10" or 12" sub?

[CTATV]

Solobaric's are bomb, the put out sound in small boxes, I like them a lot. My buddy just put two of these 15" in his dodge charger over the weekend in a ported box, it was pounding really hard, great sound with the band pass box. Ebay is where I got my hiphonics amp brand new for 199.99, best amp IMO for the money, 800watts x 5 channel, powers my focals, polks and my jbl sub, never makes my dash lights pulsate, ever, and I can play music for a long period of time with the car turned off (45min-1hr) without killing the battery.

 

 

agreed very bomb. two must sound nice. I have one cause i originally had it in my 98 Dodge Dakota extended cab right behind the drivers seat. was LOUD in there with an alpine 1.5din deck and memphis power reference speakers with angle ajustable tweeters. the speakers are still in the car I also have a pair of Orion 12s w/ 32lb magnets on each one in a sealed box in my basement but i think ill put the 15 in the LGT to save room. probably going to make a custom box for it... but we'll see. I have a Kicker 600 watt amp and a 500 watt memphis D class amp i have always used the 500 for the kicker but if the orions are just sitting around maybe ill throw the 600 watt amp on the 15 and thump louder.

 

Another important thing with subs is QUALITY AMPS. good sub is nothing without a good amp and RMS is where its at not peak wattage

 

Also with subs not worth buying anything but DVC and wiring for 2ohm is a must or your getting minimal power out of your amp... Ive had my setups wired for so long I havent had to think about impedence for years. God I hate impedence luckily I have my uncle confirm my calculations for me

[welby]

The amp I have is just an old Kenwood KAC-606. If I remember right, it's 150 watts bridged. Nothing special, but it's enough power in my opinion. My budget is very limited, so that's why I'm torn between a 10 or 12. I know with the high end stuff the lines get blurred on what a speaker can do relative to size. In the lower to mid spectrum there is a definite difference between them. I'm not looking to blow people away, just add a nice low end. I'm not even changing out the stock speakers (for now), they sound OK as is...

Judging by the posts, I'm thinking with the relatively low power output of the Kenwood, I'd be better off with the 12". It doesn't make much difference to me either way, I was more concerned with saving space this time, but both the RF 10 and 12 have pretty close specs as far as box size goes, so it's a wash there...

CTATV: RF has a few neat calculators on their site for wiring and calculating box size that might help refreshing the old impedence stuff

 

http://rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/woofer_wizard.asp

http://rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/box_wizard.asp

[CTATV]

The amp I have is just an old Kenwood KAC-606. If I remember right, it's 150 watts bridged. Nothing special, but it's enough power in my opinion. My budget is very limited, so that's why I'm torn between a 10 or 12. I know with the high end stuff the lines get blurred on what a speaker can do relative to size. In the lower to mid spectrum there is a definite difference between them. I'm not looking to blow people away, just add a nice low end. I'm not even changing out the stock speakers (for now), they sound OK as is...

Judging by the posts, I'm thinking with the relatively low power output of the Kenwood, I'd be better off with the 12". It doesn't make much difference to me either way, I was more concerned with saving space this time, but both the RF 10 and 12 have pretty close specs as far as box size goes, so it's a wash there...

CTATV: RF has a few neat calculators on their site for wiring and calculating box size that might help refreshing the old impedence stuff

 

http://rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/woofer_wizard.asp

http://rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/box_wizard.asp

 

a Kicker solobaric 10 can be had for a pretty good price how much are you looking to spend...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-KICKER-06S10L7-4-10-SOLOBARIC-L7-CAR-SUBWOOFER-SUB_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ38647QQihZ022QQitemZ350038714356QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[ItalynStylion]

If he wants to use that Kenwood amp there is no way he could power an L7. The L7 would laugh in it's face.

 

Specs for the amp were pretty hard to find but I was able to dig up a PDF file of the owners manual here...http://www.eserviceinfo.com/downloadsm/16678/Kenwood_KAC628%20or%20KAC606.html

 

That amp is fairly low powered (150rms in mono mode) for sub duty but I think you could run an Alpine SWR-1243 off it. The new Type E is a decent entry level sub and it's REALLY cheap. It's only $64 at http://www.sonicelectronix.com and it is the right impedance for your amp. You can't beat the price...I think crutchfield wants 130

It's a single 4 ohm voice coil so you would wire your amp in a mono configuration. Here is the link..http://sonicelectronix.com/item_11841_Alpine+SWE-1243.html

 

Build a ported box that has an interior volume of 1.3 cubic feet and tune it to 32hz. It will be a very nice sounding sub and it wont break the wallet

 

Here is an amp specs screen shot from the owners manual.

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b75/ItalynStylion/One%20Timers/Kenwood.gif

[FishingFiend]

JL 10W6 with 600+ watts, works great for me in a .7 cubic foot enclosure. With my 3sixty2 I've turned the bass down big time, so there is room to boom.

 

How do you plan on mounting your headunit?

[welby]

I wound up picking up the 12" Rockford sub off of eBay. It called for a .85 cu. ft. box, but I had read an online review of the sub where it said they had the best results at 1.13 cu. ft., so that's what I built it at. I'm happy with the box size, it doesn't take up much room in the trunk at all and it sounded pretty good in my wife's Mazda Tribute. Very tight and clean sounding, but obviously not as loud as her 15" Punch Classic. I'm just as concerned with trunk space these days as good sound.

My only concern is that my amp will have enough juice to push it hard enough to get the sound out of the trunk and into the cabin, lol. I haven't had a chance to get the amp hooked up yet, so we'll see. I couldn't find trunk material, so I had to settle for some heavy black felt. The only bad thing is you can see where I stitched up the sides a little bit, but honestly I don't even care. If someone's going to nitpick something that much they need slapped. At 36 I'm too old to hang out with my trunk open so I can show off speakers, those days are over

 

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5011/subbox2cq8.jpg

 

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/9430/subbox1ly4.jpg

[Town]

Welby, nice looking fit on the box there. Do you happen to have and would you mind sharing the dimensions of that box? If so can you pm me? I'm being lazy (for now) and what you did is exactly what i was thinking fit wise... I may try to cut a hole in the ski boot, put some grill cloth on there and fire a rear port into the cabin though. I just need the sides and angles. Guess it's time to call JL again after years of silence.

[mbacis]

I'm very pleased with my Image Dynamics 10". I went with their IDQ line which does very well in small enclosures. I built the box a while back, but I'm pretty sure it's ~0.5 sqft. Their subs are known for SQ over SPL, but their ID Max line is no slouch in the SPL department either.

[ItalynStylion]

ImageDynamics subs are incredible. If I ever get a 12" it's likely to be an IDMAX

[welby]

Welby, nice looking fit on the box there. Do you happen to have and would you mind sharing the dimensions of that box? If so can you pm me? I'm being lazy (for now) and what you did is exactly what i was thinking fit wise... I may try to cut a hole in the ski boot, put some grill cloth on there and fire a rear port into the cabin though. I just need the sides and angles. Guess it's time to call JL again after years of silence.

 

 

I forget the exact dimensions already, it's around 18.5"wide x14" tall. The seat angle is right around 25°, the box fits perfectly against it and 14" is just about the absolute limit you can go on height if you want it to fit under the deck

 

I got my amp wired up and it sounds good and clean, but I'm not completely satisfied with the output of it. I don't know if the trunk is just so tightly sealed that it's blocking a good bit of the bass or what, but it's not putting out the bass levels that I hoped. A ported box would have helped, but it called for alot bigger box than I wanted to build, so I did it sealed.

I'm tempted to open up the hole in the deck and put a grill in like others have done (I'm sure that'd help the output alot), but I don't feel like getting into ripping the rear of the car apart right now *sigh*

I'm sure a beefier amp that put out some serious power would help, but I don't want to spend any more money right now, that and the kenwood is virtually worthless, so I'd basically be giving/throwing away a perfectly good amp.

It also seems like the louder I turn up the stereo, the more it decreases the bass. Is it just me, or does the factory deck do this to prevent blowouts?

Between the HVAC and the stereo, you could sum everything I don't like about the LGT in a 1' square right in the middle of the dash

[tommypenguin]

A Ported box would make a difference, I need armrest/pass through open to get optimal sounding bass. I bet the vent would help a lot. Below is a pic of my trunk, go penguins.

 

http://a808.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/53/l_e93a1e2fbe47669b82dc25f699aba4df.jpg

[welby]

A Ported box would make a difference, I need armrest/pass through open to get optimal sounding bass. I bet the vent would help a lot. Below is a pic of my trunk, go penguins.

 

 

Nice start against the Senators, eh?

 

It's funny, when I mentioned a beefier amp, the first thing I thought of was Hifonics, they make some real powerhouses . I'll probably do the vent eventually, and if that's not enough, build a bigger ported box later on, there's plenty of room width wise to probably get the cu. ft. that I'd need. It'd only cost me a little time and MDF . For now I'm just gonna leave things alone though, I have way too many other things that need done (Kitchen cabinets, bathroom remodel, etc. etc.. )

[Town]

I forget the exact dimensions already, it's around 18.5"wide x14" tall. The seat angle is right around 25°, the box fits perfectly against it and 14" is just about the absolute limit you can go on height if you want it to fit under the deck

 

Thanks

 

It also seems like the louder I turn up the stereo, the more it decreases the bass. Is it just me, or does the factory deck do this to prevent blowouts?

 

I think it's the opposite. The factory HU likely adds bass at lower volumes. Near-flat signals are attained at higher volumes.

[ItalynStylion]

Let me know if you need help designing a ported box. I've been doing it a while.

[welby]

Thanks

 

I think it's the opposite. The factory HU likely adds bass at lower volumes. Near-flat signals are attained at higher volumes.

 

 

I know that at lower volumes the stereo separation sounds decent, but as I go higher it gets worse and worse, almost to the point where it sounds mono

Is it just me, or is that really happening? There's no denying that the louder I go, the sh**tier the sound quality gets. Not just the bass, but everything.

[welby]

Let me know if you need help designing a ported box. I've been doing it a while.

 

Any chances on me being able to port the box I have right now? Like I mentioned, my internal volume is 1.13 cu ft. Probably too small to port, I would think? That's one thing I've never been good at, choosing the right diameter and length of port to get a desired frequency.

 

Any ideas would be appreciated

[ItalynStylion]

It's just a little too small to port. I think it calls for at least 1.25 cubic feet net for a ported box....and that's after port displacement (how much space the port takes up)

 

In order to port you would need to build another box.

[jvento]

I just had my box with 2 12w7 taken out and. Went with 1 ported 12w7 with 1000/1 amp rock, rap, jazz all sounds good. Oh yea the other 12w7 is 4 sale pm if wanted.

[Town]

It's just a little too small to port. I think it calls for at least 1.25 cubic feet net for a ported box....and that's after port displacement (how much space the port takes up)

 

In order to port you would need to build another box.

 

Hey Italyn, we seem to have similar taste (nice rear deck design!). I'm designing my system in an 08 limited now. So far I'm thinking:

Stg1

1. Alpine PXE-H650 or RF3Sixty.2 (depending on if the Alpine can handle the unique setup)

2. JL HD600/4 --150x4 stereo

3. JL XR653C Si --3way fronts

4. JL 6w3v3 (x2) --In the cabin straddling the back seat hump firing twds doors

5. Dynamat Xtreme throughout

Stg2

6. JL 12w3 in the trunk, possibly firing back with the port firing in through a hole in the ski boot... Hopefully only losing the 60% side of the split.

7. JL 300/2 or 250/1

 

Stg1 should sound pretty clean, especially with the 6.5's in the cabin. I just don't know how I'm going to get the Alpine to work with its limited Xovers and self tuning. And I hope I can get those 4" mids and tweets to fit in front of my door handles...

Stg 2 will probably be a 12 simply because the sub doesn't need to be overly accurate since it's just hitting 50-60hz and below, but I do want to get the carrying bass into the cabin to compliment the 6.5" subs. I'd like to do the 12 either sealed or ported with the port firing in through the ski boot. What do you think? Thanks!

[ItalynStylion]

Town, so I'm assuming you are going to run the 3ways on the front channels of the 4 channel and the 6.5 subs off the rear two channels? It sounds like it could be a pretty interesting setup but I think it might be VERY hard to tune. I think you could just run the single 12 in the trunk without the 6.5 subs and be just as well.

 

Unless you tried something like I've done and run them in the rear deck. That could be fun

[Town]

Town, so I'm assuming you are going to run the 3ways on the front channels of the 4 channel and the 6.5 subs off the rear two channels? It sounds like it could be a pretty interesting setup but I think it might be VERY hard to tune. I think you could just run the single 12 in the trunk without the 6.5 subs and be just as well.

 

Unless you tried something like I've done and run them in the rear deck. That could be fun

 

You got it, but you're crazy!! If anything I'll run the 6w3's in stereo for a while before adding in the 50hz and below. 150 watts to each channel with all the sound in the cabin. I think it's gonna sound bad@ss.

 

Do you think the Alpine can handle the odd setup? I'm concerned the input/output Xover points won't work with the setup and it'll confuse the calibration. The RF 3Sixty.2, however, can certainly handle it with all the bandpass and customization settings.

 

I was really hoping to stick with the Alpine curve as I've always liked their sound, but it seems like a lost hope. Think it's time to pick up something w Palm?

 

Anybody know how the sound is on the Wicked CAS box? I'd consider that due to the stealth http://www.wickedcas.com/home.php?cat=5