JL W-7 Vs W-7

I dont know if this can help anyone here but Ill post it and if you can use the information than good for you, Im about to build some sub boxes for a friends boat, JL says the box for a sealed 12-W7 should be 1.375 cubic feet, However the 12 W7 that in the tube in my boat seems to hit harded than the larger 12 W7 at my drivers feet,
Harold had called JL and talked with a teck guy and he confirmed our supisions, He said the smaller box with the added wattage we are pushing could produce a higher DB and tighter bass than the 1.375 they suguest, So before buiding the boxes for Jasons boat Harold offerd up his SAN as a test bech for our sub box shoot out,

Harold all ready had a 12 W-7 in a sealed 1.375 cubic foot box, Jude built a smaller 1 cubic foot box to test against the larger one.




We were able to use a DB meter and test one against the other

this is what we found, The larger box hit 107.7 DB on 4 tests, The smaller box hit 107.4 on 4 tests. The smaller box did have a tiny bit tighter bass hit.

How do you get that nice finish on the box?(the blue one)

Thanks for the info I could use it!!

FORMICA!!!!

formica???

Big Ed, It's probably a Formica laminate. Just guessing though.

BIG-NESS, Yo da man, ,

grant,

any polyfill in the boxes ?

Grant- I have the same sub in my boat...looking to upgrade amps. How much power were you pushing in Harold's boat, and with what kind of amp?

No Polyfill in the box, but that would be a nother good test. I would like to find out if the rumor is true that poly fill makes a box sound larger that it is. Ill try to find some.

We were pushing 1600-1800 watts with a Orion XTR 2400 in 3 ohm's

Formica is a brand, I bet it is plastic laminate, probably wilson art.

Grant, I'll trade you a bag of poly for a w-7

Definitley do a poly vs. no poly test... i would love to hear a real world result on woofer of this size/power as i am about to put a comparable woofer/amp in my boat. I poyfilled my tower speakers and it did make the midbass sound a lot better/tighter. I also polyfilled a sealed box in my truck and it "tightened" up the bass, however the woof in my truck in not a "competiton" woofer like the w7, it is }only a w3.

Wally world sells Polyfill in the sewing dept, $1.59 for a big bag.

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!

Grant, Nice post,
I am looking at changing out 2 of my 13W7's and replace them with 4 12W3's. I have the room up front and the 4 X 12's will boom harder with more air that is moving and also run my amps more efficiently... and hopefully getting longer battery life.. the W7's are good when you want big boom in small places, at least thats my opinion.

I recently swapped 1 X 13W7 for 2 X 12W3 in my yukon and am very pleased witht he results,

for extended periods of play, those Sub amps need some serious long term power to effectivly power the W7 series... I have toasted 4 JL13W7's in 2 years...

I also have 3 JL 10W3's and havent had any problems with these.

I feel like the W7's are top of the line but when you push them to redline, mine have melted or frozen during long periods of play

Hey Tom how are you? Why did you go with the w3's instead of the w6's?? Did you not like them as much?

grant,

polyfill in a box "slows" down the backwave and helps in some situations...

it will allow for a woofer to be used in smaller box, hence it tricks the box into thinking it is larger (adds volume).

kinda tricky though...you have to have a super sensitive scale when filling a box.

Harold, nice to hear from you.

I am looking at the W6's too. i am just not sure how much it will matter. The 12W6V2 handles @ 400 Watts, the 12W3V2 handles 300 watts. I believe i will be moving a heck of alot of air even with the W3's. I havent decided yet, I wanted to see if the price justified the 12W6V2.?

Harold, what are you thoughts?

tom...you have mail.
Thanks!
Harold.

Grant, was that 1600-1800 watts into two woofers? Thanks.

No thats 1600-1800 into One 12 W7 in 3 Ohm's

BoooooM.

Wow! Doesn't JL recommend 750 watts RMS and 1500 peak for those subs? Can you give them more power because they are only in a 1 cubic foot enclosure?

I am looking to use two Hifoincs XI Boltar amps that deliver 850 watts bridged at 4 ohms (875 at 3 ohms). These are the old Hifoincs class A/B amps and are rated at .03% distortion.

Do you think each W7 could be run by one of these amps in a 1 cubic foot box, or do you think I should move down to the W6v2 subs? I only have 1 cubic foot per woofer so a bigger box is not an option. I can also get a deal on the 12" Image Dynamics ID MAX v.3. What route should I take?

Thanks Grant!

Those 12 W7's need as much power as possible, My experience is the W7 series needs a tons of power, TRUE WATTS, not these advertised amps that are no-namers, I am not dogging Hifonics but I am just saying that you really need a ton of power to make the subs reach their designed potential. Its always better to have more power pushing your subs because believe me, those W7's will push any amp. I would definately and especially have clean efficient power to the W7 series, belive me, I have gone through 4 13W7s that have melted and blown 3 JL 1000's.

Tom is correct, The W7 needs more power than JL say's, I think is kinda funny how JL doesnt even make a amp that will push the W7 to what it is designed to do, "Blow away any other sub out there". I know JL says 1000 watts Bla Bla, but if you really wann hear that thing hump you need the extra 600-800 watts Im talking about. If you cant get 1500 watts to a W7 I would say find another sub, There are plenty out there that work good in the power range your looking to push, 850 in 3 ohms at 0.03% thd is a good amp, I say use the W-6. IMO its way better than the ID Max

This might be a perfect amp to push a W7. We havent tried it yet but its said to offer 2000 watts at 2 and 4 ohms bridged. Its a Zapco and its a bit expensive. I would have to have 4 of these amps to drive each 12w7 so thats why im not running them. A bit pricey but might be worth the money about $2,000 each from what I have found.

Thanks Grant. Do you think that JL underates the w6's as well? They say 400 RMS, 900 peak and I would be driving them with 850 clean watts. A smaller sealed box does give the woofer higher power handling as well doesn't it?

I dont think haveing a smaller box gives it a higher power handeling, I think in a smaller box you need more power to make the same boom. The up side is tighter bass and less space used. I wouldnt over drive the W6's I would go slightley over what JL say's with out any problems. Pushing 850 to the W-6's I dont know I havent done it so I cant tell you for sure.