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My audio set up

M

midnightsvt

Official CEG Vendor
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Messages
216
Location
Rochester, MN
I have a pioneer deck, 4 6x9 Boston Acoustics speakers, and a 12inch kicker comp vr.
Here is what it sounds like, sorry for kinda crappy audio quality.

 
You should ditch the crappy prefab sealed box and get a custom ported box made, then your bass will sound better and get louder. Sealed boxes are a tremendous bottleneck when it comes to output. A properly built ported box will have better sound quality and can be up to 3db louder. Nice job though, I guess this is your first system?

Boston Acoustics just dropped out of car audio in April, so take care of those speakers, they will be collectors items some day.


I'm in the middle of a box build myself, its a ported box for daily listening but it will also see competition time and will have interchangable ports
 
custom big ports ftw

hated my sealed box that came with my sub, also kept falling over, got a banpass for it but it cuts out way to much, planing on building a new ported box in the next couple weeks.

Hard to tell how it sounds in the vid with the cam mic, idk if you have another mic that could like maybe plug into the computer or not(I write music, and have some nice mics, as well as a couple usb powered mics that can record that stuff fairly well, idk if you know anybody that has one or not, but sweet man.
 
nice i have always been a fan of kicker. i have a 12 solo L7 in my car now in a ported box & it slams. especially for 1 sub. i had 2 of them in my 1st svt & u couldnt even sit in the car with it over half way up. but i perfered sealed boxes. every1 has there own opinion. with a sealed box you will have a cleaner deeper bass, ported & bandpass will be louder but i dont think they are as clear. but like i said that is just my opinion. & yes ported can have a nice clean deep sound to if they are made properly to the right specs for the speaker. but if you are just going to buy a premade ported box chances are its not going to be the greatest. that & some speakers are better with a ported box & some are better in a sealed. so it all comes down to your speaker & your personal preference.
 
The enclosure is the most important thing in a sub stage, next to aiming and phase alignment. Sadly 99% of people ignore this and go straight for the "best equipment" that they can buy, then they wonder why it doesn't sound as good as they were hoping.
 
Thanks for all your comments, I do have to say I prefer a closed box vs a ported because of sound quality. Ported are louder but are often messier sounding. I guess if you built one to specs it would be better but im not a huge fan. The boston acoustics are amazing and i love them and i am glad i got them before the left car audio :) haha.
 
i see the kicker bass control know there. which amp do u have? i definetly agree sealed sounds so much cleaner & clearer. the only reason i have a ported box now is cuz i had the sub from my old set up & didnt have a box for it, 1 of my buddies gave me the box so i could see if the sub still worked & just never took it out. but i do plan on putting it in a sealed box. i would rather have clarity over loudness. what good is a system if you turn it up & its all distorted
 
Everyone who says sealed sounds better has never heard a properly designed and implemented ported setup.

The ported boxes you guys have all heard are shi tty prefabs from best buy or your local car audio shops, those boxes are all too small and have too high of a tuning, so the response curve is very narrow and peaky.
 
im not knocking the ported box. i do agree they can sound good if they are made properly. & the premade 1s do suck. i have had many different setups in my cars over the years. ported & sealed. custom made to the speaker & pre made.each speaker needs a different amount of air space. but also since he only has 1 sub im guessing he doesnt want a big box in the trunk taking up a lot of room. @ least with a sealed box & with kicker they dont need a big box to sound good. & kicker does sound better in a sealed box over a ported box. no matter how its made. kicker is made for small sealed enclosures. its every1s personal preference. & if he is happy with it thats all that matters, he is the 1 listening to it. but overall if you want quality go with a sealed box, if you want loud go with ported.
 
double_u_4 said:
im not knocking the ported box. i do agree they can sound good if they are made properly. & the premade 1s do suck. i have had many different setups in my cars over the years. ported & sealed. custom made to the speaker & pre made.each speaker needs a different amount of air space. but also since he only has 1 sub im guessing he doesnt want a big box in the trunk taking up a lot of room. @ least with a sealed box & with kicker they dont need a big box to sound good. & kicker does sound better in a sealed box over a ported box. no matter how its made. kicker is made for small sealed enclosures. its every1s personal preference. & if he is happy with it thats all that matters, he is the 1 listening to it. but overall if you want quality go with a sealed box, if you want loud go with ported.
Click to expand...


You're missing what I'm saying, we know op is happy with what he has, thats not the point.

I'm saying don't generalize about what kind of enclosures sound like what. Saying x kind sounds like this and y kind sounds like that is like wearing blinders and is kind of ignorant. You can win sq comps just as easily with ported or bandpass or horn enclosures. It's all about the design and how you implement it into the car. Most of the ported boxes I build play flat within +/- 1db from the mid 20s to the mid 60s. I have metered them to know this. Not very many sealed box designs will give that same kind of response. And by definition, sq is playing flat through the whole listening range.

Yes anything with a port will be louder because you are adding the rear wave from the cone.

But saying one sounds like this or that just isn't true.
 
"I'm saying don't generalize about what kind of enclosures sound like what. Saying x kind sounds like this and y kind sounds like that"- but that isnt true cuz sealed & ported have different sounds, thats y they are different.. i do agree with you thou it does matter how they are made & set up in the car. & i completely understand what you are saying. im not saying 1 is better than the other or anything like that. it all depends on personal preferance. you like ported i like sealed thats fine. so lets just let it go & not blow up his thread over this.
 
TBH guys, i enjoy seeing both of your sides on this. I am now kind of thinking of getting a bigger amp and another Compvr to throw in there. I want to get a custom built box for my trunk to hide them and maybe have it ported. How exactly can i build a ported box to the specs of 2 Kicker Comp VR's ? Let me know please!
 
you can go on kickers website & it give directions on how to build boxes. also u can find your speaker & it will tell you what the specs are for a sealed & ported enclosure. it also tells you how to figure out the specs for the box. if you want to keep it small & have room in your trunk go with the solo L7. 1 of those will hit as hard if not harder than 2 of the VRs. & the solo barics dont need a big box to make them slam. they basically need a box just big enough to house the sub. what size amp do you have now. just a thought for a box if you want a ported- build the box to fit under the rear dash & you can have the port go thru the rear deck. that will give a nice clean look & will push the bass in the car more instead of blowing the air in the trunk. it will give it more sound like having the rear seats folded down.

http://www.kicker.com/Car_Audio

for the box building-
http://kicker.com/box_building

this is what i have in there now-it is cleaned up now this was when i threw it in to test it.
IMAG0327.jpg

& this was in my old svt-
IMAG0194.jpg
 
The specs that manufacturers recommend arent always good. For instance, the ported boxes that kicker recommends are tuned very high and are good for producing spl (loudness) but do not sound good. I have built a box for a kicker cvx that was tuned low and it had very good low end extension and played 20hz notes with ease. If I built the box around what Kicker recommended, I would not have been able to play that low.

Manufacturers recommend certain sizes for warranty purposes or for the product to be marketed to a certain demographic (people looking to save space with a small box)

Some manufacturers will recommend a box to play flat through the frequency range.

It is up to you to know what the product is designed for and what you intend to use it for. Thats where most of the problems happen because not every single person that likes car audio has an electrical engineering background or the slightest bit of knowledge on acoustics.


My advice to you is to go out and listen to as many different setups as you can, comparing box size, port tuning and the vehicle that the equipment is installed in. Those 3 factors will determine the response more than the actual equipment being use.

Each car responds differently to sound, even if it the same make and model.

I have alot of experience with almost all of Kicker's product offerings and they work the best in large ported boxes. If you are using 12s, go with 2-2.5cu/ft per woofer, port tuning will depend on your goals for output, tune low (below 34hz) for a flat response with good low end extension (into the 20s) and tune higher (above 35hz) if you want it to be peaky and loud and produce a lot of that buzzy feeling bass.
 
o in the top pic. thats how the the wires were when i got the car. they had o-ring terminals on them with a nut & bolt. then taped over. I dont know what the previous owner was thinking. & to make it even better he had the ground going to the base of the power antenna & it wasnt even bolted down. he just stuck the wire on the metal & taped it. dont worry that isnt how it is now. i ran the ground to a better solid ground, & i put a circuit breaker on the power wire instead of his nut&bolt. especially since that is the battery for the car not just the system. the 1 in the second pic is an xtra battery for the system. i just hooked it up to see if my subs & amp still worked in the picture. & after i saw they still worked i ripped all of his wiring out & re did it all the correct way.
 
double_u_4 said:
you can go on kickers website & it give directions on how to build boxes. also u can find your speaker & it will tell you what the specs are for a sealed & ported enclosure...what size amp do you have now...
Click to expand...

I have a 500 watt amp right now, nothing big, but it works perfect for the one sub. I was thinking of bumping up to a RF or Alpine maybe, not sure yet.
 
1998 Contour said:
I have a 500 watt amp right now, nothing big, but it works perfect for the one sub. I was thinking of bumping up to a RF or Alpine maybe, not sure yet.
Click to expand...

you can get better quality than the big mainstream brands for much less $, I wouldnt buy another alpine or rf amp again, unless they were used. Their new prices are just ridiculous. Check this place out:

http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/store/
 
how is your amp run is it mono or bridged. if you want to get another alpine or RF try to find an older 1. there new stuff isnt as good as it used to be. ive always perfered the better name brand over the generic companies. ya you can get an amp with more watts but i dont think they sound as good. i would rather have quality over quanity. but again my opinion.
 
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