12w0 sealed box help? Odd question...

[phunky.buddha 10+ year member]

I've got a 2006 xB I'd like to shove a box into, but under the passenger side seat. The space constraints are 15x15 footprint x9(height), with the top of the box needing to be about 13 inches wide to clear the seat rail. Rough calculations put the box volume at about .6 to .65 cubic feet with a down-firing sub and an inch or inch and a half of space underneath.

What I have sitting around is a spare JL 12w0 sub. I know that JL recommends a 1.5 cubic foot volume for a sealed box on this sub... but would it sound terrible in a box as small as .65 cubic feet loaded full of polyfill? Would it sound worse than an equivalent 10" or 8" sub?

I'm mostly an SQ guy who likes rock/metal, but this is the family car that hauls the kid so it doesn't need to be loud- just enough to fill in and provide good bass reinforcement at moderate volumes.

So basically... given the volume of the box as the constraint, will the 12 sound worse than a 10, or is it worth it to just build a box and shove it in there to save some cash?

Any help is appreciated- this kind of information is hard to find searching all over Google and other forums!

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[thevic24 5,000+ posts]

that would be way too small of a box and would sound like ***.

1.25 would be about the smallest and still have good sq out of that dirver.

 

[Vermithrax 10+ year member]

Even with polyfil you're not going to have enough airspace to get any kid of low end performance. A 10" would give much better results IMO.

 

[phunky.buddha 10+ year member]

Cool, thanks guys. I'll try to trade/sell the 12w0 for something smaller.