Chick with an audio question

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RaiderH8r89

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Mazda Protege5
(help)So i want to start building a system in my p5...
i have already replaced all 4 speakers (pioneer 4-ways, 280watts). i do know that i want either one 12" JL Audio sub, or two 10" JLs. so here's my questions:
1) Should I go with the one 12", or two 10"?
2) what kind of amp would push the kind of power i need? (i really don't want to spend a whole lot of money, but still want decent quality sound). i really like alpine... but what else is good? what kind of wattage do i need?
3) what the hell is an OHM, and what difference does it make if i get a sub with 4, 8, etc OHMs...?
4) What suggestions do ya'll have for me?

i really appreciate it guys... you really have no idea. i want more bass! thanks ya'll!(usa)
 
You missed the 2 most important things.
1. how much space are you willing to loose?
2. how much money you willing to spend?

2 10's will be louder and "tighter", will require twice the power of the 12 and will not play as low. They will also need a large box overall and certainly a longer one.

1 12" will play lower, with less power, in a small box. It will be not be as loud, it will take up more space verticly as it is another 2" of cone diameter.

A lot of people see this as the choice as you have: 1 12" vs 2 10"s.
However your budget is the real key.
From tight budget to big budget you will tend to see the fallowing:
1 8"
1 10"
1 12"
2 10" or 1 13"/15"
2 12"
3 10" or 2 13"/15"
 
i can afford to lose my entire trunk if necessary... as far as money goes, i dont really have an issue, although i dont really want to spend more than $300 for an amp
 
$300 for the box, amp, wireing, install, and subs... or... just the amp?
 
There are a lot of choices out there for what you want in your system.
Since you can afford to loose all your trunk space why not go with 2 12" subwoofers instead of 2 10"s.
For the amplifier you going to need one that matches up with the wattage of your subwoofers to get the best performance.
You said you wanted a JL audio sub but which model?
OHMS is a term which means electrical resistance, the higher the number means higher electrical resistance and vice versa. An example is if the resistance is 4 ohms the amp has to work harder to push the power through the electrical resistance and travel back to the amp so you will have less wattage than you would with a subwoofer that has 2 ohms. Well this is the simplest way I can explain how it works.
 
Go with one 10"! I used to have two 12's and loved it... until they got stolen. Then I decided to go with a single 10" sub. The 10" is getting me more dB and takes up less space. A ported box works nicely, also. I'm running 600w RMS and 1200w MAX. These specs are the same on both the sub and amp, so they match up perfectly.

Of course now that I went to the top and re-read your post, I see you're set on one or the other, so if you're dead set on that just run a single 12". lol I'm in class but I'll look up some stuff when I get home later. lol
 
wow, thanks so much Himori! that was very helpful... so i pretty much want to go with 4 ohms than, since thats what i usually see...? i'm not too sure which model of jl i want- what would you suggest? i recently just replaced the stereo head unit from the stock to an alpine... it makes such a difference! so if i get an amp thats 1000w, than i should get a sub around the same wattage?
 
RaiderH8r89 said:
wow, thanks so much Himori! that was very helpful... so i pretty much want to go with 4 ohms than, since thats what i usually see...? so if i get an amp thats 1000w, than i should get a sub around the same wattage?
Click to expand...

1. Not necessarily. Depends how many woofers, type of amp, wiring scheme, etc. If you get an amp that is 2 Ohm stable, you could get either 1 x 4 Ohm woofer or 1 x 2 Ohm woofer. The 2 Ohm will play louder due to less resistance/more power from the amp. If you get 2 woofers, the impedence should match each other (ie. 2 x 2 ohm or 2 x 4 ohm), but the "load" seen on the amp will vary depending how you wire it. For example, 2 x 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel will = 2 ohm load seen at amp. Conversely, 2 x 4 ohm speakers wired in series will be 8 ohms total seen by the amp. Basically 2 speakers wired in series will double the resistance seen and 2 wired in parallel will 1/2 the resistance. Most amps will not be stable below 2 ohms and will go into protect mode (ie. not work), but in general the lower resistance seen the louder relatively the speaker will sound. Personally, if I were you, I would get 1 x 12 inch woofer with an appropriately tuned (sized) box with a monoblock amp (ie. only has 1 channel).
There are also DVC (dual voice coil) subs out there, meaning the sub has TWO inputs (ie. acts like 2 separate woofers, can be wired into 2 different configurations for flexibility.


2. In general, an amp should be close to the power recommendations of the speaker. If you get too small of an amp (not enough power), turning it up beyond what it can cleanly produce will cause clipping, which equals distorted sound and may wreck the woofer. So you are much better off with too much power than not enough (ie. 500 W RMS amp with say a 200 W RMS speaker. Ignore max ratings, they are useless besides for advertising. Check out Crutchfield or do a search on internet for series vs parallel wiring to understand more. Good monoblocks are made by Alpine, JL audio, Nakamichi, Kicker, etc.

Hope this does not confuse you, ask if any more questions or surf the net for some of this info, there are many install guides online for situations such as these.
 
ecniemann said:
1. Not necessarily. Depends how many woofers, type of amp, wiring scheme, etc. If you get an amp that is 2 Ohm stable, you could get either 1 x 4 Ohm woofer or 1 x 2 Ohm woofer. The 2 Ohm will play louder due to less resistance/more power from the amp. If you get 2 woofers, the impedence should match each other (ie. 2 x 2 ohm or 2 x 4 ohm), but the "load" seen on the amp will vary depending how you wire it. For example, 2 x 4 ohm speakers wired in parallel will = 2 ohm load seen at amp. Conversely, 2 x 4 ohm speakers wired in series will be 8 ohms total seen by the amp. Basically 2 speakers wired in series will double the resistance seen and 2 wired in parallel will 1/2 the resistance. Most amps will not be stable below 2 ohms and will go into protect mode (ie. not work), but in general the lower resistance seen the louder relatively the speaker will sound. Personally, if I were you, I would get 1 x 12 inch woofer with an appropriately tuned (sized) box with a monoblock amp (ie. only has 1 channel).
There are also DVC (dual voice coil) subs out there, meaning the sub has TWO inputs (ie. acts like 2 separate woofers, can be wired into 2 different configurations for flexibility.


2. In general, an amp should be close to the power recommendations of the speaker. If you get too small of an amp (not enough power), turning it up beyond what it can cleanly produce will cause clipping, which equals distorted sound and may wreck the woofer. So you are much better off with too much power than not enough (ie. 500 W RMS amp with say a 200 W RMS speaker. Ignore max ratings, they are useless besides for advertising. Check out Crutchfield or do a search on internet for series vs parallel wiring to understand more. Good monoblocks are made by Alpine, JL audio, Nakamichi, Kicker, etc.

Hope this does not confuse you, ask if any more questions or surf the net for some of this info, there are many install guides online for situations such as these.
Click to expand...

damn, thats a lot to take in... lol, but thats really useful info! i really appreciate the time put into it. so basically, i shouldnt just look at the max ratings? cuz i've seen subs with like 2000 watts... sounded crazy to me.. lol.

thank you for the amp suggestions. i think i've decided to go with 1 12" JL Audio sub- the W3v3-4. so with that being said, what should i work with now as far as the amp goes? i know now that since i'll only be running one sub, i'll only need the mono right? the sub has 600w and 4ohms... the amp is the only thing confusing the hell out of me, as far as what i should be looking for in it... thanks so much
 
Sub stats for 4 Ohm JL Audio model:
12" 4-ohm subwoofer
mineral-filled polypropylene cone with nitrile-butylene rubber surround
power range: 100-500 watts RMS
peak power handling: 1,000 watts
frequency response: 22-200 Hz
sensitivity: 87.15 dB
top-mount depth: 6-5/8"
sealed box volume: 1.125 cubic feet
ported box volume: 1.75 cubic feet

You may want to go with the 2 Ohm version as most monoblock amps are 2 Ohm stable and will give more power (louder sound) compared to using the 4 Ohm subwoofer. You can always use a sub with higher resistance (ie. more Ohms), but not usually lower than the amp is rated.

Saying that, personally, looking at Crutchfield's website, I would go with a 300-500 W RMS amp when rated at 2 Ohms. The amp's rated RMS wattage will be less when rated at 4 Ohms, as already explained above. The JL 500/1 v2 is great if money is not a factor. If it is, the Eclipse and Alpines listed in the links below would be great and relatively inexpensive.

Amps are very easy, not much to them........besides the wiring (ie. power, ground, RCA). Are you wiring it yourself? The only other things on the amps are controls such as crossovers [LP (low pass) and/or HP (high pass)] and gain (output) control, some also have a bass boost, unneeded in my opinion. Monoblocks typically only have LP filters, meaning only signals BELOW a certain frequency will reach the sub, which makes sense, right? Typically they are set at 80-100 Hz, but the amp will allow anywhere from like 40-200 Hz in like 20 Hz increments, just depends on the amp. The actual setting depends on taste, range of your door speakers, etc. Your head unit probably has settings for this as well, which is redundant for the sub (LP), but will help you filter out low frequencies (HP filter) going to your door speakers (which are currently running full range or all frequencies), which you do NOT want if you have a sub because it doubles up the frequencies and is unnneeded. What specific uncertaincies/confusion do you have with amps? Hopefully some of them were answered.

JL amp: http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=120&i=1365001V2&tp=115
Eclipse: http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Product/Item/Main.aspx?g=120&i=099XA1000&tp=115
Alpine: http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Prod...annels|FFMono_Subwoofer&nvpair=FFBrand|Alpine
 
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The question i would ask you is what type of music do you listen to the most? This will qualify what box and subs or sub you will need. In terms of power if you got the cash a slash series JL will work perfect. It has a tech . called R.I.P.S which means regulated intelligent power supply in regular terms you get maximum power between 1.5 and 4 ohms and maximum power down to 11 volts. Keep in mind with amps it takes power to make power so if an amp is rated at 1000 watts rms at 14.4volts you will never see 1000 watts, because the average 12 volt system in a car idles at 13.8 volts which is already a drop in voltage. The average car under load or with the system playing will be around 12.1 to 12.5 volts which is another drop in power based on the amps rated power at a certain voltage. JL does rate there amp at 12.5 volts so it is a real world power rating. So when you look at amps look at the voltage that the power is rated as well to get an idea of how much power you are truly getting. Now to the subs Jl audio starts from W1 up to a W7. What Jl has done is bring the tech. down from the W7 to the W3v3's so I would at least start athe the W3 if you are looking at a good qulity tight sub. If you are looking for something more high end and for sound quality maybe a W6 will be perfect for you. If you want good sound quality and a ton of output well then the W7 is for you. If space is an issue then you should look into a W1. The only difference between the line up is output and tightness. This is all based on the subs suspention. Just like our cars the tighter or stiffer the suspention is, the better it will handle. Also remember when you are looking at the power that a sub can take it is a thermal power rating because power causes heat inside the voice coils of sub. So don't over do it on the power to much because you are causing more heat than the sub can efficiently cool. I hope I answerd any questions you had if not feel free to point me in a more specific direction and I will get an answer to yah.
 
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I've had so many systems through the years and was a professional installer for a while. I've had everything from 1 8" to 2 15"s and also fan 4 12"s in my caddy for a while.

To be honest, I would go with 1 JL W6 12" or 1 13.5 W7 (either of those being dual 4 ohm) if you can afford it. For the amp what ever JL (mono) amp is best rated to push that sub. I haven't checked on their newest line so I can't quote you a model number.

I wouldn't limit myself on the $300 for the amp. I'd look at the entire setup total. If you were considering 2 JL 12"s you'd save a lot of money by going with only one, and that would give you a little more for the amp. 2 subs don't make much more db than 1 sub of the same size. You'll be plenty happy with a matched QUALITY sub/amp set. If you like ALPINE you could go with a matched set from them as well, but you'll never go wrong with JL.

To save some money you can always look on ebay. There are tons of deals on last season's JL equipment. I would always got with a store with over 500 feedback when buying electronics and make sure they are new, but there are some excellent deals if you don't care if it's the newest model.

Good luck! If you look around and find somthing you have a specific question on please feel free to PM me and I can tell you if you are getting a decent deal.
 
DubbyDoo said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/JL-AUDIO-CS210RG-SUB-BOX-W-10-10W3V3-CAR-SUBWOOFER_W0QQitemZ310039377476QQihZ021QQcategoryZ3291QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

prime example not to buy from crutchfield

can also get the amp shipped for 200 on ebay.. imo unless you want alot a bass you can get one ten or one 12 in a good box and it would be enough
Click to expand...


Neither will have any warrenty or may not even be actual JL or alpine.
Neither company allows ANY internet sales other then crutchfield.
 
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