Kicker C8VR, C10VR, C12VR, C18VR Owner's Manual
C8VR/C10VR/C12VR/C15/C18VR
Subwoofers
Congratulations! You have just purchased one of the most flexible subwoofers yet
from KICKER. Your CompVR sub is designed to give you great bass per formance in a
wide variety of applications. These installations instructions will help you get the most
out of your new KICKER sub. Thanks for buying KICKER. Enjoy!
Features
Hemispherical Polymineral Cone with Inverted Structural Dome™
(ISD) means high rigidity under pressure for accurate linear control, low enclo-
sure pressure loss to reduce "pump-down", high internal dampening, and excellent sunlight, pollution and moisture resistance.
Double-Stitched Surround prevents cone/surround separation at
high excursions.
Blackened Pole Piece maximizes heat transfer for long voice coil life.
Extended Pole Piece allows cooler operation for superior power handling
and magnetic field linearity around voice coil gap for enhanced control.
Vented Pole Piece relieves low bass-robbing pressure under the center
dome.
Extended Backplate prevents damaging voice coil "bottoming".
Perimeter Venting for measurably lower operating temperature and freer
cone motion.
Hi-Temp Kapton® Voice Coil Former protects against warped, rubbing
voice coils.
Long-Throw Voice Coil for enormous cone excursion capabilities.
High Power Lead Wires resist lead breakage and reduce power robbing
resistance losses.
Installation Instructions
The Comp subs are designed to be as universal as possible. Great performance
can be obtained when using them in sealed or vented boxes as well as on an
Infinite Baffle (freeair).
Infinite Baffle Mounting
The infinite baffle or freeair mounting method is very effective in a sedan type
of vehicle. The easiest way to do this is to cut out the parcel shelf just big
enough for your chosen driver(s). The parcel shelf is usually not very strong and
any flexing will decrease the bass response. To reinforce this area and to give you
something to mount the woofer(s) to, a piece of strong wood needs to be cut
and mounted to the bottom of the shelf. We recommend a medium to high
density fiberboard (MDF or HDF) 3/4" thick. Common particle board is not very
good for use in a car stereo. If a good grade of fiberboard is not available in your
area, use a good grade of marine plywood.
The key factor in utilizing the freeair method is to make sure the information
coming off the back of the woofer doesn't have a chance to mix with the information coming off the front. If the front and back are not sealed from each
other a big part of the bass will get cancelled out.
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Sealed box mounting
A very smooth bass response with good low bass extension is achieved when
the Kicker Comp woofers are mounted in a correctly built sealed box with the
correct airspace. Sealed (acoustic suspension) designs have been a favorite here
at Kicker since the original Competition Series was introduced. We build just
about all of our show vehicles with sealed boxes for the smooth response, good
power handling and great sound quality they offer.
Of all the enclosures possible the sealed box is the easiest to build. The two
most important rules are to make it very solid and to seal all the joints perfectly.
If the panels of an enclosure can flex or vibrate you will experience a loss of bass
output. You don't want to throw away any of the output capability of your
Kicker Comp woofers. Sealing all the joints in the enclosure is necessary to avoid
loss of output and driver failure.
The following information will give you examples of compact sealed enclosures
for the Kicker Comp woofers. They have very high power handling and massive
amounts of high impact bass. The given volumes are the minimum recommended and include driver displacement. Maximum volumes for KICKER Comps are
C8-1.2cf, C10-2.4 cf., C12-3.5 cf., and C15-5.0 cf. As the sealed enclosure volumes increase, the response will shift from high impact bass to a smoother and
more extended low end.
Model Enclosure Woofer A B C
C8VR .5 cf 7” 11 x 11” 11 x 9-1/2” 9-1/2 x 9-1/2”
C10VR 1.0 cf 9-5/32" 13-1/2x13-1/2" 13-1/2x12" 12x12"
C12VR 1.25 cf 10-15/16" 14-1/2x14-1/2" 14-1/2x13" 13x13"
C15VR 2.25 cf 13-11/16" 17-1/4x17-1/4" 17-1/4x15-3/4" 15-3/4x15-3/4"
C18VR 2.75 cf 16-5/16" 19-1/2x19-1/2" 19-1/2x14-1/2" 14-1/2x18"
Compact
Volume Cutout panel panel panel
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