Review of LAB slapbox woofer enclosure!

[UberSilver]

Hi all, I’m doing a small review on the L.A.B. Slapbox enclosure. I’ll start by saying a few weeks ago I asked around in a few forums about LAB, and got ZERO response. I decided to take a chance on this somewhat unheard of company. Some may ask, why not build your own? Well not all of us live in a home with a gauge & table saw. Over the years I’ve made dozens of boxes, but it was on the job and a after work thing.

So back to a few weeks ago, My friend that owns a car audio store asked me to try to sell some (use for one hour) Morel Ultimo 8’s. I told him sure, and how much. He replied I’ll take $600. for the pair, as he just wanted them gone. I post them, and no one wants 8”s! at least not for $600. So after a week, I bought them, as thats stupid cheap for such high-end woofers.

Now I have the the cats meow of SQ woofers! Yeepee! I install them in a dual chamber .5 per side sealed box. And they sound like poop! Coming from a Primo 10” that responded very well to a ported box. I thought just maybe I can get some Deep SQ bass with a ported box. So I did a little reading about ported designs, and came across the LAB website. I thought COOL! Someone makes a ported box just for a pair of Ultimo 8’s. It turns out that Joe(owner) had a little help from RAM designs. But thats cool, as RAM has a good rep for making Loud SQ designs. So I call Joe and order the box! It cost around $150. with UPS two day ground, but given the fact that I was soooo far ahead on my Ultimo deal, I thought WTF, I’ll be into the Ultimo’s and box for <$700.

Build quality on the box is solid and good. It comes in at 40lb, with the Ultimo’s it’s a hair under 70lb. Yes it did improve the handling of my Yaris!

I’m not real good at doing touchy feely reviews, listing dozens of album tracks. I will say this, I’ve heard some of the best SQ systems over the last 40 years, and the bass I get from Joe’s box is flat out Fantastic! ZZ Top, Yello, AC/DC, Metallica, Billy Joel, ABBA, Steely Dan, Johnny Cash, Busta Rhymes, Cake, Carla Bruni, B-52”s, Benny Goodman, Adrian Belew, DEVO, Boston, Ken Burns, Oingo Boingo, Van Halen, XTC, RUSH, Judas Priest, Monk, Fleetwood Mac, And a few others is what I listen to with the LAB box.

I tried every song I know to try and trip up the bass, and it never did lose control or miss a note. In fact I’m hearing things I can’t even remember hearing in the past, like a Tom drum that sounds like a Tom. The Ultimo’s and Joe’s box are a really nice match. I can only guess that all of his RAM designs are as good. If you live within 100 miles of LA, Cal. It would be worth the drive to go see Joe and do some box talk.

Box is 30x12x11. A lot of space in the Yaris hatch? YES! But you won't get this sort of performance from a spare tire mounted sub.

http://www.lifeafterbass.com/labsl1ftpomd20.html


Here's some pics. I could not get a better pic of the connection terminal, because a have the box bolted down. But these terminals are huge! They use one inch nuts, so i had to search hard to find a large enough ring terminal(3/4" hole).