Phoenix Gold Phorum

Would it be worth taking the time to create pods for my door speakers to put them in sealed enclosures???

Yes, I know I can buy those foam baffles, but I'm thinking I would benefit from something more rigid and possibly put some polyfil behind the speaker as well.

Is this something that will help with my mid-bass?

Currently, I've got the front door speakers crossed off at 63 Hz (hpf) and the rear door speakers crossed off at 80 Hz (hpf).

Input is greatly appreciated.

Absolutely a great idea. Ideally, the more airspace the better... you do not want them to be stuffed into an enclosure the size of the speaker, otherwise that will limit the midbass and muddy your midrange a bit.

stipud wrote:Absolutely a great idea. Ideally, the more airspace the better... you do not want them to be stuffed into an enclosure the size of the speaker, otherwise that will limit the midbass and muddy your midrange a bit.

Cool, cool...so create them as big as I can, but don't stuff them, right?

I'll use some rings to bring the whole thing out of the door a bit to give me more room to work with. The speaker is flush mounted to the door panel with no issues of the windown hitting it when it's down.

So...my next project shall begin...creating sealed door pods and rolling some sound deadening mat on the doors too. I can definitely hear that the speakers can handle being crossed that low...I was shocked to be honest.

Again, absolutely. I love my RSd components sealed. They have somewhat small enclosures but I still get good midbass out of them. Just don't go too small, as stipud already pointed out.

Deadening or stuffing the inside of the enclosure works well to simulate a larger box. Too much stuffing, and you'll start reducing the size. A handful of wadding or a single layer of sound deadening should be all you really need.

Now if you really want to see midbass, you should run an amp to them.

stipud wrote:Deadening or stuffing the inside of the enclosure works well to simulate a larger box. Too much stuffing, and you'll start reducing the size. A handful of wadding or a single layer of sound deadening should be all you really need.

Now if you really want to see midbass, you should run an amp to them.

Duly noted!

When you say run an amp to them...how much power do you think? The Kappas can handle 75 watts rms, right now...they are getting 45 watts rms from the OEM amp.

.. feed them 100W of clean power and see what happens. Too much and you'll fry'em, but clean is the key.

Bret

Yep, unclipped power rarely kills speakers when playing music. I regularly run double the RMS power to speakers, and have never had one fail. On the other hand, you can easily destroy speakers by clipping an amp, even if it produces less power than they are rated for.

http://bcae1.com/2ltlpwr.htm

stipud wrote:Yep, unclipped power rarely kills speakers when playing music. I regularly run double the RMS power to speakers, and have never had one fail. On the other hand, you can easily destroy speakers by clipping an amp, even if it produces less power than they are rated for.

http://bcae1.com/2ltlpwr.htm

Let me ask you something...when I was running that test tone disc, all the tones seemed to be smooth in sound until I got down to like 29 Hz...then it had a sound like chopper blades, but a bit slower. Would that indicate clipping or is that supposed to happen at that low of a frequency?

29Hz is reaching the bottom of the human hearing range, so you start to be unable to hear it. Instead, things like speaker motor noise, rattles, etc, become way more apparent.

stipud wrote:29Hz is reaching the bottom of the human hearing range, so you start to be unable to hear it. Instead, things like speaker motor noise, rattles, etc, become way more apparent.

Ahhhhhh...so what I'm actually hearing is the mechanics of the subs working instead of the actual signal, right?

That's about right. And you should "feel" the bass wave also.

FuzzyHoNutz wrote:That's about right. And you should "feel" the bass wave also.

Indeed, it is felt...not so much below 30 Hz as above it. 27 Hz is the point where it starts that "flub" sound like chopper rotors. Anything above 29 Hz...signal is completely audible.

I just wanna thank you guys for all the input received. I really gotta chance to listen to my system with the new settings and I can definitely see where my Infinity Kappas could use more power and would probably give me extra punch at the mid-bass level. I don't think I need to worry about sealed pods for the doors, but dynamat (or equivalent) will truly make a difference. The only change I will be making is building a new enclosure for my Xenon subs, probably 1 cu. ft. each and keep them sealed.

Happy holidays to everyone!!!

Mike