What happens when you don't have enough cubic feet in a subwoofer?

[cjchaps]

Let me get more specific... You have a sub that requires a 1 cubic foot sealed box. You have a .5 cub foot sealed box that you put the sub into. What will it sound like?

 

[Colt45]

not optimal sound, and possible damage?

 

[mithrandir2001]

The frequency response will not be anywhere close to what the manufacturer intended.

 

[Beau]

Could damage your sub if it is in a sealed box. It uses the compression/decompression to help it's movement. If it doesn't have enough resistance, it could cause the cone movement to clip.

 

[Harvey]

The bottom octave of bass response will drop off, and you will get a resonant peak at some higher frequency. Depending on the construction of the woofer, it could be damaged, but more likely, it will just sound wrong.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

putting some of that fiberglass filler inside. will help a lil bit if the box is too small.

chances are you wont have a problem tho.


JB

 

[jfall]

The suspension on the sub would more then likely be damaged. You can stuff the box with Polyfill which will make the sub think the box is bigger because it slows down the sound waves, but you will usually only gain around .2 or so more Cubic Feet of air space.

 

[cjchaps]

Cool, I was just wondering. I think I might be borderline... I purchased a one cubic foot box, and the sub says it can work off ot .85 cubic feet. I assume the sub probably takes up around .15 cubic feet in the box, so I think I might be pushing it. It doesn't sound "right" too me, but I might not be used to it yet. I am used to having a dual 12 bandpass box. I do have some polyfill in the box, but I didn't stuff the box with the stuff.... Are you supposed to cram a bunch of the stuff in there?

-Thanks

 

[glen]

<< The bottom octave of bass response will drop off, and you will get a resonant peak at some higher frequency. Depending on the construction of the woofer, it could be damaged, but more likely, it will just sound wrong. >>



Good answer.

You may be able to compensate for this using a lower crossover point, more power, and a linkwitz transformer or parametric EQ.

 

[jfall]

<< Cool, I was just wondering. I think I might be borderline... I purchased a one cubic foot box, and the sub says it can work off ot .85 cubic feet. I assume the sub probably takes up around .15 cubic feet in the box, so I think I might be pushing it. It doesn't sound "right" too me, but I might not be used to it yet. I am used to having a dual 12 bandpass box. I do have some polyfill in the box, but I didn't stuff the box with the stuff.... Are you supposed to cram a bunch of the stuff in there? >>




If you bought a 1 CU foot box, you should be fine. Usually the range is .85-1.25 or so depending on the sub. BTW. What kind of sub is it?. Ya, for a 1 cu ft. box you'd need around 16 OZ's of polyfill, and that pretty much stuffs the box full of it. If the sub is brand new, give it some time.. they usually take a bit of time to break in, should sound better in a week or so.

If you had a bandpass box before and your moving to a sealed box, you should notice a hugh difference in sound quality. Bandpass boxes do not produce very good sound quality at all, especially if the bandpass box is a universal one that was not designed for the particular sub.