Hey i am trying to design a custom box for a JL 12W0V3 sub, it will be ported. i have a question about the Amplitude Response graphs in winisd and bassbox, how much dB is too much? i know 0 is flat and will reproduce the sound as close to as it was recorded but ported boxes tend to jump above the 0dB line and im wondering how much is too much before it just sounds boomy and not clean and on point? right now my box highest amplitude response is 3.85dB at 53Hz and 0dB at 37Hz, will this sound clean or is 3.85 too much? also my SPL is 114dB at 53Hz, i am new this is my first box and i just dont wanna screw it up and make it sound like crap. One more thing, i currently have a Alpine 10" R that i got after my JL 10W0v3 blew, it sounds very boomy and loud bass but isnt clean, is the Type R a good SQ sub compared to JL W0? which is better for SQ? thanks for reading 
The two speakers compared are pretty much polar opposites of each other. The w0 is a low power, affordable, high efficiency design that will make decent bass in the box it is packaged for sale. The type r is a heavy duty, not so efficient beast, that can put out a lot of low, clean DB in the properly tuned enclosure. Each serves completely different markets.
Hi masoman95,
I simulated JL's recommended ported box in Hornresp and got about the same bump centered at 53hz. How this box will actually sound in the vehicle is anyone's guess, it really just depends on your vehicles transfer function. It is harder to get a ported enclosure to sound not boomy in a vehicle. It is possible to make a ported box sound good, but you'll need a way to measure the frequency response of the subwoofer in and outside of the vehicle to figure out the transfer function. You might have to build several boxes tell you get it right. I have listened to several factory built ported JL subwoofers,and they sounded pretty good. JL makes good products and they seem to know what they're doing.
As for sound quality, everyone has a different idea or definition of what it is. I personally like sealed enclosures for car subwoofers, they are much easier to get right. But I get it, they are kind of boring to design and build. Hope your build turns out the way you want it. Good luck.
Regards,
Matt
I simulated JL's recommended ported box in Hornresp and got about the same bump centered at 53hz. How this box will actually sound in the vehicle is anyone's guess, it really just depends on your vehicles transfer function. It is harder to get a ported enclosure to sound not boomy in a vehicle. It is possible to make a ported box sound good, but you'll need a way to measure the frequency response of the subwoofer in and outside of the vehicle to figure out the transfer function. You might have to build several boxes tell you get it right. I have listened to several factory built ported JL subwoofers,and they sounded pretty good. JL makes good products and they seem to know what they're doing.
As for sound quality, everyone has a different idea or definition of what it is. I personally like sealed enclosures for car subwoofers, they are much easier to get right. But I get it, they are kind of boring to design and build. Hope your build turns out the way you want it. Good luck.
Regards,
Matt
Yah the only reason I tweaked the design was to put a 4" vent cause on their design the air velocity is really high on the 3" vent, that being said am I able to curve the vent inside the box so it'll fit? Basically a L shape but for a circle port as long as the length is the same it'll be the same frequency ? And also I was thinking of buying a plug for the end of my PVC and making the port
A couple inches outside the box, then if needed I can seal it up, I saw some guy on YouTube do this and it worked pretty good
Thanks this makes sense , the type R gets LOUD and it'll boom very low bass but only in a small range , past that it sounds not clean. I wanted to go back to JL because my first w0 just sounded so amazing I was surprised , cleanest bass I've heard for the prices. Will there be any major difference between the 10" and 12" besides it being louder and hitting better lows ?
In the early 90's, JL ganged up with MB Quart and PPI. The three brands were all built with sound quality in mind and helped elevate the mobile audio industry, especially on the competition circuits. Until the W7 line was invented, there were not too many subs that JL made that could handle massive amounts of power, especially if it was distorted. That didn't matter much back then, because you could usually cram 2 or 3 JL subs into the same space as many others' similar drivers. More speakers meant more power and Volume. They just plain cleaned house for awhile then.
Fast forward to present day, and JL has their own line of amps and satellite speakers. They are still built with sound quality in mind. The W0 line is built to be an efficient sub that can cram into a tiny airspace and still sound nice. They aren't built for subsonic earth shaking bass. A good place for a W0 or two is in the useless rear side panel of a crossover or SUV to give the factory stereo another octave or two of low end.
If you want the earth shattering low bass, the other lines that JL offers won't let you down. The W0 and W1 lines fall into that category of speaker that makes you want to blow them up. Just as they are loud enough to excite the senses, you run out of power handling. If you run them at that level for long, they die trying to satisfy what they weren't built for. The old W2 and W5 lines were really good at it.
Trust me on this one: since you already had this experience with a 10W0, move up in power handling if you buy another. The W3 and W6 lines have that same vibe as the W0, but will live much longer. The W7 subs lose a little of the midbass, but make up for it in the earth shattering department. Heck, the other guys came out with the L5 and L7 lines of their brand to try and steal some market share. IMHO, they don't sound even close to the same.
Fast forward to present day, and JL has their own line of amps and satellite speakers. They are still built with sound quality in mind. The W0 line is built to be an efficient sub that can cram into a tiny airspace and still sound nice. They aren't built for subsonic earth shaking bass. A good place for a W0 or two is in the useless rear side panel of a crossover or SUV to give the factory stereo another octave or two of low end.
If you want the earth shattering low bass, the other lines that JL offers won't let you down. The W0 and W1 lines fall into that category of speaker that makes you want to blow them up. Just as they are loud enough to excite the senses, you run out of power handling. If you run them at that level for long, they die trying to satisfy what they weren't built for. The old W2 and W5 lines were really good at it.
Trust me on this one: since you already had this experience with a 10W0, move up in power handling if you buy another. The W3 and W6 lines have that same vibe as the W0, but will live much longer. The W7 subs lose a little of the midbass, but make up for it in the earth shattering department. Heck, the other guys came out with the L5 and L7 lines of their brand to try and steal some market share. IMHO, they don't sound even close to the same.
Last edited:
I'd really like a 12 W3 as my M500 amp would be perfect to run it (500watt@2 ohm) but where I live they go for 400$ and that's on sale, the W0 I just grabbed on sale I got a deal and only payed $160 so it's a BIG price jump I just don't have the funds for 🙁 that being said the W0 is rated 300rms Max continuous power and it's 4ohm , my amp puts out 300watt at 4ohm so it's also perfect, is that still too much power? Can it handle 300 watts if it's in a ideal enclosure? I believe my 10 W0 blew because it was in a prefab box and had too much cone excursion which over time just couldn't take, technically speaking if I keep the excursion below Xmax and don't overpower it, then the subwoofer should last am I right? Thanks for replies I do believe JL is at the top for their quality
Alpine M500 monoblock? If you NEED to use W0 speakers, I would run 2x 2 ohm subs in series. That gives you 150 W RMS to each speaker, which is more than I would feed them. I might even go with 2x 2 ohm W3 drivers off of that amp to be sure they would live longer than a loud season.
If you are like me, I don't like to spend a big fat wad of money on something unless I know it will last a long while. For the record, the lower power rating JL publishes is for long life. The upper rating is "Maybe long enough life to only replace once under warranty" in nature.
If you are like me, I don't like to spend a big fat wad of money on something unless I know it will last a long while. For the record, the lower power rating JL publishes is for long life. The upper rating is "Maybe long enough life to only replace once under warranty" in nature.
Well a local deal just popped up and I bought a used 12 W6V2 for $360, so I got the higher model and power I wanted at the price I could afford , it sounds better than the W0 and a LOT louder , any major differences between the v2 and v3 12 W6?
The 12w6 compares to the 10w0 like Clark Kent compares to Superman, or a sledgehammer to a ball peen. Methinks you will be happy with the beast. It compares more directly with the type R you mentioned earlier. As far as raw SPL, the type R in the right box can put out a couple more dB than the W6 above maybe 50-60 Hz. It sounds a lot sloppier doing the job, though. A 12W6 in the right box has the qualities that propels the brand's reputation: smooth, detailed, and strong.
I believe the big difference between V2 and V3 is the voice coil vent. Besides that, you're splitting hairs. The V3 can fit in an even smaller airspace and has some more suspension travel. IMHO just refinements on an already awesome design. Before the W7 came out, the W6V2 sat at the top of the line. Since then, it hasn't gotten any worse. People are still winning trophies using their "old" W6V2 subs to lay a solid foundation.
Matching the box to your musical taste is the difficult part. Some people like the smoothness of a smaller sealed enclosure, while others like the higher SPL of a ported box.
I believe the big difference between V2 and V3 is the voice coil vent. Besides that, you're splitting hairs. The V3 can fit in an even smaller airspace and has some more suspension travel. IMHO just refinements on an already awesome design. Before the W7 came out, the W6V2 sat at the top of the line. Since then, it hasn't gotten any worse. People are still winning trophies using their "old" W6V2 subs to lay a solid foundation.
Matching the box to your musical taste is the difficult part. Some people like the smoothness of a smaller sealed enclosure, while others like the higher SPL of a ported box.
well i can definitely say now that i love a sealed enclosure, it came with a 12" basswedge box, and was like a "one note" only type sub, it hit HARD, like turn it down my eardrums hurt loud, but only a small frequency range and it sounded sloppy and not in sync, i had a box i was gonna custom port for it, but **** happened and so i just decided to seal it.. at 1.8ft3.. i thought that would be way too much volume for it sealed but was i wrong, this thing bumps almost as hard as before, but the frequency range was increased greatly, lows and mids right on point with quality and clean sound, gotta say im impressed i thought the sub just wasnt my taste but i realize now that its almost all in the box
In a box that size, you should be able to get a decent amount more sound out of the 12W6 by installing a tuned port. For sealed operation, the box is close enough for two of them to sound good in. By having the extra volume serving only one, you get less efficient performance.
- Status
- Not open for further replies.