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A FEW REVIEWS ARE LISTED BELOW Many more can be found in the Deathbox Support Forum
This is a bit long-winded, but I just have to share this with everyone here. I recently built a pair of deathboxes for my Infinity Beta 10s and have been raving about them ever since. Since then I've settled on just using one of them in the hatch of my '96 Integra; with 600W it's delivering all the bass volume I need. However, I've been curious to see how it stands up in a back-to-back comparison. Bandpass enclosures have a reputation for bad sound quality, even if it's specifically designed for the sub, so this "one-size-fits-all" approach just didn't seem right to me. I'm also considering upgrading my drivers, because the betas are severely excursion-limited when I push them hard. In my hunt for my next subs, I've been practically laughed at when I say I want a good sound quality sub to put in my BANDPASS box. So I had something to prove. To myself, if nobody else. Skeptically equipped, I set out tonight to compare the two. One of my Betas went into the Deathbox, which I had just treated to a very thorough sealing of every seam with the ol' hot-glue gun. The other beta went into a wedge-shaped sealed box that I built to Infinity's specifications for this particular driver. I hooked up the sealed box to the bridged output of my amp and sat down for a reference listen... this is the application my subs were BUILT for. Some may scoff, but for this comparison I popped in Rage Against The Machine. Lots of quick kick drums, low bass guitar, and some bizzare growling noises from the heavily effected lead guitar. Not my usual listening material, but this CD gives ANY sound system a good workout; and in a particularly rare example from a modern record label, it's actually well recorded to take advantage of the full dynamic range of a CD. First impression: in the sealed box, the Beta shines... quick transients, very low extension, and pretty good SPL for a single 10" in a small sealed box application (I can thank the amplifier gods at harman/kardon for that). Yeah... this is why I bought these subs. Thoroughly impressed, I switched the leads to the Beta living in the deathbox and returned to my seat. I didn't change anything else... all volume levels, gains, etc. throughout the system are identical. Press the button to un-mute the deck and return to the same track on the CD I was listening to. Suddenly the kick drum is somewhere INSIDE my chest. The bass guitar is hitting me with this growling sound that exists in some octave below what he's playing, a sound I could never quite identify before. I can just about FEEL the guitarist's pick hitting the strings. The transients are just as fast, if not faster than before. Subjectively, I'd say SPL is up about 3-6 dB... at the exact same head and amp output. And low frequency sounds I didn't notice before are right in my face. About this time I'm figuring that my neighbors may be getting a little annoyed, so I had to end the show and go back inside. But I just wanted to anyone who's interested know... this is good stuff. I can't tell if it's this good for any driver, but with the Betas it was incredible. And this is a 10" driver that audio magazines already compared in output and LF extension to a very good 12" driver. I've said it before, but thanks, Steve. -David Manning
This is for steve, I called you last weekabout the Death box. I ended up adjusting the insert at 2 inches from the end. Stuffed the back with polyfill, and screwed it to the floor of my trunk. !!!WOW!!! I
have the 2 JL10W6's running Isobarically with around 300 watts rms to
each one. Yikes. I can really make the earth move now. When I turn it
up I wonder why I bought Bass Shakers. I was testing it out for polarity
and wiring and I blew the back end of the box off. All the screws weren't
in. It almost has more bass than I need. My 5-1/4 comp. set cant balance
it that well. no problem though.
thank you greatly for the plans.. I have never heard a 10 inch woofer 'boom' as loud as now. It actually shakes the front 2 seats! I do believe i can gain more however becuase i am only using a 200w amp. Finally, I would once again like to congratulate, you and your company. From another extreemly pleased customer. -Ryan. Well, I built the Deathbox for a friend for his home theater, and he LOVED it!. It was built with a 10" DVC Radio Shack Subwoofer ( my friend is a little cheap) with an advertised QTS of .52 and it still gave great performance (of course, I've never heard it loaded with a driver with the proper T/S parameters). . Thanks for the great design! Thnx, -Nik Martin Your web page is absolutely fantastic. I read about it in the newsgroup rec.audio.car, and decided to give it a read. I was amazed by the fact that someone has put together the facts and great examples that everyone who ever wanted to upgrade their stereo system needs to read. I will recommend your web page to all of my friends interested in car audio (almost all of them).Thank you for showing signs of intelligent life on the web. -Chris
Almaguer Steve, There is only one word to describe that box "Awwwwwesome"! It didn't seem to play as loud as my bass reflex box but when we cranked it up I was amazed in how clear it played. You could hear definition in the bass tracks that just weren't there before. I could boost the bass as much as I liked with no sign of distortion. The one major problem with your Death Box design is once I compared it to my bass reflex I can't stand it anymore. It really sounds mushy and distorted in comparison to the Death Box. Any way I just thougth I'd let you know that we got the box built and installed in the old Honda and we love it. My son is getting all kinds of compliments on the sound. I appreciate all your help in this project and hope to try some more of your good stuff. Thanks Much! -Larry Daube In case you forgot - I have four standing Db's together looking like (actually, it IS)one 20 inch tall, 52 inch wide, and 13.5 inch deep enclosure with 4 half moons at the bottom (of course). It is directly behind the seats in the x-cab - just below the back window (even with the amp rack on top of it). Anyway - back to the results. From first impressions - I realized I tuned the box a bit too high - I didn't turn up the bass at all on the drive there, or even use the eq - I had the sub gain ALL the way down on the amp (300hc MMATS class D amp - 1200w RMS at 90% efficiency) - the subs crossed over at 70 hz (on the amp at 24db) - the bass q turned up just enough to allow the minimal bass. I was expecting pretty much NO bass (I'm used to 4 15" in my Jimmy), yet what I got was actually a bit of punch around the 55-70 hz range. No low end. I was a little worried. When
I got there, did some tweaks, I was feeling pretty good. I
It
was sounding quite good to the small crowd that was I then turned the bass down and started the system for sound quality. I was playing some cd's with my friend (he had the second highest score overall in the competition - lost best of show and his class by two points, just because he wasn't an IASCA member), we started talking and let a track play that we didn't plan on listening to. It was a song that I've listed to 100 times in my Jimmy, and it has a reoccurring bass note at somewhere between 70 and 100 hz. With my 15's x-over at 80 I could get this note to play quite loud - but nothing special. Well,
we both stopped talking because we
could audibly hear the note quite well from the
subs - even though they were crossed over and tuned WAY down around
that range. Right then we both got giddy - and started messing with
the eq. I tuned the eq at +6 at 63 and 90hz, turned the amp gain
up to a little over half, and turned
the bass q gain to half. I played the song It was BY FAR the loudest PUNCHY bass either of us have ever heard. Even though the ports were obstructed by the seats and I wouldn't turn the volume past 20 (too loud), our shirts were puffing forward from the air flow. A LARGE crowd gathered around us - and our windows were UP with other competitors playing their systems at the same time. NO ONE believed 4 tens could hit that hard - but they could see only a 6 cubic foot box - so they had to believe it. To
make a already much too long story short - I decided to to do
I
played a 70hz note five times (10 seconds), the volume at 20
I am already VERY happy with the enclosure - I easily have enough low end for my sound quality, and if I ever need to I can blow peoples hair forward if I try. Since I was never gonna drop super low with that limited cab area - I guess it's good I tuned it a little high to wow the crowd with SPL - 'cause it's kinda fun. I guess I meant to do that all along. Well, now that I've written you a complete novel - I'll go. Thanks again for your enclosure design, and I'm looking forward to my installer getting on to his Wicked One ported into his cab. He's ecstatic about my SPL performance - and is very impressed by everything I've shown him of yours. I still plan on sending you pictures when I'm REALLY done.... -Dan (from Alaska) Dear Steve, Your Deathbox is slowly starting to p*ss me off. I
had a box with 2x 12" 's in the trunk of my VW 16V Gti Golf and two
8" mid's on the package tray. Worked fine, except; no bass.
There's so much bass in the car now, that I had to install mid's in the front kick-panels (which I did a very nice job of, if I say so myself), and some tweeters in the dash, and of course everything is wired up with your phase delay wiring scheme. So now I can make my nose-hairs itch with bass, and I've got the most incredible sound in the area. So I just wanted to let you know, apart from the fact that I'm slightly broke at the moment, if you don't hear from me again, it's most probably because my girlfriend killed me "because I love my car more than her..." Thanx for a great Web site and THE best designs I've ever come across. P.S. I'll let you know how my Housewrecker turned out. -Piet
Steyn
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