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I'm trying to set up a JL Audio system. . . I've got their 800 watt monoblock e-series amp (1800D) wired to a single 13W6. I've gone through like 2 sheets of MDF trying to build a box for this thing ...

Problem being, the woofer sounds like absolute garbage.

I put the thing in a really small box... the website pdf lists 1.0 - 2.0 cubic feet for sealed enclosures. . . kinda a big range . . . so being that I coulda made the install look really cool with a smaller box, I built this one to about 1.20 cubic feet.
It sounds so bad, not even close to loud, it sounds so strained and shallow. . . like an overextended 8'' or something.

Guess the box is too small, (why would JL publish a box-size that clearly sounds so incredibly bad?) since I have to build another one, how should I build it for balls-out output?

1.2 is kinda high q... above 1qtc... but it still shouldn't sound horrible.

What do you have the crossover set at? How did you set the gain? Do you have bass boost or any other junk like that on? Also, how did you wire it up? Have you tried another speaker attached to the amp... just to make sure it isn't an amplifier problem?

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

Well...the manual specifies a 1.62 cf sealed enclosure. There are so many things that could be wrong with the box or the woofer itself though also. Is the gain control on the amp adjusted properly, is the bass boost maxed out or even on, does the box have a leak? I suggest you take it to a good car audio shop and have them look at it. Or you could check for all of those things and if you find nothing just build a sealed box the of the size reccomended above.

Hmm..
the gain maybe 2/3 of the way up. . . i've played with it a bit... the woofer sounds like garbage no matter where I put it... its not really a matter of being sloppy .... just real flat and shallow sound.
But no bass boost or stupid eq setting or something. its getting 80 hz and below.

what is 'q' and 'qtc'?
What happens when the box is leaky? This box is alright but I've had slighty leaky boxes before and I've never heard a woofer quite sound this poor. i mean this thing sounds like garbage.

Oh yea, i have the sub wired to 2 ohms, the amp is pushing 800 watts to it. I had a 12W0 hooked up to the same amp before and it sounded better (which wasn't very good but it was louder and deeper) than the 13w6 does now!

a box that isnt perfectly sealed can sound pretty bad from what ive seen. try pushing on the sub and listening for air leaking out. seal every edge and corner and if that doesnt help you can try sealing the part where the edge of the sub screws onto the box. a good trick for that is 3M strip calk around the bottom edge of the sub to completely seal everything. i like to use the strip calk because it is still easy to remove the sub in the future.

Also, what thickness of mdf did you use?

Especially with a small box, leaks are very important to seek and destroy.

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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder

If all else looks good and still a bad sound try using some polyfill in the box to see if this helps. It will trick the sub into thinking it is in a larger box. If this helps you can build another box with about 1.60. or try to go ported.

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You might also check your box dimensions to see if you made the box the right size. It would more than likely be that you made it too big if you got the dimensions wrong (volume-wise).

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VEHICLE: 2002 GMC Sonoma ZR2
Alpine CDA-7940
AudioControl EQT x2
JL Audio 1000/1
JL Audio 10W6 (originals) x3
Kicker ZR120
Kicker ZR460
Polk GXR-6 x4
Polk GXR-4 x2

JL Audio has great tech support. Try calling them since you have their sub AND amp they should outline the perfect setup for you.

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Real High Fidelity........
or forget it.

How long did you let the woofer play? My 12W6v2 sounded terrible for the first week, to the point where I was considering changing woofers. After breaking in, they sounded completely different.

I hate JL, they have always messed up on their sheets. I can't even tell you how many times i've heard cases just like this one. A word of advice to JL: Publish the right sizes please. You run us through the roof on your products, don't run us through the roof on buying extra materials.

I'm sticking with Adire Subs, Brahma for life.

Anthony

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

yeah, you should probably end up designing the box on your own. i have a 12w6v2 and threw it in a box with their dimensions and it sounded pretty bad, then i put it in a ported that i designed myself, and it sounded beautiful. it will also probably need some loving as their foam surround need to be broken in a bit.

uthinkuknoaudio.. I don't agree. You have always been a bit down on JL because of your cheaper superior subs (in your opinion) but I think that was a bit of an unfair statement (in my opinion) With everything manufactured and made in-house I think they'd print the right box recommendations. How many times have you heard a case like this one? I know people with W6s who built their own boxes and in prefab. No problems.

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What's that flippie??

Well tomos the deal was i had a friend of mine by two W6v2 and he was going to build a ported enclosure for it. He took it off of the spec sheet and built accordingly, and it turned out he needed about another cubic foot total, as it sounded horrible in the box. I think the Adire Brahma is a superior woofer, and i don't think my statement is unfair at all. I have heard so many bad things about JL's spec sheets and i have had personal problems with them myself! The only good experience I've had with them is W3's, as that is the only sub i truly recommend to anyone interested in JL's.

I try to be fair to everyone, but JL has never treated me right. Sorry!

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"I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.

I don't care WHO makes the driver... Have somebody spec the driver out, THEN build a box FOR that driver. I have spec'd drivers out that I bought on the same day, and I have RARELY come within 10% of the published specs, LET ALONE within 10% of each other! A manufacturer will only be able to tell you averave specifications for a driver, based on a random sampling of the drivers that came off the line during a given time frame.

SPEC THE DRIVERS FIRST... and do not rely on the published specs to be accurate. Simple as that.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

13W6 nightmare