What would too small of a box sound like?

[JettaGLI 10+ year member]

I just got 2 JL 12w6v2's and I put them in my fiberglassed enclosure. I set the gain with a volt meter per JLs instructions.

They sound like ****. I calculated it out, and, I need to have 20 gallons of water fit in there for it to be the "right" size of 1.25 CF.

I really don't want to have to dump and empty 20 gallons of water around all the electrical.

What would a box that is too small sound like?

WOuld turning the gains down help compensate for too small of a box?

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[PhatTonyDeMarco 5,000+ posts]

Try adding some polyfill, add little by little until you like what you hear.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

dump a shitload of more power into them.

 

[loud-n-low 10+ year member]

too small would sound like chit,not hit low.

 

[Spkrman]

they just don't sound good sealed IMO.

 

[JettaGLI 10+ year member]

dump a shitload of more power into them.

I have a 1 500/1 running each sub. That should be plenty.

THat is the problem, they don't have the low, deep sound. The w3v2's did though and they both require the same box size. Do you think I am beyond polyfill?

Any other good ways to measure a box volume besides water?

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

packing peanuts.

you need more space, invert?

Port?

 

[JettaGLI 10+ year member]

Inverting would only give me .2 cubic feet of space.

Why would I port? Wouldn't the box need to be bigger then?

 

[snb778 5,000+ posts]

it would sound like what a blown sub should sound like

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

Sub in too small of a box would have limited low end and be very exaggerated and sloppy.

 

[Chevyaudio 5,000+ posts]

yeah, a sub in a too small enclosure will have little to no low end response, and it will have a muffled sound, and instead of water either try packing peanuts or the stuff you fill bean bags with.

 

[60ndown 10+ year member]

Sub in too small of a box would have limited low end and be very exaggerated and sloppy.

check is in the mail. small box=sloppy?? i guess i will never get it? i thOUGHT small sealed boxes were nice n tight n accurate??? i believe you squeak but the plot thickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

A too-high Qtc will sound like ass.

The plot hardly "thickens". This is a fact.

Group delay, transient response, and frequency response all suffer badly once you go too far above a 0.707 Qtc.

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

check is in the mail. small box=sloppy?? i guess i will never get it? i thOUGHT small sealed boxes were nice n tight n accurate??? i believe you squeak but the plot thickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

Too small of box = very high Qtc = ringing and overhang, poor frequency response, poor low end extension, etc = sloppy and inaccurate

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Most people perceive small boxes as "tight and accurate" because of the hump in response in the upper bass/lower midbass. And, if the Qtc is in check, there's nothing wrong with a "small" box. It's the "too small of a box" where the problems would become more apparent.

 

[JettaGLI 10+ year member]

Thanks for all the help. I did the packing peanuts thing and have a box volume (with speaker displacement) of 2.44. So, I added 32 oz of poly fill. The subs call for 2.5 CF for 2 subs.

That wasn't the real problem though. I realized when putting the subs back in, that one of them was not sitting flush with the baffle, the box was originally built for 12w3v2's, so I used some super thich weather striping. The gap was about 1/16 of an inch.

VIOLA, super sounding bass!

2 500/1 each powering a 12w6v2, volt matched

1 300/4 powering vr comps up front, and vr co ax in the rear.

Thanks for all your help!