Enclosed Box for DD Subwoofers?

[jonathanengr1 10+ year member]

An epiphany!!!! Although I'm an idiot most of the time, I'm only slightly an idiot a good 0.0001% of the time. So--I'm sitting here looking out of my office doors at an incredible lighting storm (maybe I was struck... lightning can travel on the ground, they say) with my truck in the background, and (cue the light bulb), and idea comes to mind. I have a Kicker ZX 300.1 amp sitting in that thing hooked to the MTX box. 300 watts of power at the 2 ohm load the speakers are set to. It's not the 500w of the blown Bazooka amp, but I know it's good (had it for 3 years or so now). As soon as the rain and hail stop I'm going to go hook that puppy up and see what happens. I know it's a different enclosure (boat is wide open, truck is not), but I can open all of the doors and see what happens. Even have all of my heavy bass music (yeah--I know--not THAT heavy)... I'll post back in a few...

Errrrrr... it couldn't be "bad speakers" that blew the Bazooka amp, could it?

 

[Fiendstolemyamp 10+ year member]

Errrrrr... it couldn't be "bad speakers" that blew the Bazooka amp, could it?

Unlikely in the extreme. Too low of an impedance yes, "bad" subs, no.

 

[jonathanengr1 10+ year member]

So... put the sub box into the truck, wired it up and turned on the stereo. Holy blazes of glory!!! I thought I had a kangaroo sitting behind my seat kicking me. I turned the subs ALL of the way up with the sub control on the stereo--no distortion. Turned the sound to about 80% of max--no distortion. Played all--I mean *all*--of the bass songs that were flopping at the lake, and they sounded terrific! Bad news? That little MTX in my truck is pretty pitiful now....

Boy... so--ideas? Do you think the amp was the problem? Or was it just the area in the boat the sub was located? I guess I'll have to drop back to square 1 and get it *on* the boat and see. The sub box was surrounded by three aluminum panels... they are very tight and didn't seem to be vibrating, but you never know.

One interesting thing I've never understood. Maybe someone can explain this better. In my theater room, the sub completely fills it with sound. I had a guy come and configure my whole system, and you simply *can not* tell where the sub is from the sound it generates. You think it's in one place due to the volume, but you walk somewhere else and it's just as strong as if you're standing on top of the doggone thing. When playing the sub in my truck, even with all of the doors open, it wasn't nearly as loud, and in some areas completely absent, versus being in front of the drivers (in the driver's seat, in this case). Even at almost painful levels it was whisper quiet elsewhere. I thought base was fairly non-directional due to wavelength, and could pass through just about anything (you can even hear my theater sub in my attic 3 floors up when an action scene is on the TV, despite (supposed) special sound dampening drywall in the theater room). How can I make the sub sound strong throughout the boat?

 

[Fiendstolemyamp 10+ year member]

Congrats man, you solved your problem. Yes It was almost certainly the amp.

 

[FtheNutHuggers]

each wall and the floor act as a wave guide, so each sitting position is like placing your ear at different positions within a horn (basically). therefore you will get a different response at each different sitting position. regardless of where you put your sub, each seat will sound different. when you introduce air traveling across y, our ear while moving, you'll experience yet another response. each change in traveling velocity will yield different results. i've seen so many different alignments used in boats for different subs and locations that no "do this and it'll 100% make you happy" recommendation would be a great one to follow. you've got my real recommendation, that's a sure shot.