Hey guys,

Was looking for some opinions, suggestions or options. A couple years ago I built a subwoofer box for a 10 inch subwoofer out of wood and covered it in fiberglass resin. It lasted about 4 years before it started to get saturated with water and fall apart. It is located on the floor of the boat, under the back seat, in a cutout where a cooler originally was. It doesn't have an easy life as the boat stays in the water all summer on a mooring, and sits in the side yard of our cottage in the spring and fall. I can't really complain as the previous box lasted 4 years under these conditions. Was thinking this time around building one out of lexan or plastic so that I do not have to worry about rot. Has anyone done this? Is there a website I could order a custom one from or am I going to have to make it myself? I was thinking a 3/4 or 1 inch thick sheet of lexan and just building it like a regular subwoofer box?


All ideas welcome!

Thanks!

Coosa board and bed liner or glass it

it will be HEAVY. Maybe some foam/coosa stuff, glass it before you cut it and tab it together.

If you build a new box make it 1.5 cubic foot and put a vent in it with 25 square inch surface area and 16 inch long. I would not use lexan/plex it will not sound right. I would use 3/4 " MDF and then resin it like you did last time, but resin all of it not just the outside.

Why would MDF have a different sound then acrylic? Never heard this before and I'm just wondering. I would think that an acrylic box sealed properly with some weld-on 4 or 16 would work fine?

MDF is made up of several materials that have different resonant frequency's, so it will not add its own resonating sound to the music. You could use acrylic but it would have to be really thick not to add a hum to the music.

I wouldn't go with plexi. Super heavy,probably not best sound quality. I would not use MDF either, stuff absorbs water like a sponge and after you glass it inside and out I would think you would lose a lot of the sound quality benefits it offers. I would look at Starboard, correct me if I am wrong but I think it is very similar to Coosa board. I would not use MDF anywhere on a boat.

I just pulled a MDF box out of my boat that was covered with resin and about 4 years old, It sucked up water and turned into sh!t. I built the new one out of marine grade plywood, but if I was in your shoes I would go with 3/4" starboard, ebay is going to be your best bet for a deal.

coosa would make a nice box and it is available in several different densities from 15 to 26 p/cf.

BYC how do you think a composite board would perform over MDF? Do you think like densities of Coosa and MDF would yield like performance? Would it be best to go with the highest or lowest density?

Dave, I am willing to volunteer my boats services as a coosa speaker box test mule....