Dukk...
 

Hey there,

Taking a trip in the way back machine to 2000, you had mentioned in a post between yourself, myself and Audiophyle (on another Forum) about Morel Integra 8's and how they'd work nicely in kicks of about .5 ft^3 using a set of variovents... in this post you had mentioned that you were looking to do something similar with a set of B&W's in the R/T that you had. (I had printed a copy of the post for future reference... my mind is not that good!)

Out of curiosity - did you ever go through with that? If so, how did it work?

I will have some time on my hands for the next while and have been thinking about dusting off some of the equipment that has been sitting in the basement for far too long and actually working on my car again... thought I might give the Integra 8's w Variovents a shot.

Let me know.

Thanks!

It was my brother's Dakota R/T that we were working on. Long story short - he sold the truck and while the KPs did get finished, they never made it into the truck. Now his 'toy' is a mid 80s Chevy truck that he has the B&Ws IB in the KPs w/o the variovents.

I still have the variovents (actually ScanSpeak units) around somewhere. In the hearse I was able to IB the 10s in the KPs so I didn't use them there either. One day..

Oh well... thanks none the less! :)

When you refer to the IB set up, in both systems you refer to, do you mean the kicks have been vented to the outside or that the backs of the kicks are not completely sealed?

Well, more that the backs of the KPs were the fresh air vent openings for both vehicles (no A/C) so they are totally isolated from the interior but open to the cowl area.

You can see the Hearse factory KP, the cavern left after the vent is removed, and the new panel pre-install here. Hearse KP

Sweet! Thanks for the link.
Gotta love a kick panel area that affords that much airspace, with out cutting! :D

I'm the brother that sold the R/T :p I still have those vario-vents sitting in a box. When I did the 7" B&W's in my 85 Chevy, like Dukk said I just vented them through the large oval fresh-air opening that was in the kick panel. It plays into the cavity that extends up into the cowl area, which is where fresh air is brought from in front of the windshield to the kick openings. They sound rather nice. They actually reach quite low for response, but output is somewhat limited.

Thanks for the added info SUX! :)

I may have to give this a shot... since I already have both he speakers and the Variovents, I don't have anything to lose really.

When you mentioned that the output was limited, was this a function of the IB nature of the kick panel - or more to do with the speaker used?

Well more or less both but I'd say moreso the speaker used was the limitation. If it had higher power handling and a larger suspension travel I'm sure output would be higher. Using a variovent in a small chamber behind the speaker will provide some air resistance to increase the power handling but your low-end output may be reduced. Kinda in a way like how any IB vs. aperiodic (which is what the variovent is doing) enclosure would do.

There's a few 'mega' 6.5s and 7s out there I'd like to try just to see how much output I can get from down there but the B&W 7 I have is a very nice speaker so I figure I'll keep it anyway.

Cool - thanks again!