I want to tackle the task of building my own subbox. I plan on biulding one that goes in the rear storage space. A friend of mine has wood working tools and such. So, I ask him to help me out. I mentioned that I would have to pick up some MDF so we could get started. He asked why? Theres other woods out there that are stronger and lighter. Now neither of us have any back ground in car audio. So, why use MDF? I'm guessing sound quality, right? Is there some other reason or reasons?

Please don't tell me to just buy a premade box I've wanted to do this for a while now and isn't all about the DIY anyways

 

MDF is incredibly dense, hence the weight. it will hold up better and sound better than say using particle board or plywood. it will also seal up a lot better too giving you better sound.

 

^ What he said. MDF has a nice acoustic property in that there's very low resonance. Especially with a sub box, you want to keep the vibrations of the box itself to a minimum. Good luck Scott.

 

Thats what I thought the reason was. Just needed to varify it.
Now is there any other woods out there that are safe to use also?

 

dont cheat yourself, just use MDF, 3/4 inch is nice ;)

 

^^ i went with 1/2 inch and for a small underseat box its perfect. It helps a little with airspace and clearance issues. this is my first box but it turned out perrty cool.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...509183#2509183

 

3/4" MDF is really your best bet. It's easy to work with and seals nicely. (I went to school for audio and I had to build a loudspeaker in a class.)

 

you can use 1/2 or 5/8 mdf if you want. 3/4 is optimum, but if you want something a little lighter, use the smaller wood, but make sure you use bracing along the seams. The small strips will keep the box from flexing when you are getting your bass on!

 

Nice job on the box and wrapping it metal112524. I have been looking at using the sq10 also.

I'll probibly go with 1/2" to gain a little more air space.

Thanks for the tips on bracing the insides too.

 

^ thanks scotty, its amature but it rocks for me.

 

If you are worried about weight, there is available a light weight version of mdf, we use it all the time and it works great. You cant get it at like home deopt have to go to a lumber yard.

 

The only other wood that I would use would be birch. Some people use 13ply baltic birch, but it is hard to find, making it impractical, and overly expensive. However, in the long run, the MDF is less expensive, and easier to machine. You will appreciate the machinability if you get into fiberglassin'. You can radius the edges very easily with a router.

 

3/4" high density particle board is also a good material for speaker boxes- widely used in the speaker industry for many, many years... heavy and dense, with low resonance.

3/4" mdf can be hard to come by, oddly enough. Neither Lowe's nor Home Despot had any when I wanted it, but they did have the particle board, even in half and quarter sheets...

 

I guess I'm not too worried about weight, since this box will be replacing the monstrosity thats in there now. Just curious on why its used over others.

 

Use MDF for all the reasons above. And fiberglass... it sucks @ss doing it, but the results look better than just your standard cube.

 

sq10 is amazing, I hooked up to my friends amp and he had one speaker fireing against mine, and it was WAY deeper hitting and clearer. Blew him away. lol you should have seen him. He is running db drives db series equal size and power rating, but this of course being a tiny box was prolly the deal there.

 

i'd use 1/2" - 3/4" 7-13ply birch, it's much stronger then MDF, doesn't get hurt from water, 30% lighter then MDF and sounds just the same. only set back of Birch, it's so muc harder that it's harder to work with, your tools will seem louder and your cuts and sanding will take longer but in the end, totaly worth it if you are using quite a bit of wood. say you have a 30lb MDF box, you could be looing at about 20lbs for the same size box done in birch. especialy if you are planning on fiberglassing, instead of using flat sheet for parts of the enclosure, birch is strong enough that you only need a skeleton, large flat piece turned into like a rib like frame so you cut even more weight down.


good story about birch. when i was working at Tacoma's Quitar Center, i was doing all the pro audio stuff. sold a guy some REALLY nice TurboSound dual 15 mid.high cabs. loaded four of these beasts in the back of his pickup. he comes back 3 hours later with one... it looked like it went through a meat grinder... apparently on his way home, the tail gate droped and one of the cabs bonced out of the back out on the freeway. TurboSound uses nothing but 5/8" 11ply birch, sure this cab had some serious paint issues, but it was still solid as a rock and crystal clear sound production.

Birch Ply is the sh*t...

also, when the build is done right *proper bracing and such*, you will lituraly be able to drop the box 10 feet high off the ground and they wont suffer muh more then a chip, dent or scratch. TurboSound, Mackie and JBL all do a 10 foot drop test with all thier live audio speaker cabs to test durability, if there is anything more then a chip, dent or scratch, the design is scrapped and a new one comes alone later.

 

Beat me to it...nice...

 

As most have said, 3/4 inch MDF is the way to go. It has been the staple of car audio sub enclosures for years for a reason. It has very good acoustic properties, and very little flexion under load.

But...there's something else you'll want to do to get the best sound out of your box. Stuff it with polyfill. This is basically the stuff that you fill pillows and stuffed animals with. It is cheap, and you can get it in large bags from craft or fabric stores. And don't be stingy with it. Cram the box full of it. This prevents sound waves inside the box from bouncing around too much and possibly escaping the enclosure (and distorting your sound).

For the couple bux investment, it is definitely worth it. I consider it a necessary part of a well made box.

KiL

 

well in regards of the waves escaping the box, thats something you can't stop being those bass waves are anywhere from half the car's length upto several dozen times the length of the car so it wouldn't really matter. however, poly fill WILL dramaticly reduce standing waves inside the enclosure which can cause unstable balance on the VC as the standing waves bounc back at the cone in opisite pulls and pushes. it can give a NASTEY distortion like sound when you are really pumpin some tunes when it's really the VC bouncing all over the place within it's movement area.

i would say stuff it at about the stiffness of your average pillow, in other words, enough that you can set a 12 or 16oz pop/energy drink can in there and it doesn't sink more then an inch when you drop it from about a foot of distance into the box. that should be plenty of dampening whilest not being TOO much and effecting the "effective" enclosure volume as much nor effecting the speaker/subwoofer's ability to vent it's VC from the back and sides. make sure theres a good inch or two of space between the fill and the rear vent if you want total venting ability.

if you're reverse mounting your subs then you shoul have to about and venting problems ofcourse. just make sure the cone doesn't push agnest the poly fill, that will also cause unstable VC moment and can damage the motor structure and or the VC over time.