Box simulations were generated for both sealed and vented type enclosures that were specifically recommended in the 13W3v3-4 manual. For your basic sealed box, JL Audio suggests a 1.5ft3 volume with no fill material. For a ported box, a 2.25ft3 tuned to 27Hz is suggested. This is actually a fairly large box tuned somewhat higher than the standard alignments such as a QB3 (Quasi third-order Butterworth), or an EBS (Extended Bass Shelf, a LEAP alignment). This is a good judgment call for JL Audio, since a very low tuning in a 1.5 to 2ft3 box, is impractical without using either a passive radiator or a very small diameter tube. While the passive radiator would be OK, it takes up a lot of space and the small tube thing is very non-linear and also not so good. The vented box alignment works well and yields a very usable response. The LEAP 5 graph curves show the SPL at 2.83 volts (black curves) in half-space (imagine the woofer mounted in a speaker baffle as big as a football field and that would be very close to "half-space"), 2.83 volts in a small 154ft3 car compartment, about the size of small compact car like a Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS or Acura Integra (blue curves), and the SPL at a power level required to get maximum linear excursion (red curves, also half-space). The sealed box curves are solid lines and the ported enclosure curves are the dashed curves. The 2.83-volt results produced an F3 of about 40Hz for the sealed box and a -3dB of 33Hz for the reflex enclosure (vented box). Increasing the simulated input voltage for the 1.5ft3 sealed box computer simulation to 53 volts increased excursion to Xmax + 15% (17.8mm for the 13W3) and increased the driver output to a substantial 111.5dB. The 2.25ft3 vented box computer simulation required 60 simulated volts to drive the 13W3v3-4 sub to the Xmax + 15% excursion level, which resulted in an SPL of 114dB. JL Audio puts a little note on page three of the manual that reads "!!CAUTION!!- Prolonged exposure to sound pressure levels in excess of 100dB can cause permanent hearing loss. This high-performance speaker can exceed this level. Please exercise restraint in its operation in order to preserve your ability to enjoy its fidelity." I like it when audio companies act responsibly, so plaudits and kudos to JL. It's kind of like the drink responsibly commercials you see on TV and cable, except I advise taking the SPL thing seriously!
JL Audio's 13W3 is a well thought out and very professionally engineered product that incorporates a lot of patented subwoofer design technology. All of the objective results indicate a high performance design, which, all things being equal should sound pretty good. Unfortunately, the speaker gods do not always side with the engineering department, but I am guessing Eric's response was very favorable once he fired it up. --VD
Subjective
"Huh? What the... ? JL Audio has a new W3 line... the v3 (version 3)? And this thing is 13 1/2", not a 12" or 15"? What happened to the v2 stuff? And why is it 13 1/2"?" These were all questions that blurred my mind as my magazine boss Casey Thorson told me to get busy with this new subwoofer. Luckily, Casey was in a rare good spirit. Being very patient with me this day, he did not curse me for all the questions.
Installation
Well, once the surprise of not getting verbally abused and the fog and excitement of having something new to play with cleared, I wanted to get the lowdown on exactly what JL Audio recommends for the best enclosure when using the all-new 13W3v3-4.
I said to myself, "Self, if I'm gonna get the proper info on this sub, I gotta go to the top!" Yes, it was time to find my secret decoder ring and the super secret code numbers to reach the E-Ring at the JL Audio compound in Florida. I picked up the phone and called JL Audio's vice president of marketing and transducer knowledge master, Manville Smith. After getting through all of the security clearances and background checks, I finally heard the melodic chord of Master Manville's voice. And after all that work to get to him, he gives me a gentle kick in the head, telling me to just read the owner's manual! "All the correct information is spelled out for each of our speakers in their manuals, Eric." I was dumbstruck. Again, I asked meekly, "You mean, you guys actually print what works in your owner's manual? Hey, what a concept! That's sweet!" Manville nonchalantly tells me "Yep. And that's what we tell the consumers that call us every day with the same question. We really do mean what we say in those manuals."
If you are an avid reader of these tests, you will know how often the enclosures called out in the owner's manuals and the enclosures that I am told by the manufacturers to use do not coincide with one another -- some aren't even close. Getting the really skinny up front is great and I have to congratulate JL Audio for doing their homework and putting together a terrific owner's manual.
OK. So my phone call to Manville was completely useless. Maybe next time I will just read the owner's manual first. Unlike Manville, it taught me a ton of good stuff. The manual recommended a sealed enclosure at 1.5ft3. As usual, I had my guys at the Speaker Works assemble the test enclosure. Master installer Patrick Holdaway commented on the fact that the 13W3v3's are going to need custom enclosures in most installs because of their unusual size. So if you are a DIY'er, you will need to keep in mind that you will have to either modify a pre-made enclosure or build one from scratch. He also commented that he did like the one-piece frame gasket that came packaged in the box.
To power the JL Audio 13W3v3-4, I used two Crossfire VR1000d amplifiers with a bridging module. These two amps running into the 13W3v3's single 4-ohm voice coil will produce over 1,000 watts of RMS power, which is more than enough to cook this 400-watt RMS driver if I get out of control. The front half of my reference speaker system consists of a pair of USD Audio B-72pro WaveGuide separates. I am powering these with a Zapco C2K-4.0X amplifier at 100 watts per 4 channels. The built-in crossovers and subsonic filters were bypassed. The Alpine PXA-H701 processor was used to set levels and to actively divide the frequency range to all of the speakers.
Conclusion
Wow! JL Audio has done a fine job with this all-new W3v3 line. The 13W3v3-4 pumps out the volume and it sounds very good. Because this subwoofer is 13 1/2", it will need a custom enclosure in most cases and it is a few bucks at its retail price of $325. But JL Audio's impeccable quality, service and support and the fact that these are still proudly Made in America, I have to give them my highest recommendation. Give these a try, people -- I think you are going to like them.