Car Audio Questions

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I'm considering building or ordering some speaker enclosures for a set of kicker CS68 I have collecting dust.

Can anyone here point me to a useful board that focuses on car audio?

The question I need answered is what internal volume should the sealed boxes have to optimize bass response. So far my googling has come up with .25-.3 cu ft, but this usually refers to a 6x9" speaker enclosure.

Thanks
 
car speakers usually have a high free air space meaning they don't require a specific volume to function. Subwoofer drivers do however. Checkout partsexpress.com poke around on there and they have great tech support
 
You could check Wal-Mart they sell 6x9 speaker enclosures already assembled and carpeted
 
When I used to work at a high end stereo/electronics shop in the 80's we used 3/4" particle board for subwoofer boxes. It had/have excellent sealing and deadening properties but heavy as [censored].
 
sealed enclosures are pretty forgiving. This drivers are meant to mount in door or rear deck and have a large volume behind them. They are considered "Free air" Any box you put them in will reduce the bass they can put out.

My suggestion os to find/make a resonably large box to put them in. I would say 0.3cuft is on the small side any maybe up to 0.5cuft. Also stuff the boxes with polyfill (pillow stuffing) https://www.walmart.com/ip/Poly-Fil-Supreme-Ultra-Plush-Fiberfill-12-oz-Bag/17808686

The pillow stuffing muffles the inside sound and makes the box "look" bigger to the speaker.

Madisound.com has a loudspeaker forum with people very educated in loudspeaker design. https://www.madisound.com/forums/
 
What Jimmy said. The guys at DIYMA are pretty hard-core, many of them have pieces of car audio gear costing several grand.

Also what oildude said, car speakers designed for doors generally just need something to prevent the sound waves coming off the back of the speaker meeting the sound from the front, which could cancel certain frequencies. For the "hand grenade" method, .25 cu ft is probably fine. If you want real bass response you're looking at a minimum 8" woofer and around .75 cu ft like the Alpine SBR-S8-4. It's a tiny enclosure, I have two of these and an Alpine PDX-V9 stuffed in the spare tire well of my Forester. It's not going to be heard 2 blocks away, but it can make the rearview mirror useless except for causing seizures
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Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo

... The guys at DIYMA are pretty hard-core....


Wow, you ain't kidding...and neither does that site.

I had never heard of it, and fancying myself a semi-competent automotive audio enthusiast, not to mention a relatively intelligent person to begin with, I visited that website to check out just what kind of site it is (lots of good info vs mfgr shill vs ad-laden honeypot, etc.). And It did not take long to realize I was clearly out of my element there.

I will be going back to do some heavy reading on topics I know too little about (which apparently is just about everything related to mobile audio), but I doubt I will be actively participating in many discussions at first. I simply do not possess the requisite knowledge to be able to contribute to most of those threads in a useful way.

Quite a humbling experience I must say, when you go into a situation thinking you know a fair amount, only to be shown you're not even up to the level of a well-meaning amateur yet.
frown.gif


Ironically, I think I now know what it must be like for some of the new members on BITOG to come in brand new and contemplate posting a reply to some of these threads we create. It has got to be intimidating for some, and even a little scary for a few. It will serve me well to keep that in mind going forward I think.
 
I emailed kicker support and they suggested .5cu ft of volume to allow for full woofer response. I'm not looking for a miracle, I happen to have this pair of 6x8 and I can either do something with them or allow them to gather more dust. I guess I could sell them on Craigslist or something but building a box for them satisfies my need to tinker.

These speakers came out of the front doors of the fusion when I upgraded to components in the front. I have a 10" MTX Thunder 7500 in a sealed box in the trunk. Infinity K2 channel 100W driving the front components, infinity K1000 sub amp driving the sub. JVC headunit. I leave the rear door speakers off. It's nice balanced and clean.
 
You need to get the thiele-small parameters for the drivers you are working with. those parameters can be plugged into a number of apps or websites to give you optimal box volume, port size, etc.. There's a number of pros and cons between ported/sealed, and a lot of that comes down to user preference too. Ported is worth 3dB gain, with lower extension, but with the addition of some LF harmonics that you may or may not care about. Sealed can be more true but can require a larger box size. The speaker itself may lend itself to both or only one of the designs. You can go isobaric if SPL isn't as critical but LF response and size matter. if you are picky, after you consider the labor and materials costs, it often makes more sense to me to put together the design requirements first then buy the drivers that support them. Then again, the drivers might be exactly what you need.

Lots of excellent discussion off the parts-express website/forum.
 
I should have the boxes soon. Got a nifty fosi audio 2 channel Bluetooth amp that works well. Chineseium HiFi

I'll post an update once I get them mounted and set up in the office space
 
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