car subs in a home theater?

[chucksrt]

I wanted to know if this is a good idea or if I should just get a good home sub? i have a 10" powered sub acoustic research and it is bad at reproducing low bass!!! I have 2 12" Eclipse aluminum subs in a 2ohm configuration in a custom made downfiring enclosure (sealed)Built for a car, each woofer can handle 500w at 4ohms. I would need to buy an amplifier that can handle the power requirements of these subs. has any one done something like this? if so what amp do you recommend? a 300 to 500 amp should suite me fine.
chuck

 

[annunaki]

The Eclipse 8800 series aluminum drivers are TC Sounds manufactured drivers. They are quite nice subs. Especially if they are from 2000-2003 or so. If you were to use them in a home application, new enclosures should be built. In a car, subwoofers rely on the small confines of a vehicle to boost deep low end response. in the home one does not have that luxury, so proper enclosures should be built to allow for lower response in the home environment.

 

[chucksrt]

they are the exact woofers that i have. DVC woofers. what would be the major difference between the enclosure that they are in compared to what would be built for home? the box is 1" mdf and the enclosure is .5 cu. ft. for each sub. sealed which is what the manufacture recommended, and the only thing that i can think of that makes it a car enclosure is that it is carpeted? and they fire downward which seems to be more common in home audio than car audio. I am just curious because if i need another box built i will just buy another single sub and make one for it, the enclosure cost me $850 that they are in now and i would hate to have to remove them from that box, Oh and that $ was without the subs just the box. oh yea what amp would you recommend using?
thanks,
chuck

 

[markw]

To add to what Annunaki said about exploring the different size needed for the enclosures (because they will be filling a much larger area), you should also be aware that a lot of home amps don't take kindly to 2 ohm loads. Some well designed amps can handle four ohms under most conditions, but two is definitely pushing it.

 

[chucksrt]

I figured that i could jump the subs together to get them to a 4ohm load. so for home are you saying that they normally have larger enclosures?

 

[markw]

I figured that i could jump the subs together to get them to a 4ohm load. so for home are you saying that they normally have larger enclosures?

Yes. you'll want larger enclosures. Exactly what size is beyond my knowledge, but I do know it depends on several performance specs on the particular subs in question. If you have the data sheets on them, perhaps others could provide more assistance.

 

[ringbearer3791]

there is a great modeling program out there worth checking out called WinISD that will let you input your driver parameters and model the response in pretty much any enclosure you can think up. you may want to take a look to see what your subs would look like in your current enclosure and decide if that's what you're going for. as far as amps go, i'm just getting started building a sub for my HT and it seems like everyone loves the behringer ep2500 (which i'm told can handle a 2 ohm load).

not sure exactly which tc sounds driver you have, but i've got a tc sounds lms-4000 12" and i'm building it into an 8 cu. ft. ported enclosure.

hope this helps.

 

[annunaki]

Do you have the T/S parameters for the subs? Can you get them from the Eclipse archives on the website? I sure hope your enclosure was super trick or custom, because you got ripped off. Sorry to say but for a basic mdf enclosure, even if it was 1" mdf, should not cost that much.

If you get me the T/S parameters for the exact drivers you have, I can tell you how to wire them up and model a proper enclosure for them.

 

[skizzerflake]

Get a decent home Sub. I have never heard a car sub that really satisfied; most seem to be very peaky and don't really have good low lows. Being designed to play loud in a very small space, they might not even really do well in a larger room. If you're interested in doing work and blowing money on an experiment, have fun, but if you want to get to the point, subs by companies like Hsu and SVS can be had for reasonable prices and will really rock your room.

 

[ErinH]

In a car, subwoofers rely on the small confines of a vehicle to boost deep low end response.

I find quite the contrary. Most cars boost the 50hz range due to cabin gain which makes it much more of a pita to get a flat response. It's taken me a good bit of EQ'ing to get that, and some serious cutting in the 45-50hz range.

I do agree that new enclosures should be built, though. However, there is a point where you've reached no return with a sealed box and I have a feeling (without pulling up winISD or bass box pro) that you're going to want to go ported, tuned low, to bring up the low end.

 

[annunaki]

I find quite the contrary. Most cars boost the 50hz range due to cabin gain which makes it much more of a pita to get a flat response. It's taken me a good bit of EQ'ing to get that, and some serious cutting in the 45-50hz range.

I do agree that new enclosures should be built, though. However, there is a point where you've reached no return with a sealed box and I have a feeling (without pulling up winISD or bass box pro) that you're going to want to go ported, tuned low, to bring up the low end.

Have you ever seen the cabin gain in most vehicles?

In most vehicles I have seen, it is about +10db at 50hz and increases at around +12db per octave below that. 15hz usable response in my vehicle with sealed enclosures was fairly easy.

 

[ErinH]

Have you ever seen the cabin gain in most vehicles?

In most vehicles I have seen, it is about +10db at 50hz and increases at around +12db per octave below that. 15hz usable response in my vehicle with sealed enclosures was fairly easy.

I have.

Do you have any proof of 15hz (rta, etc)? I'd like to see that. What sub and how much power were you using? That's pretty excellent to get good response @ 15hz.

 

[annunaki]

It was awhile ago. I do not have much for a car system anymore. I do not have the numbers to be specific, but it was with a JL Audio 12W7. I had 1000 watts rms on it. I have had similar luck with an Image Dynamics ID15SPL.

 

[cbraver]

In most vehicles I have seen, it is about +10db at 50hz and increases at around +12db per octave below that..

Interesting. That's basically what my truck is like.

 

[chucksrt]

I tried finding specs. on them and this is all i came up with.
Fs:29Hz

Qts:0.34

DCR:3.0/coil

Vas:2.68cuft

Xmax:
(one way)1.17


I emailed tech support at eclipse to get the full detailed spec sheet and i'm waiting to hear back.
chuck

Yes. you'll want larger enclosures. Exactly what size is beyond my knowledge, but I do know it depends on several performance specs on the particular subs in question. If you have the data sheets on them, perhaps others could provide more assistance.