Car subwoofer speakers=BAD, Car sub boxes=?

[Never_Grew_Up]

I've been looking at cabinets lately thinking of a similiar modular, mix-n-match approach.

 

I've seen discussions in the past about using car audio subs (Wait, before anyone jumps on me I know the speakers won't hold up to live bass)

 

But I was thinking about taking some car sub boxes & loading them with some bass-appropriate speakers.

 

Something like this:

 

http://www.cardiscountstereos.com/catalog%20page.asp?Product+%23=QBASS10

 

or a mix with something like 1 of these on the bottom:

 

http://www.cardiscountstereos.com/catalog%20page.asp?Product+%23=QBP12

 

or maybe just a bunch of these:

http://www.cardiscountstereos.com/catalog%20page.asp?Product+%23=QSBASS12

 

OK, let the onslaught begin...

[Craig Vecchione]

And do what with them? Play bass in your car?

[Kindness]

You don't want particle board cabinets.

[Craig Vecchione]

Or MDF.

[78pbass]

 

Or MDF.

 

 

not entirely true; my Dr Bass RX's are great cabs which happen to be made of MDF. The Rhinoliner makes them roadworth and moisture resistant

[Craig Vecchione]

not entirely true; my Dr Bass RX's are great cabs which happen to be made of MDF. The Rhinoliner makes them roadworth and moisture resistant

 

 

You can dress up a pig and take it to the dance, but that won't make it the homecoming queen.

[ILikeFish]

I have a 2x12 box that I have been thinking about loading with some Eminence guitar speakers for home use.

I say home use coz I don't think the box would stand up to being moved around a whole lot, It was never intended to anyway.

I'm thinking it might sound like crap.

[Psilocybin]

I've never had any problems with particle board or mdf sub boxes. If they are so bad, then perhaps you can explain what all the cool kids are making their boxes out of these days.

[J.]

It's a bad idea, primarily because the cabinet is supposed to be designed around the driver it's intended to house. Lots of research goes into commercially made bass cabs so that the internal volume, dimensions, and porting is all correct for best possible performance. Just dropping a driver into a random cab is likely to result in a less-than-stellar outcome.

 

Car subs can get away with it primarily because there's very little fidelity involved. All you really need is a goofy car sub with a big rubber surround and a ton of extension so it will go BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! when it's fed a small bandwidth of frequencies toward the bottom of the spectrum. It's also why most pimped out car stereos sound like absolute garbage.

 

If you save a little more money and get a real bass cab, you'll be much happier in the long run.

[Kindness]

 

I've never had any problems with particle board or mdf sub boxes. If they are so bad, then perhaps you can explain what all the cool kids are making their boxes out of these days.

 

 

They're fine for cars, not for MI uses. Unless you're Schroeder... ummm...

[Never_Grew_Up]

 

I've never had any problems with particle board or mdf sub boxes. If they are so bad, then perhaps you can explain what all the cool kids are making their boxes out of these days.

 

 

Because particle board & MDF are cheap, and once covered with something so that you can't tell it's that it's particleboard or MDF the increased weight implies (to some people) a higher level of 'quality'. They might assume the weight comes from a massive magnet on the speaker.

 

I have read discussions that the increased weight/density improves cabinet damping.

 

I absolutely wouldn't go w/particleboard. I would consider mdf but I'd add extra support in the way of aluminum angle channel & metal corners.

 

BTW - I'm a hobby player in a band doing classic rock covers that plays out 1x - 2x a month in about a 20 mile radius of where we practice/live in 100-200 seat bars with a small PA that runs nothing but vocals through it. My current rig is a mid-80's Crate 150 watt (@4 ohm) head and matching 1-15 cabinet.

 

I know that's not enough power to drive a wall of cabinets to brown-note levels, but I'm thinking that with all 8 ohm drivers & individual wiring to each speaker (even in a 2 speaker cab) I can mix & match parallel & series wiring to keep the load at either 4 or 8 ohms. The Crate also has bi-amp signal outputs so I can add additional power to boost either the highs or lows. I'm not married to the Crate head but I'm looking to make the most out of what I have with only incremental $ spent.

 

I picked the weblinks that I pasted in the original post not because I'm hot for those exact boxes, but they are pretty good pictures of the style enclosures I'm thinking of using and they popped up on the 1st page of my google search for "car subwoofer enclosure".

 

I'd probably either go w/2 of the 2-10 slotted, or 1 2-10 slotted w/a 2-10 or 2-12 bandpass box on the bottom, or just 4 of the 1-10 or 1-12 slotted boxes.

[Mudbass]

 

not entirely true; my Dr Bass RX's are great cabs which happen to be made of MDF. The Rhinoliner makes them roadworth and moisture resistant

 

 

 

Yes, but not drop resistant. One tumble off the back of a pickup or down the stairs and they'll split open at the seams.

[t3ch]

 

Yes, but not drop resistant. One tumble off the back of a pickup or down the stairs and they'll split open at the seams.

 

 

As much as I loved my Dr Bass, the first one I ordered actually got sent back to him because one of the corners got banged in pretty bad (I saw pics) during shipment... So he has a point.

[78pbass]

I dont completely disagree, but design has as much to do with it as materials, else Flight Bass cabinets would fold up under their stresses. Ironically, my SVT410he was also MDF.

 

My Nemesis was some high pressure wood substrate that was incredibly durable over the 1000+ shows I played on it. now the bassplayer from 1100 Springs plays it for his URB. Nowadays, my cabs dont even leave the house, so durability is low on my priority list beneath looks, efficiency and sound quality.

 

I'm more of a "how is it designed and constructed" than a "if its Baltic Birch, it's great" type of guy. I completely agree that car boxes are garbage for MI, as well as some of the MDF constructed low end cabs I've seen in the past, but in some cases, and depending on the duty expectation, some MDF cabs could be the ticket.