JL Audio Stealth Box

[Riftur]

Anyone install one of these in their car yet? I am curious how it sounds since its not very cheap. Also if you know of a place that makes stealth boxes that wont break the bank please let me know.

[Jordan Silveira]

I assume you already know of OEM Audio Plus? They definitely aren't cheap but I swear by there products. They truly create what I consider to be a concert hall in your car.

[go_a_way1]

Originally Posted by Jordan Silveira

I assume you already know of OEM Audio Plus? They definitely aren't cheap but I swear by there products. They truly create what I consider to be a concert hall in your car.

This ^ I hear nothing but good things about them

[lbroskee]

oem audio plus is great, but the sub lacks. its only 100 watt RMS. i was constantly messing with bass settings. the JL is 100-400 watt RMS. so if ur looking for a lot of bass don't do the poem audio sub. I'm saving up for their new setup without a sub and then prolly gonna add this stealth box in, tho i hear on low volume it kinda disappears so I'm looking to see if i can just get the box without a sub

[JGalp]

i actually had the stealth box first in my brz but i was happy with it and the stock speakers, switched to OEM audio and i haven't looked back since!!

[lbroskee]

Originally Posted by JGalp

i actually had the stealth box first in my brz but i was happy with it and the stock speakers, switched to OEM audio and i haven't looked back since!!

How would you compare it base wise?

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

Disappearing is what a subwoofer is supposed to do. If a subwoofer stands out more than the other speakers, its too loud. I'm not knocking anyone here, but if you are purposely wanting your subwoofer to stand out, your not building a sound quality system.

If you have a trunk mounted subwoofer, and you can tell its behind you while its playing, theres usually one or more of these five reasons.

1 - Most often, its way too loud. Most people have their sub turned up 10x as loud as their other speakers or more.

2 - Rattles. This is poor deadening.

3 - Distortion. This comes from pushing them past their linear limits. The further the cone moves, the more it distorts. If you want clean bass, use the biggest subwoofer you can.

4 - The lowpass crossover is too high.

5 - A phase mis-match between the sub and the midbass.

Because of the wavelengths a subwoofer plays, you should never be able to tell where in the car it is just by listening. If you can, one of the above is almost assuredly true.

[ericmpena]

Dont' have any experience with the Stealth Box, but OEM Audio is the way to go for sure.

[twag4]

Clean bass comes from well engineered sub woofer, not big sub woofer. See Phil jones pure sound. On his bass guitar amps he uses 5" woofers arranged in parallels. I promise you, they move more air and are way louder than anything else out there. Also, because of the smaller size of the drivers, they are extremely responsive and accurate. They will make you poop your pants. I am a musician, a bass player. I have played bass (guitar) out of many amps and speaker cabinets, and these things are legitimately the most unbelievable bass amps out there. 12, 15, and 18 inch woofers are lazy and slow. 4 good ten inch of offers move more air than 18" woofers. The smaller ones will hit all the lows too. Oem audio has done a good job with this system. I am a bass guy, I got their robust setting, and it is very good. Don't get me wrong, the big systems and big speakers can sound great, but most wash everything else out. Oem covers the tonal spectrum very well.

[lbroskee]

Originally Posted by twag4

Clean bass comes from well engineered sub woofer, not big sub woofer. See Phil jones pure sound. On his bass guitar amps he uses 5" woofers arranged in parallels. I promise you, they move more air and are way louder than anything else out there. Also, because of the smaller size of the drivers, they are extremely responsive and accurate. They will make you poop your pants. I am a musician, a bass player. I have played bass (guitar) out of many amps and speaker cabinets, and these things are legitimately the most unbelievable bass amps out there. 12, 15, and 18 inch woofers are lazy and slow. 4 good ten inch of offers move more air than 18" woofers. The smaller ones will hit all the lows too. Oem audio has done a good job with this system. I am a bass guy, I got their robust setting, and it is very good. Don't get me wrong, the big systems and big speakers can sound great, but most wash everything else out. Oem covers the tonal spectrum very well.

So full setup with sub and 8 speakers from OEM is worth $1500?

[Jordan Silveira]

Originally Posted by twag4

Clean bass comes from well engineered sub woofer, not big sub woofer. See Phil jones pure sound. On his bass guitar amps he uses 5" woofers arranged in parallels. I promise you, they move more air and are way louder than anything else out there. Also, because of the smaller size of the drivers, they are extremely responsive and accurate. They will make you poop your pants. I am a musician, a bass player. I have played bass (guitar) out of many amps and speaker cabinets, and these things are legitimately the most unbelievable bass amps out there. 12, 15, and 18 inch woofers are lazy and slow. 4 good ten inch of offers move more air than 18" woofers. The smaller ones will hit all the lows too. Oem audio has done a good job with this system. I am a bass guy, I got their robust setting, and it is very good. Don't get me wrong, the big systems and big speakers can sound great, but most wash everything else out. Oem covers the tonal spectrum very well.

I was just going to say OP, if you are worried about bass or lack thereof being an issue, OEM audio offers a robust setting which offers two of their subs and that will alleviate your bass concerns but I must admit it pretty much doubles the price of the original set up. However, I have literally met people who are bass lovers and have gotten the robust setting and have said it was too much.

[JGalp]

Originally Posted by lbroskee

How would you compare it base wise?

the stealth box was alright but the bass overpowered the speakers, i couldn't play the music loud enough without the bass being too loud and it would rattle. the OEM is awesome, just a good balance and install is clean, don't need to cut anything and if i ever wanna sell the car it is much easier to sell the entire OEM system than piece out random pieces. i def think the full 8 speaker system is worth it from OEM for 1500.. i haven't gotten the mid-range and rear yet because i bought the full system before they came out but you guys are getting a great deal for 1500! 1300 was the cost i believe for the reference system before that means you guys are getting the midrange and rears for basically 100 each. ill have to pay 200 each to have what you have if you buy now

[TOOSTUBBORN2FAIL]

Originally Posted by twag4

Clean bass comes from well engineered sub woofer, not big sub woofer. See Phil jones pure sound. On his bass guitar amps he uses 5" woofers arranged in parallels. I promise you, they move more air and are way louder than anything else out there. Also, because of the smaller size of the drivers, they are extremely responsive and accurate. They will make you poop your pants. I am a musician, a bass player. I have played bass (guitar) out of many amps and speaker cabinets, and these things are legitimately the most unbelievable bass amps out there. 12, 15, and 18 inch woofers are lazy and slow. 4 good ten inch of offers move more air than 18" woofers. The smaller ones will hit all the lows too. Oem audio has done a good job with this system. I am a bass guy, I got their robust setting, and it is very good. Don't get me wrong, the big systems and big speakers can sound great, but most wash everything else out. Oem covers the tonal spectrum very well.

My buddy is a bass player and we've talked about those amps/cabs. It couldn't do what it does without the pure amount of drivers it uses.

The bottom line is, distortion is caused by excursion. Its true that a well designed speaker will have more excursion before distortion becomes audible, but its also true that a larger cone won't need to move as much for the same output/frequency, which will lower distortion.

Speed, when referring to sound, is about a speakers ability to handle transients. This comes strictly down to motor strength vs cone mass vs suspension stiffness. If a larger speaker sounds "slower or lazy", that's because it needs more motor strength.

Poor tuning will also cause a subwoofer to sound slow or lazy. Being out of phase with the midbass will cause this. Having the level slighty high will also cause this.

Another thing that can case this, as well as poor decay, is poor sound deadening. This causes the metal panels to continue to ring for as much as a second after the initial impulse. That causes smearing.

This is the decay plot of a car that has been fully deadened except for the roof. Notice how frequencies continue to resonate as long as 1.5 seconds.


This is the same car, with the roof deadened. Notice how much quicker the initial impulse decays, leading to a much more accurate bass sound.


There is another catch. For every octave lower you go, you need 4x as much displacement. That means, for instance, if your maxing those 5's in that cab out at 80hz, you would need 4 times as many to get to 40hz. And 16 times as many to get to 20hz. Since subwoofers need to play to 20hz, that means you either need a LOT of excursion, or a LOT of cone area.

But, there is a counter to that. With the interior dimensions of a car, you have a lot of room gain. An FRS probably probably starts to enter into cabin gain around 100hz, based on its size. Below that frequency, you will gain roughly 12db per octave as you go down.

I compete in extreme class in car audio sound quality competitions. I also judge them when I'm not competing. The absolute best bass I've ever heard in a car has always come from 12" or larger drivers. None of them have been slow or lazy. All of them have been barely loafing along, and "disappeared".

[twag4]

@tooSTUBBORNTOOFAIL, I'm sorry if I came off as argumentative. Not my intent , as you make good and valid points. I owned and regularly played through a PJ combo amp at 800w @16ohms. It only had 12 of the 5" drivers. It would get very loud and Was extremely clear. Way more so than any 12"+ cabinets that I have played through. It is really at home in a medium to large venue. It doesn't really impress in a smaller room. The wave length of a low b, the lowest on a 5or 6 string bass is very long, in the neighborhood of 16' or so if memory serves me. That is very difficult to manage in a small space like a car, so I absolutely won't argue the points you make. In a small space the big speaker is as you say I am sure. My problem with big speakers in small space is the way they tend to wash the whole system in a typical car audio system. And in my experience playing bass, they are not as responsive as smaller drivers. I prefer 10" drivers s for my bass playing, as they reproduce mids and highs accurately, but can activate car alarms from a distance too. Great low freq reproduction. And, they work well in smaller and larger venues alike. Even U thing is a compromise. The Phil jones amp is a sound man's wet dream when the strings are playing with stage volume. Not overwhelming sub 40hZ, and not lacking above that. I have the oem system, and I can hear everything accurately, not overwhelmed by bass, yet with solid bass presence. I guess that is what I should have said all along. I hear a lot of cars with overwhelming bass. It is apparent that some people really like that. If that is what they want, then there is no replacement for displacement- as they say. If the OP wants huge bass, then this may not be his solution. Well said by the way!