Mounting a 500+ watt sub in a carpeted enclosure

[lukeman269]

Idk if this is even worth posting but I was on craigslist looking for subs and this old guy who is like 52 years old told me that it isn't good to mount 500+ rms subs on the carpet of the enclosure, he said it will blow the sub. What he said to do is to cut the carpet around the lip of the opening of the hole so that your sub mounts good and flat on the mdf. So my question is, will your sub blow if you mount it on the carpet or not?

[ttocs]

wow, why would it blow it? Personally I have always mounted it over the carpet as long as it wasn't too thick. it seals it better then it does with metal aginst mdf.

[lukeman269]

wow, why would it blow it? Personally I have always mounted it over the carpet as long as it wasn't too thick. it seals it better then it does with metal aginst mdf.

Yeah that's what I thought. I thought I would ask for the hell of it, because I wasn't completely sure. Old bastard didn't know what he was talking about.

[Kurt Wild]

Depends on the carpet dunnit? There's always a risk of leaks when installing a sub with the carpet acting as a seal. I trust proper seal tape more. Leaks are not a good thing with subs of whatever power range. This is how I avoid using carpet as seal.

[Jacampb2]

Carpet is not really going to give you the best seal. I think I would do metal to MDF before carpet, but like Kurt says, there are options for doing it properly. Most drivers anymore come with a good wrap around gasket, most decent drivers back in the day came with a foam gasket for mounting the driver as well. Carpet, regardless of it's length is going to be porous and a "rough" surface, not the greatest surface for a air tight seal. Bare MDF is really not much better, but at least you could make an attempt to sand it smooth and level.

Is it going to cause the speaker to blow either way? Not very freaking likely. Would it have mattered back in Grandpa's day when all they had was lime green 4" shag and a dodge panel van-- maybe

Later,
Jason

[finbar]

Some speaker tape works well.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdet ... er=260-542

[smgreen20]

Carpet has very little difference as a standard gasket when compressed. I wanted to test how well carpet sealed when used as a gasket. This was back in '95 when I did this test. I used the factory supplied cork like gasket that Lanzar provided with there subs be the carpet. I used soapy water and sprayed around both subs. There were no leaks from either.

[ttocs]

Carpet has very little difference as a standard gasket when compressed. I wanted to test how well carpet sealed when used as a gasket. This was back in '95 when I did this test. I used the factory supplied cork like gasket that Lana provided with there subs be the carpet. I used soapy water and sprayed around both subs. There were no leaks from either.

I have been doing this for over a decade and again it would matter what kind of carpet you use. the old shag carpet that the old timer probably started off using should not be used but almost any other would work as long as it is not too thick and you can get a good bit ont the screws to tighten it down enough. I would never do raw metal aginst wood though, that will leak horribly and even enough that you would probably hear it. When I built my enclosures for my 6.5s I was able to hear a slight whistly as they air got around them. A little foam tape and they were golden...

[smgreen20]

In all honesty though, how many of us use shag????

I use the standard box carpet from the local store.

[ttocs]

you would be amazed what people will do.. I have seen shag, really really fuzzy stuff and even where people just cut a hole in teh cardboard box it came in and wonder why it isn't hitting....

[stipud]

you would be amazed what people will do.. I have seen shag, really really fuzzy stuff and even where people just cut a hole in teh cardboard box it came in and wonder why it isn't hitting....

Hehe... reminds me of my old gag from SoundBuggy...

http://photo.stipud.com/v/stereo/jl/

Some people fell for it pretty hard

[Rold Gold]

LMFBO Tom!!!!!!!!!
But what is really funny is that I saw a thick fruit box that was duc taped all to shit with a JL12w0 running off a Majestic 400w..... And it bumped pretty good for it being 1995......

[ttocs]

the best I have seen to date, wsa a greasy used KFC bucket, and actual paint bucket and another hick found a part of a tree that was hollow in the middle. He only had to cut it open a little more to be able to mount the sub on one side, and a couple of 2 x 4s on the other side. NO SHIT>>>>>

[stipud]

I've always wanted to make a good quality varnished tree stump box. I think it would look sick if you actually did it nicely. Of course boring it out would be a huge pain in the ass...

[KHPower]

every box I build I never use carpet cause I was never taught to carpet ;( things I stay away from is paint and crappy wood or spraying sound deadening stuff on the enclosure. i also use bots to mount subs into tornado threads so if ya ever want to mount another sub or work on your current sub ya dont jack up your box. if your not going to be removing the sub soon then you can use silicone for windows to help mount and seal , it works great and peels off great