Audiophiles

[mazdaspeedpower]

Audiophiles....I enlist your help.

I have decided that I am going to try and squeez the W7 H.O. Wedge into my trunk. http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_enclosures.php?menu=1&prod_id=189
First question is while this ****** fit? I think it should fit ok, if not I'll go with the W7 pro wedge or get my stereo guy to build a custom ported box for me.
Second question is will the recomended 500/1 JL amp power this fat b****(http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_amps.php?amp_id=252)

I ask this cause a guy at work I know seems to think this will not be enough power for the W7. Now from what I've heard JL is one of the few companies to actual present what the RMS rating is for their amps..is this true? If so then the 500rms amp is right in the 'safety' zone for the W7....we've all seen that PDF sheet that shows the maxium performance/life zone, and 500rms seems to fall right there. So will the 500/1 perform and power the W7(rated at 500rms also) or am I gonna need to go bigger still?


Also what guage of wire do you recomend for me to wire all this s*** up with? I don't think the stock garbage wire is gonna do. Also I'm guessing it would be wise to put a capacitor inline to prevent the frying of any of these costly little trunk rattling toys.

Some help please.

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

I mean looking at it now I could run a 750w amp but I don't wanna go too nuts...beyond owning a W7 that is. I don't wanna lose any quality of fidelity just in the name of SPL...I'm looking for a qaulity sound aswell as the quantity. Well, recomend what you'd do audiophiles.

 

[gimpo2]

well if JL made the sub and JL says their 500 Watt amp if what you should use, then I'm sure you're fine going with that amp. thats some really nice stuff. JL's 500/1 amp is definately 500 Watt RMS

You're definately going to run a separate 4ga power wire and ground for that amp.

I'm not sure how big that enclosure is but here's my cheapo box and i have 2 12's if that gives you any idea. i have a P5 but i think the trunk is about the same width

Capacitor won't prevent you from frying any of those "trunk goodies." if you're refering to a fuse you're gonna wanna put it no less than 12 inches from the battery terminal on the power line for your amp

 

[anarchistchiken]

Yeah a 500/1 would work fine. To really bring out it's potential, a 1000/1 or something comparable would be needed, but you would certainly hear it with a 500/1

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

Forgive me, I am not very knowledgable when it comes to these things..al I know is I like the W7, and am willing to shell out for it. What does a capacitor do for it then? 4ga you say? I've been told 12's barely fit in the protge trunk(height wise) so I think this box should be fine.

 

[gimpo2]

yeah 500 watts is definately enough, my 2 12's are going at 250 Watts each and they definately hit. And i know JL's W7's will most definately be felt

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

Yeah a 500/1 would work fine. To really bring out it's potential, a 1000/1 or something comparable would be needed, but you would certainly hear it with a 500/1

with a 1000/1 I would be right on the boarder of voiding the warranty and frying my voice coil, which would not be covered under warranty(funny, I care more about my subwoofers warranty than my cars)

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

yeah 500 watts is definately enough, my 2 12's are going at 250 Watts each and they definately hit. And i know JL's W7's will most definately be felt

I'm told one W7 can out perform many dual 10 and 12 systems. Of course thats on the basis that half the people never take their time to properly match an amp and woofer properly.

 

[anarchistchiken]

And a 750 watt amp from anyone else is probably gonna be about the same level as a 500/1. I would stick with JL all around if I were you. I just recently started running a JL 1000/1 on my alpine type-x 12" sub, and the difference in sound quality over my old amp (MTX Thunder 1501D) is marked and definatly noticable. I still have to tune it to get it as loud as the MTX was, but it sounds so much better now.

 

[gimpo2]

Forgive me, I am not very knowledgable when it comes to these things..al I know is I like the W7, and am willing to shell out for it. What does a capacitor do for it then? 4ga you say? I've been told 12's barely fit in the protge trunk(height wise) so I think this box should be fine.

4ga wire is the biggest the 500/1 will take. a capacitor is like a battery that discharges and charges up really fast. so it keeps some juice readily available for your amp. So during really long bass tones the bass doesn't drop off a little cuz its draining the car battery, it has power right there in the capacitor.

 

[anarchistchiken]

A capacitor is fairly useless on a high power system in a protege. Basically a cap is a second battery that discharges very fast directly into the amp. If you have a lot of light dimming, a cap will clear that up. But on the protege, with our iddy biddy alternator, it doesn't solve the problem. Instead of taking some load off the alternator to stop the lights from dimming (and hence the eletrical system from being loaded hard) it just makes the lights dim a little and stay dimmer than usual, but they don't flicker.

I could be totally off there, but I got this info from a number of protege driving audiophiles on the forum and locally, so take it was you will.

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

I'm guessing running this sub hard will drop a rather hefty load on the electrical system huh? Will it be fine to run it on stock stuff for now? like it wont affect performance or anything? Maybe upgrading to a better alternator and say an optima battery would help make things smoother sailing? If it doesn't affect performance of the sub I won't worry right away...if it does I may get myself a btter alternator and battery now before I spend a small fortune on stereo.

 

[gimpo2]

my lights used to dim with my subs, i installed a 1 Farad Cap, they still dim but not as much. Capacitors aren't supposed to be used to keep the lights from dimming, the headlight thing is only a side effect. Just go without a capacitor and if its something you feel like you just need you can always install it later.

 

[RyanJayG]

caps would work better if you used two small ones inline with your headlights instead of on your amplifier.

or you could spend the money on lower power consuming HID's instead

 

[Poseur]

Okay okay, stop just a bit.

First off, caps are GAY wastes of expense, wiring, potential to zap yourself good, and mostly an extra drain on your electrical system. The steps I recommend to keep yourself safe is BARE MINIMUM upgrade your ground form your battery to frame, if not just a full engine grounding kit. And, yes. Optima. red or bluetop. steer clear of yellow unless you already hav access to the $150 charger it takes to recondition them should you ever accidentally leave your lights on or something and run it dead.

Asfor the amp, The 500/1 is recommended because of the box setup. power handling isnt' an absolute higher power handling possible form the SUB yes, but again, in that box it shouldn't be neccesary. More power would be for a small sealed box, I'd stick to using that amp. that box/sub is prettmyuch designed around the 500/1 to power it.

Nowthen, Yes, 4g for that amp's a good thing, but part of the point in running a sub like that is SQ. If you're looking for sheer SPL, you might wanna look elsewhere. The reason I point this out isthat a good SQ sub is nothing without some nice speakers upfront to blend into it. It kind of goes without saying that those speakers should be amplified as well. That beign the case, you might want to run either 2 or 0gague back to a distrobution block as well as running an extra set of RCA's back so that if you're not doing it upfront that adding a 2nd amp will be easy. Minimal added expense upfront that will save you alot down the road.

 

[Poseur]

and yes, 1.6kw daily driven for 2 years, nocap, deal with the dimming, but elsewise I've been fine. As far as a single W7 giving moreoutput than multiples. Prettymuch the thing that ppl rarely do is put their sub in a proper box. that being said, W7's do offer a prrtty good bit of excursion which means that a 10"W7 moving 3" peak to peak will indeed put out about the same as a pair of subs with say a 1.5" P2P.

Allthat being said, again, alot of things depend on what you're looking for out of a sub. if you're looking for sheer output, you'll be wasting money on a W7. not that they won't get loud. (they will) but they're a sub built for SQ first. There's a handful of toher subs out there where a single 12, or even 10 in a properly built and tuned box with enough power going to it will give you more bass that you can ever reasonably use. Thatsaid, if you're basically just looking to out-hit dual 12's and such, you might want to look elsewhere. If you want good musical bass to round out a system, give you a bit of impact and not overpower. look at a sealed 10, If you're wanting deep deep way sub-sonic bass and don't mind giving up the space, do yourself a favor and listen to what a 15 in a ported box tuned LOW with even moderate power can do. Keep in mind that a single 15 is about the same surface area as a pair of 12's, or about 4 10's. and of course more subs will mean more money and more amp.

I don't want to be changing your mind because W7's are awesome subs Heck i'd LOOOVE tohave one. I just don't want you to drop all that cash for the wrong reasons. Take a good hard look at W6's as well.

Basically more money does not always equal better. That extra dough you're dropping for that sub setup could go a good way towards some nice components and an amp for them as well..

 

[RyanJayG]

if your only goal is SPL, then you can do it way cheaper with Kicker L7's (and I HATE HATE HATE KICKER!)

but they do get loud, just dont sound all that great to me.

JL makes really nice SQ with SPL. which is why I picked up one of 1sty's W6's he is selling.

 

[chuyler1]

I'm sorry but I don't see where you need an audiophile's opinion. Except for Poseur's posts, this thread is entirely about bass, which is at most 15% of an audiophile setup. If you want SQ, put your money into 1) a good deck and a DSP, 2) high end component speakers for a front stage, and 3) a high end amplifier to power those speakers.

Once you have that, we'll talk about bass. A 5" or 6" sub in the right box with the right install is all that is necessary for an audiophile install so an 8, 10, or 12 is more than enough. Unless you are going for SPL or 'show and tell' then more than 500 watts per sub is overkill. If the sub needs more than 500 watts to quote-unquote "sound good" then it is not an SQ sub and you should be looking for something else.

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

ok I was more just trying to get attention to find out how to set this up. Yes SQ matched with a little SPL is what I was going for, and I know the W7 is going to sound good. Rest assured the rest of the system is doing ok for me right now, but will be upgraded as times passes, I just wanted to get a bigger, better sounding woofer than stock and I figured why waste money on something I'll eventually ditch when I can do it right from the start. I know this sub isn't an SPL woofer, it's more SQ with the ability to provide some good SPL, which is exactly what I wanted. Plus I'm kind of a sucker for going for the name of it, I know theres prolly better out there, but I just really wanted a W7 line woofer. And the 10 is perfect for what I'm looking for.

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

Also I do eventually in the near future plan on upgrading all the stock stereo stuff to things of a higher quality and beter sound.