Kicker VS12L7

A Kicker dual voice coil L7 square subwoofer preloaded into a box with a wide four inch vent. Is has a moulded port and speaker terminal cup combined as one piece and the four Ohm impedance of the box is clearly marked on the cup. As these drivers only come as dual four or two Ohm versions it is fair to surmise series hook-up of a dual two Ohm driver to produce four Ohms at the terminals. This also comes as a two-Ohmsat-the-terminals version, which we assume is a dual four Ohm coiler wired in parallel.
It is covered in a dense grey boot lining type carpet that fits like a glove. The port is at ninety degrees to the front facing square woofer. This is a reinforced cone subwoofer driver with a heritage of development behind it. The manual that it comes with is brief to the point of leaving out the mass and such technical details as the specifics of the driver and basic product passband. Although they do include four pressed steel plates that are cut and drilled to use with the supplied screws to make sure your woofer box stays installed. It is trapezoidal in cross section and is made of a dense woody material and is a fair weight.
– Frequency response: not quoted
– Power Handling: 750w RMS (1.5kw peak)
– One piece injection moulded ‘SoloKon’ cone (Mica filled polypropylene with a Titanium deposit coating)
– Inverted structural dust dome
– Stitched Santoprene surround
– Sleeved high power tinsel lead wires on subwoofer driver
– Die cast Aluminium chassis on driver
– Dual 2 Ohm voice coils wired in parallel to show 4 Ohms at the terminals
– Nickel plated 4mm spring loaded squeeze post terminals
– Dimensions: 406(w) x 457(h) x 475 to 372(d) tapering mm
– Raw driver’s Fms: 31.2Hz
– Raw driver’s Qes: 0.593
– Raw driver’s Qms: 10.319
– Raw driver’s Qts: 0.561
– Complete with four steel mounting lugs and screw fixings
Review by Adam Rayner
This product is a ground-up design made to house the well known Kicker square Solo-Baric L7 subwoofer driver. This is a twelve inch, the biggest they make. I went off to check out the information Kicker have on how to enclose their woofers and they have a slew of stuff and designs in all directions on the web, complete with graphs and curves and all sorts of information. However, it is always nice to know that your port is perfect and that for many, having something they can sell on and then go get something even madder later is always a good idea. The instant appeal of plug and play is what this is really all about, as VS12L7 is far from a simple product.
The care and design that seems to have gone into making a woofer of immense power and ability work as well as it can in a pukka vented enclosure is total. The sound of this box is really quite special. It doesn’t just tear the world apart, it does it with real control and some amazing degree of tightness and fancy footwork.
The manual does show quite clearly how you must load it into your boot space with the woofer being given some space to throw bass into and the port kept from being stifled by being kept at least its own diameter away from the nearest wall. (This is a basic rule for all ports, especially the mounting of them within boxes. Your opposing face or adjacent wall internally MUST be at least one port diameter away from the port so as to avoid adding noise and chuffing.)
I hooked it up to the now respected and slightly feared PowerBass XA 3000D monoblock amp and as it could eat 750 watts RMS and said it’d laugh at 1,500, I gave it beans. Some 1,200 watts.
I did manage to make enough watts to have this woofer just barely start to look a bit un-keen on the holiday-not-excursion I was doling out but then felt well guilty as I read all about the careful method you are supposed to employ to first break the suspensions in on these woofers. They even gave bench testing frequencies to run them at so as to make the suspension all supple and wobbly. I fisted it.
Square does look odd for a woofer but Stillwater designs realised years ago that like edge wound voice coil wires get more metal in that gap, so square woofers get more speaker surface area into a given space than round ones. Took them ages to develop it but these are wicked woofers and this is a wicked box. I thumped the living crap out of the house yet again and enjoyed that Focal CD so much I even had those lovely frissons of guilty pleasure that only happens when I an working but enjoying more than anyone can filling shelves.
The sound is tight and firm with a great melodic dropping ability as well as going so damn loud that I think the Stillwater Designs Kicker L7 woofer is a true SQL device, it really can deliver a lot of quality at an amazing level and with this box, represents an instant fix.
It’s very now. I’d recommend it.
Sound Quality 9.0
Build Quality 9.0
Power Handling 10.0
Efficiency 9.0
Value For Money 8.0
Overall rating 9.0