Fiberglass Sub Boxes

[BADASS38CHEVY]

Im thinking about having fiberglass sub boxes made for my jl 13.5's.I have these boxes already and think they are to heavy.Will a fiberglass sub box be lighter?How much would they cost for 2 boxes.http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/2760stereo_pics_002.jpg

[Cole Trickle]

Im thinking about having fiberglass sub boxes made for my jl 13.5's.I have these boxes already and think they are to heavy.Will a fiberglass sub box be lighter?How much would they cost for 2 boxes.http://www.***boat.com/image_center/data/520/2760stereo_pics_002.jpg
they will probably be a little lighter depending on how thick you lay them up.(A thin Fiberglass box will get destroyed by your speakers :crossx: )
It will be interesting to see what you come up with....out of all of the products and installation on your boat I felt like the sub boxes were the only thing that looked like an afterthought.
Wonder how much harder it would hiy if you put all four close together?(I know it's alot of weight on one side)

[Beer-30]

I don't know, those are real nice slot-ported enclosures. No wonder you are so happy with you bass!
The glass would have to be thick, as CT mentioned. Probably still lighter, though.
I would almost think carbon fiber would be getting affordable enough to use as an alternate. Would take less material than fiberglass and weighs less to boot.
How about an 1/4" thick aluminum box with dynamat inside?

['78 gt boat]

With glass you have to get about 6 layers of 3/4oz chop mat on there to keep the box from flexing. Most of the time after the mat is put down and dry you would use a layer of Gorilla hair which is te bondo/fiberglass combo for better contour and then followed up with Rage Gold body filler. When you add these two to the box it get's a lot heavier. And like the others said you will have to brace the s!@% out of te box because of the type of speakers you have. Glass boxes just look better overall and you have a lot more flexability with curves and angles than you do with wood. As far as cost goes to have someone make them will depend on if you want them painted or just carpeted. I would say around 300-600 would be a decent price range. Just my .02 :cool:

[BadKachina]

With glass you have to get about 6 layers of 3/4oz chop mat on there to keep the box from flexing. Most of the time after the mat is put down and dry you would use a layer of Gorilla hair which is te bondo/fiberglass combo for better contour and then followed up with Rage Gold body filler. When you add these two to the box it get's a lot heavier. And like the others said you will have to brace the s!@% out of te box because of the type of speakers you have. Glass boxes just look better overall and you have a lot more flexability with curves and angles than you do with wood. As far as cost goes to have someone make them will depend on if you want them painted or just carpeted. I would say around 300-600 would be a decent price range. Just my .02 :cool:
I agree, it won't be cheap. There is a ton of labor involved, especially if you want it painted and not just covered with carpet or vinyl. Another alternative would to just make the face plate fiebrglass and use the existing bottom of the box you already have. You could leave the bottom carpeted to match your boat carpet and vinyl the top, or you could go all out and paint it to match.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

The sound im happy with. The size im not and the weight is to heavy.I like the carbon fiber suggestion.How much less would that weigh.These boxes were made last minute and I was going to have some new enclosers made later.Well its getting close to that time.I like the sub location in the middle of the boat but it takes up alot of the room.Any suggestions.

[BoatFloating]

Weight is realtive..... Those speakers are what cause the weight and the savings from going fiberglass won't be felt in performance. :)

[WaTchTheGelCoat]

Weight is realtive..... Those speakers are what cause the weight and the savings from going fiberglass won't be felt in performance. :)
You got that right mang, Perhaps you can back away from the 2 dub 6's
and go with one 13 inch dub 7. I bet you 1000 watts on that one sub would hit harder than the two you have.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

You got that right mang, Perhaps you can back away from the 2 dub 6's
and go with one 13 inch dub 7. I bet you 1000 watts on that one sub would hit harder than the two you have.
I thought about that in the begining but was told that I would get more bass out of 4 13 w6's that 2 13 w7's.I already have 2 1000/1 amps to run the w7's.

[ROZ]

Everything is a compromise... From cost and space, to weight and sound output. The compromise has to be made.
I'm with john with cost and weight. Will it weight less, yes but not by much...
13w6 weighs about 30lbs... 13w7 weighs about 55 lbs By going this route you save only about 5 lbs, but the box can be smaller, too... I'm guessing you'd only save about 20lbs per loaded box total going this route..
Like I said, it's always a compromise :)
Badass"basshound"38chevy...:D

[BADASS38CHEVY]

Everything is a compromise... From cost and space, to weight and sound output. The compromise has to be made.
I'm with john with cost and weight. Will it weight less, yes but not by much...
13w6 weighs about 30lbs... 13w7 weighs about 55 lbs By going this route you save only about 5 lbs, but the box can be smaller, too... I'm guessing you'd only save about 20lbs per loaded box total going this route..
Like I said, it's always a compromise :)
Badass"basshound"38chevy...:D
Rox ,whats your advice on running 2 13w7s vs 4 13w6s as in sound quality and spl's. I sure could use the space and 40lbs differance.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

Thanks.That all I need to know.I will just keep the set up that I have.SWB do you build carbon fiber boxes.

[BadKachina]

Rox ,whats your advice on running 2 13w7s vs 4 13w6s as in sound quality and spl's. I sure could use the space and 40lbs differance.
It doesn't really work that way, 2 ten's are closer to 1 twelve in speaker and 2 twelves are closer to 1 15 inch speaker. They w'7s may handle more power but not enough to compensate for two extra speakers. You could be somewhere in the middle with 2 15 inch speakers. I personally like the sound of 12's, or better yet JL's 13's to most 15 inch subs. Your already running ported boxes, if they are built right your almost doubling the output of those speakers. Ported 15's will need a pretty large encloser. There's really no way to get the SPL you have with half the space or half the weight.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

Not to say that I couldn't, but I have never worked carbon fiber. I've heard it's exactly the same as working glass, maybe even easier because it's a woven material.
Any idea on the cost for 2 custom boxes?

[BadKachina]

Take a look in your owners manual for a vented encloser. It calls for almost 2 cu ft per woofer (1.875) with a huge port 1.75x15x27.625. No way are your boxes built correctly. Ported/vented enclosers are very size and port size specific. They would probably sound better sealed than to have the port wrong. Not only that but if it's just single 3/4 MDF with out any bracing they should be at least resin coated so that they will be more dense and more resisitant to flexing. If you built the correct size vented box, braced it and resin coated you could probably get two of those speakers to sound better than four in the wrong size enclosers. Just my opinion though.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

These boxes were built in about 3 hours.So Im sure they were not built the right way.They were made on the day I was headed to the river last labor weekend.He resin them really quick and we were waiting for the resin to dry so we could drop the subs in and away we went.Thats why Im wanting new sub enclosers because of that ,but for 125.00 for 2 boxes last minute, I got to bump the stereo that weekend. I cant complain.

[ROZ]

One thing to remember is that the manual will give you an over all good spec to build by.. MFG's want to diy'r to to have good results after using their product. Giving the dimensions of a good basic box will help to ensure less returns due to disatisfaction and defectiveitems...like blown due to over excursion /power/too large a box....There are programs, like termpro, out there that will assist a person in gettting the most out of a sound system... Box and port sizes aren't pulled out of the sky. To work well the math has to be good. Sounds to me like you're happy and it works great, but you want to shed a few lbs...
Also SPL is relative... You can make an 8" driver do 150db with the right speaker and enginuity....
I know a guy in Escondido who can fab you some carbon fiber enclosures... It won't be cheap, but it will sound good.. They do professional sound... They have a couple crazy engineers... ;)

[phebus]

I'd still like to see what the results would be if someone welded up some nice aluminum boxes, and lined them with some sound deadening like Dynamat.
Thet could be made to the right dimensions, would be lighter, and be powdercoated to look really good.

[BadKachina]

I'd still like to see what the results would be if someone welded up some nice aluminum boxes, and lined them with some sound deadening like Dynamat.
Thet could be made to the right dimensions, would be lighter, and be powdercoated to look really good.
I can't see why it wouldn't work. It would never rot or fall apart. Somebody should try it. You could polish it, that would be different.

[Tom Brown]

I'd still like to see what the results would be if someone welded up some nice aluminum boxes, and lined them with some sound deadening like Dynamat.
Thet could be made to the right dimensions, would be lighter, and be powdercoated to look really good.
I think it's a bad idea but then I also think plexiglass windows are a lousy idea and I've been told they don't hurt sound quality at all. I, of course, choose to believe otherwise. Of course, I also choose to believe aluminum isn't a good idea for a woofer cone (but not bad for a dome tweeter).
Some time ago, Radio Shack made metal speakers. I believe the Minimus 7 had a metal enclosure. Those enclosures didn't ring or make any nasty noises of their own. ... but then, they weren't trying to cancel the back wave of a huge cone humping to energy of hundreds of watts of power.
... now maybe if the material were 3/8" thick or more, the volume of the box were kept really small, and there was some internal bracing... then it might not be too bad. You could throw some black hole 5 in there and maybe keep the internal resonance under control.
What's wrong with glass covered MDF again? :confused:
For sub enclosures, I like to run two thicknesses... for 1.5" thick enclosure walls. The more mass, the better. ... then I line them with K3 because it's less reflective and the lower density helps absorb sound too.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

One thing to remember is that the manual will give you an over all good spec to build by.. MFG's want to diy'r to to have good results after using their product. Giving the dimensions of a good basic box will help to ensure less returns due to disatisfaction and defectiveitems...like blown due to over excursion /power/too large a box....There are programs, like termpro, out there that will assist a person in gettting the most out of a sound system... Box and port sizes aren't pulled out of the sky. To work well the math has to be good. Sounds to me like you're happy and it works great, but you want to shed a few lbs...
Also SPL is relative... You can make an 8" driver do 150db with the right speaker and enginuity....
I know a guy in Escondido who can fab you some carbon fiber enclosures... It won't be cheap, but it will sound good.. They do professional sound... They have a couple crazy engineers... ;)
Roz,that sound good. Any idea on the weight differance. Can I get his number.

[teamaquaholicks]

any one do or see or have an idea on a sub box for under the back seat of an advantage? two orion 12's is what we are going to run.

[ROZ]

Roz,that sound good. Any idea on the weight differance. Can I get his number.
I'l get his extension in the morning... Incedentally, Jason is a boater.. 26 eagle in the Needles area... Their website is www.sound-image.com/touring.html :crossx:

[BADASS38CHEVY]

Roz, did you get a chance to get that #.
Roz,anything yet.

[BADASS38CHEVY]

One thing to remember is that the manual will give you an over all good spec to build by.. MFG's want to diy'r to to have good results after using their product. Giving the dimensions of a good basic box will help to ensure less returns due to disatisfaction and defectiveitems...like blown due to over excursion /power/too large a box....There are programs, like termpro, out there that will assist a person in gettting the most out of a sound system... Box and port sizes aren't pulled out of the sky. To work well the math has to be good. Sounds to me like you're happy and it works great, but you want to shed a few lbs...
Also SPL is relative... You can make an 8" driver do 150db with the right speaker and enginuity....
I know a guy in Escondido who can fab you some carbon fiber enclosures... It won't be cheap, but it will sound good.. They do professional sound... They have a couple crazy engineers... ;)
Hey Roz, did you get that # yet,thanks.