Sealed or Free-Air kickpanels?

[CadillacMatt 10+ year member]

I'm thinking of fabricating some kick panels for my car, the component set I have are the IDCTX65CS, which are free-air/IB designed according to specs... should I design kicks with an open side to allow the free-air, or seal it up?

I was debating putting them in the door but the trim panel is a tad bit too small to contain them.

I've heard that sealing midranges doesn't give good results... anyone help me out? Thanks //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

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[Etac 10+ year member]

well like you said, if you run them free air they becme IB (much like your doors) this isnt always bad depending on the driver just make sure that the backwave is seperated from the front wave.. its not that sealing doesnt give good results... they can actually sound better, but will also lose effiency.. it all depends on airspace and the driver.. and if these are also going to play midbass.. i might recommend leaving them open, if not i say seal em..

actually if you're taking them out of youer doors and making kicks... why not put a 6.5 midbass in the door? kinda like me

 

[CadillacMatt 10+ year member]

well like you said, if you run them free air they becme IB (much like your doors) this isnt always bad depending on the driver just make sure that the backwave is seperated from the front wave.. its not that sealing doesnt give good results... they can actually sound better, but will also lose effiency.. it all depends on airspace and the driver.. and if these are also going to play midbass.. i might recommend leaving them open, if not i say seal em..

actually if you're taking them out of youer doors and making kicks... why not put a 6.5 midbass in the door? kinda like me

It's an issue of fitting them in my doors. The Kenwoods I have are 5.25" with an 1 1/2" mounting depth, and the new Image Dynamics are 6.5" with a 3" mounting depth... in order to prevent them from hitting the window mechanism I would have to build a 1" baffle/spacer, and on top of that carefully cut away the inside of the trim panel because the speaker would stick out about 1" into the panel. And to make matters worse, the door panel armrest sits about 5 1/2" from the bottom of the door, so the top part of the speaker would be blocked by it.

 

[DBBOOM 10+ year member]

Freeair/IB.

 

[Etac 10+ year member]

lol i cant roll my windows down all the way with a one inch spacer //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Gavriley2007 10+ year member]

lol i cant roll my windows down all the way with a one inch spacer //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

lol at least you got good sounds though

 

[Etac 10+ year member]

yeah they go down enough... i wish i got peerless 3 inch mids instead of these tangs.... and its not that im unhappy with the tangs i just didnt see the peerless ones till after i ordered em =\

 

[Boris 10+ year member]

I can roll my window all the way down (only took 3 MDF rings) but I prefer not to. The glass right behind the speaker ruins the sound.

 

[CadillacMatt 10+ year member]

Here's a pic of what I'm talking about... the darker carpet on the bottom of the door is only 5 1/2" in width and the speaker sits behind it. The smaller grille in the middle of the door is the stock tweeter.

 

[DBBOOM 10+ year member]

You could build some really nice pods on that door. Nice area below armrest.

 

[Horsemanwill 10+ year member]

hey matt matt over at id responded to ur question. i was searching for those pics but got sidetracked.

 

[CadillacMatt 10+ year member]

hey matt matt over at id responded to ur question. i was searching for those pics but got sidetracked.

Thanks //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[CadillacMatt 10+ year member]

You could build some really nice pods on that door. Nice area below armrest.

Yeah, but I'd have to kinda build them out at a funky angle, and then there's the issue of blending them with the doors //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[Hybrid90accord 10+ year member]

i just had a 99 come to the shop, for a deck, and amp bypass to a jl 300/4 to run some ID 5.25" components and yeah there isnt much to play with once the door panel is removed.

 

[AAAAAAA 10+ year member]

I can't say a wide open back kick pod will ever work right. It needs to be sealed. Once it is sealed you can poke open about a 1inch hole for it to "vent" and you can see if you prefer it that way or completely sealed.