sub sounds sloppy

I am building a box in my dodge dakota, not looking for anything that is crazy by any means I am just looking for a good quality sound I have the a Kicker Comp VR 10 inch sub, powered by a Coustic C400 monoblock amp, wired the sub in parallel. the enclosure is 1.32 cubes if I recall but my question is any 10 inch subs I have ever used in the past are real tight and punchy sounding but for this one it sounds loose and sloppy... sounds more like girlfriend comparisons than speaker comparison I know but what is normally the cause of this? too small of an enclosure, too big of an enclosure or something else all together????

Depends on what you mean by "sloppy."  I suggest you first make sure your amplifier gan, crossover, etc. is set properly, then if the enclosure is vented it is either too small or tuned to a bad frequency for your car.  If it is sealed make sure it is air tight.Support the12volt.com

It is a sealed enclosure, that i believe is sealed quite well

cavscout73 wrote: It is a sealed enclosure, that i believe is sealed quite well

OK, then it's not too large.  Make sure the amp is set up properly (check the How to Set Your Gain thread in the Hot Topics forum) and that the crossover is set to 80-100Hz.   And again, not sure what you mean by sloppy...

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i guess when i say sloppy I mean that the bass sounds loose, not tight and punchy, if that makes sense I will run out and check the gains and settings and then get back with ya

Could be booming, which means either the enclosure is too small for your taste or the bass boost is cranked up, or the crossover is set too high.Support the12volt.com

so if I am understanding right, if I rebuild the enclosure to a larger size it will essentially tighten up the bass???I am at about 1.32 cubes if I measured right, due to size constraints I cannot go a whole lot bigger on the enclosure where I am noticing it the most is when I listen to rock/metal.. which is the majority of my music, it sounds like crap. if I pop in some old school beasties or most any rap it sounds pretty good... I dont have any bass boost on the head unit or the Amp and I have the crossover set at about 80

What are you running for front speakers? Are you amplifying them? It could be the lack of harmonics for those bass instruments making them sound boomy. If everything Dyohn suggested is set correctly, then I would suspect this to be the problem. Also if you are looking for good quality sound then Kicker isn't usually the best choice.

I am adding the front amp tonight for the 4 6 1/2 inch speakers which are getting replaced also this is not a very well planned install on my part I just got a burr up my butt and decided to do it!! as far as music I listen to everything, mostly new rock/Metal Metallica, slipknot , etc.... will update on the progress after I get everything else installed