12" SQ Sub on a cheap budget

[zako 10+ year member]

I would pick the Infinity Kappa 120.9w. It's a tight sounding subwoofer that's very happy in a 1-1.2cu ft sealed box. The bass is "fast" and can dig surprisingly deep even on low power. I have run anywhere between 250-600watts of power to it. To throw a rock at the Dayton HO subs, you can study and analyze their T/S parameters to convince yourself that they have lower sensitivity, specially the DVC one. What good is all that power handling if they have low sensitivity? If giving up 1cu ft net is not a big deal, Kappa is better IMO and costs about the same.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Would this box work well with the Dayton 12" after being stuffed? Would the Massive Audio NX5 amp match up well with this sub?
Sonic Sub Boxes 1H12-0.7-GRAY (1h1207-gray) Single 12" Hatchback

Massive Audio NX5 Nano Block Series 5-Channel Car Amplifier

NX amps don't produce their rated power, at least on the full range channels, and run relatively hot. I'd use instead something like Polk D5000.5 or RF's 5-channel Class D amplifier. The sonic sub boxes boxes are pretty good. I got the 1cu ft version hatchback style (actually, it has 1.14cu ft internal volume). Very solid 3/4 inch MDF. Dimensions just right for me.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Choices, choices... You all have been very helpful so far. I was leaning on the Alpine, and have really looked into the Dayton HO, now the infinity? can anyone else vouch for them over the newer Type-S?

The 12 inch Type-S has super high qtc in any sort of reasonably sized box. You can verify it with box modeling software or from Alpine's documentations (it's nice of them to mention the box qtc) This alone would be a turn off for me. The Infinity Kappa is a perfect qtc of 0.7 in about 1.2cu ft box. 1cu ft box would be entirely adequate with some polyfill. The reference series are supposed to be decent, but Kappa beats them when it comes to build quality and qtc in a compact sealed box. I have heard some stories of things ungluing and otherwise falling apart on references. As long as it works, the ref a good sub for the money though. The kappa has 17mm xmax, which implies a respectable output potential, at least on decent power.

The new Type-R is actually has very good potential for SQ. It's verified to have some of the lowest distortion profiles in its class. Don't listen to guys who start "I heard Type-R in a buddy's car and it sound like sh1t". Almost certainly, that's the way their box, crossovers, and gains were setup. Plus, there were like 5 different generations of type-rs produced in one decade, with the last two being a lot better than the past. Power handling is great, though it's hard to say if it would do as well as Infinity's on low power. A test I saw suggests 12 inch Type-R has almost 86dB sensitivy 1watt/1meter, which is actually pretty much mid-pack among 12 inch subs IMHO.