# JL 12W3v3 sub enclosure question



## CamryGuy (Jul 17, 2009)

OK....I've got all the pieces for my new system and now need to build the sub box. The sub is a JL 12W3v3 2ohm version. JL says to use a 1.25 cu.ft. sealed box. Has anyone had any real world experience with this sub to know if this spec is optimum for SQ?


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

It's your call  , personally I'd go 1.75 cu ft


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## Torquem (Jun 27, 2009)

My brother is running a 12w3v3 in the recommended sealed box with 500 rms on it. It sounds great in its "sweet spot" but it doesn't hit very low or very high.


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

Depends on the amount of power you will run it with, the space you have to work with and the cabin of your particular vehicle.


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## CamryGuy (Jul 17, 2009)

So....being new at this....what will the larger enclosure accomplish? More bottom end?


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

CamryGuy said:


> So....being new at this....what will the larger enclosure accomplish? More bottom end?


Essentially, yes, that is the typical result of using a larger sealed box.


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## CamryGuy (Jul 17, 2009)

Chaos said:


> Depends on the amount of power you will run it with, the space you have to work with and the cabin of your particular vehicle.


The amp is a Soundstream LW5.1000 with the sub channel rated at 340w rms @ 14.4v. It's going in an '06 Toyota Camry. The box will be designed to install from the cabin and sealed against the rear seat pass through opening to avoid trunk space resonance. There is space between the back of the rear seats and the pass through to install it this way.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

I love the W3 ported, they sound nice sealed but as long as you have strong midbass up front I'd do it in a 2.0 to 2.25 cubic foot ported enclosure, tuned to about 32 hz.


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## XllentAudio (Jun 29, 2009)

I'm sure for those specs it'll sound fine and get decently loud for "SQ".

Originally I was going to go sealed with my w3 but at the last minute decided to go ported. Don't regret my decision at all and it sounds great and it gets pretty damn loud. I'm putting 300 watts to it and the box is about 1.9 ft^2 about 33 hz. It's alot more than I expected from just one 12 inch sub. I listen to all sorts of music too and the thing just loves to pound.


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## jbowers (May 3, 2009)

XllentAudio said:


> I'm sure for those specs it'll sound fine and get decently loud for "SQ".
> 
> Originally I was going to go sealed with my w3 but at the last minute decided to go ported. Don't regret my decision at all and it sounds great and it gets pretty damn loud. I'm putting 300 watts to it and the box is about 1.9 ft^2 about 33 hz. It's alot more than I expected from just one 12 inch sub. I listen to all sorts of music too and the thing just loves to pound.


Sounds about right. The JL guys always recommended ported when we had the room anytime we asked for enclosure recommendations, with the exception of the W6V2. Glad you like it that way! A properly tuned ported box sounds great with drivers that are designed to accommodate porting, or with drivers that sound like ass anyway


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

CamryGuy said:


> The amp is a Soundstream LW5.1000 with the sub channel rated at 340w rms @ 14.4v. It's going in an '06 Toyota Camry. The box will be designed to install from the cabin and sealed against the rear seat pass through opening to avoid trunk space resonance. There is space between the back of the rear seats and the pass through to install it this way.



Trunk space resonance? If you are going that route, then you ought to go the whole nine yards and try an IB configuration instead. Otherwise, why would you give up the compound gain from loading the sub in the trunk?


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## kyheng (Jan 31, 2007)

Well, as long as the specs allow a sub to do IB, go for IB is good as it can reduce the overall weight. But to do an IB setup, lots of work have do be done on sealing the "enclosure" properly.


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## CamryGuy (Jul 17, 2009)

I don't want to sound too retarded, but what does IB mean? My idea for installing it this way is to have the bass sealed from the trunk space and projecting only into the cabin. I was going to cut the front piece of MDF that the speaker mounts to, a bit larger than the pass through, then bolt and seal it to the pass through frame. The reason I was thinking of a sealed enclosure was for SQ. I've read that ported is more for SPL. Also, I thought this design would significantly decrease the necessity to do as much sound deadening in the trunk, saving time and $$$. I thought it would avoid sound pressure on the backside of the rear deck speakers. Now that I'm typing this, I'm thinking the pressure is going to be on the front side now instead. Does it make a difference? Frig...I'm rambling...just trying to get it right the first time.


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## kyheng (Jan 31, 2007)

Infinate buffer, means free air. ANyway, can always go to build up logs and see is there any of the installations concept suits you.


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## CamryGuy (Jul 17, 2009)

Now that I understand what IB stands for, that's not what I intended. My intention was to build an sealed enclosure with the front piece of MDF that the sub mounts to, be cut slightly larger than the pass through opening. I would put the back seat down and slide it into the trunk. Beacause the front face of the enclosure is bigger than the opening, it wouldn't pass through with the rest of the cabinet. I would seal and bolt it to the pass through frame. Any downside to this?


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## Chaos (Oct 27, 2005)

Sorry. IB= Infinite Baffle, which involves creating a baffle (panel) which completely isolates the main cabin of the vehicle from the trunk. No leaks. I thought that was what you were describing earlier, so I didn't go into detail.

Well implemented IB can achieve excellent performance in a sedan, but it does involve doing a lot of work to fabricate the panel & dampen the trunk. For what you seem to be after, placing a typical sealed sub in the trunk will most likely offer the best results in terms of SQ & output. The down side of what you are describing is that you would be losing the benefit of the coupling effect which naturally occurs by loading the sub in the trunk, facing the rear of the car, and letting the bass reflect back into the cabin through the back seat.


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## bass_lover1 (Dec 10, 2005)

JL typically recommends boxes that are towards the smaller side of usable. They do this for two reason (at least IMO). One, smaller box generally yields higher mechanical power handling, because we all know there are idiots out there that want to power a 400 watt subwoofer with 1k watts. Two, the smaller box will model with a weaker response in the low end, but my guess is they do this because cabin gain will usually make up for that. Typical sedan cabin gain is 5-6DB around 40-50hz.

I say build it to spec, you can always EQ in the lowend and EQ out the peaks in response.


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## CamryGuy (Jul 17, 2009)

Thanks for your input guys! I give it a try and see what happens. Worst case senario is I'm out $30 worth of MDF and do it again. No big deal.


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