Yeah, that’s why I’ve never been a kicker fan.
I like Kicker. Overall, I think they're alright. I really enjoy designing for L7's and Solo X's. I wish I could get a new Solo X design, the Solo X's are great subs. I really like them.
I mean, the boxes they want aren't overly big for their actual Sd. Their square cones and the increase of Sd over a round woofer of same size is actually significant. So, a 12" L7, for example, might like a 2.25-3 cube net ported box. But that's not overly big, it's just because these subs have such a huge cone area. It's actually fairly proportional. I mean, they are on the bigger box side of woofers, but so are a lot of very good woofers, like Sundown. They need big boxes too, the X's and up, and they work well.
I did 2 L7 15's in 10 cubes, designed the box, built it, installed it, Tahoe or similar. Very very loud. There's another trick to Kickers that I'm not going to give away. Not really a trick, it's just knowing how to design and read woofers. Those 2 15's were stupid loud. Hit immediate mid 140's, maybe high 140's, in a music box, straight out of the gate. Didn't sound the best quality wise, they can sound a little....sloppy? Just inherently they do, it's not the worst by any means. But they do get loud and will play a wide bandwidth.
Usually the Kicker L's excel in 4th orders. Idk how much the L's have changed since I've done a bandpass for them, but I feel like I could make some people mad with a 4th order bandpass L7 box.