Questions about Subwoofers and Amps

[Lizardmen3477]

i have visonik now 2 10's there pretty good but i want more power and bump so they will be hitting the market soon for sale.

[Hotsauce]

Hard to make a recommendation without a budget.

It sounds like you want spl over sq.

John C.

[Lizardmen3477]

what is spl over sq?

[etlsport]

sound pressure level vs sound quality... i built my system for sound quality.. which is why i went with smaller subs that have tighter bass... the bigger your subs are, usually the sloppier the bass will be (although high quality large subs still produce very tight bass) cars you see with walls of speakers (like rickster's) are built for sound pressure level... biju is building his system for sound quality.. speakers aimed, boxes tuned, equalizers, etc.. generally sound quality systems dont get as loud... but they are crystal clear (although i think biju's will blow out eardrums with crystal clear sound..)

[WormGod]

Agreed. Sound quality is PLUS anyday. My system was built and tuned this way YEARS ago, but over the years, blown speakers, rattles, and other non stereo loving issues have surfaced. It still sounds great, minus the passenger side door speakers working at all (snips them wires after they blew), heh. I simply dont drive it enough now to care to update the system. Perhaps one day though.

Basically, it's pushing a single 12" JLAudio sub through Shawn's tailgate sub enclosure.

Rockford Fosgate tweets, mids, and woofers in front doors and mid compartment.

Alpine cd/MP3/XM headunit (this thing is a fossil to todays standards, but the built-in and very extensive crossover unit is genius)

JLAudio amps (dont recall the sizes)

And of course, Dynamatting and 100% StreetWires.

In all, the system is so dated that I cant even remember ANY of the actual specs of any of it. I dont think it matters though, cause what still works, is well broken in and sounds great, heh.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY!!!!!!!!!

[Dino]

I used to install car electronics. I've designed and installed plenty of highend systems.

...that said, here's some advice.


The VX already has great speaker locations and adding a sub in the back should make it sound richer with more of a foundation. I like to build speaker enclosures based on the speakers individual specs. That way, you get the optimum sound quantity and quality from a sub.

As far as watts go, most speakers that even boast high wattage are doing so only to make a sale. What matters is ohms voice coil diameter. Lower the ohms and the amp can drive the speaker harder but everything runs much hotter, including teh speaker voice coil itself! That heat buildup is what can "blow" a speaker. A larger voice coil can help turn more of the signal into energy rather than waste it on heat. Remember a speaker is really a linear electric motor.

A good 600 watt RMS amp should knock your socks off. Make sure you pay attention to the RMS rating. It's the true rating of watts. Peak watts doesn't matter much. RMS (root mean squared) is where it's at!

Stay away from Sony products. I used to love them in the 70's now it's crap.

...and there's my advice.

[psychos2]

One other thing to watch out for when picking an amp is what voltage they are rated at. what you are intrested in is what the watts are around 12 volts. If they say the amp is 600 watts at 12.5 volts then you will get 600 watts out of it. If they say the amp is 600 watts at 14.5 volts your not getting a 600 watt amp because the amp will more than likely never see 14.5 volts. The rating at 12.5 could be 400 watts. JLaudio has amps that have the same output from 11-14.5 volts and also the sub can be 1.5-4 ohms.here is an example of the 500/1. Rated Power: 500 W RMS @ 1.5 ohm - 4 ohm (11V-14.5V) . I would use jlaudio for the sub and amp. I use the old US amps. The new amps have changed and I do not know if they have changed the internals or not. The old style amps kicked ***. You can still find them on ebay. shawn