[sub_junkie]

I picked up a pair of fully loaded Q18's about two months ago and just got around to post the build log...between work, being sick, and having my tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday morning, I've had almost no free time. Good thing I had the box completed before I picked up the subs! Anyways, I decided to throw these in my explorer at first while I'm changing the motor in my nova so for the time I just have the Q15 in my room.
The box the 18's are in now is 13cu.ft tuned to 24hz, dimensions are 44.5"x30"x22". Just decided to do a simple slot port. Had to have Lowe's do the cuts as I didn't trust the table saw I had access to at my house; it's one of the compact ones. I just had the guy make the cuts around 1/8th" bigger than they needed to be. I'm probably going to build another box once I move these into my room, I'm thinking about doing 20-25cu.ft tuned to 14hz for movies and 25hz for music, granted if I can figure out a way to keep the tune exact for both without one port bleeding over to the other.

Here's the build pics:







































I have some videos that I'll upload tomorrow if I get a chance. I definitely know this wasn't one of my best builds, I ran out of material for the bracing as I'm sure you noticed. The person doing the cuts at Lowe's messed up one of them and it forced me to improvise other things for the bracing lol. Even though the bracing looks somewhat sketchy, its actually very solid. There's a lot of pressure being exerted on the outside panels to keep panel flexing to a minimum.

Here's some of the video's I've gotten so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ummDRhRG8&feature=youtu.be

 

[Mike Edwards]

looking good. I wondered at first what was up with the bracing till you mentioned materials. also surprised you didn't double baffle the front with the woofers.

 

[chrapladm]

I am sure that system ROCKS. Next build you do for your car though make sure to add lots of bracing and double up on the walls. I dont know exactly the number but I would think you would lose a few dbs because of flexing panels. But your SPL would be loud enough in your car that who really cares about a few DB's. lol

I am sorry you have been sick. Glad your able to give us an update and glad to see things are coming along nicely. Cant imagine dual 18's in my car. Last time I had anything it was three JL 10w6's.

STAY healthy and keep the builds coming. FUNNY thing is your sub cabinet is about the same size as my PA TH I just built.

 

[sub_junkie]

looking good. I wondered at first what was up with the bracing till you mentioned materials. also surprised you didn't double baffle the front with the woofers.

To be honest, doing a double baffle didn't even cross my mind until after I left Lowe's. Kinda wish I had done a double, but the way the port, bracing and walls are set up, I'm actually not getting any movement of the woofer baffle. I glued and nailed the out of the top just for that purpose. I did about 6 passes with tite bond, letting each pass sit for about a day or two. No air leaks at all in this box thankfully.

I am sure that system ROCKS. Next build you do for your car though make sure to add lots of bracing and double up on the walls. I dont know exactly the number but I would think you would lose a few dbs because of flexing panels. But your SPL would be loud enough in your car that who really cares about a few DB's. lol

I am sorry you have been sick. Glad your able to give us an update and glad to see things are coming along nicely. Cant imagine dual 18's in my car. Last time I had anything it was three JL 10w6's.

STAY healthy and keep the builds coming. FUNNY thing is your sub cabinet is about the same size as my PA TH I just built.

Yeah, the db's are more than enough for that car that's for sure. I'm pushing 2200w rms to them and they're barely even breaking a sweat. I'm wanting to upgrade from my AQ-2200d to the 3500d, but I don't have a spare $400 laying around at the moment...sadly lol. Everyone that I've demoed the system for has had to plug their ears; especially when I play songs that hit around 30-40hz. The lows that these things put out with the 24hz tuning is ridiculous. I'm about to hit 17hz also with no problem at all. I'm getting about an inch of roof flex when I do that though haha.

And I gotta check out that build you just did...it sounds really interesting!

 

[chrapladm]

See this would fit perfectly in your car.


And the MW is 48" tall but the same volume as this one. MW is also tuned to around 25hz and can be used with a FI Q 15" for more food for thought. I will be building one of those later in the future of builds also.

 

[Mike P.]

Hey Dylan, good to see you're still at it. Dual Fi 18's in your room for movies will shake things up a bit. :bigsmile:

 

[sub_junkie]

See this would fit perfectly in your car.
http://s720.photobucket.com/user/chrapladm/media/IMAG3053_zps8e069bfe.jpg.html

And the MW is 48" tall but the same volume as this one. MW is also tuned to around 25hz and can be used with a FI Q 15" for more food for thought. I will be building one of those later in the future of builds also.

I'd be very interested to see how the output of that would be in my car... When I read through your thread I got a bit excited when I ran across using a Q15 in one of those....I'm extremely interested to see the output it could have! Might just have to build one myself...two Q18's in a LLT for each and a Q15 horn; wonder how those would match with each other in a 13x13 room :bigsmile:

Hey Dylan, good to see you're still at it. Dual Fi 18's in your room for movies will shake things up a bit. :bigsmile:

Thanks Mike, it's been a while since I've been on here but it's nice to be back. Hopefully going to have time to build that LLT once school starts again; taking my EMT Basic this coming semester to get my firefighting career started :T
I'm curious as to how the two 18's will sound in my room...the Q15 is in a 4 cube box tuned to about 28hz and it sounds pretty decent, definitely doesn't hit the lows like the Mal-X horn did, but for normal volume listening I'm pretty satisfied. The two 18's should be insane in such a small room :hsd:

 

[chrapladm]

It will be some time before I build another MW for now. I still have a few other projects to finish and still have measuring equipment to buy also. AND my pockets are usually empty.

Also the FI Q MW build is slightly different from mine to accommodate the larger size of the FI Q. I dont think a LLT and TH will play very nice together. IMHO

 

[sub_junkie]

It will be some time before I build another MW for now. I still have a few other projects to finish and still have measuring equipment to buy also. AND my pockets are usually empty.

Also the FI Q MW build is slightly different from mine to accommodate the larger size of the FI Q. I dont think a LLT and TH will play very nice together. IMHO

I feel ya on the empty pocket thing...lol

And I didn't think they would either, but it was worth a shot. Maybe I'll sell the two 18's later down the road and buy two 15's and do the MW build or just go huge and build horns for the 18's. I cant decide! I edited the first post with links to some videos if you're interested in watching

 

[chrapladm]

Dynamat and insulated door panels will probably give you db or so of more output also judging from your video. I remember a friend of mine used to have twelve 15's in his Econoline tuned to 30hz. THAT was ridiculous. And seeing more of these dual or quad 18 builds in cars it seems to be the norm anymore.

I love SQ but love having mass headroom for HT and car audio. SO keep the vids rolling. And I WILL be building a FI Q MW so just wait and then see if you like it by my impressions. I am also going to try and build a HW or LW also. Goes down a bit lower but uses the same driver. SO its been fun watching but I gotta go. I need to look at your old Mal Horn again.

 

[sub_junkie]

Dynamat and insulated door panels will probably give you db or so of more output also judging from your video. I remember a friend of mine used to have twelve 15's in his Econoline tuned to 30hz. THAT was ridiculous. And seeing more of these dual or quad 18 builds in cars it seems to be the norm anymore.

I love SQ but love having mass headroom for HT and car audio. SO keep the vids rolling. And I WILL be building a FI Q MW so just wait and then see if you like it by my impressions. I am also going to try and build a HW or LW also. Goes down a bit lower but uses the same driver. SO its been fun watching but I gotta go. I need to look at your old Mal Horn again.

I'm with you 100% on having SQ and tons of headroom...these guys could have been so much louder if I tuned to 30hz or so, but I love the low tune. After having my start in HT and having sub 18hz tunes for both of my builds I just couldn't convince myself to go any higher than 25hz for this build. The fact that I can hit 17hz and below is amazing. That 17hz song hurts to listen to it for more than 30 seconds. It makes you dizzy almost immediately. The amount of pressure those things make is ridiculous. Anytime I demo the system for people that's always the last song I play and they bail out of the car almost every time. Other times they just give me this wide eyed look and immediately plug their ears. It's insane lol.

And if I can figure out how to fold a horn by myself, can find enough space in my room or convince someone here to help me again with it, I think I'd like to build a horn for each of those 18's when I move them to my room. I'd like to knock the tuning of it down to around 14hz though this time, unlike the 19hz knee on my Mal-X one :hsd: Depends how much I'd be sacrificing on the higher frequencies and gaining on the lows, of course.

One thing I'm very upset about is my Antimode has stopped working about a month ago. It just won't turn on anymore. For about three months I had a problem with it not wanting to turn on right away so I'd just leave it on, but now it won't turn on at all. I contacted CSS about it and they said to ship it back and there's something with an extended warranty program or something, hopefully it won't cost much to get this fixed because I miss it. lol.

 

[chrapladm]

18" and 14hz sounds like a 2000liter size horn. BUT the HW just used a 15 and got down I think around 14 or 15hz. Lose a lot of SPL up higher but down low is awesome. A MW would smash a HW at around 30hz and above I think. Will have to look again. BUT down low the HW has full spades.

SO wait a little while and I will get a FI Q 15". Then I will build a HW and MW and tell you all about it.

 

[sub_junkie]

18" and 14hz sounds like a 2000liter size horn. BUT the HW just used a 15 and got down I think around 14 or 15hz. Lose a lot of SPL up higher but down low is awesome. A MW would smash a HW at around 30hz and above I think. Will have to look again. BUT down low the HW has full spades.

SO wait a little while and I will get a FI Q 15". Then I will build a HW and MW and tell you all about it.

Hmm that sounds a little large haha.
How big was that HW?
And I'm curious to see how two HW's or MW's would compare to the Q18's in 20-22cu.ft tuned to 16-18hz; all being powered by an EP2500.

 

[chrapladm]

I think LilMike was saying that the FI Q 15" will take about 1700 watts each. With a pair of them and about 3500watts you should hit 135dbs roughly. Now this was all outside db's. SO inside you may have a gain of 5db's or more to say conservatively. Now the HW and LW are about the same tuning so might as well go with the LW if you want to save on space. The HW is larger and goes down about 1hz lower I believe. BUT they measure pretty close to each other.

LilWrecker is about -3db at 15hz. I think a pair will do about 122db at 17hz before room gain with a Inuke 3000 bridged each. BUT this is also using a Kicker CVX. I believe the FI Q has more throw so it will produce a db or two more.
CVX measured

. 1, 10, 100, 400watt and Inuke 3000 maxed.

Dimensions are 70" long, 28 1/2" deep, and 25 3/8" high. MY MW is about 48" x 36" x24".

 

[sub_junkie]

I think LilMike was saying that the FI Q 15" will take about 1700 watts each. With a pair of them and about 3500watts you should hit 135dbs roughly. Now this was all outside db's. SO inside you may have a gain of 5db's or more to say conservatively. Now the HW and LW are about the same tuning so might as well go with the LW if you want to save on space. The HW is larger and goes down about 1hz lower I believe. BUT they measure pretty close to each other.

LilWrecker is about -3db at 15hz. I think a pair will do about 122db at 17hz before room gain with a Inuke 3000 bridged each. BUT this is also using a Kicker CVX. I believe the FI Q has more throw so it will produce a db or two more.
CVX measured
. 1, 10, 100, 400watt and Inuke 3000 maxed.

Dimensions are 70" long, 28 1/2" deep, and 25 3/8" high. MY MW is about 48" x 36" x24".

That's really interesting. And 1700w to a Q15 would be no problem. I ran 2200 to my 15 every day in my car for a year and its fine. In the box I had though I would run into massive port compression around 25hz I believe, so if it wasn't for that I would have bottomed out the sub with that amount of power.

Has anyone tries modeling a horn with a kicker L5 or something like that? Seems like that could put out some pretty impressive numbers.

And your MW at those specs would fit perfectly in my room. I could corner load two of those with ease, and do you think an EP2500 bridged would supply enough power to a pair?

 

[chrapladm]

I think using an EP4000 would be fine. You would be amp limited. You could use more power but this is going into a small room yes?

SO with more power you could pick up a few db. BUT thats about it. SO 2000watts would be a good amount.

I believe someone mentioned the L7/5 a while back ago but no one has tried them. Most of the users building the MW have been using either CVX or Alpine Type S. Even the Ghorn can be used with a pair of Type R 15's.

One of the members here is using a pair of Ghorns in his room and said the amount of bass those crank out is stupid. Just plane enormous amounts of euphoria. BUT he is like me and likes his bass. Hitting 140dbs in a room is........wow.:hsd:

I like the LW/MW a bit better than the Ghorn because of the drivers it uses. I can still get ridiculous amounts of bass from a single cabinet and yet they use a much cheaper woofer. The Ghorn uses UXL or LMS-Ultra 18".

SO back on topic. SO it takes about two MW with the Type S to equal a single Fi Q loaded MW.I thought about trying the Zv3 but that is even bigger than the FI Q depth wise. And it gains a few db but not enough DB to warrant the extra few hundred dollars.

How big is your room again.

 

[sub_junkie]

I think using an EP4000 would be fine. You would be amp limited. You could use more power but this is going into a small room yes?

SO with more power you could pick up a few db. BUT thats about it. SO 2000watts would be a good amount.

I believe someone mentioned the L7/5 a while back ago but no one has tried them. Most of the users building the MW have been using either CVX or Alpine Type S. Even the Ghorn can be used with a pair of Type R 15's.

One of the members here is using a pair of Ghorns in his room and said the amount of bass those crank out is stupid. Just plane enormous amounts of euphoria. BUT he is like me and likes his bass. Hitting 140dbs in a room is........wow.:hsd:

I like the LW/MW a bit better than the Ghorn because of the drivers it uses. I can still get ridiculous amounts of bass from a single cabinet and yet they use a much cheaper woofer. The Ghorn uses UXL or LMS-Ultra 18".

SO back on topic. SO it takes about two MW with the Type S to equal a single Fi Q loaded MW.I thought about trying the Zv3 but that is even bigger than the FI Q depth wise. And it gains a few db but not enough DB to warrant the extra few hundred dollars.

How big is your room again.

So much food for thought...this forum is the best I swear. I constantly have ideas swirling around my head thanks to people like you! :bigsmile:

And I'm really leaning towards the MW. Sounds extremely promising to say the least. I still have an empty Mal-X horn box to throw an 18 in though...definitely going to go out in a limb and see how a Q18 sounds in there. Not expecting much but might as well try while I have the chance!

And my room is 13x13x13. Lol.

 

[chrapladm]

LOL You need four MW and two LW for that size room.:devil:

 

[sub_junkie]

LOL You need four MW and two LW for that size room.:devil:

I like your thinking....maybe pair them with 6 EP4000's and it should be decent :devil:

In a room that size with two MW's (or whatever you said was best with the Q15) what kind of output would I expect from a pair on an EP2500?

 

[chrapladm]

2 MW with Q15's would hit about 135db outside 3400watts. So with half the wattage you should be able to hit about 132db. The MW has another fold so that it can fit the Q woofer. The LW is bigger and extends down lower. It has to be refolded a bit also to fit the Q woofer.

Either one in room will get crazy loud. A pair of either will hit close to 130dbs. The MW will get louder because it is tuned higher. The LW is tuned lower and does not get as loud but extends down lower.

So I think either sub is HUGE for that room. But the MW is a modest size compared to the LW. One is tall and the other is short and a bit deeper. (MW) BOTH can use the Fi Q. And both will have the adjoining rooms shaking as well as the exterior of the house.