nkresho
suck, squish, bang, blow
- Location
- Pittsburgh
- Car(s)
- 2022 Q3
Part of growing up is coming to the realization that with enough work, you don't have to give up as much.
To-date, I've been running a single sealed 10 in a standard box. I built the box so that it matched the angle of the back seat, so I could retain as much trunk space as possible. It sounded great and fit the trunk well, but still took up a bunch of space. I was able to get my amps under the floor, which was nice, but that huge amount of extra space under the floor seemed like a waste. I always found myself removing the sub for road trips. Additionally, I have a baby on the way, and there's no way a stroller will fit in there with the box...
I considered the uberstealth box, as I like the idea a lot. I already have a 10" sub and didn't want to spend the money on a low-profile one if I didn't need to. With a decent sub and the box, i'd be around ($275 for the box + $200 for the sub) $500. I already have a decent JL sub.
My 10" JL sub wants a minimum of 0.65 cubic feet. The old box was spot-on. New box is the same volume.
For anyone considering something like this, with a standard height sub, please be aware of the excursion of the sub you pick. I had to add some standoffs on the top of the box to space it a little. With heavy items in the trunk (me pressing downward), it was close enough to press on the speaker surround and cause distortion.
Another note: I originally wanted to retain the spare tire hold-down. I shortened it to the height of the plastic nut. After getting it all together, I had reconfigure the bottom of the box, and lose the hold-down completely. There's just no way I could have made it fit with the sub depth.
Hardware:
Alpine MRV-M500 (500x1 @ 2 ohms) sub amp (with remote gain in the cubby under the steering wheel)
Alpine MRV-F300 (50x4 @ 4 ohms) 4 channel amp running stock (non-fender) components
JL 10w3V2D4 10" sub (300W RMS). Mounting depth is listed at 5.75"
4 gauge power to distribution blocks, then 8 gauge to amps
9 conductor speaker wire to and from the infotainment brain in glovebox
Running 4 channel high-level inputs to both amps with no DSP or stand-alone crossover.
My thoughts:
The weight is substantial for the new box. 28 pounds, unloaded. The previous box was only 14 pounds, unloaded.
The sound is equal to the old box, with the trunk floor removed. Maybe even a little louder, as the direction of the speaker is optimal when not firing directly at the hatch.
With the trunk floor in place, substantial sound is lost. It still sounds good, but I can noticeably tell some of the energy is lost in the trunk floor. With the floor in, you can hear the bass, and it sounds great, you just can't feel it in your chest like you can with the floor removed. I listen to a lot of bass-intense music, so, I prefer to feel it. The trunk floor also vibrates a good deal. Not audibly rattling, but it shakes enough to see it. Without the thin foam I added to the stand-offs, you can hear it rattle.
Overall I am very happy with the extra trunk space gained. I am planning to find some sort of perforated material to make a grille and mount it in the trunk floor, immediately above the sub.
Pics:
I used a combination of 5/8" particleboard and 3/4". Rings are 2" wide (could have probably lightened it up with 1"). The box contacts the spare in 2 places, there's a 17.75" section that sits inside the rim, there's also the widest part that sits on the tire. I experimented with different thicknesses of particleboard (3/4 and 5/8) until both were contacting equally. This eliminates movement/vibration, and fits very snug.
I used a piece of flat aluminum as my compass (it's in the pics). This is an absolute necessity, it made perfect circles every time, and was repeatable. Drilled a hole for a screw (to the wood) and drilled holes at different radius lengths to draw my circles. I did all my cuts with a jigsaw. Would have looked nicer with a router, but this was faster and easier to set up.
The whole project took me about 4 hours yesterday. I had my amp wiring already run and just had to re-situate my amps, as they had to be spaces out farther. I made a new particleboard mounting plate for them, as the pics show.
I sprayed the box with undercoating for sound dampening. I'll probably pick up another can for the amp plate and the underside of the box.
There's plenty of room to add volume to a box of similar design. Increasing the inner diameter of the main rings would do it. It's the mounting depth of the sub that limits you. In my experimentation and measurement, I can honestly say that 5.75 is the max depth you can get away with. And that's including completely removing the spare hold-down. If you want to retain that, I'd take 1/2 to an inch off the sub depth. With a shallow-ish 12" sub, of 5.75 or less, you would definitely have the ability to fit it. The increased volume need would just make the box closer to the diameter of the spare.
Volume calculations, for anyone interested, are going to be pi(3.14) x radius^2 x depth of the ring. You'll need to translate the volume needed (0.65 cubic feet, in my case) to cubic inches (1,123, in my case), so it all calculates the same. 1 cubic foot equals 12"x12"x12".
For anyone thinking of doing something like this, I highly recommend starting with the ring that fits the rim, snugly. Mine was 17.75" diameter. Then build the box on that, above and below. That way, the box will be completely secure, when installed.
To-date, I've been running a single sealed 10 in a standard box. I built the box so that it matched the angle of the back seat, so I could retain as much trunk space as possible. It sounded great and fit the trunk well, but still took up a bunch of space. I was able to get my amps under the floor, which was nice, but that huge amount of extra space under the floor seemed like a waste. I always found myself removing the sub for road trips. Additionally, I have a baby on the way, and there's no way a stroller will fit in there with the box...
I considered the uberstealth box, as I like the idea a lot. I already have a 10" sub and didn't want to spend the money on a low-profile one if I didn't need to. With a decent sub and the box, i'd be around ($275 for the box + $200 for the sub) $500. I already have a decent JL sub.
My 10" JL sub wants a minimum of 0.65 cubic feet. The old box was spot-on. New box is the same volume.
For anyone considering something like this, with a standard height sub, please be aware of the excursion of the sub you pick. I had to add some standoffs on the top of the box to space it a little. With heavy items in the trunk (me pressing downward), it was close enough to press on the speaker surround and cause distortion.
Another note: I originally wanted to retain the spare tire hold-down. I shortened it to the height of the plastic nut. After getting it all together, I had reconfigure the bottom of the box, and lose the hold-down completely. There's just no way I could have made it fit with the sub depth.
Hardware:
Alpine MRV-M500 (500x1 @ 2 ohms) sub amp (with remote gain in the cubby under the steering wheel)
Alpine MRV-F300 (50x4 @ 4 ohms) 4 channel amp running stock (non-fender) components
JL 10w3V2D4 10" sub (300W RMS). Mounting depth is listed at 5.75"
4 gauge power to distribution blocks, then 8 gauge to amps
9 conductor speaker wire to and from the infotainment brain in glovebox
Running 4 channel high-level inputs to both amps with no DSP or stand-alone crossover.
My thoughts:
The weight is substantial for the new box. 28 pounds, unloaded. The previous box was only 14 pounds, unloaded.
The sound is equal to the old box, with the trunk floor removed. Maybe even a little louder, as the direction of the speaker is optimal when not firing directly at the hatch.
With the trunk floor in place, substantial sound is lost. It still sounds good, but I can noticeably tell some of the energy is lost in the trunk floor. With the floor in, you can hear the bass, and it sounds great, you just can't feel it in your chest like you can with the floor removed. I listen to a lot of bass-intense music, so, I prefer to feel it. The trunk floor also vibrates a good deal. Not audibly rattling, but it shakes enough to see it. Without the thin foam I added to the stand-offs, you can hear it rattle.
Overall I am very happy with the extra trunk space gained. I am planning to find some sort of perforated material to make a grille and mount it in the trunk floor, immediately above the sub.
Pics:
I used a combination of 5/8" particleboard and 3/4". Rings are 2" wide (could have probably lightened it up with 1"). The box contacts the spare in 2 places, there's a 17.75" section that sits inside the rim, there's also the widest part that sits on the tire. I experimented with different thicknesses of particleboard (3/4 and 5/8) until both were contacting equally. This eliminates movement/vibration, and fits very snug.
I used a piece of flat aluminum as my compass (it's in the pics). This is an absolute necessity, it made perfect circles every time, and was repeatable. Drilled a hole for a screw (to the wood) and drilled holes at different radius lengths to draw my circles. I did all my cuts with a jigsaw. Would have looked nicer with a router, but this was faster and easier to set up.
The whole project took me about 4 hours yesterday. I had my amp wiring already run and just had to re-situate my amps, as they had to be spaces out farther. I made a new particleboard mounting plate for them, as the pics show.
I sprayed the box with undercoating for sound dampening. I'll probably pick up another can for the amp plate and the underside of the box.
There's plenty of room to add volume to a box of similar design. Increasing the inner diameter of the main rings would do it. It's the mounting depth of the sub that limits you. In my experimentation and measurement, I can honestly say that 5.75 is the max depth you can get away with. And that's including completely removing the spare hold-down. If you want to retain that, I'd take 1/2 to an inch off the sub depth. With a shallow-ish 12" sub, of 5.75 or less, you would definitely have the ability to fit it. The increased volume need would just make the box closer to the diameter of the spare.
Volume calculations, for anyone interested, are going to be pi(3.14) x radius^2 x depth of the ring. You'll need to translate the volume needed (0.65 cubic feet, in my case) to cubic inches (1,123, in my case), so it all calculates the same. 1 cubic foot equals 12"x12"x12".
For anyone thinking of doing something like this, I highly recommend starting with the ring that fits the rim, snugly. Mine was 17.75" diameter. Then build the box on that, above and below. That way, the box will be completely secure, when installed.
Last edited:
