Skar EVL or DD redline 600?

[Firewalker]

Buck just stared to design boxes but then it is on you to build it or take it to someone who will. Best to call around to your local car audio dealers but be watch it some say "oh we are a professional car audio shop" and most times...the installs they do are junk no better then Best Buy. Some Home Depots if you take them the plans and buy the wood from them i.e MDF they will cut it for you for free sometimes or for a small charge. I plan on doing this next time since mine will do this for me, easier then trying to do it in the yard with a bunch of power tools that are not exactly for the job vs what they can do right then and there.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Buck just stared to design boxes but then it is on you to build it or take it to someone who will. Best to call around to your local car audio dealers but be watch it some say "oh we are a professional car audio shop" and most times...the installs they do are junk no better then Best Buy. Some Home Depots if you take them the plans and buy the wood from them i.e MDF they will cut it for you for free sometimes or for a small charge. I plan on doing this next time since mine will do this for me, easier then trying to do it in the yard with a bunch of power tools that are not exactly for the job vs what they can do right then and there.

The catch with trying to get cuts done at a big box store is they'll almost never be square. Even a saw operator who knows what he is doing and tries often just can't do it because of poorly maintained saw. If you plan around this do make sure you have a way to flush or square things up when you get home. Also every store around here is really short handed so now may not be the easiest time to get anything to happen whatsoever in a big box store.

 

[Firewalker]

Yeah I plan on it and have the way to do that. Plus the one guy that works there is a friend so I trust him. Plus I can also take it to the Cabinet maker a block away with the wood I buy and they will do it for a small fee as well. So that is an option as well. Just depends on what is cheaper for me since I live on SSD and have to save for everything.

 

[mastershake575]

Out of curiosity how much would you expect a professionally built to spec box to cost? Is there a price difference between enclosures?

In my area a custom box for either a ported 10 or 12 goes for around $180-210.

Dual 12s/single 15 is when you start seeing the $250-300 range.

 

[Methyl Mike]

Thanks. If you think about it, $200 ballpark is a bargain especially if you lack some of the tools etc.

 

[Methyl Mike]

Buck just stared to design boxes but then it is on you to build it or take it to someone who will. Best to call around to your local car audio dealers but be watch it some say "oh we are a professional car audio shop" and most times...the installs they do are junk no better then Best Buy. Some Home Depots if you take them the plans and buy the wood from them i.e MDF they will cut it for you for free sometimes or for a small charge. I plan on doing this next time since mine will do this for me, easier then trying to do it in the yard with a bunch of power tools that are not exactly for the job vs what they can do right then and there.

I tried the home Depot box cutting last time and I learned my lesson well. The saw chewed up my birch something fierce and none of the cuts were square. The saw operator only has so much control it seems. Definitely will not be doing that again.

 

[Firewalker]

Yes well I know the guy who does it as he is a friend and I have seen his cuts before and they were fine. Either way I have 2 options

 

[Methyl Mike]

It has been many years since I bought one....actually it was mostly trade but cash/trade was over 400$ (a triple stack Fi BTL 18 + 75 or 100$ cash IIRC) It is rather telling that the guy who made it (used to build a lot of boxes in the northeast) stopped doing it about 8 years ago. Even at those prices I guess it's not a license to print money. That said, that was a somewhat large box for 2 15s so you might save a bit on something smaller, but again, you're talking about a skilled tradesman with a pile of money tied up into a woodshop, probably 3-4 hours of labor plus materials (and the price of lumber is absurd right now).

I definitely can't vouch for anybody else but the guy I paid/traded gave me a very high quality solid and good performing box. No comparison to some Chinese made prefab. After I retired it I gave it to a buddy of mine who owns a shop who painted it, fixed up some cosmetic issues I had caused, ran it himself for a year or so, then still sold it to one of his customers.

Really I don't know of anybody even doing it anymore (certainly nobody active on this board) and if I were to try to go into business for myself building boxes I wouldn't even begin to guess where to start pricing them so that I could keep the lights on and make a living.

$400 ballpark for a killer box for a monstrous sub meaning it took genuine skill to make the sound you were looking for. Got it. $400 is what I was expecting based on the time I have had to invest and tools materials etc trying to do it myself.

 

[Methyl Mike]

Yes well I know the guy who does it as he is a friend and I have seen his cuts before and they were fine. Either way I have 2 options

Your situation is different. I would do the same.

 

[SlugButter]

I do slot ported boxes for a single ported 12 for 140$ unfinished, meaning no carpet or paint. If you find a guy who just works from their garage, you may find a decent deal.

 

[SlugButter]

I can do a slot ported box in 4-5 hours, so minus the 30$ for wood, making 25$ per hour from my garage seems decent to me. Maybe I should raise my prices. Lol

 

[Firewalker]

I would install systems for my friends back in the mid '90s and the going rate was either 20 bucks an hour or 2 cases of Beer in Bottles or it was 10 Bucks an hour plus 1 case of Beer in Bottles & I was drinking Miller Lite or Bud Lite when doing that. It was their choice either way I was going to get paid. Usually they went with the 10 bucks a hour an a Case an hour.

 

[centraltexastundra]

Skarbage.

is this because the speaker ***** or the company *****? In your opinion?

 

[Firewalker]

Both his subwoofers are cheaper copies of Sundowns with cheap components...and the owner well do a search on forums. Lets just say he irked some people. Those reviews on Amazon of all his so called "Great Subwoofers" are a bunch of kiddies or BS fake reviews.

The only thing he might have okish is the amplifiers but I wouldn't give that guy a dime of money, even if he gave me one for free I would sell it on eBay asap. The amplifiers are same ones that a lot of build houses do.

 

[centraltexastundra]

Both his subwoofers are cheaper copies of Sundowns with cheap components...and the owner well do a search on forums. Lets just say he irked some people. Those reviews on Amazon of all his so called "Great Subwoofers" are a bunch of kiddies or BS fake reviews.

The only thing he might have okish is the amplifiers but I wouldn't give that guy a dime of money, even if he gave me one for free I would sell it on eBay asap. The amplifiers are same ones that a lot of build houses do.

I can respect that. I do not know a lot about Skar Audio and you cant miss the rep Skar carries on this forum. With that being said, the age old saying of, 'you get what you pay for' seems true. Which leads me to something else that kinda makes sense from what I read above. Guy mentioned above about the subwoofers being slow. I always wondered why guys demoed "screwed" music as we call it here in Texas. Makes sense.