4 sa8s or 2 L5 12's???

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

the only reason kicker moves so much product now is they are sitting on the name that was built back in the day when they were using rebadged home audio woofers as CA subs. and dont get me wrong i love some older kicker stuff (my new front stage will be powered by a 500si and a pair of 40ss) but there has never really been a lot of innovation come out of kicker other than the square cone (and im 100% sure on them being the first on that)

and its not change for the sake of change, i just like it when companies push the limits of what designs they are using then start working on better designs to take those limits to a higher level,

per square inch the sa-8 was rough to beat, the v.2 blows the older model away, and jacob still has the x-8 lurking in the shadows, and the same can be said about his amps, he is consistently finding the weakest link in the chain on any piece of equipment and making it stronger, which is the reason that his equipment will take the level of abuse that it does and still perform very well.

 

[ewadz3006 10+ year member]

Ive been out of car audio for a number of years, i really havent heard anything of quality in years. I would love to gear some good eights. Back when i was into it eights were nothing. Currently building system in my mountaineer and thinking of putting something different in wifey's xploder... if only money did grow in trees.

 

[n8skow 10+ year member]

Rebadging woofers? Care to elaborate?

As far as innovation - Stillwater Designs is largely credited with creating the car audio market we know today. I vaguely remember when home stereo setups were being installed in cars back in the 80's (before I was driving) - but nobody was making dedicated aftermarket gear back then. MTX, Kicker, and JL were all pioneers in that regard and built the 12-volt audio market from the ground up.

Some innovations you seem to have missed (aka, a brief stroll down memory lane at Kicker):

* 1980, the first full-range speaker box set designed solely for the car

* late 90's/early 2000's, the solobaric woofer line - big bass from tiny boxes, featuring inverted structural domes and one-piece extended poles as well as deep bumped back plates for enhanced excursion (some of the best sq woofers I can remember)

*1999, the square L7's which you've already pointed out

* 2003ish, adoption of Class-D amps in the 12-volt market. I'm not actually sure who was first, but walking into several car audio dealers back in early 2000's - Kicker was the only mainstream company I recall offering these for awhile (before they really caught on, though the technology has been around since the 50's).

* 2004, introduction of the soloX line - featuring field replaceable soft parts (without having to remove the motor from the enclosure)

* 2007, new amplifier topology used in the Warhorse (up to 93% efficiency, with a push-pull signal design and elimination of output stage).

* 2010ish?, the iKick line of iPod docks - I've yet to see anyone else that's built a stand-alone/portable iPod doc built with the same amount of balls these things have.

More recently, I would cite the PX lineup (rocking the stereo on your mower/golf cart/motorbike), as well as the earbuds that have been around a few years now... not many manufacturers as dedicated to surrounding you with your tunes no matter where you go... maybe with the exception of Sony - and I don't think they have a marine line... =P

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

ok, so since 07 kicker has done nothing to directly improve the car audio industry from what you listed above.

when it comes to the home audio thing, i have to troll a bit...

 

[n8skow 10+ year member]

There may be a few newer products I'm not familiar with (I haven't kept up too much with the 2011/2012 lineup) but I still haven't heard what it it you want 'improved' so badly... We should probably take this to PM's though... I think we frightened the OP off =)

ok, so since 07 kicker has done nothing to directly improve the car audio industry from what you listed above.
when it comes to the home audio thing, i have to troll a bit...

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

... I still haven't heard what it it you want 'improved'...we should probably take this to PM's though... I think we frightened the OP off =)

there are weak points in every design, there is no such thing as a perfect sub, but any company that actually cares about the industry should want to strengthen those week points in the design and better the product as much as they can. how ever kicker decides to focus elsewhere.

i would just like to see some sundown level R&D come from a company that has the amount of capital that kicker does, and the things that they could come up with at that point.

 

[jsluss17 10+ year member]

also, what new stuff has kicker done in the last year?

i was at a kicker dealer the other day and saw a tiny amp about the size of my dick powering 8 cvr's and puts out 200 watts. literally the thing was 3 inches long not sure what impedance it does that at but it was pretty cool. i'd still take sundown over kicker any day though as the same shop had 25 blown l7's in the back. legit 25 we asked someone that works there

 

[Phoenix Risen 10+ year member]

i was at a kicker dealer the other day and saw a tiny amp about the size of my dick powering 8 cvr's and puts out 200 watts. literally the thing was 3 inches long not sure what impedance it does that at but it was pretty cool. i'd still take sundown over kicker any day though as the same shop had 25 blown l7's in the back. legit 25 we asked someone that works there

ive seen those little amps a couple times, but i havent heard many good things about the reliability of them. cant say from personal experience though.

 

[jsluss17 10+ year member]

ive seen those little amps a couple times, but i havent heard many good things about the reliability of them. cant say from personal experience though.

yeah i just think they'd look cool i'd much rather have a real amp. the thing about kicker is they underrate their amps by a tiny bit and like to brag about it in the birthsheets. sundown underrates their amps a lot and doesn't say what it's really at. its like a guy with an average sized ***** bragging about his while the nerd with the glasses and braces has a huge ***** and hides the power

 

[RAM_Designs 5,000+ posts]

there has never really been a lot of innovation come out of kicker other than the square cone (and im 100% sure on them being the first on that)

For subs, maybe. But Sony used square speakers way before the L7 came out. And there might have been someone before them to successfully use square cones before that. I just remember Sony because the particular home audio towers were well regarded.

 

[myn 10+ year member]

Funny thread. I suspect the kicker haters lack the experience and knowledge or recall what Kicker has achieved from an engineering perspective. Their "Join Dates" reflect it as well. Comparing an ID company that reuses prefab baskets/cones and lacks a dedicated build house to a company like Kicker that has the latter is laughable at best.

Here's a quick cluepon for the inexperienced users. Gary Biggs and Mark Eldridge both ran Kicker L7s and consistently won IASCA world championships for many years during the early-mid 2000s. And yes kids, they did have ID subs available back then //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

To answer the OP's question. The L5s will walk all over the SA8s all day long given your power requirements.

PS. Sony was the first mainstream brand to employ a square cone design (Sony APM-X270). These were distributed mainly in Sears B&M and catalog. They did not market them like Kicker did (greater SD [piston area] == more sound). They just said they sounded better.

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

... maybe with the exception of Sony - and I don't think they have a marine line... =P

Sony has had a marine line since 2003-2004, where have you been? Pyle, Clarion and Pioneer and maybe a few others have also been in the marine biz since at least that time period. I used to work at Boater's World //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

dbl

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

trpl?

wtf ca //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif

 

[rahat666]

8s