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Newbie Subwoofer help


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Hi There!

I was wondering if somebody could point me in the right direction with subwoofers to compliment my speakers and new F90BT.

 

I was looking at getting two of these subs: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_236T5512S4 ... 12-04.html

 

That is the kind of wattage I want.

 

As for the rest, I'm not 100% sure at what I'm lookin at, although, I have a good Idea.

 

I was looking at this amp: http://www.amazon.com/Mtx-TA4501-Mono-S ... 774&sr=8-1

 

For the box, http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_177 ... 212SE.html

 

And I guess I would need all the other necessary wiring and such. This is my first time doing this, but I want to make it a learning experience. That is the reason why i didn't just go with one of those 'everything is in the box' kits.

 

So if there is anything else I need or if there are any incompatibilities please point them out! Thanks!

-Wire

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the amp will put out 500W RMS at 2ohms, which is where the subs (4ohms each) will be when the are ran in parralle.

 

the subs can handle up to 400W RMS each, so you could use up to an 800W RMS @ 2ohm amp, but 500W will be fine

 

you should also get a complete amp kit (power wire w/ a fuse, ground wire, amp turn on wire, RCA cables, and speaker wire)

 

a good quality 8 awg kit will run up to 500W RMS, a 4 awg will run up to 1000W RMS, not all amp kits are created equal, some will say 4 awg but will actually be closer to 8 with a lot more insulation. and YES YOU MUST USE A FUSE if you dont use a fuse you are asking for your car to catch on fire if there is ever a problem with your wiring

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hey i would sell you my whole setup, i just installed into my BMW with a f90bt.

 

i have 2 kenwood 12" 1200 watts EACH subwoofers. the new 2009 model KFC-W3011 subs.

 

and 1 kenwood KAC-7204 1000Watt stereo amp. and a fierce box enclosure. I paid $540 for it, and had it since 3 weeks. I would sell it for $300/obo. and they work and are compatible perfectly

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the amp will put out 500W RMS at 2ohms, which is where the subs (4ohms each) will be when the are ran in parralle.

 

the subs can handle up to 400W RMS each, so you could use up to an 800W RMS @ 2ohm amp, but 500W will be fine

 

you should also get a complete amp kit (power wire w/ a fuse, ground wire, amp turn on wire, RCA cables, and speaker wire)

 

a good quality 8 awg kit will run up to 500W RMS, a 4 awg will run up to 1000W RMS, not all amp kits are created equal, some will say 4 awg but will actually be closer to 8 with a lot more insulation. and YES YOU MUST USE A FUSE if you dont use a fuse you are asking for your car to catch on fire if there is ever a problem with your wiring

 

 

Thank you very much , this information was very helpful.

 

As for the last post, I wanted to go with MTX just because they seem to have a great reputation and are very tough. Also, good quality. Those Kenwoods sell for.... 60$ lol... I don't know what kind of quality they can be. The MTX subs are 130$ish each.

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the amp will put out 500W RMS at 2ohms, which is where the subs (4ohms each) will be when the are ran in parralle.

 

the subs can handle up to 400W RMS each, so you could use up to an 800W RMS @ 2ohm amp, but 500W will be fine

 

you should also get a complete amp kit (power wire w/ a fuse, ground wire, amp turn on wire, RCA cables, and speaker wire)

 

a good quality 8 awg kit will run up to 500W RMS, a 4 awg will run up to 1000W RMS, not all amp kits are created equal, some will say 4 awg but will actually be closer to 8 with a lot more insulation. and YES YOU MUST USE A FUSE if you dont use a fuse you are asking for your car to catch on fire if there is ever a problem with your wiring

 

 

Thank you very much , this information was very helpful.

 

As for the last post, I wanted to go with MTX just because they seem to have a great reputation and are very tough. Also, good quality. Those Kenwoods sell for.... 60$ lol... I don't know what kind of quality they can be. The MTX subs are 130$ish each.

 

 

Personally, MTX are not that great, they are top end of the crap end of drivers. If your ears know no better I'm sure you'll be content with them, but they really do suck especially if you're actually going to pay the $170 each for them. For clean, super efficient bass IDQ12s can be had for $150 http://www.woofersetc.com/p4907/SR12--R ... woofer.htm

 

There are tons of better subs and amps in the price range you were showing, please do yourself a favor and look around, your ears will thank you.

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Another extremely helpful post! Thank you!

 

As I said before, I am open to all suggestions as I wanna do this the right way the first time.

 

I think I like the looks of the ID V3 Subs. They look like they are very good quality. And I am looking for the clean hitting bass like you said they have, not the all out pure bass pounding mess. lol

 

Would the MTX amp that I linked above still be an appropriate match for two of ID V3s? or any other suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

Some of the amps I was looking at were:

 

http://www.woofersetc.com/p3121/BPX5001 ... zation.htm

http://www.woofersetc.com/p5478/PDX1600 ... lifier.htm

http://www.woofersetc.com/p7217/G1700-- ... lifier.htm

 

And the Amp Wiring kit:

http://www.woofersetc.com/p17/POWERKIT9 ... mp-Kit.htm

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The alpine and JL are nice, it's amazing how small the Alpine PDX series is, mine is mounted under the rear deck and powering the whole system. The JBL is ok, not that great, you're paying for the clear face for the most part with that one.

 

Make sure the speakers you pick match the impedance specs for the amp for best power. Also try stick with class D for sub amps if you can, they are more efficient and will put less of a strain on your electrical system, but overall it's not super important.

 

Here's a few more to look at.

 

These are 1 channel

http://www.woofersetc.com/p4424/D8002-- ... lifier.htm

http://www.woofersetc.com/p4224/LRX-140 ... lifier.htm These are fantastic amps, killer price on it.

http://www.woofersetc.com/p6558/D3-1000 ... lifier.htm

http://www.woofersetc.com/p4675/HCCAD12 ... lifier.htm Orion HCCA amps are no joke, not as mean as they used to be(they were "cheater" amps for sound competitions), but still mean.

 

These are 2 channel, but you don't care about stereo separation on subs, it's affects overall dB.

http://www.woofersetc.com/p6861/KS-3002 ... lifier.htm Great amp, you want to run it bridged at 4 ohm.

http://www.woofersetc.com/p4280/SRX-2S- ... lifier.htm another nice Audison

 

 

There's tons of great amps out there, I just picked the ones that stuck out to me on the woofersetc site. Pairing an amp with a pair of IDQs, I'd be torn which one to pick. For size and ease of install the alpine hands down, and I'm really impressed with how well my little alpine does. People are always shocked that I'm only running a single 12 and this little tiny amp powering it. The price on the Audison LRX is insane, and they are great italian amps. I love how ARCs sound, mmats are brute force with finesse, I have a long history with orion so I'm a bit partial, and the diamonds are pretty nice too. It's a tough one lol.

 

Never rely on "max power" or "peak power" ratings for speakers, amps, or anything else, that's a bunch of marketing BS. RMS(root mean squared) is all you care about. It's better to have too much than too little power for speakers, it's easy enough to turn the gain down, but bad for the speakers to not have enough power, you get into amp clipping which is hard on the driver and the amp.

 

Here's a neat page that you tell it how many woofers and what voice coil configuration and it will tell you what impedance they can be wired as http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofe ... ations.asp If you are using 2 speakers and want a 4 ohm Load you want either 2 ohm single voice coil drivers, or 4 ohm dual voice coils (DVC). For 2 speakers with a 2 ohm load you either want 4 ohm single voice coils, or 2 ohm DVC. For a 1 ohm load, your only choice for 2 speakers is dual 4 ohm voice coils.

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