Good morning everyone, this past friday and saturday i spent running speaker wire to my doors, installing speakers up front and and installing my new 2 channel amp to power them. They are some older, but brand new alpine coaxials and i think they sound great I am also currently running one 12 sub in a ported enclosure thats running on 500 watts. I also tuned my system with the SMD DD-1 "distortion detector." I'm quite sure the senior car audio enthusiasts will have a problem with this but from my experience so far i think it did a great job. For today i will be installing my new Sundown Audio SA-8's (2) in D2 flavor with the amp seeing a total load of 2 ohms. As far as box design, i would like to keep it under the strutbar, and if possible port it. If anyone was running these subs id like to know how big your box was, tuning freq, and port type/size. After reading a little on the Sundown forums i think they should be tuned to 35~ and the box should be around .6~ cubic ft each? Does anyone feel i should keep these sealed up? I mostly listen tom rap/hiphop, but theres always room for some sublime and red hot chilli peppers Hopefully someone will chime in, thanks

 

i ran 2 of these off a rockford 1500bd at 1ohm. box size will be a little more dependant on how much power you have? i you only have that 500 watt amp i'd reccomend a bigger box. i spoke with jacob (the owner of sundown) about this very same subject. i may still have the emails. he recomends .6 per woofer if your running rated rms or more of the subs. he also told me they like lots of port area.

i know everyone wants the "fantsy" under strut bar box but it's not ideal. i would run the box subs up port up or port to the driver side with the box at the back of the car. my 2 sa8's got down. the subs also play very low if you build the box bigger and tune in the 32-35hz range, i was tuned at 34hz in .75 cubes per woofer,

 

Hey thanks for the reply, unfortunately i just read that post today, and yesterday i pretty much finished up buildin the box. I ended up making it go under the strut bar, subs facing towards the back in a 1.4~ box. Right now it is sealed, but i left room in between the subs to put up to 2 aeroports for when i go ported. I already have carpet, the only thing i gota do is make a quick run to lowes to pick up some screws to mount the subs. Just for now i placed the subs into it and im already convinced ill be buying a new amp.

 

you may run into some problems. 1.4 cubes gross i take it? subtract .1 per woofer then whatever port displacement is and your box will be to small. also good luck fitting aero ports in there, esspecialy with the length you will need to tune lower for daily listening and also having enough port area. both variable which you add lower tuning, length gets longer, more port area, port also gets longer. with a box on the smaller side your gonna wanna feed those subs more power to get some output. now depending on what size power and ground wire you have in there now? you may need to replace that if you decide to give the subs atleast there rms rating (they can definately take more then rated)

 

yes, its almost 1.5 gross (1.4xxx). As for the length of the port, i figured you could add a second port and divide the length by 2 which would allow it to fit inside the box, but i dont know if thats how that works. As far as the amp situation, ill more than likely do the big 3 up front and then look into 1200+watt amp, either sundown or rockford. I may be wrong with this assumption but are you saying that as long as i keep it sealed the amp im running now will be sufficient because the box is bigger than what it needs to be? You stated that when the box is smaller, more power is required to push the subs effectively. Thanks for the help/advise

 

If you use 2 aero ports they both have to be the length givin in the calculator you use. There is no dividing it between the 2.

A little under sized ported enclosure will be louder then the sealed enclosure. Now as far as box size goes, yes bigger will yield a more efficient box. Also the sa8s don't like sealed enclosures from what I have been told.

As far as amps go what coils are your subs? What's gonna be your final ohm load? I would look into a sundown saz1500d or a crescendo bc2000 which can be had for 339shipped. Its a great amp that will easily do rated and more. Also pretty efficient.

I'd also look into a good under hood battery. Xs power, deka, kinetic, ect.

These subs in the right enclosure will really suprise you.

 

Thanks for the help, im gonna buy a port and see how it goes, ill probably do it this weekend. Ive already started picking some amps out and thatll also probably be coming soon. Thanks for the help again