Seriously, shops get coin for this kind of work, but if you got more time than money, then go for it. Most shops that could handle something like this have there own programs and might know of specific sized boxes for W6's that might be beter suited to your needs. But in my experiance, the enclosure is everything.

 

Ha! Never thought about 11 hz that way before! Watch out I hear elephant mating calls are in that range, if anything wierd happens to your truck, I wanna see a pic of that!!!

Sorry - I couldn't resist

 

I'm up in Chino once a week for the next few weeks which is just down the road from you. Only problem is, i'm there on weekdays and usually out of there by noon. If you wanna hook up, let me know. I'd be glad to see what you got goin on, where your trying to go etc.

I'm just in this stuff as a hobby but would be glad to give you my input.

I was just looking at your amps manual. How is the sub wired to the amp? It is kind of a mis-matched setup between the amp and speakers. The amp is only 4 ohm stable bridged, 2 ohm stereo and you have 2 4 ohm voice coils. So you only get 112.5 watts to each coil or you could live life on the edge and run it 2 ohm bridged by wiring the sub paralel. All positives to positives and negatives to negatives. Just might get hot and or die.

 

Well I work in LA, but I am off on Monday March 29 let me know if this day works for you? Also I really don't know how my system is wired, my buddy did it for me. Like I said before I really don't know too much about stereo systems.

When you said I had 3cubic feet for my box was that 3 for each chamber or was that three total? Because if it was three total there is no way I could fit a 7cubic foot box behind the seat of my regular cab F150...

 

The three feet was the total size you wrote the dimension of the enclosure. If this is a regular cab, you probably can't fit anything bigger than you have can you?

Unless your amp is running a 2 ohm load right now, you might want to think about just getting a bigger better amp or trying it wired at 2 ohm and see if it will hold. The W6 calls for 400 RMS max. Which is about what your amp would put out at 2 ohm.

 

so do you think the sub would sound better if it had 3cubic feet rather than 1.5? I ask because yes I really can't put a much of a bigger box behind the seat. But I can have a custom box built for the one W6. So maybe I need to havea new box made and purcahse a better amp like the Phoenix Gold or something like that...

 

I say spend your money on the ported enclosure for one W6 and make it as big as possible. Have them put a amp rack in it so you can put whatever size amp you need. Sucks buying equipment for size instead of performance.

 

Ok, I have sat quiet on this thread for long enough.

Just what is it that you want to accomplish here? Here are some scenarios I have for you if you really want SQ, max boom, a good mix, or max boom with minimal power.

SQ go with the two subs you have in a sealed enclosure would be the best.

Max boom large ported box tuned to 50hz (which is close to the resonant frequency of our trucks). Keep in mind this will be loud as heck but will be boomy sounding.

A good mix ported enclosure tuned around 28-36hz.

Huge and I mean HUGE boom with minimal power with top notch SQ to go with it. Two words Transmission Line a.k.a. 1/4 wave length enclosure.

Now for dificulty of build. Sealed very easy to build and require less space. Ported box is slightly harder to build and requires almost double the air space as sealed. 1/4 wavelength transmission line is an extremely complicated box to build and will require very large amount of room.

Take your pic.

Sealed will need more power to get loud.

Ported will require less power to get loud.

Transmission line will take even less power to get loud.

Those are your choices grasshopper. Choose wisely.

 

Was wondering where you were at Using his entire box with 1 W6 tuned to 30 hz looks alot like mine. Put 2 in there and it goes all to heck.

So Chris, tell us more about this Transmision Line box.

 

I finally figured out how to make a plot into a file. Here is what i've been looking at. All these are 1 W6 in the box you have now. I roughed it out to 2.75 cu ft. This is a gain plot.



White is what you have now.
Green is vented tuned to 30 hz
Pink is tuned to 19 hz

The 30hz tune looks best in the enclosure you have now. Cut a hole

 

1/4 wave length box or what is commonly called a transmission line box is the most difficult box to master bar none. In the simplest way I can explain it is that the box works is by using the rear wave to enhance the wave from the cone. First rule of thumb is the sub has to be on the same plane as the port. The port length itself is 1/4 the length of the subwoofers wave length. It basically gives you the efficiency of a single driver with the output of two drivers. The frequency response is extremely flat and produces a much wider bandwidth prior to cone break up. If you are thinking of building one all I can tell you is to do a search for some in depth background. I think diysubwoofer.net mentions it briefly and has a link to get more info if I remember correctly. There is much more techno-babble to be found. Again if you have intentions of trying one out spend plenty of time doing your homework because the slightest misplacement of a panel in the port section will be bad on a very large scale. I have built them for home audio many times in the past as well as some pro sound stage setups. The specs I used for the builds came directly from the speaker manufacturer in each case because there really is no programs that will plot the dimensions for you that I know about. Not to mention all subs of the same diameter do not have exactly the same wave lengths.

Oh, here is something. Have you heard the Bose Wave Radio? If so, you probably were just as surprised as I was to learn there was no subwoofer present and that all of that bass was coming from that little bity clock radio. Well, guess what. Yep, it is merely a 1/4 wave length transmission line enclosure with 4" drivers and about 45-50 watts peak to each. Now imagine if you will 1 12" sub in an identical enclosure with 400-1000 watts on it.

 

What I'm trying to accomplish is getting more bass in my truck. I know I'm limited because of the space I have. Also my knowledge on stereos and amps are limited as well. that is why I'm posting my question. I don't want to get ripped off at the local stereo shop. I don't mind spending a little money to make my system sound better and hit harder. All I want to know is what can I do to make that happen with what I've got.

StickerSteve, you said:
The 30hz tune looks best in the enclosure you have now Cut a hole

What size should it be and what material should I use for the port itself? (this might a quick fix for now)

Seams like the best thing for me to do is have a new box built for the one W6 with a port. Is that right?
And should I keep the 450s I have now?

Stickersteve is it possible to meet up with you next week on Monday so you can see exactly what my setup is?

 

What do you guys think of this one?

Phoenix Gold R5.0:1

 

Nice amp but again, it's only 2 ohm stable and not class D. I think it would sound good, but also think you can get more watts for your $$$ All The amps both Cgorris and I have recomended are Class D.

Try 4" diameter 10.59 " long. Either go to a shop and get actual port tubing or find yourself some thin wall PVC/ABS. I bet this alone will put a smile on your face.

Let's get together some time on monday. I wasn't planning on going up there, so maybe you can head this way a bit. e-mail me at steve@waterfowldecals.com

Chris, that made for some good reading. I got sucked into it for about a day. quarter-wave.com had a bunch of stuff about the enclosures. And yes, always did trip out on Bose and that little radio. Couldn't get the site you mentioned to come up. Has anyone ever done a 12" box like that in a car? How big does the box need to be would you imagine? The setups I saw had some huge enclosures for 6's. Youd have to pull your transmission line box in a trailer behind the truck

 

Well like I said the 1/4 wave boxes are huge in comparison to traditional enclosures but will generate tremendous levels and really flat charts. An enclosure for a single 12" car audio sub would take virtually every square inch of space available in the back of the extended cab. Looking in the area of 13-20 cu ft depending largely on the sub. The reason the are so efficient and flat is because it truly is designed to interact with the sub on all levels including the subs wavelength. Are biggest advantage with the car audio subs is that they are designed to work in very small enclosures compared to their home audio brethren. That is why the enclosure for the 6" is so massive, that sub already workde at it's optimum in probably about 1.5 cu ft which is tremendous air space requirement for a 6" sub. Anyway it would be a fun experiment and one I have actually considered for an SPL vehicle in competition using a single 10" or 12". Could you imagine the look on people's faces when you pop out a 155-160db with a single ten and 200 watts. The only problem is you would probably have more protests launched against you for cheating than what it would be worth to do.