Kicker CVR8, CVR10, CVR12, CVR15, CVR18 Owner's Manual

CVR8/CVR10/CVR12/CVR15/CVR18

Congratulations! You have just purchased one of the most flexible subwoofers yet
from KICKER. Your CompVR sub is designed to give you great bass performance 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 damping, 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 Kaptonfi Voice Coil Former protects against warped, rubbing
voice coils.

Dual Long-Throw Voice Coils A speaker can obtain extreme Xmax only when
the voice coil is long enough and can sustain the stress.

Spring-Loaded Nickel Plated Terminals for solid connections with large
gauge speaker wire.

High Power Lead Wires resist lead breakage and reduce power robbing
resistance losses.

Box Building Tips

The material of choice for building a strong box is 3/4" MDF (Medium Density
Fiberboard). Cross bracing is a good idea to help reduce panel vibration. Strips of
3/4" by 2" wood work well for tying the panels together. HDF (High Density
Fiberboard) is also good as is a really good grade of plywood (such as marine
grade 7 or 13 ply). Regular particle board is not very good for speaker enclo­sures. It is flexible and will crumble when you try to screw the woofer in.

A good grade of wood glue is recommended for joining two pieces of wood
together along with 1-1/4 to 1 1/2" drywall screws or 1-1/2" staples. A fastener
placed about every 3" will hold the box together good enough until the glue
dries. After assembling the box and allowing the glue to set up, use silicone seal­er to make absolutely sure the corners are perfectly sealed.

Hint: When assembling the enclosure, build the whole enclosure except for
the rear baffle opposite the woofer cutout. This way you can easily reach inside
to apply the silicone sealer. Once this is done, put the rear panel on and seal it by
reaching through the woofer cutout.

A common source of air leaks is the connecting wire for the woofers. Terminal
cups are commonly available and are recommended. They provide an airtight
means for bringing the wire into the enclosure and allow for easy wiring
changes. An alternative is to drill a hole slightly larger than the wire and seal
carefully with silicone sealer. Do not disturb the silicone until it has set up.
Moving the wire before the silicone has set up will usually cause an air leak.

If you carpet the enclosure it is important to cut the carpet around the woofer
opening. It is hard to get a good seal if you have both the gasket and the carpet
between the woofer and the wood.

On a sealed enclosure it is easy to test the seal of the box. Push the cone in all
the way and let it go. If the seal is good, the cone should take at least five sec­onds to return to the center position. If the cone spring back faster that that
you have a leak somewhere in the enclosure. Sometimes you can hear air escap­ing around the woofer or at one of the joints in the enclosure. If the box itself
leaks take the woofer out and check the silicone seal all around the inside. If the
air is leaking out around the woofer try adding a flexible sealer like plumber's
putty or rope caulk. Don't use silicone sealers around the woofer.

For more information and additional box plans, see the KICKER Comp Technical
Brief on kicker.com or call the Technical Services Line at [phone].

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Multiple Woofer Enclosures

If you are building enclosures for more than one woofer, they should always
be divided to maintain the correct airspace for each woofer. There are a couple
of reasons for this. First of all, not all woofers are exactly the same. If there are
slight differences between the woofers in a common enclosure, at certain fre­quencies one woofer may think it's in a larger enclosure than intended. This can
affect the power handling capability. Second, if one woofer fails, the remaining
woofers will have more airspace to work in than what was designed. Again, this
will severely affect the power handling capability of the woofers that are still
working.

Another benefit of a divided enclosure is that the divider helps strengthen the
enclosure. A large common enclosure will have much bigger panels than one
that is divided. Large panels tend to flex more and can cancel some of the
woofer's output.

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