5 Essential 'Must Do's' When Building a Subwoofer Enclosure

Adding a subwoofer to your system is in no way easy, especially if choosing to build a subwoofer enclosure. If you intend to build an enclosure, you will need some essential facts and information before you build it, otherwise something may go wrong, and you could end up wasting your materials.

Must Do 1: Find out what design and size is best for your subwoofer. The wrong design or size could affect the performance of the subwoofer in your car, making your system worse rather than better. The manual should tell you the free amount of air space between woofer and enclosure needed, whilst a simple equation where you find the EBO (efficiency bandwidth products) can help find the best type of design. Alternatively, the manual or a car audio expert may have suggestions on design.

Must Do 2: Decide upon how many enclosures you may need. Although it is not necessary to create two separate enclosures, it practically works better. A sub enclosure can also be separated down the middle in two, so that one sturdy box fits two subs in. If no divider is there though, and one subwoofer malfunctions, it will leave double the amount space needed for the other sub, which will affect the performance of your system. Separating the subs, whether by separate enclosures or a divider (known as twin enclosures), will prevent this from happening. If you have one sub alone, this makes the decision far easier as you will have only one enclosure to build.

Must Do 3: Think long and hard about the materials you are going to use in your enclosure. The enclosure is required to be a hard rigid structure, so that the subwoofer is safely in place and can do its job correctly. Without a rigid structure, the sub can easily be damaged and will not perform as it should. Therefore, the material used needs to be strong and firm, for example, wood, MDF, fibreboard, thick particle board or thick Plexiglas are all used regularly in enclosure structures. Another choice is mould the enclosure into a shape using fiberglass. However, this is time consuming due to the many layers needed.

Must Do 4: After thinking about the material, consider how you are going to make sure it is a fixed and firm structure? Adding braces and strengthening weak points, such as the corners will help keep together your structure. Complete a design on how you are going to strengthen your structure beforehand and remember that any reinforcement or brace will take up air space, which means you'll need to expand the interior space in the enclosure design in accordance with the space lost to the brace.

Must Do 5: When using nails and drills always be careful. You don't want to unnecessarily drill holes or break the structure via screws. The joints are a particular area, which can be easily damaged by screws. Avoid potential damage by distancing your screws out with equal spaces and drilling over half way prior to the screws being placed in, as this will stop the wood from breaking.