subwoofer advice.

I am looking into getting a new subwoofer. I have the JBL GTO 3501 amplifier. It will put out 360 watts into 2 ohms. I would like to know which subwoofer would be the best match to be efficient with the power that I am giving it to achieve a high SPL without sacrificing all of my SQL. I have a rather large trunk, and my car is fairly sound insulated between the trunk and the car due to a huge foam seat...
Also, which would be the best enclosure to put the subwoofer in, I was thinking of a ported box but do not know much about them, and will most likely buy stock...unless someone has a blueprint that is spot on to the subwoofer.
I understand from reading around a bit, that SQL is a matter of acoustics and so forth and varies on the application and a matter of other factors...but I just want a subwoofer that will not be sloppy is all, and will give me the most out of my amp.
Second is sound dampening. I do not want my trunk rattling like a tin can and my car sounding like it is falling to pieces, I was wondering if there are any cheap alternatives that I can use that will do the trick without spending big money on products such as dynamat. I have read in various other forums that people have had some luck with Frost King Foam Duct insulator, and was wondering if that would suffice by giving a few layers of it or if I should stick with the name brand stuff. Also, which would be the best area to cover to achieve the best and most cost effective results. I would imagine you do not have to cover your car head to toe in this stuff to get good results, so I would just cover the problem areas like the doors and the trunk and the firewall and the floor and such....but do I have to cover all of it or just areas.

If there is anymore information that I could give that would help further please let me know.
Also, thanks for your time and your response.

What's your budget?  And when you say "most likely buy stock" do you mean purchashing a pre-fab enclosure?  That will never produce the best results.

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Stock as in the box, correct. I have never built one, although my father has the tools and a bit of skill so perhaps he could do it for me. The only hardware store I have is Lowes, and not sure if they carry quality MDF board.
If someone supplied the blueprints for a sub enclosure and all of that I would try to build it.
As for the budget aiming 200 for the subwoofer and supplies. Maximum would $275.

Thank you for your response.

When you decide on woofers and are ready to let us know what kind of car you have, I am sure somebody could possibly give you some dimensions for an enclosure.

Well, my car will be changing next summer after I land my new job. So for now the car I am driving is a 1995 Buick Skylark 4 Door, 3.1 V6. Not sure what car I will be getting next summer but I am looking none the less. I am sure that throws a wrench in things....I will be getting a car though, not a truck. So the enclosure would have to be kind of universal...much like a stock one, that I could mod to fit perfect in the new car.

When you decide on woofers, let us know.

I was thinking about the RE Audio SRX12D4 subwoofer. I have tried to find reviews but they seem non-existent. Are there any people that would suggest an alternative to this subwoofer? Anything that would hit harder and play louder and cleaner? I do have a budget of about $200 for subwoofer and say...$75 for supplies...give or take.
Thanks so much.

perfectcreature wrote:

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I was thinking about the RE Audio SRX12D4 subwoofer. I have tried to find reviews but they seem non-existent. Are there any people that would suggest an alternative to this subwoofer? Anything that would hit harder and play louder and cleaner? I do have a budget of about $200 for subwoofer and say...$75 for supplies...give or take.
Thanks so much.

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Edit-
I have changed my mind, after doing further research the RE audio subwoofer has conflicting specs between the box and the website I do not feel comfortable buying that subwoofer.
I will be getting this subwoofer instead.

JBL GTO1214D It has an Xmax of 14.5 close to the box rating of the RE Audio.

Sorry about the change. JBL Subwoofer

Anyway, does anyone have any box ideas? Thank you so much.

you said you are looking for a NEW sub, do you have a subwoofer right now and you are just looking to change what you have? if so, what are you running right now?

the amp you have is fine but with that much power and the fact that your sub will be in the trunk, i wouldn't expect that much from your sub.

if you absolutely have to get a pre-fabricated box i would try to find a ported probox instead of a regular carpeted box. some of those use 1/2 inch mdf or 1/2 inch particle board and neither of those are any good for a subwoofer box. and many pre fab ported boxes are tuned somewhere between 45 hz and 50 hz so it makes them louder overall but you sacrifice being able to hit low low notes and usually makes them sound like doo doo, but everyone has their own interpretation of what sounds good so you might not mind.

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I am selling my old subwoofers and amp because I have had them for a few years. I was running two 10 inch sony xplods that got 250RMS (Kenwood 8104D) each in a sealed pre-fab dual box.

I imagine going to a much higher end sub will give me better results than what I had before. Or at least close.
Anyway. I have not bought the sub yet, and yes I am looking to a buy a new one.
I want to build a ported box tuned between 30-40 hz probably around 35 for a happy medium...and JBL recommends 34hz... They give a port diameter of 4 inch wide and 10 inch deep and a box volume of 1.75 feet ^3.
Also...what type of wood should I use for my box since you said MDF is crap...
I tried out Win ISD and put in my numbers for the JBL sub but did not understand where to go from there.

Thanks.

ok that clears things up a bit. if you build a box go ahead and use 3/4 MDF and you should be ok but like i said if you have to make any side of your box more than 1.5ft to 2ft long then i would add some bracing as close to the center of that side as possible and you will need to subtract the volume that the braces take up to get your final internal volume. and it doesn't hurt to seal the internal edges with liquid nails, silicon works too but liquid nails will add strength. and this is just a tip, but i prefer to just drill a small hole to run the speaker wire through instead of installing a terminal cup because they like to melt over time but with the kind of power you are running, i dont think it will be an issue for you.

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Okay, how would I determine the displacement of say the liquid nails and the bracing, as for drilling a hole into the box? Absolutely. That would be easy and look the cleanest to me.
Thanks.

(What is the best for bracing?) Thanks. 3/4 MDF is what I should be using? Should I bother sound deadening it or no?

yes 3/4 MDF or thicker is fine. you can use other hard woods like oak but they are more expensive and harder to work with. take the piece of wood you plan to use for the bracing and just multiply L x W x H to get the volume then divide by 12^3 to get cubic feet( it should be something really small like .02ft^3)then subtract that from your overall box volume. dont worry about figuring the volume of the liquid nails, its not that serious.

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Okay, so then the bracing should not be that big a deal?
Should I make my measurements a bit larger to compensate? or no?

if you want to be at an exact certain airspace then yeah you need to make the box a tiny bit bigger to compensate for the spots where you will need to brace. but if you dont you should still only be off by maybe two tenths of a cubic foot or less depending on how much bracing you decide to do. ported boxes can be sensitive to differences in airspace and even that small difference could throw off your tuning frequency by +/- 1 or 2 Hz.

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Yeah, I know. I played around with the RE-Audio website, the have a box maker for their sub woofers and changing the specs even .5 inches would throw the tuning off.
I will make it a bit bigger so that I can brace it well.

What about sound dampening for the subwoofer. What should I line the box with to avoid any resonance....

dont line it with anything, ported box designs use that resonance. if you dampen the inside you might lose response or db.

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Okay. Thanks for letting me know.
What about the outside...stain it and then cover it with what? (I don't want it covered in carpet)
What would be the most durable stuff...something I could spray on...I was told truck bed liner...anything like that?
Thanks.

yeah you can use bedliner but i wouldn't use the stuff you get in a can. at the very least get the stuff that you are supposed to roll on and do like 5 coats. you are going to want to round off your edges of the box too if you plan to do that. the best thing you can do is have it sprayed by a professional but depending on the size of you box it could cost you around 150 to 200, maybe less depending on how desperate the guy is for work.

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Eh, true....that is a bit much.
Any alternatives?
Thanks.

well you pretty much need to cover it with something but you cant really stain mdf, there's no point, but if you wanted to cover it with some sort of wood veneer and then stain that and clear coat it i think that might look pretty neat if done the right way. but i would use a combination of materials just for looks like the wood veneer or maybe some light gauge diamond plate cut out into some sort of shape and then mix that with some good quality carpet or vinyl.

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i have a jl 1000/1..    i have a custom built 2 10's box that i want to keep in the car.  its a 98 bonneville, any suggestions on subwoofers that i can really utilize this amps power?   i've already had 3 sets that this amp has destroyed. so i need something that will handle the power and last more then a month.  ive had jlw6's, fusion powerplants,and boss onyx subs.  one of the installers at a local shop said that theyve cooked w7s already and jackhammers, and the best jbl subs available.  i was leaning towards the orion hcca 10.2    subs.  any one have these subs or know if they would last?   thanks

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Lenny Jenkins
MECP First Class Installer
6 years

enihcamxes4you wrote:

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i have a jl 1000/1..    i have a custom built 2 10's box that i want to keep in the car.  its a 98 bonneville, any suggestions on subwoofers that i can really utilize this amps power?   i've already had 3 sets that this amp has destroyed. so i need something that will handle the power and last more then a month.  ive had jlw6's, fusion powerplants,and boss onyx subs.  one of the installers at a local shop said that theyve cooked w7s already and jackhammers, and the best jbl subs available.  i was leaning towards the orion hcca 10.2    subs.  any one have these subs or know if they would last?   thanks

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sounds like an improper box design or the gains are not set right. the JL 1000/1 is a good amp but there is no other excuse than those if it keeps cooking subs like that. either something is set wrong or you are abusing your subs beyond their mechanical limitations.

if you want to stop cooking subs on that amp i suggest getting 2 RE audio SX 10's with dual 4 ohm coils

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I use rattle can bed liner on my boxes. It works great but you must seal the box with primer or fiberglass resin before you use the bedliner paint. I like using resin because it seals the mdf well. It also hides the lines of your panels. I don't use nails or screws in my boxes. I use biscuits to hold my panels in place till I get my clamps on I'm building a 1 cubic ft ported box tuned at 30 hz. I'm copying a box by the company where I bought my sub. I'll set it up to fire down. My sub sounds much better firing down compared to every other way I tried. The box is for a ED e5.10 DVC 2 ohm speaker. It should slam my little truck.

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2003 Ranger Edge White
Boston Pro tweeter & Anarchy 6.5 mid bass
Elemental Design e5.10 sub
JL Audio 500/1 & Phoenix Gold ZX475 Ti amps. 0 g power cable
Big 3

biscuits? i guess? i dont see that working out for a box that needs to handle a lot of pressure and i dont see the box holding together for a long time. i know kicker makes their loaded boxes almost the same way and they also break very easily if it ever gets dropped even a short distance. basically the only thing that holds them together is some glue and the carpet its wrapped in.

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