Custom Subwoofer Enclosure and Amp Installed

[sleepless]

Originally Posted by ZsX5o3

now people can see why it was not so easy to simply measure the thing and post the dimensions.


If you cannot take the measurements I do not think you will be building this box

no actually we don't see why its so difficult to simply measure the "thing" and post the dimensions, unless you don't own a measuring tape or just don't want to share that type of info. with fellow members...... I think its the latter,from past exp.

[zerochief]

Hey sleepless have you constructed an enclosure yet? I don't see how its so difficult to measure the compartment and come up with your own design. I did. Also FYI: I could care less about keeping this enclosure dimensions a secret... after I installed the box there it sat until I pulled it out the other day. Thats just the way it is - no conspiracy

[sleepless]

Yup.... Thanks to Essam & Dib's dimensions I have built the sub box........ as far as the conspiracy .... I never mentioned anything remote to a conspiracy ( just a dimensions like others have ) but if you feel like you have conspired then that's all up to you ....

[baracuda]

I like very much the design of the sub-box but i have a little question regarding the installation in the car: How do you fix the box in the trunk? I drive on very bumpy roads and i need a good method to hold the box in it's place.
www.autoimprove.ro

[zerochief]

Originally Posted by baracuda

How do you fix the box in the trunk? I drive on very bumpy roads and i need a good method to hold the box in it's place.

The shape of the enclosure allows you take advantage of the OEM mounting points with simple "L" brackets. It won't budge.

[m5james]

Sorry to sound needy, but I don't suppose you have pics from before it was painted? These measurements are awesome, but it'd be nice to see where the seams are for the measurement and proper screwing points for each panel.

[zerochief]

Originally Posted by m5james

I don't suppose you have pics from before it was painted? These measurements are awesome, but it'd be nice to see where the seams are for the measurement and proper screwing points for each panel.

I don't have any pics before painting, sorry. However I did contemplate different joints while I was making it. I can tell you that I made the sides first, then wrapped them with the front and back pieces. PM me with your email address and I will send you large size, hi res pics of the different angles that should give you and idea about the seams. I made my design "on the fly" with a Mag 77 skill saw one day so perhaps you could come up with a better joint system. Probably should of used my table saw ... maybe next time. If you just copy this enclosure I can tell you that it is rock solid just the way it is.

-ZC

[m5james]

Ironically I found these pics AFTER I started having a friend make an enclosure for me. When I had 1st gotten this SAV, I looked in there and figured there wouldn't be much room for anything at all. I remembered BSW, so I took a look at their website. When I saw their little enclosure (what was VISIBLY exposed), I thought it was only something small like under a square foot total. I thought I was all cool after we measured the left compartment (non-DSP, Navi, etc) and we were able to find like .03 more cubic ft. I had my friend make one box, but he accidentally made it exactly backwards So he starts re-measuring, makes one correctly for the left side, and we're all good. I was going to put the amp into the little pocket on the right side of the cargo area. So today I just happened to start looking on YouTube and watched the actual videos of the BSW installation...then I realized how much more room was in the right side once you removed that panel!! I had no idea that that little panel was hollow underneath it! Now I see how much more airspace I can get by swapping the box to the right side, so you're writeup w/ pics and measurements is a blessing At this point were so deep into the week, i'm probably just going to wait till I get home and fabricate the box myself. I'm still going to have him help me cut and cover the panel hole for the subwoofer to fire through since he's already made the trim ring that will mount on the panel face.

Since the 8" subwoofer Technical Specifications - RE AUDIO is in the mail, i've been using the MTX amp MTX JackHammer Amplifiers in the meantime to test it by powering a homemade box w/ a Sony Xplode 12" that I usually use in my work truck.

I have seen like three different variations of subwoofer boxes now, but my biggest concern is total airspace so I can attempt to make the enclosure ported. Has anyone actually taken measurements of all three boxes and determined which is larger volume wise? I'd love to hear which would the largest. I could probably figure it out, but i'd slowly lose more of my hair trying to figure it out .

[m5james]

So after talking to my box building friend (went to school and everything for it) he says that since these X5 boxes in general are so small and don't have lots of large flat areas, that we're fine using 1/2" instead of 3/4" in order to get the most internal airspace. I personally am going to see if we can get the required .35-.5 cu/ft of airspace so I can port my 8" sub Technical Specifications - RE AUDIO and really get more sound from it. To answer my own question, all airspace measurements below are internally and using 1/2" MDF to calculate airspace. I've listed them from in order from easiest to hardest to make.

Essam's comes out to .035 cu/ft. Essam estimated .05, we came up w/ .53...but that is externally...we need to worry about internally.

Dib's comes out to .36 or .32 based on whichever design you chose to use. (per his measurements, so we didn't recalculate because they sounded pretty accurate)

Zerochief - as you know, you're box optimized spacing the most since you've got soo many cuts so it goes into every nook and cranny. After LOTS of clicks on the mouse and subbox building software, it came out to .41 cu/ft.

Unfortunately I still won't be able to port it because the port would just have to be too long (2" round x 9" long), it'd be too close the the internal walls, and it'd give lost of port noise Sealed is the still the way to go still. When we first started this project we made the simple .3 box that would go into the left hand compartment. He's currently making me a .413 box just to prove a point that while Zero's box is the best and most utilized, my builder claims that I probably won't notice the difference between the two since this box is so small as is. Ported would make the biggest difference, but it just can't happen while trying to keep it stealthy behind the panel.

Either way, kudos to those who took the big step and created these...I wish I would have done more research before hand, but at least i'm still only into this project for like $160 completed.

[m5james]

Hit the damn back button halfway through, so i'm re-writing ALL of this again. Anyways....

So I spoke w/ Michelle, and it appears I need to be a Premier member in order to post on the For Sale forums since they've had issues in the past w/ fraudulant users/spammers posting in there. I'm selling this stuff for cost, and the membership is half the price of the stuff itself, so Mods, please don't delete this post.

I'll basically tell the story of how this all came about to what got me here, and where I am now. When I first looked in the back of the X, I noticed initially that the left side compartment (I have no navi, etc) was larger than the right side. My friend and I measured each area and concluded that we could make a simple square enclosure for the left side that would be slightly larger than the left side. I thought we were so cool figuring this out. The 1st box he made, he made exactly backwards, so now i've got two boxes, one for the left and a matching one for the right. I'd like to sell both if possible, so PM me if you'd like to see pics of these boxes. Once they're painted and I see the mods haven't deleted my post, i'll photobucket the photos and attach them to this post.

Well as he was making the (correct ) left side box, I was browsing around here and Google to try and find out how to wire this thing. I came across the BSW videos and noticed the actual size of the enclosure....dee dee dee on my part! Now, as noted above, we measured and calculated everyones boxes, and Zerochief's came out to be the closest in size to the stock, BSW or JL boxes. Like I said, my installer made me a quick box to test his idea that basically w/ the boxes all being this small, I wouldn't notice the difference between my two .3 cu/ft boxes and the .41 box that Zerochief has made. He was right, but at this point, if I go w/ Zero's design, I can upgrade to a 10" and get all that much more bass from my amp setup.

The dual voice coil 8" that I posted links for above can handle 175watts RMS, but my monoblock amp can easily put out 300watts RMS. Now I know that even going to a 10" w/ a larger enclosure isn't going to get me to what I have in the 7, but it'll be closer. So i'd like to see if anyone is interested in purchasing either box, sub, or both. I paid about $35 per box, so is anyone interested in having a sub and box for say, $50 shipped?

Just let me know if you have navi or anything in the left side compartment before hand so I can make sure to ship the correct box based on whichever side you're going to install the enclosure. As for the amp, i'd honestly buy the same one from the link I posted above. It's a great little amp, monoblock is best if you wanna run a dual voicecoil speaker, and it rocks for being only around $80 w/ that much power. If you need help installing, wiring, etc, I'm always willing to help. I'm a newbie here, but i've been all over Bimmerforums, Bimmfest, DTMPower, 5Driver, Roadfly, etc etc for years, so I like helping and using the forums for what they're designed for imho...to help others save money and DIY'selfers.

So, i've got a left and right side fitted box, $35 plus shipping for each if sold individually. Then all you'd need is a $16 wiring kit from WalMart and the $80 amp listed above, or something else if you don't like that one.

EDIT : We've also already made a trim ring that can be covered in carpet and mounted on the face of either left or right side panel should you decide that you wanna cut the face of the panel open. Please let me know if you plan on doing this or not though, otherwise i'll sell it w/ the other enclosure. Also, to whoever buys just the blank enclosure, I'll throw in a free 8" DVC sub that my buddy yanked from his old home theater enclosure. He gave it to me as a tested until my RE sub came in the mail. It's not nearly as good as the RE sub, but for someone who has absolutely NO BASS right now, everything is an improvement...and free is affordable

These pics are w/ the boxes unfinished. I'm going to paint them tomorrow w/ a rubberized coating so it won't rattle while sitting inside either compartment. I'll redo these pics, but I wanted to put these up in the meantime. Sorry for the size btw, I use Avant Browser and it lets me enlarge or reduce any pics on websites like this one.