SEAS lotus 12 inch car sub converted to Home use.

T

Thegenuinearticle

Enthusiast
This (SW300) has become a fairly rare and sought after driver that gained a considerable amount of praise back in the car sound quality scene of 2005. Its specs really are nothing too spectacular and it doesnt necessarily measure that great response wise in an anechoic chamber, but it has a respectable low resonant frequency (21 HZ), it is efficient (92 DB), it has roughly 1.5 inch excursion capability, and is well made with a very nice aluminum cone, basket, spider, etc.

The suggested volume for automobile use, though probably due to space limitations was around 1.25 sealed, and seeing as how vehicle cabin gain provides a bump in perceived lower output this was an acceptable compromise even though the QTC of the setup would be far from ideal at nearly 1.00 or close to it. At that sealed volume the f3 isnt so great but again for a car it will pass. So I plotted what would be a typically ideal cabinet sealed at the standard .707 QTC and holy crap it calculates for one at 3.5 cubic feet sealed at around 32hz f3. Thats quite a robust enclosure for a sealed application with just one 12 inch driver.

I struck a balance at 2.85 cubic feet and stuffed about a pound of wool in for good measure. I've been feeding it with 500 watts and it can dig really deep on movies like Interstellar and with a bit of boost can really reproduce some nice pipe organ material. Not a bad result for something I had lying around. Cabinet is .75 inch plywood with some decent bracing, front face is 1 inch walnut finished with Danish oil..Thanks for looking!
 

Attachments

speakerman39

speakerman39

Audioholic Overlord
Nice work! The best sub that I ever owned back in my "car audio" days were the Soudstream Rubicons. They were absolutely amazing. Sadly they were phased out not long before Soundstream went belly up. The closest to the Rubicons I have found were the Crossfire Performance Series or the Boston Acoustic Pro subs. All of which have been phased out. But, the Rubicons really rocked my Honda CRX! I was easily hitting in the high 140's with (2) 12" Rubicons! The SQ was off of the charts! :cool:

Lots of people have found that the Infinity Kappa Perfect Series and/or the Diamond Three Series to work well in HT. The Diamonds are not too hard to find, but good luck finding any Infinity Perfects. We carried Diamond Audio for a good while. The Three Series and the Six Series were just flat out awesome. I even sold a few sets of the Nine Series. Anyways, congrats on the build!


Cheers,

Phil
 
T

Thegenuinearticle

Enthusiast
Yep...The old Kappa perfects were "on paper" super efficient at a spec'd 94-96 db if I recall. They also had a low resonant frequency too. I had a set of the infinity perfect 6.1 components up front in my first nice car setup. I'm not sure if it was due to being my first install with the excitement factor and or a combination of the gear being nice but I used to nod my head and take the long way home with that stereo more than just about any other. Harman group definitely make good stuff.

Today's subs with the typical, super wide surround for large excursion and bullet-proof cones make them really inefficient with some being from what I have seen in the low 80's db. Then people tout their power handling capability (1000+ RMS) as a sign of output when in all respects that's the kind of current required just to get the thing moving....

Thanks for looking....
 
Last edited:
speakerman39

speakerman39

Audioholic Overlord
You know one of our installers had a single 12" Pioneer SPL sub in his extended cab ford ranger. It was absolutely sickening. He was hitting in the low 160's with that single 12" driver! Of course, it weighed in at 96 lbs. and sounded like sh*t! But, for Heavens sake it was way too loud. Honestly, I never have liked the SPL thing. I was much more of a SQ guy. Those were the days though. :)


Cheers,

Phil
 
T

Thegenuinearticle

Enthusiast
:eek: Yes sir! Every time I am driving and hear a car that is moving some air it's always guaranteed the crossover point is probably way too high at 80 Hz plus (thats maybe being generous too so in reality 100 plus) so all those "nice" localizing effects can be emphasized and those panel resonances get excited for more "look at me" output.

I'm of the opinion that rarely does a sub need to be crossed over any higher than 60 hz in a car or home for that matter and almost always a 24db slope seems to yield the best result . Anything shallower at 60 hz and beyond the sub just gets noticed too much, but I will say I've had some decent results crossed really low (40 hz) with 12db slopes. If more car guys had a decent integration of some capable, quality full range speakers and a subwoofer I'm sure the trunk rattle ghetto effect would not be as pronounced.
 
speakerman39

speakerman39

Audioholic Overlord
Very good point. But, one of my installers was really into the SPL thing and wanted to compete in Db Drag. When I got out of the business 3-years ago Brad was planning to use the 15" Pioneer SPL sub instead of his 12". That single SPL sub hurts my ears standing outside of his truck. The 15" SPL sub is going to do even more damage. Heck, it weighs 113 lbs. alone! Just insane inmho. Crazy! That driver costs $1500 each! Way too expensive for my rinky dinky budget. :eek:


Cheers,

Phil
 
Last edited:
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
How would that driver fare with a passive radiator instead of just sealed?
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top