ok,
so i don't have a garage, and my basement is mostly developped so i don't have much space to work on stuff at home. i usually have to go to a friends *cough* andy *cough* if i want to get any real work done on my car. otherwise, i would be working on stuff all the time...

anyway, this winter i was thinking of setting up a mock testing lab in the basement. just using a car battery hooked up to a trickle charger with a basic deck and then test out different boxes and stuff. i realize that actual spl recordings will be nearly impossible, because i don't have a sealed cab to test in, but at least i can try out box designs and stuff.

AM I CRAZY OR DOES ANYONE ELSE DO THIS AT HOME?
damn, i need a garage! one day...one day...

you are crazy

u said the spl readings will be impossible. meanwhile they are possible they will realy tell u nothing.

what would do if i was u is just make a whole bunch of diff boxes over the winter

That's what I plan on doing! :D

testing cabinets in your basement is a really good idea. You can tune your cabinet more accuratly when compared to doing it in a car. Tunning a cabinet in a car can be a bit tricky due to your cars acoustic charecteristics. That is assuming you have a means for measuring acoustic responses (an RTA for example).

i had a friend that drove his car into his living room thru the patio doors. it was a tercel and it fit but it was in the middle of winter in edmonton. he didnt have a garage. so he made do. crazy bastard.

just because it is a louder box inside the house, doesn't mean i will put up any kind of numbers in the car, good or bad. You need to test with your car, thats all there is to it or i think you will find Curtis' record will be out of reach, I mean look at how many hours he put into his car just to get it to break a 150 even, thats what you need to do [img]smile.gif[/img]

The problem with not tuning in the car - is that when you do put it in the car, the tuning will change.

test...test...test...
that's all i ever hear. <dreaming> one day i will develop the equation that will take into account all the variables that could effect spl and put it into one, then you just have to enter the numbers and voila! your answer will be how to get the maximum possible spl out of a car! </dreaming>

The reason you test outside the car is to make sure you have the proper tunning frequency before you put it in the car. Testing in a car first will yeild results that have been comprimized by the cars acoustics.

When I build an SPL cabinet (mainly walls but not exclusively) I first find the cars tunning frequency. Walls are a little esier to calculate but even if you cabinet is in the trunk you can do it. Then I tune and test the cabinet outside the car (if it's possible, if not I build a smaller version and test outside the car). I do have access to some pretty serious test equipment and a proper enviroment in which to test them in (not a true anechoic, but a close as I can get) so I may have an advantage over a few others. One of the final design elements for my cabinets is to calculate the phase of the rear wave of my woofers. If the front wave and rear wave are out of phase, I will loose SPL, LOOSER!


All these techniques have worked for me in the past. And feel they will continue to do so. I'm more of an SQ guy though.