Anybody running free air subwoofers

[HPBoats83]

I'm thinking about putting a couple in my boat and would like to put 2 under my seat but don't want to give up the room that I use for storage. Do they sound pretty good or do I need to have a box built to get any decent sound? What free air subs are you using?

 

[Enen]

I haven't heard any free air subs that sound anywhere near as good as enclosed or ported subs. Maybe the stereo guru's will chime in on this.

I just put a new stereo in my boat and went with Bulletproof subs. It's basically an FI sub that is custom built by Speed of Sound for a marine environment. They sound incredible.

 

[Dan Lorenze]

In my last boat I had two JL 10" subs.. One was in a tuned box and the one was in a free air location under one of the seats.. Honestly, they sounded the same and the free air JL hit just as hard as the one in the box. I listened to them back to back trying to hear the difference. I was surprised at the results. Don't be afraid of those free air subs, they do great.

 

[PlowTown Missile]

I'm running a single JL 10" free-air and I love it. It's whatever their latest model is. It hits hard without being overwhelming. How does it sound? Well I got 4th place in the LOTO stereo shootout in the under 30' class against boats with a lot more subs. Credit goes to Waves & Wheels though as they did the entire stereo in my boat. Big $$$ but well worth it. There is a big amp dedicated to that sub and a few Kinetik Powercells power the system.

 

[28Eliminator]

I blew a 12" JL running it free air (under the back seat) after 3 months. Had a well known Havasu stereo shop put in a 12" Rockford fosgate free air, and it lasted a month.... They warrantied it, but I'm not convinced. Doesn't sound as good as the JL did.

 

[TX Foilhead]

Doesn't sound like a good place for that type sub. 'Free air' means that it doesn't need a specific size box, but it does need something that separates the front air space from the back.

 

[Tom Brown]

I blew a 12" JL running it free air (under the back seat) after 3 months. Had a well known Havasu stereo shop put in a 12" Rockford fosgate free air, and it lasted a month.... They warrantied it, but I'm not convinced. Doesn't sound as good as the JL did.

Free-air subs are built differently than a driver that was designed to go in a specific enclosure. Mostly, they have extremely stiff suspensions.

Free-air is really a bad term for that type of sub. As TX Foilhead has indicated, the rear wave and front wave need to be isolated, as best as possible.

The rear wave of any speaker is always going to be 180 degrees out of phase from the front wave, causing the two waves to cancel each other when mixed. Anything that can be done to cancel one of the waves is going to help the amplitude. Even just having one side fire into fairly dense foam is likely to help.

In the case of a free-air driver sounding the same as an enclosed driver, the enclosed driver must be really, really badly designed.

 

[28Eliminator]

Free-air subs are built differently than a driver that was designed to go in a specific enclosure. Mostly, they have extremely stiff suspensions.

Free-air is really a bad term for that type of sub. As TX Foilhead has indicated, the rear wave and front wave need to be isolated, as best as possible.

The rear wave of any speaker is always going to be 180 degrees out of phase from the front wave, causing the two waves to cancel each other when mixed. Anything that can be done to cancel one of the waves is going to help the amplitude. Even just having one side fire into fairly dense foam is likely to help.

In the case of a free-air driver sounding the same as an enclosed driver, the enclosed driver must be really, really badly designed.

This is what I learned recently (the hard way)

 

[Motor Boater]

I had 2 jl marine 10's installed under the back seat of my sunsation that were running free air and they sounded incredible. I assume the enclosure under the seat was the perfect environment for those subs because I have never had a better sounding stereo in any boat or car I've owned.

 

[BUDMAN]

I have 2 10" JL free air subs in my boat. It hits pretty hard and sounds good. I've had them in my boat for about 3 years now with no problem

 

[BigDoug]

Wow, lots of mixed reviews...........cool thread none the less !!

 

[Hallett270act]

Have 2 10" JL's in my boat and they sound great.

 

[Waffles]

Free-air subs are built differently than a driver that was designed to go in a specific enclosure. Mostly, they have extremely stiff suspensions.

Free-air is really a bad term for that type of sub. As TX Foilhead has indicated, the rear wave and front wave need to be isolated, as best as possible.

The rear wave of any speaker is always going to be 180 degrees out of phase from the front wave, causing the two waves to cancel each other when mixed. Anything that can be done to cancel one of the waves is going to help the amplitude. Even just having one side fire into fairly dense foam is likely to help.

In the case of a free-air driver sounding the same as an enclosed driver, the enclosed driver must be really, really badly designed.

Also known as infinite baffle setups. Problem with "free air" is that there are only a handful of subs that can handle such abuse. You can't just throw any $1000 sub with a driver the size of a bowling ball that'll handle 10k watts rms @ 1 ohm stable thinking it'll sound bad ass and hit hard. No. It's not that simple.That being said, I've never heard a good sounding IB setup.... even a "Professionally" installed one.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[RiverDave]

Free Airs suck.. Lol.

 

[HPBoats83]

Free Airs suck.. Lol.

I don't know where I'd put a sealed box, I'd rather throw some free air subs under my back seat

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk