 peak. Just trying to help.

mike1986fyrbird

Lightning Audio rates their amps in RMS.

theSteve

Well im finally finished. I put the carpet on the box last night... i think it looks great, but here, judge for youselves

theSteve

the sub sounds.... fantastic.

its amazing.

i now understand what the boys at a&b sound were talking about when they complimented me on my sub choice.

i also noticed with the carpet off that the rattling outside was atrocious... but with carpet, its a whole world different.

theSteve

my next project is to build my amp enclosure along the strip here between the sub box and back seats.

i have another strip of carpet the same size (they're 5'x2' just in case anyone else is doing this, and thats a good size) and i'll be carpeting it the same so its almost seamless.

its not gonna be anything too flashy, i figure just one or two pieces of wood (whatever makes it sit level with the top of the sub box) and a nice piece of plexiglass.

i'll be installing a switch by my knee (beside the ones for the interior and exterior neon glow kits) for a tube of neon up in the amp enclosure, so i can be a show off at night time.

all the neon on the car kinda pulses with the beats of the sub, (yes i know this isn't a good thing)... but i like it, and it'll be neat with it right back there by the amp.

it'll have to be off while im driving, but so does the underbody neon (legally)

i'll be going out to buy the materials in the next few days, so stay tuned if you're interested.

Freeze

great work. although the box would be too big for me. i think i'll go with a dual 10" setup. beautiful rims btw

theSteve

well i've been all to busy working on a website to have time to work on the amp enclosure. i still have yet to go buy the wood and plexiglass needed, and before i do that, i want to do an oil change (oh so important).

just to let you know i still intend to build the second part of my project and check back maybe in a week to see how im doing

FLYNLOW92rs

iTrader: (53)

It's been a week???

Interested in seeing how the amp enclosure came out and hwo you built it....

theSteve

yeah i know. i went back to work last week and got very side-tracked.. and lazy. im leaving my job on the 11th though, so i should have lots of time on my hands.

im kinda hoping to do it this weekend but i have a feeling that aint happening.

theSteve

yeah so it turns out i have no vehicle suitable for transporting wood home from the wood yard.. so im waiting for my schedule and the schedule of my friend with a truck to work together so i can buy some wood (everyone needs a friend with a truck).

it will happen. i promise

White Ninja

1.) beautiful rims!
2.) dual Alpine R 10s are good for me
3.) box is a little too big for my taste, i build one that fits in the bottom of the well!
4.) my bro's got a truck and he's got an 87 IROC 350... so the truck stays here most of the time

theSteve

1) thank you for the rims compliment
2) i have a friend with dual 10's - very good for anyone!
3) 15" sub box HAS to sit that high.. cuz the magnet is HUGE and wont fit any other place
4) im jealous.

harry's91rs

I would recommend going to 2-12's or 2-10's, they will push more are then one 15 and the box for them will be smaller.

theSteve

yeah.. well.. thats fine for you. i find my 15" pushes plenty "ARE" and i enjoy the sound a lot better than my friend's 2 12's in his camaro OR my other friends 2 10's in his t/a.

on top of this, i like my box, im proud of it, and i like the way it sits and how it fills up the back end... and i cant wait to get my amp enclosure started.

so.. um.. neener neener neener.

and stuff.
hehe

harry's91rs

what I was trying to say was that mathematically 2-12 or 10's would have more surface area to push "air" than one 15. I happen to own 2-15's and can't fit them in my camaro, so I bought 2-12's and built my own box. Anyway the only difference in the sound between 12's and 15's is that a 15 inch speaker can hit a lower note than what a 12 can, so their is really no winner in which sounds better, and you probably could not tell the difference anyway. Also I didn't say any thing bad about your box, I like the box it looks good. I was only suggesting a option for you.

theSteve

dude i wasn't actually trying to be offensive, i was just joking around.

im glad your setup works for you... i love the way my 15 can go waaay lower than ol'buddy's 12's.

and you're right. i cant tell sound to any technical degree. all i know is, my system sounds awesome to me... and that's good enough.

plus im not about to be taking other options after spending about 10 hours on building my new box

and thanks for saying it looks good. im getting lots of compliments, and im enjoying it!

harry's91rs

I guess I interpreted your post wrong. I agree with what you said about "my system sounds awesome to me", your system should be what you want and be appealing to you, and not what someone else wants it to be. Also have you ever thought about an 18" speaker? Although an 18" speaker would have a slightly longer response time (than a 10,12,or15), it would have close to the same area to push air than 2-10's. I know an 18 would have a HUGE box. By the way how many cubic feet is your box?

theSteve

hey why stop at 18 when i could have a 32. they're out there. somewhere

naw, im happy with my 15. the responce is nice and quick, theres still punch, but lots of low end... it's clear and balanced out by some nice speakers.

unless something breaks, im not changing a thing.

as for the square footage of my box.. i couldn't tell you.. i didn't calculate it out.. because.. well.. there was only one way i was gonna be able to manage to build it myself... and it did involve a little bit of eyeballing. i have a drawing somewhere that i used to build it.. but for the most part i had to cut and improvise as i went on.

harry's91rs

I believe the volume of the box for the 15" speaker I have is about 3-4 cubic feet, compared to about 1 for my 12" speaker. Its amazing how much that jumps from 12's to 15's. The box I have for my 15 is a rectangle so I had trouble fitting one in my camaro, It set on the hump for the gas tank. If I didn't already have a system, I would have probably built a box like yours, and used my 15

White Ninja

the 15" box looks fantastic! To tell you the truth i've never heard a 15" speaker.... i've gone to 4 12"s though. I bet the lows from that 15 are monstrous liiittle to big for my taste though but if you like it more power to you, brother!!! woooo!