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How loud is it going to be?

ProjectTwin

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Joined
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A couple of months ago a guy asked me to build a box for two Massive Hippo 12s. He wanted it built for lows.

"I want to get my lows back. This prefab box plays high bass but I can't get it to play lows. Can you build a box for lows?"

"Yup."

"How loud will it be?"

"I'm going to hurt your car."

"What do you mean?"

"Shit's going to break."

Told him I'd destroy the car (Honda Civic) if I built a box for lows.

I built it, he paid, and he loved it. Saw him a few days later and he was beating on it and the rear window had separated from the roof. :laughing:

Today he calls and says the box broke.

"Bullshit", I think. I've built hundreds of boxes. None of them broke like he's describing. For that joint to fail the wood would've failed and the brad nails would've sheared in half.

I go meet the guy and this is what I find.

The pressure from the subs has torn the trunk lid at the hinge and is ripping it apart. The trunk lid no longer seals to the car.

A storm came through last night. It rained like hell for a while.

Water got into his trunk, the enclosure (built from MDF) got wet.

He was hurt when we actually saw the cause of the damage. Said he metered it yesterday and it was at 148.x dB @ 32hz. He's running less than 2,000 watts.

So...he's paying for a new enclosure that he wants tuned LOWER...and he's going to have the new one shot with Line-X.

Still going to rip the car to shreds. :laughing:

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It’s amazing what a stereo will do to a vehicle. Every nut, bolt and interior piece was rattled loose on my first truck from playing around with massive subs and shoving a speaker in every corner.

My poor boat boat has every screw rattled lose by a cheap set of kicker 12s and and a handful of cheap 6x9s. Nothing special. I just threw some new cheap speakers in it tonight. Can’t wait to annoy the neighbors during daylight hours tomorrow. :laughing:

Ohh and one of the subs has black hi temp gasket maker all over it because someone accidentally ran a #2 Philips bit on the end of a dewalt impact driver threw the meat of it :homer: still annoys everyone on the lake just fine. :laughing:
 
It’s amazing what a stereo will do to a vehicle. Every nut, bolt and interior piece was rattled loose on my first truck from playing around with massive subs and shoving a speaker in every corner.

My poor boat boat has every screw rattled lose by a cheap set of kicker 12s and and a handful of cheap 6x9s. Nothing special. I just threw some new cheap speakers in it tonight. Can’t wait to annoy the neighbors during daylight hours tomorrow. :laughing:

Ohh and one of the subs has black hi temp gasket maker all over it because someone accidentally ran a #2 Philips bit on the end of a dewalt impact driver threw the meat of it :homer: still annoys everyone on the lake just fine. :laughing:

This is two 12s doing the damage.
 
This is two 12s doing the damage.

I'd say it's the box that's doing the damage. You warned him though and built what he wanted.

At this point, the guy ought to grab a couple more subs and another amp and just see how much of the car they'll take apart.
 
Anyone got a vid from the stereo battles where they destroy a car???
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There should be a law that says if you have a stereo like this, you must glue all the emblems, trim and other nonsense directly to the vehicle. I don't mind the bass, even though I hate the music most of the time, but I despise all the rattling and vibrating trim sounding like shit. I have too much pride in my vehicles to have people hear that shit when I drive around.
 
I dont know shit about stereos but this is awesome.

Same.

Thats bad ass, do a build thread for the next one! :smokin:

I've been looking at in-the-ground-sub enclosures for the backyard. Every build any of those?
 
There should be a law that says if you have a stereo like this, you must glue all the emblems, trim and other nonsense directly to the vehicle. I don't mind the bass, even though I hate the music most of the time, but I despise all the rattling and vibrating trim sounding like shit. I have too much pride in my vehicles to have people hear that shit when I drive around.

I have a friend that did car audio for a while. He had people purposefully loosen stuff so it rattled. He said one guy had a bunch of loose spark plugs tossed in the spare tire well.
 
That's pretty awesome. I broke the trunk lid on my 79 mustang 25 years ago with 2 OZ audio 10s in a ported enclosure and thought that was bad ass. This is a whole new level. :laughing:
 
can you please explain what is happening. is the sub moving that much air that it basically expanding and contracting like a whoopy cushion?
 
So how does one "tune a box for lows"?

How does one get this information on box design for a given note or pitch?

Is this tattooed on an oracles skin and upon his death, it was filleted from his bones and bound in a book?
 
I have a friend that did car audio for a while. He had people purposefully loosen stuff so it rattled. He said one guy had a bunch of loose spark plugs tossed in the spare tire well.

I don't find it annoying...well, any more than the crap music. I just laugh at the ignoramus who built a shitty car out of Autozone components.
 
I've hung around at sooo many sound offs through the years.. I've known many audio celebrities.. names you would definetly recognize.. I have pics and videos with some of the more infamous people.. I was helping to run mobileaudioworld.com for many years.. its gone now..

I remember at a sound off when the "Gates" team was changing stuff on her Bronco.. and in the last moment when they were in the finals.. someone did something and her bronco literally jumped up at least a foot of the ground.. and she set a new record, and blew out her back window.. I kept a piece of that window.. thought it was pretty cool..

The most infamous installer I got to hang around was known as "the fishman" cuz he did some installs that included fish tanks.. eventually he stopped doing that, cuz the bass would kill the fish.. hahaha

I've seen many many people tear up their vehicles.. maybe someday I will own a serious SPL vehicles.. personally I've always been more in to sound quality.. a good bit of bass, but not windshield destroying bass..

even my current vehicle has a good bit of bass, and I'm 47... but I don't think my current bass carries that far.. in this vehicle I have never walked away, with the windows down or doors open, to see how far away you can hear my system.. but often when I pull up to a light and look to my sides, I see people rolling their windows up.. hahaha... all I have is 6x9s for the bass

I have had almost every small combination in my vehicles at one time or another, I would build a system and then sell the system to someone else, however just cuz it sounds good in one vehicle does not mean it would sound just as good in any other vehicle.. not in this order, but I have had 2 6x9s, 4 6x9s, 2 8s, 4 8s, 2 10s, 4 10s, 2 12s, 2 15s, and once I had one 18...


edit: I have helped out on MANY large enclosures, some for competing and some for sponsors or shops to show stuff off.. however I was just sitting here remembering the largest set up I have ever helped out on.. it was in Mexico.. this guy who owned/owns a rather large trucking company, along with a few other businesses like putting on outdoor events.. we made this system for a (18 wheeler) trailer.. the sides opened up, and it had like.. hmm can't remember for sure.. I think it had like 64 12s? and lots of features including like 6? generators.. it had to be kept in the distance, cuz it was way too loud to stand near.. you couldnt breathe, etc.. hahaha..
 
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can you please explain what is happening. is the sub moving that much air that it basically expanding and contracting like a whoopy cushion?

SPL is real. I imagine resonant frequency comes into play somewhere too.

 
I actually know a lot about why some setups do more damage than others.. like how many times the sound bounces off certain surfaces and how it reacts to those surfaces.. before it reaches "the sweet spots where most events put mics"..

usually, like I said before, I was part of a team of people, that collaberated.. but I normally documented the event and just took pics half of the time.. just cuz.. at the time I pretty much ran mobileaudioworld.com, but I was NOT the owner.. I had a huge collection of photos from installs and events.. and I caught a nasty computer virus and lost them.. many were online, so I didnt worry about it, but then they took the site down (they had over a dozen different sites).. I still have hundreds of pics from that time, from areas of my harddrives, which were backed up.. but for the most part, most cool stuff was lost..
 
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