OK - I decided to upgrade the stereo in the MCS. JL XR components up front, a Kicker 550/3 amp with stealth shelf, and the JL Stealthbox sub. The components sound great - the bass sounds terrible. It rattles, distorts, and simply sounds bad. I took it back where the installation was done and they seem to think it is fine. Has anyone had this issue with the Stealthbox? I by no means am an expert - but the way the sub is designed - the speaker is aimed right at the side of the car, could this be the root of the problems?

 

Minigoth,

Aloha and welcome to NAM.

Several options for you to even out the bass and clean it up.

I have an aftermarket Head unit that allows me to change the subwoofer volume independently- you can also add a control for this and you should have this feature added if you don't have it.

My Xtant amp has many controls to allow fine tuning of the crossovers and signals sent to the front speakers to allow more or less emphasis. That helps me alot to clean up the front sound and make it sound clearer.

You definitely need to add sound deadening material to your doors- can be done on the metal surface facing the outside of the car (but from inside after you remove the door panel) , on the inside metal facing the interior (after removing the door panel) and on the inner door panel itself. You can add more sound deadening material to the rear quarter panels and the hatch or the floor areas if you want but most of the gain comes from doing the doors only. This helps clean up the rattles, resonation, cuts out the outside noise, etc.

Use Dynamat extreme, Cascade audio VB-2 or VB-max or one of the generic equivalents if you like- see other threads on this.

And you can also add deflex which is a pad that goes behind the front speaker in the door to cut down on sound waves and cleans up the bass in the doors.

As long as your JL stealthbox has a 100 Watts of clean power it should work well assuming that the crossovers are also appropriate for your set up. The design of the speaker facing the side area is fine and my JL stealthbox is doing great.

 

Thank you very much for the reply. Your ideas make sense. The doors have dynamat and the speakers sound and are performing great. I kept the stock head - so the Kicker 550/3 provided a bass level controller, and 280 watts to the sub. The problem definately comes from the sub on extreme punchy bass. JL tech support said it is either a defective woofer or the amp is not set correctly. Since the woofer performs well on more subdued bass - I think it is in the crossovers. Again - thanks for you input - think I will need to do some tweaking on the amp.

 

keep us updated with your stealthbox issues. i am going to be getting the same stealthbox soon, and i would like to see if your issues get solved.

-chris

 

...try crossing over the sub at around 90 to 110 and see if that cleans it up. Also, if your fronts are rears are trying to reproduce anything below 160 you may be overextending them. You may also want to check your 'gain' on the amp to make sure that it is not cranked up too high trying to artificially produce power.

 

I've been wanting to buy a stealthbox online and do the install myself with an amp, but I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. Is this an item I need to buy at a local store only?

 

>>I've been wanting to buy a stealthbox online and do the install myself with an amp, but I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere. Is this an item I need to buy at a local store only?
>>
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The stealthbox is only sold at official JL audio dealers. One of the big chains that can order it is Car toys. But I would find a local hi-end audio shop to order it for you. They will usually undercut the big chain stores if you mention the Car Toy price.

As for my Stealth box I love it and have no problems with it except that it can cause migranes and dizzyness if I crank it up to loud .

My current setup is one JL 500/5 amp pushing everything. I have a separate volume control **** for the sub. Up front I am running MB Quart Q's and Alpine Rtype in the rear.

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03 'S IB/W Shelby Stripes, Navi system and a Texas Flag & a few other mods