Car subs just sitting around should I use them for my media room?

[reedwesd]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place. I have three JL audio 15W6 speakers setting around. I know that these subs were designed for car audio but is their a problem with me using them for home audio? I really need a new sub for my media room and I figured since I had them it would work out great if I could use them. I would be powering them with a EP2500. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[markw]

As long as you realize that they will probably need a different enclosure (home acoustics are different than a car) and you respect the amp's impedance limits you should be fine.

 

[bandphan]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place. I have three JL audio 15W6 speakers setting around. I know that these subs were designed for car audio but is their a problem with me using them for home audio? I really need a new sub for my media room and I figured since I had them it would work out great if I could use them. I would be powering them with a EP2500. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

have you used WinIsd to make some calculations? That driver is in their pre-programmed database

 

[ErinH]

I think you'd be alright.

I removed a 12w7 from my car a few months ago. It'll be pulling subwoofer duty when I build my HT room. At least, that's the plan for now.

 

[reedwesd]

Thanks for the help. Do you see any cons with me using these subs for the home application? I realize that I will have to build a different enclosure but will WinISD Pro give me the specs to build it for home applications? Sorry I have tried to use WinISD but am still somewhat unfamiliar with it. The speakers will be wired series parallel for a 4 ohm mono load on my EP2500.

 

[bandphan]

Thanks for the help. Do you see any cons with me using these subs for the home application? I realize that I will have to build a different enclosure but will WinISD Pro give me the specs to build it for home applications? Sorry I have tried to use WinISD but am still somewhat unfamiliar with it. The speakers will be wired series parallel for a 4 ohm mono load on my EP2500.

do you plan on building your own boxes or pre made? are you going to use a active filter/crossover?

you might wanna pm a mod to see if they will move this to the dyi section, there are a lot of good builders in there

 

[Warpdrv]

You use WinISD to model the driver in multiple different size boxes until you find the size that works best with that driver...

Are you looking for music or home theater purposes... or what percentage mix of both. Were you looking to do Sealed or Ported...?

Music doesn't have the low output needs like HT and the artificially created bass, which will put more demands on those drivers and the larger size of the ported box to allow for a lower tune...

 

[reedwesd]

It would be used for 90% movies and 10% music. It really doesn’t mater if it is ported or sealed. I figure I can go with a smaller box with seal but the ported would go much lower. I just would prefer it not be a really huge box.

 

[Warpdrv]

Well time for you to get familiar with WinISD and see what size box will work best for you, and your environment.

 

[GlocksRock]

how many would you be using? Aren't those old W6's dual 3 ohm voice coils?

 

[reedwesd]

I have three of them. I will be wiring them ser par.

 

[ErinH]

What will your amp do? Most receivers don't like to have a load higher (in impedance) than 6ohm that I've seen.


Like others have said, model what you plan to do via WinISD and play around with different boxes (sealed, ported) and sizes until you get the desired result. Luckily, with home audio you don't have to worry about cabin gain like you do with a car; something that winISD won't model without some trickery. The only program I know of to model this is with Bass Box Pro. But, you don't have to worry about it.

Your goal should to get the response as flat as possible and low as possible. w6's aren't known to go terribly low, but that's also in the constraints of most car audio applications. given a large box, possibly even sealed, you could get down to 20hz without overexcursion or thermal issues.

 

[ErinH]

^ Just tinkered around with some boxes. Looks like the w6 might not be a good choice... you're gonna need to tune VERY low (sub 20hz) and have a very large box.

For example, for ONE 15w6:
tuning: 18hz
box volume: 8.3 ft^3
Response fairly flat up to ~22hz.

Based on this alone I would suggest not using these subs for in home use. Maybe if you were listening to music only, which has less requirement for a very low response. However, movies often go sub-30hz; something this setup doesn't seem to do easily.

 

[sparky77]

All 3 drivers in one 4.5cu ft enclosure wired series-parrallel doesn't look too bad.

Name: 15W6
Type: Standard one-way driver
Company: JL Audio Inc
No. of Drivers = 3
Mounting = Standard
Wiring = Series
Dual voice coils = parallel
Fs = 16.3 Hz
Qms = 7.817
Vas = 308.1 liters
Xmax = 10.67 mm
P-Dia = 14.25 in
Qes = 0.325
Re = 2.72 ohms
Z = 3 ohms
Pe = 400 watts
Box Properties
Name:
Type: Closed Box
Shape: Prism, square
Vb = 4.495 cu.ft
Qtc = 0.707
QL = 6.204
F3 = 45.36 Hz
Fill = normal

 

[ErinH]

All 3 drivers in one 4.5cu ft enclosure wired series-parrallel doesn't look too bad.

See, to me that looks horrible. After 50hz you take a nose dive. At 20hz you're 12db down.
Even at 30hz you're 6db down.

I personally would not run that setup even in my car with all the processing power I have at my disposal.

 

[mike c]

it's a closed box, maybe they really intended for an EQ down low

 

[ErinH]

Right. I was just making the point that IMO you should be trying to either buy a sub intended for down low response, or manipulate the driver to play low. We're evaluating the subwoofer and I'm trying to answer his question honestly. If I had to give an answer, based on the graphs I've seen and plotted myself I'd be shopping around for a different sub.

I could probably handle a 3db drop, but not 12db. And to be quite honest, I'd rather not have to eq 12dbs. Know what I mean?

I dunno. This is all just my opinion, so take it for what it is.

 

[annunaki]

The best results I have had so far is a 6.0 cu.ft. vented enclosure tuned to 20hz with a 1.5" x 16" slot vent 22.14" long.

This enclosure yields very flat vented response with a -3db point of 20.53hz and no audible vent noise.

 

[reedwesd]

Guys thanks for your help. annunaki that is for one sub correct. I was messing around with WinISD and the closest I can get to that freq response with the three subs is 18 cf tuned to 20 hz with a 4.02" X 1.5 but I think that I will have a lot of port noise. Sorry I am still trying to figure the program out. I plan on using a Ber feedback destoryer as a EQ so maybe that will help.

 

[ErinH]

If you've got an eq, try setting the tuning frequency to 25hz. You'll be able to trim up your port which will help you with port noise. Then you can eq the rest out. But, as my *somewhat* golden rule, I don't like to eq more than 6db. If that's needed, something else can likely be fixed with the install. There's no science behind that... just my own rule of thumb. Also, you need to consider the type of EQ you have, and it's capabilities (parametric/graphic, overlapping bands, Q, etc). Sometimes you don't have enough to fix a problem.