tuning frequency

[jcolley 10+ year member]

i have a friend that is building a box for me. he gave me the option of having a 30 or 42 hz tuning frequency. if i take the 42 hz, is there much music that plays below that frequency that i might need to be worried about using it for my subs? should i go with the 30 just to be safe or should the 42 be alright for most situations? ussually i would just go with the 30 for quality reasons, but i just wanted to know if the 42 will work for me just in case i decide to go with that for whatever reason.

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[Skip01 5,000+ posts]

i have a friend that is building a box for me. he gave me the option of having a 30 or 42 hz tuning frequency. if i take the 42 hz, is there much music that plays below that frequency that i might need to be worried about using it for my subs? should i go with the 30 just to be safe or should the 42 be alright for most situations? ussually i would just go with the 30 for quality reasons, but i just wanted to know if the 42 will work for me just in case i decide to go with that for whatever reason.

Why are those the only 2 options?

What subs and power?

I had my AQs at 40hz and they loved it

 

[jcolley 10+ year member]

those are the only options because those were spare ports laying around that i could have for free instead of spending the like 2 bucks that i dont have for new ones. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif cheep subs. Boss Audio BL240DVC taking 500 watts each, so even if i did do it at 40-ish it would probably be fine since they are supposed to handle 700RMS.

 

[geowick07 10+ year member]

With 42hz, you will lose low end. I think you will be happier with 30hz. All depends on what kind of music you listen to.

 

[jcolley 10+ year member]

With 42hz, you will lose low end. I think you will be happier with 30hz. All depends on what kind of music you listen to.

pretty much hip-hop and modern rock. i wasnt really sure how often my music went below the 42 hz, or how far below it went when it did.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Tuned to 42 hz there will probably be a gigantic peak right around that freq in the response. You'll not get anything below that and that one small freq range will drown out everything above that too. The result is the one note fart box. Sounds like crap at all freqs.

 

[bass_lover1 10+ year member]

Tuning higher you also run the risk of damaging your drivers. Any music that is played below your tuning frequency, the drivers act as if they were in a free air environment, basically they have very little control. This can lead to torn spiders/surround, and also you have a change of bottoming the coil on the backplate, or even getting the coil to hang on the top plate.

For daily driving 30-35 hz is usually a good frequency to aim for. Some drivers work well with a bit higher tuning, like the AQs mentioned earlier, but seeing how you're going to be running Boss drivers, which probably don't have nearly the time nor effort put into designing them as the AQs do, I wouldn't chance running the higher frequency.

 

[jcolley 10+ year member]

Thanks for the help everyone. One last thing, i think. Which frequency will, on average, give me more overall volume. Obviously either option is going to give more than my sealed box that I have right now, but I was wondering which was going to have more of an effect. I am looking for more percieved volume than SPL.

 

[jbizzle 5,000+ posts]

Go with 30hz

 

[bass_lover1 10+ year member]

Tuning higher would probably get you higher SPL levels on a meter, but it usually wont do well on a daily driven system.

I'd definitely go as close to 30 as you can.

My box is tuned to 30 hz, and even though I don't listen to rap, on the occasion when I do, it does just fine in terms of output.

 

[jcolley 10+ year member]

thanks for the advice everyone. it seems pretty unaminous that with what i have i should go with the 30hz so i think i will do that. is there any specific place that i should put it in at or will just wherever work?

 

[BEAVER.989 10+ year member]

doesn't matter much as long as it's at least the diameter of the port from any walls, both inside the enclosure and out.