The Goal: The client was looking for tight, punchy bass in his 2002 Ford Explorer XLT. The woofers chosen for this task were a pair of the Digital Designs 3500 series 12s.

The Design: The maximum available space was more than sufficient, however, the client was looking for something relatively compact, particularly in terms of height. A balance of space-efficiency and acoustic in-cabin efficiency (along the target passband) was arrived at with this common chamber rear-loading horn design:

This is another example of a design where the horn wraps around it’s own compression chamber, achieving it’s target axial length without the need for any abrupt 180 deg. U-bends.

The Build: A pretty straight-forward assembly routine making use of the now customary “screwless” panel joining technique. A 1.5″ radius flare is routed away from the double-stacked face baffle, softly curving out the horn mouth:

Special care was taken to make optimal use of the face the baffle surface area which has to accommodate both the 12.625″ outer diameter woofers as well a 6″ wide horn mouth (flared to well over 7″.)

The woofers are offset toward the mouth of the horn in order to sustain adequate mounting clearance; the throat of the horn terminates directly behind the face baffle on the side opposite of the mouth.

A pair of DD3512s is test-fitted into the enclosure to assure proper fit, spacing, and clearance: