My friend wants to do this. I don't think it would sound very good. What do you guys think? He has an 89 RS.

 

Well, it won't sound "bad", but there isn't much benifit.

Then again, I base this on my knowledge of bass guitar amps. I don't have much car audio experience. 12's don't usually ad a noticable level of "depth" unless there's at least two. Now 2 10s and 2 12s would be pretty nifty. Again, this is just my experiance with bass amps. I have 4 10s and 2 12s

 

usually its not a good idea as the different sizes could cause cancellation.

 

the different frequency responses will combine in a less-than-optimal way. It won't sound as good as using 3 (or even 2) of the same subs.

 

Best bet would be to go with 2 12's or 2 10's. 12's have a lower sounding base, while 10's can be louder but not as deep base. In my opinion go with 2 12's, thats gunna be the best bang for your buck :P, they are loud, deep, and you can get good deals on them because alot are purchased.

 

Nope, not necessarily.

Nope, not necessarily.

Not necessarily, and not necessarily.

I still don't understand how people can make such generic comments regarding "10's" and "12's" overall. Like all 12's are better than all 10's, all 10's are louder than 12's (not even sure where that one came from....), etc.

I guarantee you I can find you plenty of 10's that have "lower bass", are "louder", and sound better than plenty of 12's.

 

You can make almost any 8" play deeper than almost any 12" just by the enclosure you choose.

The system I'm building for my girlfriend's car is going to have 2 8" subs with a flat response to 30hz without taking the car's cabin gain into account.

 

Giving her the Vette?

 

I would have to disagree with the deepness statement also. And to prove it here's a video I found on powered4sound.com, not sure if you guys have seen it yet... but here it is The Infamous 6 1/2's Video (9.56 MB) I'm guessing snail shells.

 

Im running a 6.5" ported sub with 80 watts in my car now and honestly for SQ and deep bass it has to be the best so far. Not because the speaker is better than anything else I have had but because I can build the optimal box for it and make it fit. The sub has a flat response sounds just as loud at 60 htz as it doeas at 40 with no eqing.

 

strangely enough this topic has come up, right now i have 2 10'' s and a 12''. and well the 10's add punch while the 12 keeps it clean. granted its not the hardest hitting but its clean and crisp. i hit 136 dbs which is optimal for sq. my 10's are in a dual bandpass box and my 12 is in a sealed box. and so far so good.

 

Hell no. She can't drive a manual, which is fine with me. It's going into her 92 Camry.

 

That video doesn't prove dick. I watched it a couple times. The morons they interviewed kept saying how it sounded like 2 12s, or a 15, or whatever... but they're sitting in the car talking at normal voices. When you've got 2 12s going full tilt, you've got all you can do to communicate with hand signals. There's no way you're talking over it.

Secondly... the people he interviewed are mostly idiots. They're your typical "I bought it at CC and it slams" crowd. They don't fully understand what porting an enclosure can do. All they ever hear is stuff in sealed boxes. They don't realize that you can get the same frequency response out of a ported 6 as a sealed 12.

Thirdly... if they want to prove it, why don't they take it to a dB drag and post that video?

Anyway, that box *appears* to be a transmission line box, but I can't really be sure.

 

This has been debated alot as to what kind of box it is. and for what its worth I think it hit a 146 once upon a time but don't really know. IMO since the box is damn near the size of a ported 12 box then whay not use a ported 12.

 

there are quite a few different types of boxes, each having their own benefits. like jim mentioned, that video is kinda decieving and may not be real. it appears to be a transmission line box, nobody's speaking. what i would like to try, if i had enough space, would be an ABC box.

back on topic. stick with the same size subs as previously stated. you're better off. also, the whole myth of smaller sizes being punchier vs bigger sizes being deeper really does not count anymore. and i also hate hearing that bigger subs are "slower". if the cone wasnt moving as fast, it would be a different pitch. if you got 2 10s, stick with the two tens. (on average) the 2 12s will move more air, but in our cars, a single 12 can make a big difference on it own

 

I've told him what you guys have said and he don't believe it because he says that the 10 will hit higher frequencies than the 12. I then told him about the cancelation issue then he said he will get a cross over and set the 10s to hit between here and here and the 12 to hit here and here. The kid is stubborn there is no way around that but how bout we just let him do it and sit back and see what he thinks all knowing how it will come out.

 

Ya try 2 10's and 1-15. That would be better. Kinda like my Hartke bass rig.

 

2 10's and a 12 does sound good i am a living example of that ive been running it for the last yr and a half and still get complements on how nice my system sounds. granted i do have the mids to go along with it. (2 mtx 6 1/2's at back, 2 6*9's stock location, pioneers 4*2's up front) not saying that its the loudest but its a good clean hitting system. a guy from pas (performance auto and sound) said i should enter a sq contest to see how well i do but id have to clean up the install quite a bit.(im lazy i have the 12 in the back seat) sure there are some notes which it sucks *** on but hell thats usually reggae which i dont' listen to. i know i know im not saying that its the cleanest system out there but its pretty damn good for me.

 

not to knock your setup, but it probably wouldnt do well in an sq comp. you have too many speakers, and seeing as its still a pretty basic setup (as in no phase correction, eq's, or crossovers), its not gonna stage well at all. and i'm sure it does sound great, but a little can go a long way.

next time around, i'm going to drop back down to 2-way comps up front and stick with the single 12". quality, not quantity....

 

the "snail shell" is a transmission line box.

not worth it IMO for the size aspect, but i guess whatever floats your boat.

until then, for most applications, ported is for me.


i think that if you did this 2 10"/1 12" thing, then you would need a serious crossover, and bandpass the 10's into something more like a midbass setup, 65hz-130ish, and then use ta ported box with the 12 tuned down to about 30hz.

i still wouldnt do it, but if you had to, i guess that would be my way.

 

There is no point to running 10s as a midbass speaker. Most of the subs built these days are high mass designs, which is going to ruin high frequency performance. Even though there are plenty of 10s that can play up to 200hz and higher, they typically sound like *** at anything above 80-100hz. If you want good midbass, buy a midbass to do it, not a subwoofer.

But some people think they know it all, and since they don't have a good enough ear to recognize good sound quality anyway, nothing we say is going to convince them otherwise.

 

bingo!

 

I had 3 12's in my blazer with 2 memphis class d amps.

One kicker solobaric 15" out dbed me at a comp by 10 dbs lol

yet the box was larger than the one i had for 3 12's

 

Reading this thread makes me remember why i never post in this section anymore

 

Why? Because people do things they say they don't?

I suppose if you wanted to build a HUGE box for the 12, and two smaller ones for the 10's, cross over the 10's from 100-50 Hz, and the 12" at 50 and lower, that it might sound good.

Actually, you may be better off doing the opposite. Since the lower the bass, the harder it is to recreate, using the two 10's in a large enclosure will give more surface area so the low bass would be louder than the one 12" in a large box. Or at least I think it would.

Anyway, good luck to your friend, whatever he decides to do.

 

I agree. The problem is you can’t teach someone what to listen for over a BBS. I know I don’t have a good ear, but it is something that can be learned, to an extent. You need to know what to listen for, how to audition a speaker in the store, and do it a lot. And not at Wal-Mart, Circuit City, or Best Buy, but at a high-end audio store.
The tech side is my strength, not may units that I can’t fix in under 30 min (production pay will do that to you), and they stay out the door (you don’t get paid to fix it twice).
Now, on topic. Just from the theory end of things, there’s a lot going on to trying to get something like this to sound right, a LOT. It’s just not worth the effort when you can get something much simpler to sound much better, much easier, and do it much cheaper. Keep it simple, most of your speaker money up front, if you NEED the rear fill go for it but spend the majority up front (in most cases it will not sound/stage as good but is louder so most do it), a nice sub in a well thought out and properly built enclosure FOR THAT SUB, and good quality amp. You can’t go wrong skipping the internal amp for the fronts and getting a GOOD QUALITY amp for the fronts (you don’t need 1000W here).
Simpler, E-Zer, cheaper (if you skip the rear fill and amp up front), and it would sound better then a hobbled together, a lot of different cheap stuff system

 

i would put that in a loss column on your part.

 

all this arguing over having smaller subs can sound louder or what not.... there are always more expensive speakers than can sound better than bigger speakers.... but as a general rule, bigger is better. You say that you can make a 10 sound better than a 12? I bet if you use the right 12 in the right enclosure that it would sound better. We are trying to make bass here, so bigger is the way to go... and yeah, I wouldn't use two different-sized speakers, mainly because the 10's would look like crap next to the 12.... I don't think there would really be any cancellation, because the speakers are going to move at the same frequency, just the 10 is going to move further (excursion) just vibrating more air per surface area of the sub... while the 12's have the larger area, and will do less vibration per surface area.... in the end I believe that they will produce the same frequency and it would not cause a problem.... I still wouldn't do it though, since you will then be limited to the max power of the 10, and not the potential of the 12's.

 

i understand what you're saying, and you still dont make any sense.

 

The point of the use of smaller subs is that the optimal box can be built and installed in a thirdgen.

 

but you can still build a box that can fit 12's or 15's for our cars, with plenty of airspace... obviously it would sound better in a minivan, suv or trunked car... but you use what ya got