What amp to power Kicker 12" L7

[Satyr]

Okay, I just ordered some of that sound deadening stuff.

Here's a picture of roughly the same thing I want to do with the sub:

I've tried contacting the owner, with no luck. I'm just worried about frying the sub or something with it not being in a box, but insetad just sitting on the floor's lip and having the coils in the spare tire well with some dynamat type stuff.

 

[URDONE]

In that case I think i'll stick with a 600.1 amp then. So far I plan to flush mount the sub to my trunk floor, pad the inner spare tire well with dynamat and foam and have it sit in there with some type of brackets supporting it to the floor to prevent rattle.

how's that sound?

Sounds good. I had the L7 with this amp.

 

[Satyr]

so leavin the sub open down in the well will be fine? one of the guys from crutchfield said it could damage the sub if it's left open...

 

[holtsch]

I'm sure the guy in that pic you showed had a box for the sub. I'm not too familiar with the spare tire well, but he probably used mdf for the top and maybe the sides and used fiberglass for the bottom/sides. Don't put the subs free air...you need to build some kind of an enclosure for the L7.

 

[RSXFMCJWR]

so leavin the sub open down in the well will be fine? one of the guys from crutchfield said it could damage the sub if it's left open...

If I were you, I would have an enclosure made that is fiberglassed to the shape of the bottom of the spare tire well, and then is flat on top(that is probably what they did in the pic you posted). You don't want to run the sub in a free air form.

 

[boostaholic]

An L7 is NOT a good freeair speaker! I would go out to your car and measure the depth of the spare tire well as you will need at least 7" for a S12L7 to fit. You might be able to get away with using 3/4" mdf for the whole enclosure if you have enough room (I did this on a 92-95 civic sedan). Do not simply mount the speaker on top of the trunk foamboard, the speaker will sound like complete garbage. I would build a simple rear-firing ported box in between the rear shock towers if sinking the speaker is going to be an issue (don't knw what type of music you like but a ported L7 is pretty fierce).

 

[Satyr]

How's this box look?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-KICKER-S12L...ryZ50568QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[holtsch]

How's this box look?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-KICKER-S12L...ryZ50568QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It looks alright....depending on what you can get it for. Most people with L7's, myself included, will tell you to get a ported box though. If you go ported, make sure your box is tuned pretty low (around 30-35)

 

[Satyr]

...what's better: sealed or ported?

thanks

 

[boostaholic]

What do you listen to? It is alot easier to get a ported L7 to hammer than it is to make a sealed L7 sound clean.

 

[Satyr]

Hmm...I listen to all kinds of stuff, for the things that i'll have the bass cranked up for, that will be like Manson, Adema, Very few rap songs, Alternative/Rock/Metal type stuff lol.

I don't think that really helped though

 

[Satyr]

I am more interested in what will give me the best all around sound and still have the ability to hammer the low notes

 

[boostaholic]

Ported will work out fine then, they just don't have sustained bottom end like a sealed box (low freq tracks prevolent in hip-hop and rap). This box seems to be pretty well made if you just want to buy one, make sure the inside of the port is well rounded. It is supposedly tuned to 38hz so that would be adequate for the type of music of which you listen. When you buy the amp play around with the settings quite a bit to get the sound you like. I am running my 600.1 @ 2/3 gain with the crossover @ 80hz, bass boost @ 12 but you can crank yours up a bit. You will need to set the subsonic filter on the amp to "on" since you are running a ported box but other than that you should be fine.

 

[Satyr]

...a lot more to this than I thought.

So what exactly are the differences in sound between ported V sealed?
What are the pros/cons of the two?

 

[boostaholic]

Sealed will cover more frequencies but ported will amplify certain frequencies by using the environment as an enclosure (essentially "free" bass). A well built and properly tuned ported system will sound almost as good as a sealed setup (especially in a trunk). I have built plenty of ported setups that sound waaay better than most people's sealed configurations that they paid people lots of $$$ to build and install. I really like kicker squares in ported boxes, I even have one in use for my home theatre that is pushed my an onkyo m282

:rockon:

 

[Satyr]

If I build my own box, I know how to port it, but am unaware of how to get it to a certain Hz. Can anyone give me some help with it?

 

[GMKILR]

I have two 12'' L7's with one kicker 1200 and a kicker 350 amp and all mach amps were taken out, sounds good and will sound better when I get the factory radio out along with the factory speakers.

 

[holtsch]

If I build my own box, I know how to port it, but am unaware of how to get it to a certain Hz. Can anyone give me some help with it?

A lot of people use winisd to get a general idea of a box that will perform well.
You can download the program for free at:

http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisd

 

[boostaholic]

Kicker's Tech Manual
This is what I have used to build my boxes, I just used the cu ft and the port length and built mine the way I wanted. If you don't want to use kicker's specs then this would help as well:
decaf ported compiler
:beer:

 

[RSXFMCJWR]

I will give you the best advice yet: If you decide to get a ported box, have a trustworthy professional audio shop build and tune it for you(or at the very least, the tuning of it). This way they can make sure it is right and if you are not fully satified with the sound, they can retune it to your needs.