Subwoofer Noob

[HellaMazdaFive]

Gday.
I'm running an 02 P5 and currently running JVC 6"s in the rear and 6x9's up front. As well as a head unit.
Now id like to dip my feet in working on getting some bass to finish up my little project.
My main concern is that, id end up running too much power and overloading and cooking my alternator.
Id like to put in a system but while being within the safe area.
Some rough ideas were either a 10 or 12" or even perhaps 2 10".
I'm new to all this and any help at all would be appreciated.

 

[ihone]

I run a Sony amp from Bestbuy, a kicker CVR-12 in a bandpass box, and utilize my headunit's lpf/hpf capabilities for cutting the unwanted audio out of certain channels.

the amp isn't but about 200 watts, but it pushes that kicker plenty. It's very reasonable on power draw also - no dimming of the lights and no problems electrically.

Just be sure to individually fuse the power feed (most power kits come with an in-line fuse for this purpose) from the battery + terminal directly to the amp +.

Good luck.

 

[prz]

ive always felt that two 10's sound way better than single or double 12s...

i wouldnt be so concerned about overloading..doesnt sound like you plan on doing anything over the top.

 

[tweety2300]

I have 2 12" Polk audios on a 500 rms watt amp and it sounds great. No system will sound good with too much bass I have mine turned down a good bit with my door speakers only doing mids and highs it's chasing down all the rattles of a 10 year old car that sucks

 

[HellaMazdaFive]

Ive been leaning towards two sets: 2 - 12" Kenwoods or 2 - 12" Clarion
Would i be able to run a 1000w amp safely? 600w wouldn't be enough?
Ideal 2 - 10"s would be nice but i havent come across any for sale yet.

 

[tweety2300]

It would be fine just get a capacitor or your lights will dim if it it's hard like mine

 

[MP5 Kyle]

As tweety said, if you want reall bass then you need a capacitor.

I'm currently running:
1x JBL GTO4001
2x Pioneer 6x9s
2x kenwood 6.5"s
2x Kicker CVR 12"
1x Kicker DX 1000.1
1x 500k Walmart brand capacitor


And I only experience minor light dimming.

I'de suggest if your only looking for a comfortable amount of bass to go with 2x 10" kicker comps, and a dx 500.1(the DX is a D class amp which utilizes MUCH less power then Class AB)

 

[tweety2300]

Ha if I turn my subs up and it hits real hard all my lights dim never realized this till tonight even dash and heater control lights do it sorry to thread jack but what's a decent capacitor to get

 

[HellaMazdaFive]

Allright so ive narrowed it down to: 2 - 12" Kenwood Excelon KFC XW1200, fully sealed and ported box with 1000w Kenwood Amp.

 

[Fresco]

I have 2 12" xplods (1300w each), a 1000w xplod amp and a 3.5k cap.....a word of advice, if you get a box with subs already in it, do yourself a favor and buy a bag of poly fill, turn up your radio and listen to your bass, then take your subs out insert the poly fill and see if you notice the difference.....I did this and my subs hit harder and the bass sounds a lot more cleaner/less distorted

 

[xitoxic]

Ok man, ive owned my P5 for about 2 years now and ever since i first got it ive always been a bass head. I just sold my system and i think im done with them but ive had around 5 diff ones, raging from Soundstream, T3 Audio, Sundown Audio, Kenwood, Sony, everything really. I have a stock alternator and for 2 years of pushing big amps with it, its fine. Every now and then if im at a stop and i have my heat cranked up itl screech but i need a new one, haha. Biggest amp ive had was a 1700w and it did fine. Dimming lights isnt a big deal, just get a volt meter and make sure not to go past 10 volts, thats when the bass cuts out. But Capacitors dont do anything, all it is is a battery that sucks power and pushes it when you need it. Sucks more then it pushes = waste of $$ and time. Systems in a P5 sound amazing, if you have any questions just PM me.

 

[bfowler]

But Capacitors dont do anything, all it is is a battery that sucks power and pushes it when you need it. Sucks more then it pushes = waste of $$ and time. /QUOTE]

not true!
capacitors are often misused. what they really do is smooth out ac ripples in the power from the alternator. alternators dont produce dc. they produce many different ac waves that when summed together can be used as 12v dc by devices. cap's smooth out the peaks in these curves, so that the power produced is 1) more "efficient" (it takes less amps from the alternator for devices to get the amperage they need, and 2) some amps benefit in better sound from this "cleaner" power

when people claim it fixed their dimming headlights. what really happened is that the added efficiency (as small as that may be) was enough to stop voltage drop that was causing the headlights to dim

they aren't useful for all systems, but they are far from worthless. i dont think the OP would see much value from one in this case.

 

[xitoxic]

they help with baby systems, haha

 

[azuelke]

tl;dr

Caps are useless, run a second battery: http://www.kinetikpower.com

Hard, solid bass, sealed box. Loud, not so solid bass, ported box. Make your own box, don't buy pre-fabbed boxes. Tune the box for around 48hz.

 

[xitoxic]

48hz and you might as well just have sealed

 

[wallabe]

I have a slotted box with one 12 and a mono 1000W amp. I turned the gain down to about a 1/4 way up. The lights dim only when I listen to dubstep or hard hitting bass songs at around 26 volume level on a pioneer head unit. If you want other people to hear your music then expect low dim lights. These cars wasn't made for high current draw, the make high current alternators but unless you want to spend $399 then setting the amp gain level at a certain level may be your cheap way out.

As cheap as it sounds I have a DIY 12" box from Best Buy
A old Memphis 500w 12" sub
A old Pioneer Class-D mono 1000w amp
A Pioneer DEH-4200UB radio

if that helps

 

[azuelke]

48hz and you might as well just have sealed

My ported box is tuned to 46hz and sounds great. IIRC, 44-52hz is the sweet spot for P5s.

 

[ihone]

anyone remember the old "pacman" style boxes for hatches and suv's?

 

[HellaMazdaFive]

Another question for you sound system guys.
Have most of you sealed up your doors with sound deadner or foam, etc?
My 6x9's and 6.5's sound great but from outside, doors are rattling. So it seems like i'm loosing some of my sound.
Any cheap ways to fix it?

 

[loud3]

A lot of misinformation in this thread.

LOL @ capacitors being a 'must have' item.


Hella - Anytime you see flex or rattling, you are losing sound pressure. This generally translates into a loss in perception regarding volume.

The factory deadener in the Proteges is little more than a joke... a few dollars spent and some time with applying a sound deadener will do wonderful things. My doors shut like a benz.

A good budget way to get more 'umph' out of your doors without pulling door panels and going at the metal is to use a foam baffle mounted behind the speaker... effectively making a 'box' to fit. You'll be impressed with the mid bass response after.
http://compare.ebay.com/like/290614445138?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar