I went to an audio store today in AZ. Supposedly its one of the best, according to some of the car shows i've been to?


anyways, they said not to install insulation in my one 12" sealed box for my sub. They said it sounds better without insulation in a hatch? this trueeee?


I dunno if it is or not. And where do i buy insulation? haha sorry, dumb question.

 

the insulation that they speak of is actually pillow stuffing. It depends on the subwoofer and box that you are using. When you use the "stuffing" your actually making the sub think that it is in a bigger box than it actually is.

 

Whether you should stuff a box or not has nothing to do with the type of car, so I'd take anything and everything that source says with a grain of salt. It may be that your new sub sounds best in a non-stuffed enclosure, but not because of installing it in a hatchback, you still wouldn't want to stuff it if it were going in a sedan or truck.

Since they can't be believed, I suggest you try it both ways and decide for yourself which you like best, as you're the one that'll be listening to it. Most all fabric stores carry 12 to 16oz. bags of "polyfill" (most comonly used as pillow stuffing) for around $3 to $6 each. General rule is to use about 1 pound of stuffing per cubic foot of net enclosure volume, but many people find about half that is adequate, and you should'nt ever go beyond 2 pounds per foot.

If/when stuffing is used it's often to smooth the response a bit, as adding it to "increase the enclosure size" (trick the sub, as others mention) by slowing down air movement doesn't really work very well, the enclosure size needs to match the sub. This is because (in a sealed box) the air will heat up as the sub is playing, which makes the enclosure appear even smaller to the sub, and it's F3 point will go up as the temp does.

Really nothing to be too concerned about, it'll likely sound just fine without stuffing and if you decide to experiment you may not notice much difference either way. It won't hurt anything to try, so if you think that might be fun, go for it.

 

Thanks guys.


nodsetse, one of the most helpful guys on this forum! So thank you!

 

i'm glad i saw this thread since i had the same question about a week ago...

i have 2 jl12w3's in a sealed box with separate chambers in the back of my tc, and for about a year the box was "unstuffed".

this past weekend my wife and i decided it was time to de-clutter the house and discovered a couple of pillows that were destined for the trash. i decided that i'd take the stuffing out of one of the big ones and then shoved half into each chamber. btw, each chamber is a hair over 1 cubic foot.

before the stuffing, the max volume i could take it too was 40, with the sub level set to -2. anymore than that and the subs would pop or have issues getting lower frequencies.

now that it's stuffed, i can set the sub level to +2, and take the volume up to 48. the subs don't seem to have any issues hitting the lower notes, and they haven't popped yet.

the sound is cleaner, and i daresay "louder". wife was complaining that i was shaking the lights two floors up in the house..... couldn't do that before.... ^_^

hope this helps!

happy thumping!

 

^ that's exactly what I have. Except I only have one 12w3

so i'll probably be stuffing it then.

 

^ Then you'll only need to buy one bag of polyfill from the fabric store, 12oz. should be adequate for under $5. Fluff it up to ensure density is the same throughout, then evenly distribute it in your enclosure, but not too close to the sub itself, leave a bit of room on all sides of the sub, so that there's an inch or 2 empty space between the sub & polyfill. If you want to spend a bit more, some people feel it's worth the extra cost to use a product that's better than polyfill, so here's a link if you want to check it out;
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=260-317
You could also use acoustic foam, lots of options to choose from. Have fun!