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Car Subwoofer for PA Applications


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I was going to say that this morning.


The OP should contact Kustom Tech Support to find out what exactly that cab is.

 

Do you think the current company that calls themselves Kustom has any relationship at all to the older incarnations of the company that called themselves Kustom? Do you think they even have real technical support? :idea:

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I suspect strongly that the less than warm initial responses here have already sent to OP running for cover. Let's not turn into that other sound board that I quit visiting because of the condescension and impatience. We were all n00bs once. Most of us are still learning daily.

 

 

I don

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I don't believe Kustom produces, or has produced a 15" subwoofer. The only current sub they make is a line called "Arden" and is an 18" sub. I don't think you really mean "subwoofer". What you're referring to is the woofer in a 2 way full range box. There are 2 reasons you don't want to use a car sub.

 

1 - Sensitivity - Most car subwoofers are not at all efficient. A woofer with a sensitivity of 88 dB will need 10X the watts to get as loud as one with an efficiency of 98 dB. This also means it won't work well with your high driver. You'll end up with a box that's all highs and no lows because the highs will be considerably louder.

 

2 - Accuracy - Most auto subs have a rubber surround. This allows the speaker to move a lot of air, but at the expense of accuracy. The larger the speaker the worse it is. A lot of auto applications are all about how low and loud it can get and with accurate and clean base not even a consideration. The only pro sound subs I know of with rubber surrounds are 10" speakers. This is what the Yorkville LS700P uses.

 

As others have said, find a driver that matches the box. You can go cheap if you want, it just won't sound as good. Just remember the less efficient the speaker the less output you'll get and the less balance you'll have with the high driver. Unfortunately, more efficient drivers cost more. That said, I doubt the original driver in that box was more than $30 or so speaker. So frankly no matter what you choose it will likely improve the sound of the box.

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Do you think the current company that calls themselves Kustom has any relationship at all to the older incarnations of the company that called themselves Kustom? Do you think they even have real technical support?
:idea:

 

Is Kustom still a Ross company? No, but how many of today's company's are under the same ownership as they were 45 years ago? Kustom is listed as "A division of Hanser Music Group" on their website. Hanser is in Kentucky and "family owned", and manages B.C. Rich Guitars and Traben Bass among others.

 

Regarding support: Yes!!...(well, probably not, but there's a phone number...):D

 

1-877-363-6444 - Customer Service

1-888-2-KUSTOM (1-888-258-7866) - Fax Number

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LOL

 

I've got one of those, but it's actually much older, with an oval port in the bottom. It's got a Jensen speaker in it IIRC. I use it for my bass. Sucker is heavy as hell and a real knee-banger to move. Can't see it being used for a sub - you oughta see the excursion on that bad boy when you give it the juice: that speaker flaps like a bird wing. :lol:

 

I once put some aluminum duct tape over the port to "tighten it up". LOL. Big mistake. I blew a hole through that tape in short order: it looked like someone shot it with a deer slug.

 

That's DEFINITELY a cab designed for bass guitar.

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the box may blow apart; i have seen a few people replace a yamaha driver in a club sub with a peavey driver and it starts to blow the cab apart.


i replaced the stock drivers in my club tops for much higher power drivers and i am starting to have several joints fail on the cabs after two years, and these boxes are HPF at 100hz. i dont know the construction of a kustom cab but i am betting it is not built to take the pressures of a more higher powered driver than it was designed for.

 

If that box is built like mine, it won't blow apart.

 

The speaker will, though.

 

Look at the dimension front to back: it's too shallow for a sub box. I'm not as technical as some of you cats, but I know what a sub box looks like and that ain't it.

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Even if the box is originally intended for bass guitar, the volume and porting are what will determine whether it will be an acceptable subwoofer if loaded appropriately. It's not necessarily a mutually-exclusive thing. There are small-volume subs, and there are large-volume bass cabs. My Ampeg PR-410HLF is an example of the latter. It's about matching specs, and managing expectations.

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Even if the box is originally intended for bass guitar, the volume and porting are what will determine whether it will be an acceptable subwoofer if loaded appropriately. It's not necessarily a mutually-exclusive thing. There are small-volume subs, and there are large-volume bass cabs. My Ampeg PR-410HLF is an example of the latter. It's about matching specs, and managing expectations.

 

What would you recommend for converting this box to a sub?

 

Don't you think the port is going to cause an issue with too much driver excursion?

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What would you recommend for converting this box to a sub?


Don't you think the port is going to cause an issue with too much driver excursion?

 

 

Proper tuning of a box controls excursion. At box tuning the cone movement is quite a bit less. Below tuning the speaker is unloaded and can over extend and with enough input hit the back plate or rip itself apart along with "cone cry" / farting sounds.

The problems that can come up is looking for a low tuning and the port ends up too small to properly handle the higher spl and you could get noise or have the port not work correctly. Sometimes the port needs to be so big that it takes up internal volume and the box needs to be designed bigger. Also looking for a lower tuning reduces power handling as in the above. Generally the box is tuned in part with the speaker in mind. Trying to find the lowest freq. and highest power handling. Trade offs as with anything else.

 

http://www.clubknowledge.com/Car_Audio_FAQ/?t16

 

If you put a sine wave on and sweep it you will find at box tuning the speaker cone almost stops moving. To check tuning put a white dot close to the center of the cone on the dust cap. You can see the cone will moveless at box tuning. You can tweek a boxes tuned freq. by doing this and changing the ports size or length.

 

Dookietwo

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What would you recommend for converting this box to a sub?


Don't you think the port is going to cause an issue with too much driver excursion?

 

 

You can't really "convert" it so much as rebuild it, but you can use it within it's specs, whether with the original or a new well-matched driver. Trying to change the port on this type of box would be more of a rebuild than a conversion, and IMHO is well beyond the reasonable scope of cost and labor. At some point the research, work and material cost is simply not going to offset the results. Without knowing for sure what the results will be, I'd not make the choice to do all that work.

 

Dookietoo addressed the port issue well, IMO.

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