Sub Experiment a Success!!

[Jeff R.]

I had be wanting to try convert my old car subs into my 2 channel system for some time and did it over the weekend. I was contemplating a new box, plate amp,....etc....but I said screw it I am going to use my existing box and put in on my gramma and see what happens.

I have a dual sealed enclose of 0.8 Cubic Feet for a pair of Eclipse SW8102 DVC - 4 ohm subs. I finally pulled my car system a part and rewired the subs in the box to be set up for a bridged single 4 ohm input. I luckily have my older trusty Adcom GFA-555 that I am not using at the moment. So I used that Adcom with a rated output of 325Watts into the 4 ohm load for my power and then was able to take my Onkyo 805 and do all my bass management with crossovers and db boosts as I get down in the lower frequency ranges. I am amazed at the success with this test.

I have some great clean tight bass and it really goes down low....I have no way to measure it but on music I am getting close to the same extension that I was getting with my A2-300s. Not to mention nearly the same volume with much better acurracy

Bottom Line - I am thrilled with this and now I do not have to spend a bunch on money on a new Sub for my 2 channel system. More money can be allocated to upgrading other parts of my system

 

[bikdav]

That is cool! I like it when people can make things work like that. I'm using a car audio sub as a replacement driver in my subwoofer. Guess what? It works awesomely.

 

[55katest55]

what are the differences between home theater sub drivers and car sub drivers? or isnt there any? interesting btw, thanks for the post.

 

[Jeff R.]

I am no expert on this but basically nothing.....car subs are just generally wired in at a overall lower impedance load on the amp due to running a 12V DC system vs the 120V AC system. As fas as the speaker capabilities nothing should be any different. I am sure some others with more technical knowledge can expand greatly on that though.

 

[Adam]

Awesome - I'm glad that it worked for you!

Oh, yeah...pictures, please.

 

[GranteedEV]

Eclipse SW8102 DVC - 4 ohm sub

IIRC, this is a TC Sounds driver. I'm not surprised that it works great in a home environment.

 

[bikdav]

You're Pretty Much On Target

I am no expert on this but basically nothing.....car subs are just generally wired in at a overall lower impedance load on the amp due to running a 12V DC system vs the 120V AC system. As fas as the speaker capabilities nothing should be any different. I am sure some others with more technical knowledge can expand greatly on that though.

There are not serious differences between home and car subwoofer drivers. The only car subwoofer drivers that might not be good candidates for home subwoofer duty are those intended for "high decibel competition". Most of those that I've heard don't seem to have good sound quality. Examples of competition subs are the Alpine [second from left in picture] and JL Audio [left picture]. I went for the single voice coil Polk Audio DXi104svc [two right pictures] since it's a regular subwoofer. I found that regular subwoofers tend to have much better sound quality _ and cost a whole lot less _ than the "competition" ones. In my case, the Polk sounds better than I expected. It goes down surprisingly deep, but more importantly, is smooth sounding.

 

[generalkorrd]

@bikdav
I hate to be the new guy who seems to be trolling, as that is not my intent, but your info on the car subs is off. None of the subs you showed is a "high db competition" sub. As a matter of fact, the 2 subs you specifically picked out are the BEST candidates for home audio use. They are both VERY well known as SQL(sound quality loudness) subs, with SQ being the biggest part of that. They are both high xmax, low fs, deep digging subs, especially the JL W7!

To the op there is little differece between car subs and home subs, except that car subs( in general) are designed to run in smaller boxes(due to obvious size restrictions in a car).

 

[bikdav]

@bikdav
I hate to be the new guy who seems to be trolling, as that is not my intent, but your info on the car subs is off. None of the subs you showed is a "high db competition" sub. As a matter of fact, the 2 subs you specifically picked out are the BEST candidates for home audio use. They are both VERY well known as SQL(sound quality loudness) subs, with SQ being the biggest part of that. They are both high xmax, low fs, deep digging subs, especially the JL W7!

To the op there is little differece between car subs and home subs, except that car subs( in general) are designed to run in smaller boxes(due to obvious size restrictions in a car).

Good point. My intent was to use these as picture examples of what many competition subs tend to look like. If the JL W7 is a good candidate for SQ, then that is great. The issue that I have is that many competition subs, that look somewhat like these, have left me unimpressed.

 

[generalkorrd]

Yeah, car audio is kinda crazy that way. It seems to me that install quality/location is more important in CA than home audio. Alot of people build for spl only, and that tends to make the systems sound like poo, even with a great sub like the w7.

 

[Jeff R.]

Adam - Here are a few pictures of the sub in the box. They are good looking Aluminum drivers.
View attachment 9529

View attachment 9530

View attachment 9531

 

[Adam]

Thanks for the pics, Jeff!

Looks like you aren't using all of the screw holes to mount the woofer to the box, at least at the time of the picture. Are they all in now, or do you plan to use them all?

Oh, and wipe those cones off.

 

[Jeff R.]

You are right, you can tell they were in sitting in my basement for about 2 years.......I guess I will need to do a good wipe down.

I am not sure if I have any other mounting holes on the driver. There are only the 6 that I can access around the rubber trim cover. Do you think there are more if I take off the cover??

I will have to check them out. I was planning to go back and add some polyfill or something to the internal space anyways so I would have to take the drivers out to do that anyways. Any recommendations on what to use in the inside and how much?

 

[Adam]

I am not sure if I have any other mounting holes on the driver. There are only the 6 that I can access around the rubber trim cover. Do you think there are more if I take off the cover??

I don't know about under the cover, but I'm guessing not. In the middle picture, though, it looks like at least one of the mounting holes (the one on top) doesn't have a screw in it. That's all that I was talking about. I don't know if it matters at all...just an observation.

 

[Jeff R.]

I will have to check. I am pretty sure it does. I started with 12 screws and ended with none, but you are right it looks to be missing....You win the Perceptive Award for the day.

Thanks - Any thoughts on some polyfill for the internal area, or a pillow, or high density foam of some sort?

 

[55katest55]

Looks nice man! Thanks for the pics.

 

[bikdav]

Wow!

WOW! Great job Jeff. That looks like it can do pipe organ and movie explosions with jaw dropping finesse. As far as filling the inside of the box for dampening, anytime that I've done sealed boxes, I just filled them a little over half way with polyester fiber fill (pillow stuffing) _ available at many department stores. It worked fine. But, I'm more of a vented box fan.