I'm not making a box; I'm doing the baffle. I'm using MDF, cutting it to fit the trunk, leveling it with the shelf. I have brand new carpet padding in the garage, and I am going to line the entire trunk with it, as well as wrap the mdf in it (then wrap in carpet). My idea is that by wrapping the entire tunk with the padding, it is a cheap and easy go around from building the box, as it will do the job of seperating the sub's front sound waves from the rear. Two 12" pioneer subs (cheapies) will be installed, as well as two ports (3" by 9" according to Pioneer specs for 1.65 cubic feet +/- 10%). I will cut a piece of MDF to fit as a divider, making two chambers. That piece will also be wrapped in padding. Just wondering what people think.
I KNOW I should build a box, but I've been going with the baffle board in the lower part of the trunk with one 12" for six months and I like it. Not a lot of presence outside of the car, but inside the car bass sounds clear and loud. I've heard friends cars with 2 12" in boxes and I wasn't impressed. The bass was much louder outside of the car, but inside the bass was very boomy and unclear. After building this baffle setup, and if I don't like it, I'll go the box direction.

 

If your friends box was too boomy and unclear, then it's either a cheap sub, the wrong size box, or both. A plate will NEVER sound better than a properly built sealed enclosure in an f-body.

 

A big reason I'm going for the baffle right now is to avoid having to build the whole box. My car is just my hobby and my free time is scarce. If I'm dissapointed with the ib I may just drop the 100 bones (70 plus shipping) and get this <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/DUAL-12-PRE-93-CAMARO-FIREBIRD-TA-SUB-BOX-1182-12_W0QQitemZ5836748883QQcategoryZ50565QQcmdZViewItem">pre-maid box from SubsDotKom on ebay</a>.
Two new questions:
1.) Anyone purchase from Subsdotkom before?
2.) How long would it take someone with several years of carpentry experience to build the entire box (including measurements, cutting, checking cuts, screwing, glueing, yada, yada).

 

I can't answer the first one, but to answer your second question, plan on budgeting a 2-day weekend to build the box.

It usually takes me close to a full weekend to do one start to finish when I build them, but that includes the cosmetic piece and the carpeting. My enclosures are also quite a bit more complex than necessary unless you need to eek out every last bit of airspace available. If you take accurate measurements and don't screw up any cuts (trust me, you'll make something 3/4" too short before you're done), you can probably do it all in a day with a simple-ish design.

 

Thanks! Very good information! If I do decide to build it myself, I won't fool myself into thinking I can finish it in one night after work

 

hey, i have a baffle board in my trunk also. i dont have a dividing wall in between the two subwoofers though, just a single board holding them above the bottom of the trunk. like you said, there's not alot of boom outside the car, but inside it kicks like crazy...

i love it the i have it, and i only have (2) 10" Memphis subs. they sound great though. good look with your setup!

 

I saw the post of your subs and its the fuel behind me trying this baffle setup before I try the box. I'm constructing a divider because I'm installing ports, and I'm not sure how to calculate the size of the ports for using a single chamber with two subs (And pioneer only gives port size for single chamber, single sub).

Thanks for the support BlueZ!

 

the port diameter/length doesn't change whether the divider is there or not. Double the subs, double the volume, double the ports... it all works out.

 

GoshdanG! jim, u just saved me about an hour of annoying work!

THanks again!

 

glad i am an influence to the 3rd gen community

 

if you ahve not yet purchased the subs; think about spending a bit more and getting a "free air" sub. they are more idealized for unsealed airspace setups, like a baffle board. goodluck with your project

 

You don't want free-air subs in a plate configuration if you're looking for any kind of sound quality. Then again, if sound quality was a concern, you probably wouldn't be using a plate in the first place. Anyway, a free air sub is designed for a situation where the "enclosure" is very large, like an entire trunk. Putting a free air sub in a plate setup will be overly boomy because you're essentially putting it into an enclosure that's way too small, albiet one that's also very leaky, but still too small.

 

I finished "phase one" of the building. I made 'fins' to attatch to the plate I have going along the bottom of the trunk so that it now goes along the top of the trunk, sitting flush with the shelf. It actually turned out pretty nice.

I got tired around 11:30pm (started around 8pm) and just layed it in the trunk at an angle (top of board at top of shelf, bottom of board along the bottom ledges of the lower part of the trunk). Eager to hear the difference in two subs verses one, I wired it up and took it out. At low to mid volumes, they sound GREAT, and they have a decent presence outside of the car. At high volume, their is a greater outside presence; HOWEVER, (yea Jim) inside the car they sound blahhish (can't think of a better word). BTW, no ports yet. Sometime soon, I will be building a box to compare the sounds.

Thanks for all the advice!
I'll get pics soon.

 

I don't expect your ports to improve the sound quality. There's really no way to properly tune a ported "plate" system because it's so leaky. I would at least suggest that you build your setup in a way that you can easily adjust port length so that you can at least tune by ear. Since your box is so leaky, my suspicion is that a tuning frequency of 35hz or lower is going to give the best results, but this is just a generic guess without knowing what subs you're using.

 

Good to know. I'll just throw some poly-fill in there until I get around to building a box, and THEN I'll put in some ports.

Question: For tuning ports, does the length outside of the box matter? For instance, can I cut a 12" pipe and just slide it in and out, or will I need to cut it each time?

Thanks again.