Good news... then bad news... then good news... arg!

I have been purchasing some car audio gear for a friend of mine who lives in tennessee, who grew up around here...

I got a Cadence Z5000 for him (600x1), for subs...
I got a Cadence Q3000 for him (100x2) for the fronts...
I got a pair of UltraShock 6.5" components (which mount the tweeter coaxial-style, if haven't seen them)...
I got a PAC OEM1 and the cables to interface with his car (a 2002 Trans Am WS6)...
I got that Audiopipe 0 gauge "includes everything" wiring kit that I want for myself...
And a box that I thought was very trick for his car...
http://www.subthump.atfreeweb.com/millhouse_box.htm
With a "Trans Am" logo across it... looks cool as hell...
Built for a pair of 10" subs, sealed, 1 cu.ft. per side!

So what subs?
I ordered a pair of 10" DEI Studio's from www.shop4sound.com here! Great price on them...

Yipee! They arrived! Can't wait to check them out! Where's my box knife... there it is...

Oh wait, what's the sticker say on the side?
"Contents - 2 DEI Studio 3124 woofer 12 SVC"
Damn! They sent the wrong ones! 12"! The box is for 10's!

So, at this point I hadn't seen the box... he arrived here today, box in hand...

Fortunately, the baffle looks large enough to mount twelves, if I cut the holes out to the right size...

Play a little with WinISD...
Wow, those 12" subs are meant to work in TINY boxes!
These 12" subs will actually work!

phew... disaster averted! (since he drove up from Tennessee for me to do this for him! )

Maybe this will actually be better...
12" worth of cone moving air rather than 10"... lower Fs..
Believe it or not, the response curve is almost identical in that enclosure, slightly less air for the 12" subs due to their size...

Phew!

 

Yes, I am keeping them... should work out well...

I can't believe how small enclosures these subs work in...

Even 1/2 cu.ft. sealed for these twelves offers lower than a 1.0 Qsys!

.707 is about 0.9 cu.ft.!

I had to build a small extension for the box, rather than just cutting the holes bigger....
Built a little 4" enclosure that bolts to this one, with the 12" holes on a birch ply baffle, to bring my cu.ft. up to 0.8 per sub.

I should have them in tomorrow, be able to hear them tomorrow!
I hope, as long as all goes well!

 

Oh yeah!

They really sounded fantastic...
And had a lot of output, despite only ending up with about .7 cu.ft. each (I put in 10 oz of polyfill per side too).

When I took them out of the box, I was very impressed by their appearance.
Very cool, stylish (not cheesy) cast aluminum basket.
Pretty large magnet, with a rubber cover to dress it up that makes it look even bigger than it is.

Cone, dustcap, surround all look classy and functional, Directed "Studio" logo couldn't be any cooler or more understated.

Spec sheet looks fantastic too, glancing over that, I was impressed before modeling it up even:

FS (resonant freq) is 24.25Hz.
Qes is 0.41, that indicates a pretty damn strong motor!
Qts is .38 Great in both ported and sealed..
12.71mm Xmax is decent, but glancing over the other models shows that this is the lowest of the line, the tens have 15.18mm, the 8-ohm flavor of the 12 has more Xmax, 14mm...
So I suspect the limitation here isn't suspension or physical interference, it's simply the point the coils start to leave the gap (more windings on the 8 ohm version, see?).

At any rate, these subs do kick out big...
But they sound fantastically clean as well, I am seriously impressed...

I am also more and more motivated to simply remove and seal up the ports on my enclosure..

I didn't get the chance to try them ported, but I absolutely would HIGHLY recommend these subs based on my experience with them!
I can't believe they are so inexpensive...

I would run them in my car, no problem, without hesitation!