New RE XXX 15 review

[mugen08 10+ year member]

Car: 2001 BMW 325ci coupe stock electrical, stock batt

Sub: 2011 RE XXX D2 overhung version (not split coil)

Box: Prefabbed ported box, roughly 3cube net, with port blocked off

Amp: Audiopipe 3000D1 wired to 4 ohm (1800-2000 wrms @ 14.4), gains halfway

First off I tried to listen to the sub in the prefabbed ported box and it sounded like absolute garbage; HUGE spike in loudness around 40 hz, no output below that, very strong smell from the box flexing.

So then I blocked off the port, essentially making it a sealed box, and what a difference that made.

Now I don't have a ton of car audio experience, but i'm gonna reference this to my hardest hitting system so far, which was a IA death row 18 in a custom ported box in the back of a BMW SUV being pushed by a Diamond Audio D6 1500.1.

Basically on the low lows (20's) the output is on par with the 18", very deep hard, bass. Above that, I would actually give the advantage to the XXX in terms of loudness. I'd say there is a peak between 40-50 hz due to possibly the box, or cabin gain. Excursion is at least 3" peak to peak.

As far as the sound quality, it's hard to measure at this time because of all the rattles but I can say the lows sound amazing and the kick drums are very very tight and punchy.

Overall I am very impressed with this sub especially since it really likes sealed enclosures twice this size and it can probably take another 1,000 watts (I am assuming 1200-1500 watts on my stock electrical). The fact that it matched and even exceeded the output of the 18" IA, which was in a ported box AND in an SUV, amazed me. Next will be deadening the crap out of my trunk area, getting a bigger ALT, another battery and dropping her down to 1 ohm //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Click to read more...

 

[eradicator006 10+ year member]

Good to hear you got some good results. Any idea on how the overhung version compares to the split coil version? I think I have the split coil version (was new in 2009). I've been debating for a while now if I should give a sealed box a try with it. MDF dust really bothers me (itchy rash from it) so that is the main reason I'm so hesitant to experiment with it.

 

[mugen08 10+ year member]

I think the underhung version basically handles power better and is a little louder above 25 or so HZ. But it hits really hard in the sealed box. In a ported box you wouldnt get to use near the full Xmax of the sub if you tuned low, so it seems counterproductive IMO. I'm no expert though

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

Trunk cars tend to peak around in the 40's. Van's tend to peak a little higher, upper 40's or even 50's. That may be why you getting more ouput at 40hz than you expected, that and the small box is probably giving you a spike too. Don't go too nuts on deadening the trunk, that's a mistake I see ALOT of people make, especially noobs, but even experienced guys. Really just focus on the main rattles you can hear for SQ purposes. Get some tones, play them at low volume and turn each one up and listen for extra noises to occur. Once you find them just keep it on repeat and hunt down whatever is rattling. It's 100x cheaper than the "rip out the interior and put 6 layers of various products everywhere" approach, and works better to boot. If road noise isn't excessively loud, don't use barriers and don't bother deadening something that doesn't rattle. As a side note, CLD tiles don't tend to do as much as you'd think, I find expanding foam and weather stripping type materials sandwiched between panels stops a rattle MUCH better than trying to add enough mass.

It's easier to make the panels that are rattling inaudible than it is to stop them from moving in the first place by sheer weight alone. making the panel stiffer, or making it vibrate against something that won't transmit sound is much more effective.