altoncustomtech

It wasn't me who dropped the ball I hope. There's always a possibility that you'll run into trouble with a center port. The port area or tuning may have to be far from optimal to fit the port length inside 20" of height.

Yes it would, the shape has no effect on the response of the enclosure. I just used the dimensions of that enclosure I built way back when. If you want to post up your dimensions I could maybe help you come up with a more space friendly enclosure.

I know everyone my sister show's her DCON to is always impressed. She says she always has them listen to it first, then shows it to them. They can't believe it's the only sub in the truck. I recommend them A LOT because they really are a great value. Whether the mic has a hard time with the sound or not it sure seems like they're really giving some output. One thing I noticed is that they seem to really be doing well covering their full range of bass.

Same as last time.... Anyone who's as bored as I am....

Here's food for thought while you're considering it.... 3cuft NET tuned to ~33hz with 42sqin port area... Infinity keeps the T/S on that driver locked down, can't find it anywhere on the web, but I built one like this for a guy locally about five years ago for a pair of 10" Infinitys with the variable Q interchangeable motor vent thingy. Sounded very nice too.

But that's our point, you can have BOTH from the tens you already have. If they're not playing low enough for you now then you need to try a different enclosure. What's the specifications on the enclosure they're in now? My bet is that it's either too small (if sealed) or not tuned low enough (if ported).

The enclosure seems to have turned out very well. Is it and the subs performing as you had hoped? One possible solution to covering/finishing the enclosure might also be something like bed liner. Gives a nice textured finish and is tough as nails. I've been very happy with how my amp rack has turned out and it's holding up really well.

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Yeah that's exactly right. I guess I'm still having a hard time understanding where the question about the power is coming from. The LOC can handle up to 400 watts of input power which it will never see even with today's higher powered factory setups. Like Tirefryr said, some of the newer units already have low outs for the factory amp. If yours is one then you may not even need the LOC. If it doesn't you may look into finding a full out processor like an MS8, BitOne, CleanSweep, 360, etc. They generally offer a better overall solution to the problems faced with factory HU signals than even the LC2i can. They are more expensive but can be found used for a decent price from time to time. I found an open box MS8 on eBay once that was otherwise perfect and new that sold for $155. Oh how I wish I'd had the money at the time to have bid on it. Another problem with my understanding may be that I'm zoning on Ambien, lol. You might just ignore everything I just said. I'll reread it tomorrow and see if it makes any sense.

Why are you wanting to hook an LOC up to the output of the amplifiers? Are you using the factory HU in the car? If so the speaker level inputs go into the LOC from the HU, the resulting signal from the low level outputs of the LOC go to the amplifiers. If you're using an aftermarket HU then why do you think you need the LOC? What is the function you're trying to perform?

I do agree. A pair of 10" D4 DCON's in a new and good ported enclosure and you'd be doing really well.

Your thinking is common with a flawed misconception. The enclosure the sub is in determines the response of the sub, period. An 8" sub can play as low as an 18" and that 18" can play as tight and fast as the 8". The common misconception that larger subs play lower, or are "boomier" is just wrong. You're not going to get satisfactory results stuffing a 12 into the air space the 10 is currently utilizing either. If you want your current subs to play lower then you just need to build another enclosure. Done correctly they'll sound just as tight and accurate as they do now but will be able to play lower frequencies better. That will likely require going to a ported enclosure to achieve with notable results. If you're looking primarily for more output then you should upgrade to larger subs such as a pair of 12's. The extra cone area can yield more output than the 10's and in the proper enclosure can play much deeper than the 10's currently are now whilst having good reponse throughout the range of your LPF and just as accurate too.

to the forum! Yep, this is the place to be for audio information, especially for the correct information. As to the rest of your questions, ask away...

Cutting port length in half because you have two ports is NOT the proper way to figure port length for multiple ports. When you do a calculation for port length for multiple ports the length the calculation provides is the length required for all the ports to be at that tuning frequency. If your calculations said that two 2" ports need to be 12 inches long that means both of them need to be 12", not 12" total for both (i.e. 6" each like you figured). Such is the dilemma behind calculating ported enclosures for small spaces. You also have to add the air the ports will displace to the total internal volume of the enclosure. How small of an area are you trying to stuff this into? I think you're going to have to be willing to lose a little cargo space to the enclosure if you want to use it in a ported enclosure.

Mike is right, if a ported enclosure at the minimum specified by the manufacturer is still too large then why not try it sealed, or sell the 12 and buy a 10 but for god's sake don't go and recone a brand spanking new sub it just doesn't make any sense to do so. What are your measurements? You may be able to squeeze it in there if you used an aero port instead of a slot and got the shape right. If not then that 12 should sell fairly easily and just buy a 10. You may take a slight loss on the sale but that would be cheaper and better than shelling out $85 + shipping on a 10" recone and frame and tearing into a perfectly new sub. Hell the recone cover's 58% of the cost of a new 10" sub by itself. Get us some measurements and pictures of your trunk, we may be able to help you fit a ported in there for the 12 and still have room to carry stuff and access to the spare.

The word that goes with that time period on the site, "ESTIMATED" needs to be stressed here. There's way too few people working there for them to be able to guarantee any sort of build time nor does it say anywhere on the site that there is any sort of guarantee for that time period. They build them as fast as they can and ship them out as they're completed. Would you rather them use run of the mill standard parts or mass produced drivers which would make them no different and no more special than the majority of the products available on the market? Or would you rather exercise patience and allow them to take the time necessary to build you a truly custom driver from scratch in the sequence that your order was received?

I guess I usually figure that people need to figure out the spacing on their own since there's always a possibility that measurements aren't quite perfect or something like that. I don't have any problem posting up the spacing measurements I used based on the specs posted on Obsidians website. I'd be sure to make certain that the spacing works before making cuts though. That's a LOT of wood to scrap if it's not right.

Awesome, well here's the finished product. I took the liberty of giving it a finished look just to make it look good. While the top and bottom of the enclosure are cutout to the same dimensions you'll just need to cut a third panel to those dimensions to put on the top for the double baffle, nothing difficult. Here's the cutsheet Here's the enclosure with the top off and all the dimensions on each panel for clarity. Here's a couple of pictures of it with a finished look. 7.5cuft NET tuned to ~30hz with 110sqin of port area, 40" W x 32" D x 18" H

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I agree 100% 100 times over. If you're going to spend the money on some top quality subs then why the hell cheap out anywhere else? I'm not saying you need to go buy something like an MTX TE4001D, but you can find something of reputable quality that will fit about any budget, and if it doesn't fit your budget save up and expand the budget. I'm married with four kids aged 14, 12, 10 and 9. It's not EASY to save money for stuff like this but it's doable, it just takes lots of patience. Assuming you have D1 coils for a series/parallel final load of 1 ohm, there's a host of amps that will fit the bill for about the same price as that POS Power Acraptastik. (Google showed it starting from $230 and up to over $300) If used isn't a problem these are a couple of good deals: Rockford T1500-1BDCP $290 Audison SR 1DK $240 (if I was in the market I'd be all over this one myself) If it has to be new then I wouldn't be afraid of these: Audiopipe APSM2000 $175 (I've not had enough experience with them to form my own opinion but many people seem to like them) Massive Audio D3600 $300 (no personal experience but they seem to review well) MTX TH1200.1D $300 Sundown SAZ1000D $300 The fact is you don't need the full total RMS to get them loud. Concentrating your efforts on making sure the enclosure is perfect will yield you better results than buying the cheapest thing you can that's rated for power it will never produce.

It will be considerably louder than just doubling power. Here's a couple of screen shots I did for a very similar discussion awhile back. The first demonstrates the difference between the relationship of cone area and applied power. It shows two of the same series of speaker, rated for the same amount of power, the top one (yellow) is a 10" and the bottom one (red) is an 18". The graph shows the 10" with 1500 watts and the 18" with it's rated 250 watts of power applied. Notice it took 6X the power for the 10" to achieve about 3dB of gain. That's an EXTREMELY inefficient way to make a noticeable difference in output. Now notice the second picture here and how much louder the 18 is over the 10 at the same power level. There are WAY more variables in this discussion than can be easily covered and definitely more than can be shown in a couple of quick examples but I think this will help visualize the point. More power is the least efficient and most expensive way to get more output, period. Sure, it might. The bold, italicized and underlined words are the key and by the rudimentary nature of the questions at hand and the information we're being given by the OP I really do not think he fits in that category of people. As a matter of fact I would imagine that there is a relatively small percentage of people who honestly do fit in that category and I know for certain I am definitely not one of them myself. Not to mention the fact that whether or not it's possible is not going to help the OP in any way. He wants to be louder and the BEST way to do that is increase his cone area and even better double everything as has been suggested already.

That's very true that it's very short on port area, but since it's only for the temporary I wouldn't think it's going to matter much.

I ran through the numbers and got 5.15 cuft NET and 10.375" per port to achieve 32hz tuning with those dimensions. That's assuming those are definitely internal dimensions, sub and port displacements, and no bracing or anything else of the sort. Don't mean to step on toes but if my math is wrong it would be good to know so I can correct it.

Dan sent me a pm and asked for some help with this enclosure since he'd seen where I've helped a few others out. He offered to send me $10 for my trouble, however I declined since I won' take any money for this. I'm only doing this for the fun of the hobby and for the experience calculating the enclosure specs and drawing in Sketchup, not to make any money or to try to make a business for myself nor take any business away from anyone else. I told him that if he used what I drew up and felt so compelled that he had to pay something for it then to send the $10 to the Leg Fund so at least it went to a good cause. I drew up an enclosure for him 7.5cuft NET tuned to ~30hz with 110sqin of port area, double baffle with no flush mount per his request. It measures 40" W x 32" D x 18" H, the port is 7" x 15.75" and these are just the preliminary drawings. Dan, let me know how close this is to what you're looking for and what changes you want to make to it.