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mrsteele73

RL-p12 D2 Enclosure question

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Hey guys, quick rundown of what I have had in the past (for comparison purposes) and what I have now.

Old vehicle, '93 Explorer, Eclipse Head unit, 5433 I think, Diamond Audio 5X7's in all doors, Diamond Audio M6 tweeters in A-pillars, US Acoustics USB 4085 amp for all the above mentioned, Diamond CM3 10" D4 subs in a transmission line ported enclosure, powered by a Diamond D5 600.2 amp.

New vehicle, '99Mitsubishi Montero Sport, Eclipse CD5000 headunit(sweet), Eclipse SC8264 Components in front doors (sweet), MB Quart DKK116 6.5 Coax's in rear doors, all ran off same US Acoustics amp, the RL-p12" sub ran off the Diamond Amp (600rms@4ohms), sub is in sealed enclosure, ~1.3 cu ft, roughly .5 lb of polyfill in it.

Now to the question. Just got all this hooked up and tried it out this evening. Started with some rap music just to see what this sub could do (first time with one and have never seen or heard them before), this thing pounded like crazy, I was impressed, so moved on to some music I listen to mostly, rock and metal, and ended up being disappointed, just sounded muddy and distorted, so coming to realize maybe sealed was a bad idea for this sub? Have been doing some research on sealed versus ported, and are getting mixed emotions on it. Some say sealed is best for rock type music, some say ported. Have read based off some of the parameters for this sub that it would work best in a ported and not sealed. Just looking for some comments and suggestions on what to do next to make this thing please me!

Main reason I went sealed (this is my first sealed enclosure) is due to space, I wanted to actually keep some for once!

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the specs would point out a ported application. but nonetheless, it's beeing used in sealed applications too.

where do you have it crossed ? how big is the box ?

let the suspension loosen up a bit.

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Make sure the box does not have a leak, and try different amouts of polyfill.

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Ok, added more polyfill to the box, played with amp settings, and headunit settings, got it sounding pretty good. Asked about this question to a guy on a different forum and he recommended for me to get this sub out of a sealed enclosure and put it in a slot vented enclosure, 1.5 cu ft and tuned to 34hz, and to set my crossover to the high side to get the performance I am looking for with the music I listen to mainly. Thoughts on this? I do have a feeling with the setup I have if I switched to a vented it probably would give more output, just wondering if it will keep as good of sound quality, or maybe be even better? I know it's hard to get good quality out of rock and metal, but this is my task at hand with what I have to work with.

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My RL-p shines in a 2.0 @ 27, many people have gotten great results out of a 1.5 @34hz.

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personally, i'd try 1.25ft^3 sealed, no polyfill. teh bigger the box, the "looser" the sound. while a big sealed box is going to be nice and boomy, it'll also tend to be muddy for the fast stuff. my rl-p absolutely kicked ass in 1.25ft^3 sealed.

yep, ported will definitely get you louder. 1.5-1.75@34hz would indeed kick ass. DON'T turn up your crossover point though. leave it at 80 or under. anything higher, and your getting into midbass, and the rl-p isn't a midbass driver. for rock, i think you'll like the 15.-1.75@34hz box. it'll till drop low, but it'll nail those kicks!!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :slayer:

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mrray, how much power did you give yours in the sealed box though? I'm thinking me just giving it 600 watts may be part of why I'm not getting the output I know this thing could do, and putting it in the vented box its probably going to love the 600watts, my thinking anyways. I do love the kicks, and i want the bass guitar notes to really make some thunder as well. I don't really want to change my amp since it wasn't the cheapest thing in the world back when i bought it! I hadn't tried the sealed box with no polyfill so I may try that out and see what happens, and will probably go ahead and build the vented as well just so I will know one way or the other. I will update as I go along.

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Tim, here is what I would say, go for the vented 1.5 @ 34, and if you want a little more out of it stuff it up with polyfill.

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when i first insatalled my rl-p, it was in the 1.25 box with a 750wrms going to it. and according to the voltmeter, the hifonics amp will do just over 850 full tilt, but it's clipped like a mofo. gain set just over halfway, barely clipping on music (measured with an oscope) and the voltmeter shows jsut over 450wrms. i had the gain over that, just i'd guess in the 500-600 range. and it performed beautiful. it loves ported though, lol. the rl-p will flat out get down in a ported box. and i'd go with denim's recommendation...1.5@34.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :slayer:

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Ok, got the new box done and installed, and yeah, ported is definately the way to go with these subs! Ended up being 1.6 cu ft @33 hz (I think), but it sounds great, and the output is just, wow. Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated!

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Thats great news Tim,

any chance on pix of the subs in their new home?

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Thats great news Tim,

any chance on pix of the subs in their new home?

Yeah, I can get some pics. I'm a do-it-yourselfer so it's nothing fancy at all, and I still need to do the coverboard and carpeting so, it doesn't look like much right now. But I will get some pics and post them on here. Thanks again for all the help.

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