I installed my 12" Fi Q last wednesday, and I have been "breaking it in" since then. Just today I turned up the volume a bit, and it doesn't seem like it can get much louder than my JL audio 13tw5, which is only 3 inches thin. Not only that, it feels like the JL hit lower than the Fi, which i did not expect.

Is this because the sub may not be fully broken in yet?

How much louder do you think the Fi Q would be in a ported box instead of the 1.2 cu ft sealed box i have now? Will it change the sound at all?

I bought the Fi for the sole purpose that I saw people's car body panels flexing due to this sub, but it isn't feeling like that in my car.... should i give it more time? Then upgrade my box?

 

Ported it, tune between 30-32hz, that will be in a box about 2.2cuft after ported and sub displacement.
After the sub is broken-in it should sound a bit louder. Your amp is a limiting factor also.
In theory it should be louder in a ported box. I went ported and never look back!
I tried both, sub up and port back, and sub back and port back.
They pretty sound the same to me...but that is just my setup. Others might be different.

 

My sealed Fi sounds great. I'm sure ported is better but I like having a least half my trunk space.

 

I was thinking about getting a custom ported box from fisher customs.

I was going to put it in this empty area of my trunk:







If I filled that area with a massive box, it would be a total of 2.99 cuft, which is wayyyyy too big.

So I am going to have a box made that is about 1.81 cuft, dimensions 20" long, 14" wide, 15" high. I could go a little bigger, such as 20" long, 15" wide, and 16" deep which would give me a total of 2.1, without the displacement of the subwoofer.

I would get it tuned @ 32hz, with 14sqin of port area. Covered in black carpet, sub and port on top side facing up toward back window, and a plexiglass window on the side facing in, so you can see the beautiful structure of the Fi Q subwoofer

How does that sound? Will it make the Q gorgeous?

 

oh and i also forgot to mention that I am going to build a mount for the amp inside the spare, and build an area to hold the spare into, since it will not fit in its normal spot, I am moving the spare over as shown in the pictures.

 

Fishercustoms is the S*** as far as quality enclosures go. If I had to get one built, it would be from them!
Go as big as possible on the box, even if it have to be 2.5cuft.

 

Alright, here is my plan:

The box there will yield 1.94 cu ft after subwoofer displacement, so I figure I will do 13 sq in of port tuned to 32hz.

Hopefully that box will give me the output I am looking for, and the 20" length should fit semi snuggly in the back, so it does not move around much. The max I measured for height was 17", which would allow the sub to still have room to reach xmax if needed, so i figured that 16" would give more room, then put a double flush mount baffle in to lower the sub even more, which will allow you to see more sub in the plexiglass window.

What does everyone think?

 

woops i lied on the height of the plexiglass window from the bottom.. it should be 4" not 6". my bad

 

I figured I should mention this:

One of the moderators of SSA forums reviewed the Q and mentioned this:

Q 12 –
Ported box we recommend using 1.8-2.5 cubic feet @ 28-33Hz (I personally think that a 32hz tuning is optimal, and has the most output and is still the most musical daily driving). Use 12-16 square inches of vent area per cubic foot of volume.

 

Not to completely burst your bubble, but BJ from Fisher is on hiatus until further notice. I hope he picks back up again soon. I need a couple more enclosures made.

 

Back when I still had a tC I tried out the 12" Fi Q:

2cuft tuned to 30hz. I've tried Sealed and Ported, and ported was definitely louder. Also I would look into replacing that amp. Although it is addequate for daily use, I think for spl sessions you'd be better off with a ED nine.1 or a Sundown Audio SAE-1200D. Just speaking from experience with Kenwood Amps, especially non Excelon stuff.

 

I have ran into problems before with too big of sub and not enough air space. The lower end model of subs put out a lot more bass then a huge sub in the same box. If you want a more powerful sub you are going to have a big box.

 

Generally speaking, a properly tuned ported enclosure will provide 3dB more output than the same sub in an optimally sized sealed box, given the same wattage.

That isn't a lot more, but enough to notice a difference. Aside from SPL, there are trade-offs between both enclosure types, and sealed usually comes out ahead from an SQ perspective (when a sub is designed for either enclosure type), but everyone has their own preference.