should i tweak my current box or completely start over?

[Psyko]

ok i want to explain to you guys what i had then vs now and how each played, and where i would like to go.

your a very knowledgeable bunch and most of you have tons more experience then me. i really will value your advice and opinions.

the car is an acura rsx, 2/0 cable to the back.

alpine ida-x305s

polk mm6501's in my doors

rockford p300x2 for fronts

hifonics mt olympus odin for sub (1000w rms @ 1ohm) im sorry it had a clip indicator on the remote and i could afford it

my old setup was 2 older (2001 ish) 12 inch alpine type r's in a sealed box, 1.2 cuft per sub after disp, the recommended was 1 cu ft.

box was in the hatch, subs facing back. i like to listen to alot of electronic stuff and this worked really well. then i discovered decaf muzik. one day was listening to the decaf version of 'in that lack' by yung simmie. that was about as far down as those subs could go (34 hz i think). anyway, i tore a surround off the cone and i just decided it was time to retire them.

then i decided i needed to know what low was all about. i bought a dayton ultimax 18, and built a crx style box, going off memory here i think its about 5 cubic foot before disp, 6 inch diameter pvc port i flared my self, port was 32 or 36 inch long, i believe my math(lol) said it was tuned at 21 or 22. that port just fit in the box, and the box JUST fits in the car, its the entire back of the car. its heavy, my fuel mileage took a serious hit. but holy shit, its not a powerful system but i impressed a few people with demos. it still impresses me, i can be in the parking lot at work playing 18hz on a tone generator, and make celing tiles and doors rattle against their frames inside the offices. a maintenance guy thought a huge piece of equipment was failing because he could feel it in the floor. one coworker i demo'd swears im gonna beach a whale because im playing at their mating call frequency. lol

problem here is while this is fun and all, i kinda want my music(and my hatch) back. i cant listen to nero welcome reality album anymore.

the only thing i can play is decaf stuff, or stuff like hed pe 'dont let me down' has a really loose bass drum and plays ok. ive even found things in songs that i didnt know was there, like dj sammy and yanou 'heaven' has this weird mid 20's hz rumble in the last 30 seconds or so of the song.

anyway this box seems to roll off on the top end in the low 40's and my fronts cant pick up anything till around 60, even then its not much.

i played with the low pass and i just cant get it to come up.

i guess where i wanna go is im gonna do some serious sound deadening, make my front look pretty, add a second set of those polks, and get some kind of signal processor so i can really tune it or have someone more skilled then me do it, i guess im aiming for somewhere between sq and sql. i wanna be able to get in the car, go on a long trip and think man this sounds good for no matter what i play.

so is there hope for the box i have? (i kinda doubt it) if so tell me what you think i can do.

or...

should i start a new build, smaller, like 2 ID idq8's or maybe 4 6's? i even once considered a single morel 12.

if i do build new how should i orient everything?

i would be willing to build a box around 2.5 to 3 cuft max, if i get creative i can gain some trunk space.

anyway heres the beast...(dont hate on my strap, i needed this until i could buy bigger and more straps)

[Joe X]

The yellow line is the modeled response of a 5 cubic feet box tuned to 22Hz inside a vehicle, the red line is a 5 cubic feet sealed:

So the sealed version will reduce the low end a little so that it plays more even, sealed also sounds a little better, so that would be my first suggestion, close the port and see how it sounds.

[Psyko]

im not sure how im gonna block the port but ill give it a shot. one thing im wondering though, your chart shows the output between 50 and 100 to be slightly better for the ported box. its weird but i cant picture that being right, i mean i know a sealed box worked before in that range, in my car, but the ported box i have now is just dead above 50hz. your scale doesn't show the db values but its making me suspicious there's another issue. it would be pretty embarrassing but im gonna triple check that i dont have a low pass somewhere set wrong.

fwiw i saw data bass tested my sub... http://www.data-bass.com/data?page=driver&id=58

so lets say the sealed box works .... is that size box ideal? i just redid the math on my box, if i take the port out, my box is 6.052 cuft(without sub).

[Joe X]

No the box would be large for sealed but it's only a test, if the effect is positive even a ported box could be created to work similar to sealed but somewhat more efficient.

[Allen Lancos]

Just shove a towel in the port and test it first. Make shure its a tight fit

[Allen Lancos]

im not sure how im gonna block the port but ill give it a shot. one thing im wondering though, your chart shows the output between 50 and 100 to be slightly better for the ported box. its weird but i cant picture that being right, i mean i know a sealed box worked before in that range, in my car, but the ported box i have now is just dead above 50hz. your scale doesn't show the db values but its making me suspicious there's another issue. it would be pretty embarrassing but im gonna triple check that i dont have a low pass somewhere set wrong.

fwiw i saw data bass tested my sub... http://www.data-bass.com/data?page=driver&id=58

so lets say the sealed box works .... is that size box ideal? i just redid the math on my box, if i take the port out, my box is 6.052 cuft(without sub).

i prefer building on the smaller side of recommendations personally. I also like a lot of electronic music. Smaller boxes seem to be more punchy to me which is good for your music style. I tuned my box to 35hz and it plays decaf fine, check out my vids!