tahenke

There is an alternative to free air or infinite baffle or whatever you want to call it. It's called A-Periodic membrane. It allows a woofer (or any speaker) to think it's in a much larger almost free air enclosure. Back in the day it was taboo to use it in a hatchback type of install but now days it's more and more common. If you really want to give the fiberglass side enclosure a try go to some of the car audio forums on the net. They all have great links to fiberglassing techniques :) It's really easy. It requires a lot of prep work because of the mess and I think thats what scares people away from it. The last couple of issues of Car Audio and Electronics magazine had some great articles on how to do it. I think they even have them posted online at thier website. All you really need is a lot of masking tape and tinfoil and of course fiberglass resin and mat and you can make a sweet enclosure for your 10 in the side panel. Fiberglass is great because it can take any shape! I haven't looked but I'm sure there is room for a .75cuft enclosure behind that panel. You just have to be creative and "Think outside the box" when you plan out the fiberglass area. Good luck with whatever you decide, I'm sure you will get it all figured out :)

wingfeather

That is a really cool idea!!!

Ed RazorLite

I did not read the whole thread but I wanted to add this.
I am an acoustic engineer and have been building competition cars for years. I recently have place 7th at the dB Drag World Finals with my HHR.
I have tested alot in this car. The best result is a ported box with both subs and port firing up. The second best is subs up ports back. If you are going with a sealed box then subs up is best and subs back is second best. Subs firing down has not been too good unless you have plenty of space between the box and the hatch, at least 4 inches is good.

tahenke

Nice setup! Great feedback.

SIRESMERPH

that's a cool setup! lights and shiney are good me likey!

Lee3333

Tahenke-I just picked up that car audio magazine, and read the article about making fiberglass enclosures. Actually, I have worked with fiberglass before and am quite familiar withit. I enjoy it, although as you said it can be messy (and itchy). As I said, first I want to see how it sounds 'as is'. I am sure there is enough space for a small box back there, but I want to keep things as simple as possible if I can. The scheduled delivery date is 2/6, and I already removed the other speaker and boxed it for return. I am keeping the second one in the enclosure so I have a reference to compare to. Then I will take it from there. Good bass, leave it alone. Bad bass, build a box. I was thinking about just building it with MDF then securing it to the car itself so the bass is transmitted directly to the body. Remember those bass things they sold to mount under the seat that just vibrated? A sub box attached to the car should help increase the bass feel.

My main problem is that this is a daily driver, family car. The simplist system would just be to toss a large enclosure in the back of the car and call it a day. But I need to keep my storage space, hence the need for a stealth system. The technical people I spoke with at Crutchfield were confident that the free air/infinite baffle Infinity would give equal or better sound then the current Kenwood speakers I have now (and am going to return). Hopefully I can avoid the need to build a custom box. But at .75 cu.ft., it would be pretty small.

On a technical note, I still can not understand the principle behind ported or baffled boxes. I can see how a sealed box would work. When the speaker cone moves out, it creates a slight vacuum in the box and when it moves in it increases the pressure. Once you have an opening in the box, even if it is controlled, then there is no pressure variation at all.

eat_world

I'm with you on the porting, just don't understand it.

The most important thing to remember when working with fiberglass is a nice cold shower, make sure you don't open up your pores.

Lee3333

For a fiberglass enclosure, is any MDF used? Is there a benefit to one over the other?

tahenke

The very basic principle behind a ported/vented enclosure is extended low frequency response and increased efficiency. And at some point the ported enclosure actually acts like a sealed enclosure because of the flow characteristics of the air in the port. I'll bet Ed RazorLite could explain it better since he is an SPL competitor and appears to be a fan of the ported box. As far as the MDF is concerned, yes it is very common to use MDF in a fiberglass enclosure (mostly to aid in creating the shape). Here is some info on that. The only issue with a fiberglass enclosure is the expense. Resin isn't all that cheap. Here is a link about how to choose the correct enclosure (It's pretty good).

Lee3333

Wow-thanks for the links. Great articles. I did not realize that MDF was so hazardous to work with. I think I would prefer plywood now-how thick should it be? Those fiberglass enclosures look great but what a lot of work!