Where's the bass?

[Beau M 10+ year member]

Optical illusion, plenty of room for grille. No subsonic on the amp.

 

[Towncar 10+ year member]

The box is way to small, and dd woofers don't like sealed boxes...

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

you definitley need to build your own box. i'd build two or three. first would be sub forward, port right. 2 cubes after sub and port displacement.

 

[Beau M 10+ year member]

Welp, I guess I have another project on my hands if I want to keep this sub. Assuming I don't.... what woofer would work well in this pre-fab? Alpine Type R? I'm only playing with around 500 watts RMS.

DD says:

Don't cram the space, its better to error on the big side than the small side. A 10" sub will outperform a 12" sub if the space isn't big enough.

Should I go with a 10"?

Anyone want to buy a practically brand new DD 512b? Or trade for a equal value 10"?

 

[Beau M 10+ year member]

After doing some research online, I decided to polyfill my box in a last ditch effort. I stapled polyfill batting on all the internal walls, even over the port area. I then put in about 1 lb of regular polyfill, I figure the batting over the port will keep the loose stuff in.

It may just be placebo, but it sounds better to me. It's not louder, and doesn't seem to play much lower, but it also doesn't play as high. It's hard to explain, but before there was this higher frequency (80hz? who knows) harshness at the very beginning of a bass note. That seems to be gone now. I'll give it a few more days, could all be in my head, but stuffing the box had to do SOMETHING right? Interwebs say it should make the box seem bigger (just like in a sealed box) and also tune the port a bit lower (not sure how that works).

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Did you try turning it around? Port toward the driver side

 

[bbeljefe]

Just read this on DD's website:
We recommend to allow at least several weeks of playing time to break in DD Woofers, full break in may take many months. DO NOT play subwoofers at max amplifier power in the first couple of days, give the suspensions a chance to loosen up. As the suspension breaks in, the subs will play lower and louder.

 

After you give the woofers a chance to break in (you'll know when this happens because the woofers will be playing lower and louder) you can start to look at port changes to alter the sound to your personal taste and your vehicles acoustic loading conditions.

Think this could be part of my issue? Does this apply to the lower lines like my 512b or is it just the monster subs?

I've heard people say sub break in is BS, and I used to believe it, but if the manufacturer is saying it...

The DD Box | DD Audio

Bottom of page.

DD also recommends using the DC power formula to calculate AC power, so I wouldn't take anything they say as truth without some due diligence.

It's true that after break in a sub will be loosened up and will play a bit lower but that difference is minor... just like the difference made with stuffing. Ultimately, the box you have is too small, has too little vent area and the height to width ratio is off. It won't play low notes well in that box at all and as was said, that sub isn't well suited for a sealed alignment. If you want to get the most out of it, build a 2 cube net box and tune it at 33-35Hz and you'll get reasonable low end response.

 

[CSCStang]

The "window down" comment is so true. Apparently this has to do with the sound waves that bounce around back and forth. If I just crack both windows down about 3 inches I get stronger lower bass. If i pop the trunk it's even better.

 

[Beau M 10+ year member]

The thing is, does it bother me enough to build a new box? Not yet. I would rather get a smaller driver for this box than build a new one.

I remember back in the 90s there was an article in CA&E magazine about a suburban with motorized flaps in the rear floor. They figured out how far down the windows needed to be cracked for maximum output, then made the flaps that size. So, you could have your windows up and get that nice boost, I think it was intended as a cheater system for SPL competitions.

 

[Beau M 10+ year member]

Small update. Sub sounds much better. The "peakiness" is all but gone, and it now extends down and hits notes it struggled with before. It's not perfect, but it is way better and just fine for a daily setup.

-Beau