3x13w7 build help price help

[mr.p]

Hey guys, so i smoked my audiobahn subwoofer finally! literally cloud of smoke in the entire car and it actually burned a bit. Took it out of the box to find the glue from the coil had melted and slung allover the inside of the box! it was very interesting, i tore the woofer apart and found that 60% of its 80+lbs of weight was in the basket and subwoofer frame, it was made of solid steel , so a local shop near me is having a huge sale as they call it and one guy says he will "hook me up" with Jl 13W7's at 550$ a pop he said at themost 600$, as i see them online the lowest price i found was 557$, plus they warranty it for as long as i own them? is this a good deal on these woofers? their sale is the 15th and they are very confident they can fit 3 of them ported in the back of the explorer....

the bad side to this is, they want an arm and a leg to build a box talking 700$ for an mdf box, and 1500$ for a full fiberglass box with bracing inside, both are slot ported. To me this is ridiculous! i e-mailed another shop locally about it, and am awaiting a response. Any input on these "deal" prices would be appreciated, i think their screwing me somewhere! thanks guys..

 

[Andy96XLT]

the price for the subs sounds good. $550 is about the lowest you will find them for around so if they don't need to be shipped you will save even with paying taxes, and if they will warranty them for the life of them thats a huge bonus. As for the boxes 700 is very very steep for an MDF box. I have built a few and had a few built and it never was more than 400, even in my show range rover. Fiberglass is hard to tell the price because really good fiberglassing is hard to come by, and if they do good work 1500 might not be that bad. Just out of curiousity though, why do you want 3 of the subs? I think 2 would be much more than enough considering the size of explorers. Good luck with everything

 

[mr.p]

hmm

well i wanted 2 18" BTL's but after talking with people on here and a few other places it would sound like crap with the small airspace i have to use, 2 w7's are good i heard 1 w7 and frankly my crappy audiobahn was louder but watching that w7 bump was amazing, they hit so low and clean...ive seen lots of people with 2 w7's and im sure thats loud but at 1000RMS i dont want to BBQ them, as my amp says 3000W RMS, so i figured 3 woofers, and also its because i can fit 3 or so i have been told...and 3 workout to be wired at 1 ohm so i dont have a funky impedance! again, or so im told...im hoping to get these in because the price is very nice to me, and then upgrade to a 3000Wrms fosgate amp after i get the 300amp alternator ive been talking about for a month now!

 

[oplitic]

well i wanted 2 18" BTL's but after talking with people on here and a few other places it would sound like crap with the small airspace i have to use, 2 w7's are good i heard 1 w7 and frankly my crappy audiobahn was louder but watching that w7 bump was amazing, they hit so low and clean...ive seen lots of people with 2 w7's and im sure thats loud but at 1000RMS i dont want to BBQ them, as my amp says 3000W RMS, so i figured 3 woofers, and also its because i can fit 3 or so i have been told...and 3 workout to be wired at 1 ohm so i dont have a funky impedance! again, or so im told...im hoping to get these in because the price is very nice to me, and then upgrade to a 3000Wrms fosgate amp after i get the 300amp alternator ive been talking about for a month now!

I would think the W7 not being as loud as the Audiobahn would be because of the box. I can't believe an Audiobahn being louder than a W7. (I think we were talking about this in the other thread)

The 13W7's should be able to take 1500 watts. Anything after that though and you are out of warranty.

The warranty they speak of is not for life unless THEY are going to pay for it after one year. JL Audio only has a two year warranty tops on there products, but the 13W7 only has a one year warranty (page 15, first paragraph). If they say for life of the speaker I would get it in writing, cause if you blow it after a year, and they don't honor there word, you're out a sub.

Oh, and that's a really good price for them, that is very close to dealer price I believe. Can't remember off the top of my head, I can know tomorrow.

 

[aznboi3644]

what are you trying to achieve though...if you are going for a mix of spl and sq the 13W7 is decent...but for less you can get subs that get louder and sound better. The 13W7 is nothing special for its price.

 

[mr.p]

yea im pretty much looking for a good amount of spl which is why i chose 3 and i want low hitting hard hitting bass, but it has to hit the higher notes also. The audiobahn i had was a awt15x i got it for free and i had a 3000W RMS crunch amp driving it, the jl w7 was in a 2dr tahoe and driven by a jl 1000/1 the bass from the w7 was the sound i want just not the output, the audiobahn/crunch combo had the output just not the sound quality. Then i think im going to be getting a decent deal on the W7's so i figure what the heck why not 3 and then get a nice fosgate amp down the line, im kind of sick of dealing with lower quality try to save some money things. And im sure jl doesnt warranty their stuff for a lifetime like you said, but this shop stands behind their gaurentee if he says you will not blow a woofer, and you blow a woofer (4 memphis 15 PR whatevers in my mercury) he will take back what you purchased and give you in store credit which is the best but still its something versus online ordering if i connect it it fried im SOL!

now im trying to find someone to build me a fiberglass enclosure in my area did a few e-mail inquiries, ive searched google and didnt come up with any conclusive results, but whats the weight difference between fiberglass and mdf, figure a same exact enclosure for example. 1/2? 1/4 with mdf bracing of course...and believe it or not that crappy audiobahn outlasted a 15" FI BL by about a 3,000-1 ratio lol the audiobahn lasted 3 months or so, the FI i borrowed lasted about 2 hours...i am still impressed by the abuse the audiobahn took, it took 3000W RMS of probably dirty power due to low voltage to the amp, for around 4 hours CRANKED it did well...then smoke and then literally fire

 

[oplitic]

Oh, and that's a really good price for them, that is very close to dealer price I believe. Can't remember off the top of my head, I can know tomorrow.

Chceked today, and the dealer cost is $500. MSRP I think is around $950. So, you're getting a good deal.

 

[mr.p]

okay thats very good to know, even if they step it up to 600$ then i still might do it, or buy 2 and see if they will sell me a third in a couple weeks at the sale price or something idk ill work something out with them, 1800$ in 2 weeks is pretty hard to come up with :| specially when i JUST paid rent lol...where did you check the dealer cost?

 

[oplitic]

okay thats very good to know, even if they step it up to 600$ then i still might do it, or buy 2 and see if they will sell me a third in a couple weeks at the sale price or something idk ill work something out with them, 1800$ in 2 weeks is pretty hard to come up with :| specially when i JUST paid rent lol...where did you check the dealer cost?

I work at a car audio shop. www.cartunesetc.com

That's how I know about teh warranty info.(other than it being in the catalog) Like I said, get it in writing. He might have 'forgotten' in over a year when he has to pay money. Expecially when he is giving it to you so cheap, I don't see why he would give you a life time warranty with him only making like 50-60 bucks off of you.

 

[aznboi3644]

Do you have room to fit three 13W7's ported??

I'd take this over three of the 13W7's any day. It will take that amp all day long without a sweat. Build a nice enclosure and the lows will be crazy. Cost a lot less also.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=293-622

 

[mr.p]

yea that looks like a nice woofer, im going for good SQ and low hitting bass and ive just personally seen the w7 in action and its very nice, besides i want multiple woofers i like the feeling/vibration and i just feel that more than one seems to hit alot harder. Just preference so far, but yes about the room....if it sounds like ass they will just have to redo the box, the shop says they call jl audio and jl sends them a layout..so it should fit if they say it will...

 

[oplitic]

yea that looks like a nice woofer, im going for good SQ and low hitting bass and ive just personally seen the w7 in action and its very nice, besides i want multiple woofers i like the feeling/vibration and i just feel that more than one seems to hit alot harder. Just preference so far, but yes about the room....if it sounds like ass they will just have to redo the box, the shop says they call jl audio and jl sends them a layout..so it should fit if they say it will...

As far as I know, JL won't make you custom designs. They give you there suggestion for a box, and you run from there. Using programs, pen and paper, etc. Seems like the shop is trying to over-promise and over-assure you things like the warranty and the custom JL designs. I'm sure they're a good shop, don't get me wrong. But JL isn't going to go out of there way to pay people to give out designs. And if they did, it would take weeks with all the demands.

 

[mr.p]

yea, im not set on this shop AT ALL but so far they are giving me a good deal on the w7's unless they dick me around when it comes down to buying them im all for it, and im pretty sure im going to be able to find a shop that is more expierienced with fiberglass and have them make me a box:
http://www.gatelyaudio.com/flash/gatelyaudio.html
this guy told me that 700 for the mdf box and 1500 for the fiberglass was actually a decent quote "for what youre looking for it is appropriate"
take a look at the site it seems like they know their stuff so i might go with them actually im measuring the interior space right now of the ex, ill see what he says, i agree my local shop is trying to reassure me, but a guy that works there works for JL audio as a jl audio rep, and i guess he works at the stereo shop also, which is odd, but hes only there once a week. So maybe thats what the guy meant by getting a layout from jl...i dont know frankly its not set in stone im doing this, but the price seems right for the subs so its my plan for now, thanks for the input guys. BTW i checked out your car domain, is youre monty still flat black?

 

[aznboi3644]

From WinISD using three W7's ported I would atleast do 12 cubic feet net.

Also it is highly dependent on the enclosure once again on the output and response....with my single old school 12W6 with 250 watts I had multiple people guessing two 15's or two 12's with atleast 1000 watts.

 

[oplitic]

BTW i checked out your car domain, is youre monty still flat black?

Yeah, for now. Still have some body work to do. Some rust spots popped up during winter, and want to get rid of that huge license plate area. Just make an opening for the plate and hatch handle. Then fix the rear panels behind the rear wheels, after taking the plastic molding off I see that Mercury had some weird holes and stuff behind it for some reason, so I need to weld them in and clean all that up. Plus my fender I backed into with my atv... lol. Then it will be painted by my friend that paints at the local Ford place (his focus). Not 100% on color right now fr my Mounty though.

 

[aznboi3644]

Hmm...I have no rust spots on my Exploder...lol yes

 

[mr.p]

aznboi, i punched it into bass box pro 6 and got 18 cuft. total after sub displacement, not sure if thats with port displacement, i keep getting some crazy suggested port sizes, like 1 12x14 and for lenght it said like 34 inches...that seems massive! When i select flared port i get a significantly lower number...any ideas? and also what is the FS of the box is that what its tuned to? so far im not finding a better deal on the box as innovative sound solutions or whatever in hayward, says 80 an hour and no less that 8 hours for my box..which is cheaper if they mean fiberglass! alot less that the 1500$ original quote. but they dont give online quotes and want me to bring it by, i hate doing that thye try to sell you stuff!

and to oplitic: what are your color choices so far? I vote the color my saturn sc2 was, it was black with like gold pearl or something it looked pretty cool, whatever you paint it i recomend putting some pearl powder in with the paint just adding it to the base not even spraying a whole pearl coat, made a big difference in my explorer, i must say its sooo SPARKLY

 

[aznboi3644]

well I said ATLEAST....do you have room for that?? Also as for port size...you can make the port however big you want and tune it to whatever you want.

If you are going to pay 1500 dollars for an enclosure I'd say wait a little bit until Pete K. gets his wood shop up and have him build you an enclosure that would rape three 13W7's with two 12's

 

[mr.p]

well if 2 12's can rape 3 13w7's with one of his enclosures...then 3 13w7's in one of his enclosures will rape 2 12's.......idk i want something pretty ridiculous, and ive only seen 2 trucks with 3 w7's, and i just like the way the look and sound...now i checked out that link you gave that audiopulse LMS ultra 15" looks very impressive...but its like over a grand! some guy on youtube has 2 18" and his windshield cracks and crazy stuff like that!...pete K, is that the toxic bass guy? i think his name is pete. Im in no way that much of a fan of JL but i honestly cant really beat the price im getting. or should get unless they do something stupid which they most likely will. 1500$ for a box i know is completely insane, but i think the finished product would look amazing which is a plus. i really want fibeglass due to the weight savings im GUESSING i have not weighed a fiberglass box and a mdf so i am unsure. Still asking for input on that topic.

oh also if pete k who you referred to is the toxic bass guy, his video on you tube of the hairtrick with 2 13w7's is very impressive! now i want that box but for 3 of them ...im really gonna be pissed if the shop jacks their price up..then im going to have to move onto that pioneer SPL15

 

[oplitic]

and to oplitic: what are your color choices so far? I vote the color my saturn sc2 was, it was black with like gold pearl or something it looked pretty cool, whatever you paint it i recomend putting some pearl powder in with the paint just adding it to the base not even spraying a whole pearl coat, made a big difference in my explorer, i must say its sooo SPARKLY

I'm definitely doing black base. And am trying to figure out what I want for pearl. Already had that as an idea. Thinking green or blue.