Kicker Comp DCVR12 12" Car Subwoofer

I have been a HUGE car audio fanatic for the last ten years. Ever since I was capable of driving, I have had a desire to blast my speakers at levels that weren't fit for anyone's ears. This has led to thousands of dollars in purchases, countless maxed out credit cards, and eventually led to a huge interest in the car customization business in general.

Over the last ten years, I have done countless installs on my own vehicles, my friends vehicles, and customer vehicles after I started up my own customization business in 2000, which eventually would be put out of business, by the economy crushing September 11th.

One of the speaker setups that I still use on a regular basis in my fiances vehicle are the Kicker Comp VR 12" subwoofers, fully enclosed. She was looking for a good amount of base at a reasonable price. The big part was that she wanted to be able to do the installation herself, so she was going to need something that was already together. So a fully enclosed system seemed like the best bet to me.

Sound Quality
The speakers themselves are very well known for their ability to hit hard during competitions. Inside this particular box, these speakers hit incredibly hard. The sound itself is very crisp quality bass. While they don't capture all of the super lows that some of the premium speakers get, they still are able to hit a full range of bass, which is very rich and throaty.

The biggest issue that I normally find with prepackaged boxes is that they have a lot of distortion. This could be from the way that they are shipped, bad installation, or bad design, who really knows, but generally there's a slight rattle with the speakers. With this particular box, there was no rattle, but I felt like the box wasn't breathing enough. So, in order to remedy this, I cut two tiny holes in the exact same place on each side of the box, towards the bottom. The holes were about 2" in diameter and were just large enough to allow air to enter and escape. Just by making these minors cuts, I have a huge improvement in the overall sound. This wasn't enough for me, however, so I sprayed a thick coating of silicon throughout the inside of the box and it gave an added crispness to the overall sound. Another thing that I did, was add a bit of rubber tubing around the outside of the subwoofer. I did this in order to muffle the vibration between the speaker and the box itself.

Durability
The speakers have been inside of my fiances vehicle now for a little over a year. The speakers are constantly bumping her yokel music, which isn't the most demanding of music for bass, but definitely does wear them down over time. So far, I haven't heard any change in the quality of the sound and haven't noticed anything that would show signs of degradation of the speakers.

I have found however, that the box itself has split in a small area in the corner. I'm not sure why the corner of all places has a split in it, but I'm assuming it's not related to the speakers themselves. It doesn't seem to cause any issue with the overall sound quality either. However, to ensure that the box didn't crack any further, I used a silicone based sealant to fill it in.

Specifications
> ported hatchback-style enclosure with two 12" CompVR subwoofers
> 3/4" medium density fiberboard construction covered with gray carpet
> 2-ohm total impedance
> power handling: 50-600 watts RMS (1,200 watts peak power)
> frequency response: 25-500 Hz
> sensitivity: 98 dB
> 32-3/4"W x 16-1/4"H x 17-1/2"D1 x 14-1/4"D2
> warranty: 1 year

Final Thoughts
Overall this is an excellent setup for anyone looking to add stable sound quality to their vehicle. They have the capability of covering a broad bass range, and will definitely give your vehicle a noticeable presence.

While I recommend modifying the box slightly it isn't necessary. If you really don't know much about setting up a system, you can easily leave it as is and it will sound just fine. My main reasoning for adjusting this particular box was so that I could get the absolute highest quality sound possible.

As a speaker box setup, I highly recommend it, but for a competition sound, I would recommend something that hits a little bit harder. This is a great introductory to mid level speaker setup.