help a first time box builder ?
 

so i have 3 12" woofers and i was wondering a few things, i wanna go ported but my trunk isnt that big to be able to do 3 twelves firing towards the back? so if i was to build this would upward firing sound just as good or is there no way to know untill its done? secondly two of the three are one brand and the third is differnt would that matter them being all twelve inch woofers or would that throw something off. and lastly if at all possible could someone help design were iv never done so :)

Thaanks !

you won't know if one placement will sound as good as another until it's installed...some vehicles like up firing, side firing, rear firing etc... Mixing different subs is a bad idea and will very likely sound crappy, and lots of guys on here can help you design a box. My suggestion is to ditch the 3rd sub, and use the two identical ones in a proper ported box which should now fit properly as it will be smaller. After it's built you can experiment with placement to find which position is best. what is the model number and brand of the subs, what car do you have, what type of music do you listen to, what are the max dimensions available for the box?, and how much power are you going to give the subs (which amp and are the subs dual voice coils 2 ohm, 4ohm etc...)???

Car its going into
Max dimensions
Subs being used
Power going to them
Music listened to


Need to know all the above before a design can be made.

what car are they going into

See i told you...these guys want info!!!

Generally, 2 cubic feet at the minimum is required for a ported 12". Two 12's can be louder than three 12's at all frequencies, given that you were choking the three (and they were all the same model).

Sorry, but this has nothing to do with anything.... 1 8" can sound better if box size is the only parameter you're going to consider :stroke:

OP, In short, listen to Jalat. Answer his questions from post #3. Wanna know a bit about why?

Read this:
We need to know what the subs are so we can find out what they want for volume. It will also (hopefully, if all T/S parameters are available) tell us the woofer's displacement and we can make sure the box is spot on for displacement. There is more that we can do with the woofer info, but that's all you really need to focus on at this point. We need to know what the vehicle is so we can determine maximum volume (aka box size). If what the subs need is too big, time to redesign. Knowing the power you're going to feed them tells us how the woofers are going to react in the enclosure (and the vehicle, really). Depending on the power, the box design may need to change to suit it. For the type of music, it will give us a better idea of what frequencies this woofer is going to be seeing the most of, and if you haven't guessed yet, depending on the type of music, the box design may need to change again.