Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

Has any ones made an enclosure that utilizes the factory plastic sub panel? I like the look of the factory baffle, but the sound is far from good. Would it best to build a regular 1.25 sq. ft box and some how sandwich the factory panel between to custom box and the sub? Then thru-bolt the sub to the enlosure. Im hoping to make it look as close to factory as possible.

Any other ideas are welcome!

Can't see any reason why that wouldn't work.

I have thought the same thing, plus still allows for a lot of foot room for the driver.

Agreed. I ordered sound pack 3 and the sub is not great and I am not impressed at all. Its my understanding that it is more of a "free air" sub since there is no enclosure behind the factory panel. My question is if you have the heater option, is there enough room to throw an enclosure behind the factory panel without it interfering with the heater core and cables? I havent personally pulled the factory panel to see what kind of room is behind it. I would think any enclosure would be better than the "free air" that I have now with the wetsounds sub.

Sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Leg room and better sound. I think I'm going with a ported box, so I wont be able to retain the footwell.

Well guys, I got bored today and just decided to go for it.

Materials used:

2 sheets of 1/2" MDF 2ftx4ft
fiberglass resin
wood glue/ screws/ etc

The box Dimensions are 17" high, 17" wide, 8" deep. That gives a hair over 1 sq. foot of air space. The type S sub requires .9 gross sq. ft and .85 net sq. ft.
The box is just a basic sealed enclosure that I coated with resin to water proof. I then placed the box under the dash, then install the plastic panel. I then counter sunk screws, combining the wood enclosure and plastic panel. I also replaced the subwoofer screws with longer ones to further add strength between everything.

It sounds pretty damn good for the $50 i spent. I wasn't expecting much with a type S sub and only 250 watts or whatever the stock amp pushes.


Here are the pictures. What do you all think?

Well done! That looks........well untouched lol

Looks awesome. I am assuming you have a heater also since it looks like the vent in the top of the last picture. Did you have to do any moving around of anything behind the factory panel to make the box fit? From your description, it looks like a clean install and not a lot of trouble. I guess I need to figure out what kind of air space the wetsounds sub needs. Can you tell a big difference from before? Was it worth it? Great looking install!

Was it difficult to measure for the height of the opening? Looks great by the way. How does it sound?

Going for a sealed myself on the wetsounds (which can not use free air per the specs).

https://wetsounds.com/pages/products/XS-12_spec.html

SEALED ENCLOSURES
XS-12 S4 1.1 cubic ft. 13H x 14W x 11D
This enclosure is made up of a totally closed, air-tight box. This type of enclosure gives excellent, tight bass response, as well as providing an
effective control of loudspeaker excursion, maintaining it within reasonable limits and generally providing lower distortion and very high volume levels. If you
build your own enclosure, WETSOUNDS recommends that you glue and screwall joints using enough adhesive to ensure that all joints are air-tight.

VENTED ENCLOSURES
41 Fb (Hz) - 1.7 cubic feet - 15H 16W 12.5D - 4d 10l
Vented enclosures are not air-tight and incorporate an additional opening known as a port or vent, which is generally fabricated from either
plastic or cardboard tubing. The port augments the sound coming out of the woofer and is in most cases capable of going lower in frequency than the same
woofer in a sealed box. Even though vented enclosures are not air-tight, you should follow the same procedure as with sealed boxes and glue and screw
together all joints.... The dimensions ... are intended as a guideline and specific dimensions (HxWxD) may be used provided the internal volume of the enclosure is maintained. In the special case of SEALED enclosures, volumes greater or smaller than specified in the table can be chosen, with different results. Smaller enclosures lead to a more enhanced response and higher power handling whereas larger ones exhibit better
transient and more extended response.