[DJShortyG]

I am in the process of upgrading my stereo and will be building my own fiberglass enclosure for the sub or subs that I put in my car. Currently I am planning on having one JL 12W7 and the enclosure I have designed (pictured below) fits everything with enough airspace to compensate for the area taken up by the sub. The design is simple and I believe I can create the shape in fiberglass so I am looking for input. Do you think it would look good doing it this way? Is there any kind of way you think it could be improved? Or can you think of a way to support what I call a "Sub Pod" better than the supports that I have in the design?

Also on a side note is there anything wrong with mounting the amps for both my sub and the speakers right next to the sub?

 

[RYgoBOOM]

ehhh I'm not a one sub guy lol


enclosure looks cool idk how it would sound tho....I do ported always

 

[chevyguy8893]

I like how that looks. It would be kinda cool to paint it to match the car too. The W7 would sound better ported, I haven't heard one the sounded as good sealed. Some kind of straps to hold it in place like straps for a nitrous bottle would be neat if it could be pulled off.

 

[dday]

Looks cool as hell, not sure how it would sound and I think it would be pretty hard to build. Keep us posted.

 

[Silver LTZ]

I always prefer sealed, much tighter, cleaner bass then ported....I liked ported when I was a kid and just wanted it loud. As I got older, and cared more about SQ I prefered sealed.

 

[DJShortyG]

Thanks for all the comments so far everyone!

MalibuOn22s - In all my cars before I have had two sub systems however I was thinking that as one W7 would be at least twice as powerful as anything I have had before I thought I could get away with just one. I also like the volume the ported box provides, but I was trying to decrease the size of the enclosure. The pictures below are of a ported box I designed first for 2 W7s. I could change the subs and shrink it up a little to make the size more reasonable.

chevyguy8893 - I am planning on painting the box to match my 'Bu in Summit White (or as close as I can get. In terms of mounting it I like your idea of strapping it down to the floor like a nitrous bottle, I even thought of doing something to hang it from underneath the rear deck. I also wanted to let you see the ported enclosure I had designed before the single sub. I may take a half of my two 12's enclosure and make a single ported out of it.

dday - Thanks for the comment and I hope it does look cool as I start working on it I will upload progress pictures and everything.

Silver LTZ - Thanks for looking and let me ask you, do you think that sealed versus ported would be a big differnce with the power of a W7 involved?

Thanks for looking everyone.

 

[gust_1980]

go sealed. i agree with silver, as time passes volume won't seem that important. i had a 15" in a bandpass enclosure that sounded pretty good and got mega loud, but when i went sealed it tightened up the sound. also, cool box designs get old after awhile and you'll want something more 'out of the way' and retain as much trunk space and usability as possible. i guess what i'm sayin is function > form in this case.

 

[dday]

He's using W7's though, from what I've heard they sound amazing in a ported box, unlike most subs that get louder but lose SQ the W7's are just smooth no matter what. I'll let you know next weekend when I install my new 10W7 and Focal 6.5's.

I agree with you other older guys, trunk space is more important to me these days than a cool box. It's not my car, the design has the potential to be awesome, I say go for it.

 

[flrdotcom]

i kept it real simple with my custom enclosure. wanted to make sure i could easily take it out if i had to at anytime. oh ya i went with a sealed enclosure too.

fits like a glove.

 

[ELITESOUNDS]

Go sealed. It will take up less room. When you run ported you need to build a bigger box. You can get away with a smaller ported box if you were running round ports, rather than a slot ported box. One W7 12 by its self would slam! You just have to give it the power it wants. I was always a believer in two 12's in a slot ported box until I ran one 12 in a massive slot ported box. It was way deeper than two the two subs a had installed before.

 

[DJShortyG]

Thank you guys for the suggesstions, I will be continuing to change up the design until I really fall in love with one of them. Also I am taking into account all the points you guys have been making. I am in my mid-twenties and I agree that volume is not everything to me, but I also am spending quite a bit of money on the W7 and amp set up and want it to hit hard. I do need the trunk space too as I am an avid golfer and need to be able to put a bag or two of clubs in the trunk when I head to the course. All in all I will continue to come up with different designs over the next week or so and will be taking comments and suggestions on them. In the end I will choose one and build, tkaing pictures and following the progress of the build.

 

[09malibu1]

I'm building one right now out of wood and fiber glass...I will post some pics soon...Its for a 15" Kicker L5 The box had to be built inside the trunk since it is so tight in there... got it all resined up so tomorrow I will start laying the fiber glass. Oh and I'm building it with no ports the Bass sounds alot deeper and cleaner to me without a port.

 

[09malibu1]

My brother is the one making the box for me its going to be custom and loud. He's been doing this for over 15 years so I trust him...I'll post pics of my car and progress of the build tomorrow.

 

[budman65]

I could never give up too much trunk space. Seeing that I don't own a truck, sometimes it's necessary for me to fold my rear seats down and load a couple of 2x4's, conduit, pvc, ect...

 

[Screechymon]

I could never give up too much trunk space. Seeing that I don't own a truck, sometimes it's necessary for me to fold my rear seats down and load a couple of 2x4's, conduit, pvc, ect...

That's why I have roof racks

@DJ,
If you go sealed, you can make your enclosure smaller than recommended by the use of polyfill, it will trick the sub into thinking its in a larger enclosure than it is. It slows down sound waves as they pass through the polyfill. Doing this to a ported box is pointless by the way.

W7's hit hard regardless of what enclosure you put them in, the frequency they operate at peak efficiency, will change. Ported speakers have two resonances, one from the driver and one from the boxed air and port, this causes increased time delay, noticeable at lower frequencies. A sealed box does not have this issue, and throughout the ranges sealed will sound more responsive, however a ported box, can be built/tuned to also do this but it's very time cosuming, but if you get it right you will have a louder bass tone than sealed but that will heavily depend on the frequency the sub is operating at, as sealed will always out perform ported at low frequencies. But at higher frequencies the ported will seem much louder.

 

[dday]

I have 1-10w7 powered by a JL 500/1 in a slot ported box made to JL specs. It is without a doubt the loudest single sub I've ever heard and it's not broken in yet. It's also louder than most dual 12 set ups as well. The best part is musically it's fantastic, blends amazingly well and is very accurate. I still have a lot of work to do but so far I'm in love.

View the whole install and the evolution here: http://www.carstereo.com/installs/photo_gallery_album.cfm?home=yes&photoid=72274&galleryid=4634

 

[markt3307]

What kind of music you listen to plays a large part in enclosure choice. I owned two 13.5w7s and had them in a 4th order bandpass(sealed partition playing into a ported/tuned partition). Favorite setup I've ever had. Sounded much better than other sealed and ported w7 setup's I've heard. A bandpass enclosure will give you a flatter response over a larger frequency range. If done right those w7s will shine.

 

[n8ball2013]

lots of misinformation here wow.

 

[Screechymon]

lots of misinformation here wow.

I'm curious to which posts you are referring to as misleading? So far I've read only peoples opinions on something, or some way they have setup there system, and which way they have grown to prefer over another. I haven't noticed any "misinformation" necessarily. I think everyones opinion should be welcomed, unless of course someone is intentionally leading someone in a false direction.

 

[dday]

lots of misinformation here wow.

Yes please tell us what is this misinformation you speak of. Maybe some of your audio background would help educate us.