Imperial_Tee

I'm having a small volume 8" sealed box built to fit in the foot compartment of the passenger seat. The trunk is out of the question for now unfortunately, so the sub will be in the cabin. I currently have a bassworx sealed 8" box with a koss dual 4 ohm woofer. It is not too bad but at higher volumes it sounds "boxy" well... "buzzy" I guess is the best description. as well it does not seem to reproduce the low end tones very well. I could be hearing this "boxyness" because I'm used to hearing subs in the trunk and the box sound must be damped by the back seats and interior. I'm guessing the koss sub is not helping the situation so that will be upgraded (infinity?kicker?) and the bassworx box has to go due to foot space constraints for the passenger.

I know I'm asking for a lot considering its a small sealed box with an 8 inch but I'm not looking to win any competitions or impress the ladies with incredible spl. Just a nice rounded low end would be great. I won't be running more than 100watts rms as loudness is not the goal. Is this possible with my constrictions?

Any recommendations for a sub? What width should I recommend for the mdf and should I put damping material inside the custom box?

2deep2

I would void the 8" and go to a 10".

Not that an 8" can't produce 20 Hz, but at volume Buzz is what you will typically get. An 8" needs so much displacement to produce 25 Hz and below that the tone will be colored with buzz. Listen with your car off in the middle of the night and maybe you can play an 8" at a level were it's not buzzing and still produces 20 Hz at a level you can hear with cabin gain.

Best 8" sub I've heard is the IDQ 8" which is no longer avaliable, as with the JL IB8, another popular 8". My SEAS Excel 8" can produce 20 Hz cleanly but not at highway driving output levels. They are good to 30 Hz at about 107 dB.

There is the ID 8 but I've never heard or used this driver.
You can also look at Element Designs 8", another driver that's popular but I have no experience with the driver.

Still I'm willing to bet an IDQ 10 in a 0.4 cf box will out perform an ID 8 in a 0.4 cf box.

Imperial_Tee

Ok Thanks for the info. I'll ask the installer if there i enough room to even fit a 10 inch, I hope so, its the mounting depth that scares me.

You were right I, listened at really low levels at night and there was a really nice tonal range with no buzz.

2deep2

Check this out, on sale for $70 and only 3" deep: http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/product_info.php?t=2&products_id=106

Even my SEAS 8" are 3-3/8" deep.

The depth on an ID 8 is 4-3/4", while the IDQ 10 is 5-1/4"
http://www./tech_page.php?name=IDQ10D4%20V.2&type=sub&id=idq

Be it an 8" the smallest box is 0.2cf, while smallest box for a 10" is 0.3cf.

Either way you are looking at a box big enough for the driver + a few inches for the volume displacement of the driver which is about the same box for the 8" or 10".

In any case a larger box will result in better low end frequency response, so I go for 0.4 cf sealed.