first i just wana say hey and what's up. i just got into the stereo part of our 3rd gens about a month ago so i don't know much (next to nothing) about subs and stereos. i'm taking out the bottom and back part of my back seat to put a box and sub there. but now i need to know what to get. i don't care about people hearing me from a mile away, all i'm looking for is a DEEP mellow bass kinda thump. i've been told that a 15 in is louder but isn't as deep toned as a 12in. so what do u guys recommend?

 

Hey,

If you are looking for a deep mellow tone, then a couple of 12's will do you just fine. 15's are definately as good, and just a bit better at the lows, but they tend to kinda cringe when bass gets higher or becomes punchy.

Another thing you should consider is the design of the box (enclosure) you intend on putting in your car, this much more than the size of your sub will determin what kind of sound you get.

 

i've been told that a perfect box for a 10in is 10x10x10. just as another ? is what's better, a ported box or non ported?

 

is no single perfect box for every sub man. first i would pick the subs u wanna run. then find out what size box they need and design from there. for car audio how good it sounds is 90% install.

personally i like port'd better. some ppl say port'd sounds like a$$ for sound quality, but built right will sound even better then a sealed box and be able to get a lot louder to.

 

Ya like someone else said. 15s cannot handle anything at all punchy. I wouldnt recomend them...I have 2 12s in my trunk and for techno, and alot of other music it sounds just fine. I tried a double bass band.(dying fetus). Which is death metal and didnt sound all that great...But if you want deep bass. I would go for a few 12s...

My question is....

what kind of neighborhood do you live in, and why not just put them in your trunk? Unless you dont have any at all tint laws. People will be able to look into your car and see you have subs. Break a window and walk away..I have mine in my trunk laid under the stock black tarp so no one can see them..

Let us know what you decide on. And I audio shop can usually tell you what kinda subwoofer you should get also! If you can at all order them from a company online. I would say to do that too..Its alot cheaper..

Nate

 

well first off i really don't feel like spending ALOT of money on this, so if i build a simple box it's easier too. i have the lid in the back and i wasn't sure about putting subd there bcuz i put my T-tops there. and i was gona put one sub behind the drivers seat, nobody ever sits there ever. so that's what i'm tryin to do.

 

10s or 15s, it doesn't matter. People make too many assumptions based on the speaker size. There are lousy sounding 15s, and great sounding 15s. There are lousy sounding 10s and great sounding 10s.

You can EQ a 15 to sound like a "typical" 10" and vise-versa. Playing with box sizes & styles makes a world of difference too. A single 10" in a good bandpass box can provide a "deeper" sound than a 15" in a sealed box that's too small.

There are a million variations that effect tonal quality, and driver size is one of the LEAST important.

Another thing to consider is just what your idea of "deep" bass is. To most people deep bass is 50hz. When you put in a bass disk and hit that one note that makes your nuts slap the inside of your leg and makes your spleen hurt, that's usually 50hz. 40 and 30hz doesn't have as loud of a presence, because you can't hear it as well. Those frequencies are felt more than heard, and as a result, don't sound as "loud".

Any sub will be able to provide a lot of 50hz output, and when you add the fact that the f-body's transfer function is greatest around that frequency, the result is a lot of output at that frequency regardless of driver size.

Now that I've just completely confused the crap out of you, let me end it this way:

Go to a local store and listen to a bunch of stuff, and keep an open mind. Listen to all different sizes and brands, and keep in mind that most salesmen are partially retarded, so try to just listen to the speakers and not the sales guy.

 

well, yes Jim85IROC u did confuse the hell out of me but that's cool, u were just givin me info i asked for. i have heard people with 12's that sounds like crap and others with 10's that kick ***, i've also heard it's the amp u use too. is the alpine (i think alpine) Type R 10 in. a good sub? and i guess by deep tone if u know the song get low and how the bass sounds, well as long as when u turn it up real loud it doesn't sound all raspy or cracking or like a vibration than that's the best way to describe how i want it to sound

 

my two type r 12s get down and jiggy wit it!

 

Well like was said before, go to an audio store and listen to stuff. Despite the salespeople being dumb in many cases, the DO like to play, so give them a reason. Let them play a variety of music for you on a few different subs and enclosure types. This is probably the best way to give you an idea as to what you want.

Yes the amp you use is very important. Its best to get one that will put out a little more than what the sub needs or can accept, that way it will not be working as hard to power the sub, and therefore there will be less chance of distortion.

Another very important thing is wireing. Again, good sound is 90% install.

Talk to some local installers at the stores you go to. Get a gist of what they seem to do. Tell them what you are thinking and see what they have to say.

the best place for subs in our cars is the back boot area. Just look at all our pics..

I hope this helps.

 

How much $$ are you wanting to spend on the box, amp, and sub(s)?

 

well i'm looking to build my box bcuz i just like building **** like that, and with the other stuff i'm willing to spend a little more on the sub than i would an amp, like the type R runs for like about $100 and i can get a pyramid 800 watt amp really cheap like maybe $25-30. (and i know pyramid isn't great but as long as it works) unless someone can tell me about a cheap but still good amp. i've been told by a guy that works at a best buy installing systems that sony xplod amps do what the name says and that legacy is alright for the price. so letme know what u guys think. also can i get MDF board for the box at home depot and how much does it cost? iguess one last thing is what is MDF board how is it different from ply wood?

 

one other thing that i wanted to ask is what is a bandpass box. i've seen them on sites and they say "Bandpass Alignment for Extra Deep Bass" what makes them so special and who makes the best one?

 

Pyramid isnt worth the $30. If you can save up a bit you can get:

1 Adire Shiva 12" for $125 shipped
1 JBL 600.1 for $189+s/h

Brian

 

bandpass sounds horrible for a box ment to get loud and still sound pretty decent.

personally on a budget i would look into a image dynamics ID12.
u can find them at http://sounddomain.com. can be had for bout $120 and get a jbl 600.1 for it. in a good box it'll get as loud as u looking for and still sound great at the same time.

 

Ya, definately another company to look into would be image dynamics. I have heard NOTHING but good things about these subs, but the Adires too.

And if you even want to save more you could go with a JBL 300.1 for about $120. That would still pound, just not quite as much as the 600.

 

Says who? A properly built bandpass box can be the best sounding box you've ever heard. A bandpass box has one MAJOR advantage. It's the only way to filter ALL high frequency sounds out of your bass. With a conventional electronic or passive filter, you only prevent the high frequency signals from getting to the sub. It does nothing to prevent upper frequency harmonics and resonations that come from the driver. With a bandpass box, those sounds are filtered too, because the box filters the OUTPUT, not the input. As soon as you filter out these high frequencies, interresting things happen. Although there may not be enough high frequency content to make a regular enclosure "sound" different, there is enough to help your brain localize the sound. As most people know, low frequency sounds are impossible to localize, but yet when somebody bangs on a bass drum, you can tell where the sound came from. It's because every noise has a full range of harmonics, including high frequencies. When you can effectively filter these harmonics out of the bass, it suddenly becomes harder to localize. Since your high frequency speakers will be playing the upper harmonics, if you can effectively "hide" your bass, it will make it sound like it's coming from the front with the rest of your music.

In addition to this great feature, a bandpass box that's built right can have a very smooth, flat frequency response over a frequency range wide enough to equal that of your typical ported enclosure.

The drawbacks to a bandpass enclosure are that they are HUGE, they are very complicated to build properly, if they aren't built 100% perfect they sound like ***, and due to all of this, they are very expensive to have built. The size is the major reason you don't see them more often. The push for modern systems has been for smaller enclosures, which has caused the bandpass popularity to wain.

Retailers also don't like to sell bandpass boxes because too many people blow up their subs when they use them. Because it filters the high frequencies, when you push the sub past its limits, you can't tell because you can't hear it breaking it up. The result is that people overdo it and blow up their subs.

 

well i know that pyramid sucks but if it will power the sub then i'm cool with it. i really don't want to spend much, i need to save for my headers . so 100 for the type R sub and like lets say 20 for the amp and i don't know how much the MDF board cost. so that's a good price for me.

 

You are not understanding. Do not buy the Pyramid amp. Just don't. Don't take it for free. Unless you want to use it to balance your coffee table.

 

Those Type R's are VERY clean speakers, pushing them with a distorted pyramid would be a sin. If you REALLY cant spend too much $$ you might want to look at a different sub/amp combo.

You can get this amp for $70 shipped. Not the greatest but 100 times better than pyramid.

Brian

 

well what would be good enough, 89blackGTA u showed a lanzar, what about this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3058895178&category=48599 or any others that r cheap but won't be ****.

also if someone could please let me know what the prices r for MDF board and where i can get it?

 

sorry, messed up the link this legacy 600 watt

 

legacy is also crap. You can get MDF at home depot or lowes or most lumber yards. I think it is something like $25-$35 for a 4X8 sheet.

Brian

 

i've heard tons of bandpass box's over the years and IMHO they sound like crap. just my 0.02 cents worth

the pyramid 800w amp ur lookin to buy will only push out bout 200watts. u could see the whole 800w maybe if u swap'd out the fuses and ran it at 1/4ohm.

 

you get what you pay for. all i have to say is stay away from pyramid, sony other ****y brands. there is a reson why a kicker amp with 200W is $600 and a pyramid amp with 1000W is $100 dont waste your time with crap cause you will just have to replace it sooner or later. it will sound like crap no matter how you wire it or run it. save money get good stuff. kicker, alpine, kenwood, rockford...

 

i just got a temp system for now until i save up for the type R and amp. my older sister got 2 15's for free so i have them now, one ripped and the other is good, so i cut the box in half hooked it all up and it accually sounds good. it's an older rockford rosgate 15 (like i think a 1997 or 98) and i have the pyramid amp bridged and it doesn't sound bad at all and i thank everyone that gave me some info on this subject, so now i have a goal to get to.

 

That's because 99.99% of people don't build them anywhere near correctly.

 

Then you've never heard a good one. Period. Bandpass boxes in show winning cars don't sound like "crap" or they don't win shows. Period. Good bandpass boxes sound good. It's not surprising that you haven't heard one though, because good bandpass boxes are far outnumbered by the cookie-cutter premade crap that's out there.

 

oh... and legacy is made by Pyramid. Same crap, different name.

 

Yup. That's where the "one-note wonders" come in.

 

well here r some pics of what i just thru together

 

the pics rn't that great, they were on a cell fone camera

 

That's a seriously old-school rockford sub you have there.

 

ya it's old. it's like a 96 rsf-1815 but hey it sounds good and it was free. free is always good.

 

tru that!

If you were willing to spend some cash, why not get a good amp now? That way you will have a nice amp pushing that 15, and then when you get your Type R or whatever, you will already have the amp.

Just a thought...

Brian

 

Little late, but I figured I'd throw this in:

A cheap amp (like Pyramid, Kenford, Legacy, Coustic, etc.) is not just rated higher than it is (most are rated with a PMPO rating, so it can be legal but say it's way more, like 800 watt 4"x4" computer speakers), but it's also the distortion and quality (longevity) of the internals.