Toyota MR2 - Sealed, Ported, or **Infinite Baffle**

[ndisgiis 0]

OK, so I am hoping that some box building gurus can help me stop pulling may hair out trying to decide on what box design and subwoofer choice I should go with. As you know, the Toyota MR2 is a very small car with not much room behind its only 2 seats. It is mid engine, so the trunk in the back is of no use to me for subs. they must go right behind the seats in a wedge style box. Here is an MR2 and a pic of the space behind the seats:

 

 

 

So I listen to all kinds of music literally, well maybe not country so much, but lots of stuff. I want it to sound musically nice but definitely want to produce as much SPL or should I say """SQL""" as possible if showing it off to a friend (yes, it would be sweet fo make the car flex a bit). But then I should be able to turn down the bass again so that it is SQ again.

 

Problem is that I am limited to about .75 cubes behind each seat using a wedge or maybe 1 cube if I pushed the seat up a little but still comfortable. This makes my decision very hard on the best way to achieve my goals. As far as I know, my options are as follows:

 

Sealed: 10" or Maybe 12" (if I can figure out how to make it fit) DSS Ethos or Sundown???? (currently have 2 shallow mount BM MKIV 12" and not satisfied with loudness FWIW, but sounds nice)

 

Ported: I cannot imagine much more than an 8"

 

**Infinite Baffle**: Work with me for a minute and put on your imagination hats. Look at the picture of the wedge box behind the seat. Now imagine the bottom of that box not there. Then imagine a hole cut out of the floor of the car under that box and that box sealed tight to the floor over top of the cutout. Then imagine a 12" or possibly even a 15" Fi IB3 speaker inside that box firing into the cabin and venting the backwave to the atmosphere through the hole in the floor. Would this work and how would it compare to the sealed or ported setups that I can fit? 15" sounds big, but that fact that the box only needs to have enough room to enclose the speaker itself and not a specific amount of cubic feet inside, it might be made to fit, but how would it sound? Would the space inside the wedge still need to be a certain amount even though it ultimately is pulling from air under the car? I hope that makes sense :-)

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Budget not necessarily an issue within reason. Currently thinking (1) Taramps 8K or 4K and (2) Fi IB315? Yes that is excessive for power, but everyone using the FI, even the IB series, says they are power hungry.

Edited July 1, 2015 by ndisgiis

[Thumpper 266]

sometimes bigger is not better.... personally I would go with a pair of ported 10"

wedge the enclosures towards the center and give the subs a V formation

so they do not pound into the seat and muffle out

use PVC to port (save space) and up fire them on the outside of the enclosures

 

the build will be a bit tricky with the angles but the sub will have room to move air and the ports will have no restriction

 

sorry for the shitty drawing...took about 30 seconds with a dull pencil..LOL

 

[ndisgiis 0]

sometimes bigger is not better.... personally I would go with a pair of ported 10"

wedge the enclosures towards the center and give the subs a V formation

so they do not pound into the seat and muffle out

use PVC to port (save space) and up fire them on the outside of the enclosures

 

the build will be a bit tricky with the angles but the sub will have room to move air and the ports will have no restriction

 

sorry for the shitty drawing...took about 30 seconds with a dull pencil..LOL

 

What would be a good sub to use for this plan? Needs to be something with small airspace requirements, so which 10 would you resommend? Dss Ethos keeps popping up in my mind, but what else? Thanks for the input!

[Thumpper 266]

 10" Icons..... 1.0cf3 per sub

[ndisgiis 0]

 10" Icons..... 1.0cf3 per sub

What frequency should it be tuned to and what kind of port would be required to achieve it? Any idea of what dbs are achievable with such a setup. Thanks again for the input!

[Thumpper 266]

that's a really small space to put any serious port area into

 

 1.0cf3 tuned at 33hz and a 4" PVC port you would have 27.92" of length to deal with    I would not tune any higher...

 

 the port velocity would be just over 15% ..there would be a little bit of port noise

 

 a slot port would work for that but to get the required port area it would probably go right up to the rear deck and  wrap

up onto it and shoot towards the  rear window...if I had the car here I could design something

 

 

you could do some research on some good shallow mounts .......or  go sealed  ...I personally stay away from both

[ndisgiis 0]

that's a really small space to put any serious port area into

 

 1.0cf3 tuned at 33hz and a 4" PVC port you would have 27.92" of length to deal with    I would not tune any higher...

 

 the port velocity would be just over 15% ..there would be a little bit of port noise

 

 a slot port would work for that but to get the required port area it would probably go right up to the rear deck and  wrap

up onto it and shoot towards the  rear window...if I had the car here I could design something

 

 

you could do some research on some good shallow mounts .......or  go sealed  ...I personally stay away from both

 

Currently using supposedly some of the best shallow mounts for sealed boxes onthe market, the BM MKIV from Stereo Integrity. I like the way they sound and they dig pretty deep, but just not loud enough, which I knew would probably be the case before trying them out. I just wanted to see how they sounded. Now I want more :-)

[Aaron Clinton 2,372]

I like the Icon 10 idea. 

[Thumpper 266]

 

that's a really small space to put any serious port area into

 

 1.0cf3 tuned at 33hz and a 4" PVC port you would have 27.92" of length to deal with    I would not tune any higher...

 

 the port velocity would be just over 15% ..there would be a little bit of port noise

 

 a slot port would work for that but to get the required port area it would probably go right up to the rear deck and  wrap

up onto it and shoot towards the  rear window...if I had the car here I could design something

 

 

you could do some research on some good shallow mounts .......or  go sealed  ...I personally stay away from both

 

Currently using supposedly some of the best shallow mounts for sealed boxes onthe market, the BM MKIV from Stereo Integrity. I like the way they sound and they dig pretty deep, but just not loud enough, which I knew would probably be the case before trying them out. I just wanted to see how they sounded. Now I want more :-)

 

 

 I never liked the performance of shallow mount

 building up to the rear deck and shoot the port back to the window would be my goal

[ndisgiis 0]

Can a PVC based port have turns in it like 90's or 180's etc..

Edited July 1, 2015 by ndisgiis

[Thumpper 266]

Can a PVC based port have turns in it like 90's or 180's etc..

 

yes

[ndisgiis 0]

Does doing it force the use of longer port to compensate?

[Jay-C76 333]

No the sub won't know the difference.

Use centerline measurements and it's all the same.

It's not like static pressure on a fan forced air duct.

Just maintain the same diameter piping.

[ndisgiis 0]

Thank you. Such tough decisions. Maybe I should just throw more power to the BM MKIVs :-) ...could be a costly test :-(