Tuning my sub enclosure "in my car" ???

[fishchris1]

Alright so I built this pretty cool little enclosure for my car, and I was super anal about getting it to spot on .75 cubes, and exactly 35hz, because that's what was recommended for my Sundown Audio SA 8".

 

Now I think that sitting on the work bench, it should be pretty darn close to 35hz, but if it's not, just shoot me because I couldn't have tried harder, or been more careful.

But here's the thing, we all know that once we drop an enclosure in a vehicle... "Any vehicle", the tuning is going to change, based on the acoustics of that particular vehicle, right ?

 

So what kind of equipment (and where do I find it in Sacramento) can listen to my sub enclosure, and tell me exactly what it's tuned to "in my vehicle" ? Would this be an RTA ?

 

Because here's the thing, once I know exactly what the tuning is, I know exactly what I need to do to dial in my enclosure. I've already checked, and I can drop the tuning as much as 5 hz by extending my port tube, or increase it, by probably as much as I would ever need to by reducing my cubes....

 

Just need to know exactly where I'm sitting to begin with...

Thank you.

 

 

[reedal]

You dont need to use any test equipment to determine the tuning of your enclosure, but it will be more accurate if you do. Your choice to spend money on equipment is on you, but I would recommend the SMD IM-SG for that purpose. Tony D has a video explaining how to determine tuning.

 

@Triticum Agricolam has provided a much simpler method previously. simply run a sweep of test tones and at low volume, watch your sub movement as you change the frequency/tone being played and you will see as the woofer moves up and down, you should see a peak where it moves the most, a "valley" (so to speak), a "valley" (for lack of a better term) where it moves the least, and then another peak after that. The point where the sub moves the least is your tune. You can use salt or something similar that is easy to see to aid you. 

[Fish Chris]

Thank you Reedal. I will look for Tony D's video on tuning now... Yea, I actually would like it to be tested on the SMD IM-SG, to be sure, as, if I'm going to go through the trouble of opening my box up and adjusting it, I need to be absolutely sure of "where its at", so I can decide what direction I need to go with it. Does anybody have one in Sacramento ? I mean, besides Steve  lol .... I know he's like completely overloaded busy...

 

Edit; Cant seem to find that vid ?

[reedal]

 

Also, I'd recommend the smd tool map in my signature to try and find someone local to you

[Fish Chris]

Well thank you, but I checked it, and there is nobody in my area with an IM-SG..... except the man himself. 

 

That does look super easy though. And I learned too, that I should be cutting off everything below my port tuning frequency with the sub sonic filter. Fortunately my amp does have a fully variable SF from 10-80 hz, but of course it comes back to another reason I really need to know exactly where my tuning is.

[YukonXL04]

19 hours ago, Fish Chris said:

Well thank you, but I checked it, and there is nobody in my area with an IM-SG..... except the man himself. 

 

That does look super easy though. And I learned too, that I should be cutting off everything below my port tuning frequency with the sub sonic filter. Fortunately my amp does have a fully variable SF from 10-80 hz, but of course it comes back to another reason I really need to know exactly where my tuning is.

1/2 octave below your box tuning