jcarver1112

I dont see any sig at all?

mommjomma

so out of curioisty i called Kicker and said that i have a l715", 2006 model, dual 4 ohm voice coil and asked for a recommended box. The fellow asked what kind of vehicle i had, and i told him, he asked what amplifier i would be using, asked if what sort of sound i was looking for, i told him all around good sound and that i listen to alot of different music. he asked how much space i was willing to give up and i explained what i have to carry in my vehicle daily and he suggested a 3.75 net internal box with a port 60 square inches at it opening by 22" long. Im not too sure what experiences you guys have had, but this expereince was 20 minutes ago.

jcarver1112

Lets see.

First, You told him you needed some space because you haul stuff around daily. I ran some numbers using this (which is only a guess) .15 cu ft displacement for sub, .05 cu ft displacement for bracing, double baffle. Port 10 x 6 x 22 long using 3 common walls. Here's what you get. A box that grosses 5.13 cu ft. Which will not fit in most trunk cars all at. The ones it will fit in will have little to any room left at all. If its a smaller hatch like my xb or my escape you have no room left at all. So I'm guessing you drive a larger SUV. Otherwise he messed up there.

Second, those specs put your tuning at 39hz. You said you like all kinds of music on a daily build. Take a look at the spl graph in winisd....



What your keekeer buddy did was design you what I like to call a one note wonder. Before cabin gain it rolls off 15db between 30 and 40 hz. Even with a 6db cabin gain (about average, that is if you have an suv) you still end up with a 9 db drop. Hope you dont like rap music becasue it will sound like crap. On the other side of that nice curve you have an 11 db drop from 40 - 60 so any mid bass, kick drumbs etc will sound like crap too. You my friend were givin the specs for a nice burb box and nothing more. It will get loud which is exactly what they want. "Livin Loud... With no SQ to be found"... That way all your buddies are going to want one too, because they saw that it got loud and flexed your trunk a little.

From the sounds of it I can run circles around your kicker rep all day long.

mommjomma

in my experience, tuning a box to 40hz is good for all around music. if you want a great sounding woofer than an L7 likely isnt the best speaker for you so trying to design a good sounding box with that speaker is senseless and this guy knows that. what this guy ndid is design an box that will work well with all types of music, tuned any lower and there will be a bigger sacrifice in upper bass, tune any higher and you will sacrifice lower bass. My point was that you said he would tell me to build a large sealed box, which he didnt, he asked samrt questions and designed a box within the parameters that i gave him. he did a fine job both qualifying me and helping with a design that would work great

mommjomma

btw, every L7 woofer made in the last 10 years has a response curve that looks like that is a large ported box regardless of tuning, be it 30hz, 50hz or whatever.

jcarver1112

I understand what your saying and I don't completely disagree with you. But I do have a few problems with your point of view. He did ask good questions and he did provide you with tuning somewhere in the middle of the road as to help equalize things across the board. I will give him his props for that and can say that he did about as best as he could for someone over the phone that works for Kicker. He's probably not stupid and probably does have a good understanding of what and why he recommended that to you. Here's where my view is somewhat controversial. If you were to have walked into my shop today and told me the speaker you had I would have asked many of the same questions as any good installer would. When we got to the part about your goal and you expressed that you really listen to all types of music we would have had a conversation about the subwoofer that you intend to use. I would be happy to inform you that there are better speakers to reach your goal. I even know a couple of local shops that will take used equipment in trade for store credit to reduce the cost of new equipment. With a speaker of this extreem nature I would have even showed you a graph of how a flat response speaker sounds and how yours will likely sound. I would have went further to explain to the customer that the same speaker in a sealed enclosure would not be as loud but would produce a better quality sound. Finally I would have explored other other enclosure options with the customer. Below is a 6th order bandpass for the 06 15" L7. This enclosure type may be a little harder to build and could cost them a little more up front but after cabin gain the response would have been relatively flat from about 34hz to 55hz and start to roll off there allowing them to listen to even some high 20s with authority while not sacrificing the rest.



In the end one of a few things would have happed.
1. You left because this guy talks to much lol (but its just because I love what I do and like to extend my passion to others)
2. You would have considered new eqipment and left where happy with a different speaker in your vehicle.
3. You would have used a sealed enclosure or the 6th order
4. You would have said "Give me the really loud one, I don't care what it sounds like as long as I'm shakin' mirrors" I would have proceeded to give you a high five and took you out back to show you my explorer with the Solo X and just how loud it is.





Any way you look at it if you came to my shop you would have left a well informed customer that knew what to expect when it was all said and done.
If you follow the Kicker reps advice you might calling back kicker in 2 weeks asking why you can't year the last 2 notes to the song "Put On" like you can in your friends car. Or you could be so happy that you knocked your rear view mirror off on "Throw it Up" that you don't even car about that other song... its a crap shoot really...

mommjomma

Option 1 would have happened if it was me who walked through you door with my L7 subwoofer

Dukk

hm. Interesting. Anyways, it says: Minimum space = minimum bass.

It's a comment on the rediculously small sealed boxes most manufacturers suggest people cram their drivers into.

jcarver1112

I see it now, not sure y I didn't before. Although you want to know something funny, my next build will likly be sealed. So unlike me.

Dukk

Sealed? Why, are you afraid you will have too much bass otherwise?