i went crazy a bought a cerwin vega stroker 124. this thing has 2000/4000 watts thats crazy. its massive and i can tell its gonna want a lot of space, its going to be by itself so that wont be a problem...but i hear vega's are very picky and i dont want to screw this up. iv came across some incredible responses throughout this site and would greatly appreciate some dimensions to build a box for a 02 chevy impala. just the one 12, but how much space should i give it? it says the mounting depth is 8" and mounting diameter is 13.125. so am i supposed to cut a circle exactly that big for a perfect fit, or is that the exact diameter of the speaker itself? how big should my ports be, should there be more than one port... for security reasons, and to help the rattle, id rather face the speaker toward the back seat instead of out into the trunk. facing the box at an angle would be cool. but im a first timer on this and knowing how vega's are....i want to do this right the first time. any and all responses would be greatly appreciated.

do you have the thiel smalls of the driver on hand? If not down load them. Thats a good start. Then with that info in hand go to your nearest reputable shop pay a couple of bucks and have them design you a box with your car and musical tastes in mind.

if you are porting it you will need a very large box. Dont know how they work sealed.

First off..i know you said intelligent minds, i have half that... a mind... hope that is ok...

I have built a box for a 12" stroker, you will need a box that has an internal volume of 3.5 cu.ft, and a port tuned to 55hz, yes...that is high, these speakers play at higher notes. So in a 3.5 cu.ft box, you will need a port that is 14x6x10. Don't use round tube style ports, this driver moves alot of air. The box should be built out of 1" MDF and braced. If you really want to get technical, you can line the box with fiberglass.

Also, when mounting this woofer, use t-nuts, reg screws will just rip out. And yes, make sure your cut-out is as precise as possible.

Hmmm, I think you guys are mixing up the old-school stroker with the new versions. The new strokers are a different beast than the old-school version when it comes to enclosure requirements.

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Right, my post is regarding the old stroker...

I have no experience with newer strokers...those are different animals all together.

yes i have the newer ones. this thing is a monster. theres the pic of it under the name...its manual says its gonna need only 1.1 cu ft. for a sealed box and 2.3 cu ft. for a ported. <way more hz> one port per speaker. i think id rather have a slot for more air movement tho. i called and the rep said 4 inch round, or 15 inch ports. my trunk will fit 16.5 inch high so 16.25 will prob be the height with a vertical slot of 15 to the far side. but how wide and far should i go to get 2.37 cu ft? maybe with...16" tall 15" long. how wide would i have to be? im gonna build supports for the magnet inside the box and maybe some filtering slides. depends how well i get the hang of it. but to make this thing stay in one piece for more than 2 wks....2 mnths and id be impressed. the rep recommended woodlawncabinetry.com iv seen some insane boxes but i want to at least use this wood i obtained to rip apart with my speaker then ill go buy one...tho of course, id like this to work.

I have run some simulations on this driver box combo and I really recommend sticking with the sealed enclosure.
The recommended vented enclosure of 2.3 cf leaves you with an 11db peak at 32hz. This is a very steep peak. From 32hz it rolls off at 18db/oct on the bottom and 12db/oct on the top. That means it will be at least 12db down at 64hz and 18db down at 17hz. When you look at this curve it is reminiscent of a band pass response, trouble is the band being passed is only 10hz wide. I seriously don't know why they would recommend this. It would be nearly impossible to integrate into a system.
Cerwin Vega was right on the money when they recommended a 1.1 cf sealed enclosure. This results in a relatively flat in car response all the way to the brown note. Besides, a sealed enclosure is much easier to build as you don't have to worry about touchy vent dimensions.

Either way I hope you have a couple thousand watts to drive this beast otherwise it may be a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Wow…so you mean to tell me that you actually ran some tests with this sub and came out with this? That’s incredible! Or is it a coincidence that I happen to share the same sub you once had. Either way I’m thankful for the experience shared. I eventually decided to build shelves for my room with the wood I had instead of build a sub box and then go buy shelves. I saw a box that I was really interested in at www.woofersetc.com. It’s an octagon bazooka box 24” long for a 12” sub and it looks great for the sub. I don’t know if the shape of it would be any good for the sub though. It is ported twice and I was hoping for more airflow, so I thought porting would be the way to go. I hear a sealed box will keep the sub from pushing too hard, but I don’t plan on impressing anybody…plus if I decided to, I could plug the ports. The same web site has the Vega Stroker 124 so you can align the pictures together to imagine what it’d look like.
What kind of amp would be suggested? I saw a two-channel amp I can bridge on ebay, it’s a 4000watt Lanzar. Not the best brand out there but with 1000 rms watts per channel I can bridge that and have a decent amp for this sub at a decent price. If there are any good web sites for amplifiers please let me know.