# Options for making in-door enclosure for midbass



## GregU (Dec 24, 2008)

I've been trying to think of ways I could make an enclosure for my midrange/midbass drivers that I have in my doors(Image Dynamics 6.5"). So far I have only come up with a couple of ideas and was wondering if anyone else had any input.

#1. Take a piece of 6" PVC and mount directly behind the baffle, use a 6" diam. piece of mdf and liquid nails to seal up.

#2. Those XTC cups or plastic baffles.


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## Fast1one (Apr 6, 2007)

You aren't going to get very much volume that way. If you use 6 inch tube/PVC with 5 inches of depth you are barely approaching 0.1 cubic feet. Hardly enough for most 6.5 inch midbass.

If you want to do sealed enclosures in your doors you are going to have to do some hacking and fiberglassing. Easiest way with most doors is to rebuild the bottom third of the door panel and make the entire length the enclosure. In addition, if you don't plan on running the midbass too high, you can run a pair per side isobaric to cut the enclosure size, though this requires more money...


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

Think outside the box....or the door.

Give it a few hours and report back with what you come up with.


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## Niebur3 (Jul 11, 2008)

Use MDF or fiberglass to create a box off the back of your baffle...enlarge your opening to fit the box and baffle and if it is to small, use a Aperiodic mat on the back.


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## GregU (Dec 24, 2008)

Sorry for the confusion, I meant to type midrange, not midbass. As far as midrange goes, enclosure size doesn't matter, does it?


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## J0ne (Aug 7, 2007)

GregU said:


> Sorry for the confusion, I meant to type midrange, not midbass. As far as midrange goes, enclosure size doesn't matter, does it?


depends on the driver in question....some are self enclosed...


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## GregU (Dec 24, 2008)

J0ne said:


> depends on the driver in question....some are self enclosed...


Image Dynamics CTX65CS, the bottom of the line ID's, but are still very impressive for the money.


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## 14642 (May 19, 2008)

There's no need to build a box inside the door for any speaker that will have an electronic (or passive) high pass filter. It's a waste of time and money. It is important to be sure that the baffle is good, though. You can seal the front of the speaker to the panel of put a couple of layers of dynamat over the holes on the door's sheet metal--or both.


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## br85 (May 2, 2008)

Andy Wehmeyer said:


> There's no need to build a box inside the door for any speaker that will have an electronic (or passive) high pass filter. It's a waste of time and money. It is important to be sure that the baffle is good, though. You can seal the front of the speaker to the panel of put a couple of layers of dynamat over the holes on the door's sheet metal--or both.


Doesn't that depend *how* high the highpass is? I will be crossing my exclusive 4's at 250 or 315hz (18 or 24db/8va) and I will certainly be making an enclosure for them...


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## 14642 (May 19, 2008)

br85 said:


> Doesn't that depend *how* high the highpass is? I will be crossing my exclusive 4's at 250 or 315hz (18 or 24db/8va) and I will certainly be making an enclosure for them...


No need, especially in your case. I realize that for some, the more complicated the installation the more fun the project, but door boxes are almost senseless.


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## mcsoul (Jul 23, 2008)

Along this vein, can a sealed back dome mid (like a 3" morel) be mounted solely
in the plastic trim with no reinforcement?


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## MiniVanMan (Jun 28, 2005)

Andy Wehmeyer said:


> There's no need to build a box inside the door for any speaker that will have an electronic (or passive) high pass filter. It's a waste of time and money. It is important to be sure that the baffle is good, though. You can seal the front of the speaker to the panel of put a couple of layers of dynamat over the holes on the door's sheet metal--or both.


I'm going to call you out on this one. Either you're in a hurry today and not fully explaining your thought process or somebody added a nice colorful pill to your Kool Aid today.

My rebuttal is going to be it's highly driver dependent on what kind of enclosure any particular driver will work well in. 

There are a lot of variables in play here to make such a generalized statement.


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## radioflyer97 (Mar 30, 2009)

Niebur3 said:


> Use MDF or fiberglass to create a box off the back of your baffle...enlarge your opening to fit the box and baffle and if it is to small, use a Aperiodic mat on the back.


Fiberglass is the best way to get extra volume for an enclosure. You'll only need an enclosure if you're: 

a) using a 3 way and the woofer and mid are sharing airspace
b) for some reason your door leaks air horribly.


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## TREETOP (Feb 11, 2009)

Certain drivers, especially those that a lot of us use in the DIY community, are optimized for sealed or vented enclosures rather than the standard freeair application most car audio specific drivers are meant for. Sure they'll work with just a baffle or just mounted to the door- but depending on the driver, the application, and the user's preferences there may be better options.


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## sqshoestring (Jun 19, 2007)

I can't wait for this. I never bother unless I am at the limits of the driver due to playing low frequencies into it, low for the driver in question that causes xmax issues. Sometimes it can affect the response again only if you are playing around in the lower limits of the driver. Mostly I did that to increase power handling at the bottom of the HP. For two drivers I always just cover the small mid/teeter that is typically so small it does not matter to it. Most of the time I just used those foam baffles and tuned them to limit xmax for a bass playing driver...which was aperiodic for the most part. But much more than that these days I toss that junky driver and/or HP it right so that does not happen. I'm past trying to get more out of something that can't get it on, there is always another driver that will work and that does not depend on price. If you want to use the wrong driver for the job, well that is up to you go ahead. I think porting could work, but rarely is the work involved worth the hassle unless you have a truck with huge doors or something....then put 10s in the doors and be done with it. But that is just my .02/IMHO. Yeah I do think more cone area solves bass problems and it looks cooler, just the way I like to do it when I can.

In reality a closed box is just a HP filter unless it is ported or PR. It can hump up the response but who wants a hump for SQ? Sure you could put the hump at your midbass frequencies and make it nice and efficient there, but the install rarely works out well in a car. It would be cheaper to buy an EQ. Again I'm not putting down anyone that wants to do it or saying it can't work.


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## br85 (May 2, 2008)

Andy Wehmeyer said:


> No need, especially in your case. I realize that for some, the more complicated the installation the more fun the project, but door boxes are almost senseless.


I forgot to mention my mids are not going in my doors, but on/in my dash. I don't want anything to resonate or allow the backwave to interfere, so I'll be sealing it off primarily for those reasons.


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## radioflyer97 (Mar 30, 2009)

br85 said:


> I forgot to mention my mids are not going in my doors, but on/in my dash. I don't want anything to resonate or allow the backwave to interfere, so I'll be sealing it off primarily for those reasons.


that makes sense. are you going to bounce them off the windshield or aim them directly?


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## guitarsail (Oct 12, 2007)

Take a loot at my door builds...although be prepared to drop a stupid amount of time building them...
http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum...n-ion-build-log-fiberglass-doors-scratch.html


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## SPEEDBUILT (Jan 21, 2008)

br85 said:


> Doesn't that depend *how* high the highpass is? I will be crossing my exclusive 4's at 250 or 315hz (18 or 24db/8va) and I will certainly be making an enclosure for them...


Are you really going against the advice of JBL's Global Product Manager?!?


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## br85 (May 2, 2008)

radioflyer97 said:


> that makes sense. are you going to bounce them off the windshield or aim them directly?


I will be aiming them almost dead on axis (I am in the process of building a WHOLE NEW DASH top to accomodate - time and $$$ galore) or maybe about a 10-15 degree toe in. The XT-25's will be right in the corner of the dash/apillar/windscreen at a 15-20 degree toe in with something of a waveguide flaring out to meet the windshield/dash and the exclusive 4's will be just inside them. The speakers should be pretty much standing up - no firing into the windshield for me.


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## SUX 2BU (Oct 27, 2008)

I say this often to people who consider this but I think it gets lost in the techincal discussions: there's around 2-3 cu. ft. of air inside a typical car or truck door. I don't know if most people realize that. Maybe they think there is way more, or way less, I don't know. But most drivers designed to be mounted in car doors are, or should be, optimized to play in this kind of "IB" airspace. That all said, the best thing you can do is seal up the door really well and solidly mount the driver baffle to the door itself. After that, take steps to seal up the speaker to the door panel so you don't lose output between the metal door and the plastic door panel.

If you have a window that drops pretty far down into the door, it's going to be next to impossible to make a box inside the metal door cavity.

And before any of that, what kind of response are you wanting from the driver? Do you want punchy bass that basically replicates what your subwoofer is doing? Or do you want pronounced output in frequencies say 80 Hz and above? I know when I get all in a flap for more output from the midbass driver, I'm really wanting the sound of what a say a bookshelf speaker does and that means meaningful output down to 40 Hz. Pretty hard for most any 6.5" driver to do, especially when a subwoofer is involved.


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## BBFON1973 (Jun 1, 2021)

I have been doing custom audio for over 30 years and yes I went to school for it and custom Fab, sub enclosure etc.
Anyway I get great results from making vented enclosure in the doors and do a tuning from 50 to 120 HZ , depends on air space and speakers though , I mean really great results, But also as a member said previously most speakers are designed to work in IB around 2 to 3 cu. But if you had a different speakers I would say contact me and I'll help you design something, but you don't you have image dynamics 6.5 those and German MB quart 6.5 speakers give Amazing midbass down and some subbass to 50 60 hz . So in saying all that, mount them dudes in the doors, amp them, have a lower x-over point 80-100HZ and you will be super happy happy. my bus page stuff. www.facebook.com/bryanfon I'm on Instagram as @bbskustom. Install the app to follow my photos and videos. Instagram on Instagram as @bbskustom.
Add me on Snapchat! Username: bbfon1973 bbfon1973 on Snapchat


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## Ge0 (Jul 23, 2007)

BBFON1973 said:


> I have been doing custom audio for over 30 years and yes I went to school for it and custom Fab, sub enclosure etc.
> Anyway I get great results from making vented enclosure in the doors and do a tuning from 50 to 120 HZ , depends on air space and speakers though , I mean really great results, But also as a member said previously most speakers are designed to work in IB around 2 to 3 cu. But if you had a different speakers I would say contact me and I'll help you design something, but you don't you have image dynamics 6.5 those and German MB quart 6.5 speakers give Amazing midbass down and some subbass to 50 60 hz . So in saying all that, mount them dudes in the doors, amp them, have a lower x-over point 80-100HZ and you will be super happy happy. my bus page stuff. www.facebook.com/bryanfon I'm on Instagram as @bbskustom. Install the app to follow my photos and videos. Instagram on Instagram as @bbskustom.
> Add me on Snapchat! Username: bbfon1973 bbfon1973 on Snapchat


You do realize this post is from 2009 right?


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

in my experience I always get better results when enclose midbass/bass drivers, be it sealed, ported or small sealed with Aperiodic membranes on the back - cleaner, louder, more defined, better upper bass, better control.....also ported will provide more output compared to all other options, so yes, there are benefits if you are willing to put quite a lot more work into the install. for me end result with enclosures of some kind always outweight IB results...always (if driver is suitable for given aplication)


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