Getting a new sub, need help in my decision! Also, is my box good enough?

[tannerdavis3]

If you plan on running 2 ohm a 600 watt sub will work. I would skip the DCs.

2 ohm power on my amp will be 1000rms, 4ohm is 600. Im planning to run 2ohm so i'd need more than that.

Would anyone recommend a different subwoofer other than DC or the SA?

hispls, the box will be made at my school by our carpentry teacher. I trust he will make a nice one if I can find 3/4inch birch anywhere close.

 

[tannerdavis3]

NVX VCW122 12" Dual 2 ohm VC Series Car Subwoofer (VCW 122)

yay or nay?

 

[tannerdavis3]

Also one more question,

Dual 2 ohm - this is the same as 2 ohm, right?

 

[UGHH]

Also one more question,Dual 2 ohm - this is the same as 2 ohm, right?

If you want to run 1 sub at 2 ohm, you need a dual 4 ohm sub. And the Sundown SAs can take 1000 watts as long as its clean unclipped power.

And hifonics amps don't put out rated power, close to it but it won't be 1000 watts.

 

[Alex81 10+ year member]

Hey guys, i am looking to upgrade my current subwoofer. Right now I have the very basic Kicker C12 at 150rms, and I am looking for something much louder.
The amp I bought is a hifonics 1500.1, rated at 1000rms for 2 ohms and 500 for 4 ohms.

I am currently considering buying the kicker comprt 12, rated at 800 watts rms and 1600 watts max. It is also a shallow mount subwoofer. My first question is the kicker compR and compRT show no differenes other than one is shallow mount - does this affect the sound quality?

My second question is how good will this sound in a small ported box.

This is basically what i will have, only i have a different box of similar size/ may get a custom box built of a small size.

CompRT Loaded Enclosures | KICKER

The main point of this is, will I be satisfied going from the 150watt subwoofer to the 800 watt, and will that particular subwoofer perform well in the conditions described.

Not with Kicker. Ever since 2009 (not positive on year) when Kicker not only had 0 net revenue for the year but lost Many thousands. To make matters worse Best Buy & another store Circuit City I believe backed out and would no longer be carrying Kicker products. They revamped Kicker because they had no choice, and developed a cheap subwoofer that allowed them to get Walmart to carry Kicker products. Some people remain loyal to the brand, yet anyone slightly objective knows that company is nowhere near the quality they once were. The familiar name has carried them.

If you want an increase in performance ditch the Kicker sub. Depends on your budget, here's a few from low to high in price Alpine SWS series or Alpine R series are great underrated dual voice coil subs. Some of the prices available for the 2 are steals. JL Audio 3v3 series (u can't go wrong above with 3v3 series and above JL subs. 6w2 is excellent, same for W7. The 13w7 is one of best drivers readily available. But the W7 serise is overpriced. On occasion you can find a good deal on 10w7, 12w7, but not 13w7. Recommend the 10 or 12 w6v2 for these reasons)

Sundown - impressive subs at reasonable prices

Orion - very underrated driver. Can hit low frequencies majority can't get near.

For the cost, they rank near top for bang for buck

Morel Ultimo 102, 104, 122, 124 are at the higher end, and cost most than

a lot will consider. These drivers deliver an amazing quality of bass. Digging

deep as any starting the frequency range before it's audible at an incredible 10 Hz. Around 15 Hz is when you're not quite hearing it (18 Hz is area it becomes audible) but you feel it surging through your body shaking anything in its path.

Can name 10 more that are better than Kicker. Miss the quality the provided in late 90's early 2000's.

An Alpine SWS or R that I've recently seen for $30 shipped would outperform a $200 Kicker. Felt bad when a friend was showing me his new system and I saw the 2 12' Kickers he got. But gave them a chance and listened. As expected weak. The 20-40 Hz area where the best bass is generated was almost non existent. The areas of it that there had such a low dB level I felt bad for the friend. A subwoofer driver will build in sound. e.g. from 20-50 Hz a good driver will be in 90 dB range above 50 Hz -150 or 200 Hz it builds reaching 100 to over 110 dB. 2 Kickers felt like 70 to low 80 dB below 50 reaching high 80's low 90's above 50Hz.

A single 12' Alpine SWS or R, JL Audio 3v3, Sundown, Infiniti Gold, many others with correct amount of RMS watts provided would put those 2 12' Kickers to shame.

The single 10' in my car at the time did at 70% volume. Thankfully he was able to return them.

Also remember when matching/choosing amp for you subwoofer that you want to match the amplifier to the sub. Completely IGNORE ALL wattage ratings aside from RMS watts. Know many get tricked by this in past conversations. e.g. amp says 2000 watts, reality it is capable of 300 or 500 watts RMS. Always look at RMS #, and match that to manufacturer specs.

On sealed box or ported. Sealed provides a tight, cleaner bass. Ported provides a punchy, boomy type of bass. It's much louder than sealed, if u want to be heard do ported. If u want the best accurate reproduction of bass for music, do sealed.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

2 ohm power on my amp will be 1000rms, 4ohm is 600. Im planning to run 2ohm so i'd need more than that.
Would anyone recommend a different subwoofer other than DC or the SA?

hispls, the box will be made at my school by our carpentry teacher. I trust he will make a nice one if I can find 3/4inch birch anywhere close.

Like said you have hifonics amp, not the best. Read up on rise and what happens when your voltage dips. Your 1000 watt amp normally only does 500 or less.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Not with Kicker. Ever since 2009 (not positive on year) when Kicker not only had 0 net revenue for the year but lost Many thousands. To make matters worse Best Buy & another store Circuit City I believe backed out and would no longer be carrying Kicker products. They revamped Kicker because they had no choice, and developed a cheap subwoofer that allowed them to get Walmart to carry Kicker products. Some people remain loyal to the brand, yet anyone slightly objective knows that company is nowhere near the quality they once were. The familiar name has carried them.
If you want an increase in performance ditch the Kicker sub. Depends on your budget, here's a few from low to high in price Alpine SWS series or Alpine R series are great underrated dual voice coil subs. Some of the prices available for the 2 are steals. JL Audio 3v3 series (u can't go wrong above with 3v3 series and above JL subs. 6w2 is excellent, same for W7. The 13w7 is one of best drivers readily available. But the W7 serise is overpriced. On occasion you can find a good deal on 10w7, 12w7, but not 13w7. Recommend the 10 or 12 w6v2 for these reasons)

Sundown - impressive subs at reasonable prices

Orion - very underrated driver. Can hit low frequencies majority can't get near.

For the cost, they rank near top for bang for buck

Morel Ultimo 102, 104, 122, 124 are at the higher end, and cost most than

a lot will consider. These drivers deliver an amazing quality of bass. Digging

deep as any starting the frequency range before it's audible at an incredible 10 Hz. Around 15 Hz is when you're not quite hearing it (18 Hz is area it becomes audible) but you feel it surging through your body shaking anything in its path.

Can name 10 more that are better than Kicker. Miss the quality the provided in late 90's early 2000's.

An Alpine SWS or R that I've recently seen for $30 shipped would outperform a $200 Kicker. Felt bad when a friend was showing me his new system and I saw the 2 12' Kickers he got. But gave them a chance and listened. As expected weak. The 20-40 Hz area where the best bass is generated was almost non existent. The areas of it that there had such a low dB level I felt bad for the friend. A subwoofer driver will build in sound. e.g. from 20-50 Hz a good driver will be in 90 dB range above 50 Hz -150 or 200 Hz it builds reaching 100 to over 110 dB. 2 Kickers felt like 70 to low 80 dB below 50 reaching high 80's low 90's above 50Hz.

A single 12' Alpine SWS or R, JL Audio 3v3, Sundown, Infiniti Gold, many others with correct amount of RMS watts provided would put those 2 12' Kickers to shame.

The single 10' in my car at the time did at 70% volume. Thankfully he was able to return them.

Also remember when matching/choosing amp for you subwoofer that you want to match the amplifier to the sub. Completely IGNORE ALL wattage ratings aside from RMS watts. Know many get tricked by this in past conversations. e.g. amp says 2000 watts, reality it is capable of 300 or 500 watts RMS. Always look at RMS #, and match that to manufacturer specs.

On sealed box or ported. Sealed provides a tight, cleaner bass. Ported provides a punchy, boomy type of bass. It's much louder than sealed, if u want to be heard do ported. If u want the best accurate reproduction of bass for music, do sealed.

What the Fu ck did you just say?

 

[Alex81 10+ year member]

Accurate information. Deal with it or don't read

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Accurate information. Deal with it or don't read

Some of it but you lost it when you talked about orion. And RMS also don't mean much unless you plan on running nothing but sine waves.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

The Sundown SA doesnt seem like it would be powerful enough in a 12, i wouldnt be buying two.
Okay I know this thread is everywhere but i measured my area. I have 10" wide, 13" long space. It can be however high it needs to be. I really need to know first, is this enough space for an enclosure? The wood is 3/4 inch, plus carpet. My current box has the sub slanted. Could I get a sub into this, full sized, with enough air space?

I'm kindof leaning towards that DC3 right now but I havent quite decided. I really want something low and powerful that can also hit higher notes as well

If you want highs and lows get a C2 audio threatcon. To be honest, your amp will barely tickle that level 3, in fact the sub will laugh at at that hifonics. A fully fed sub would do better then a sub starving for power. I have 4 C2 audio threatcons with two brx 2400s and they eat everything up and get loud while doing it. If you are going to get a DC audio sub, You'd better return your hifonics and get something a lot more powerful and legit.

After box rise, voltage drops and efficiency, you wont see more then 500-600 watts out of that hifonics 1k assuming it does rated power. It could be a lot less. Thats why you always have headroom, have a lot more power on tap then the sub needs.

 

[Alex81 10+ year member]

Some of it but you lost it when you talked about orion. And RMS also don't mean much unless you plan on running nothing but sine waves.

That's fair. It's the 1 brand I used a friend that lives out of state as the

source opposed to hearing them myself as I have with the others listed.

Don't like to knock Kicker. Founder is from my home state & had some great experience with a few of their products in late 90's. In my opinion it's just not the same

quality company as it was before 2009 when they didn't make a dollar leading to what I described above. Hearing the new 12's less than a month ago confirmed my beliefs.

 

[tannerdavis3]

Can you explain how an amp rated for 1000 will only push 600 then please?

If so me and the manufacturer are going to have a problem for false advertising, and i will send it back.

However, that does bring me to another question. I have a 250 watt kicker amp, it has the certificate saying 260 or something. Is it possible to hook two amps up to the same sub? If so, problem solved.

Alex - thanks for the recommendations! I'll have a look into those. And i think im going with ported on the box if there is room, which there should be

 

[tannerdavis3]

If you want to run 1 sub at 2 ohm, you need a dual 4 ohm sub. And the Sundown SAs can take 1000 watts as long as its clean unclipped power.
And hifonics amps don't put out rated power, close to it but it won't be 1000 watts.

Thanks! I was confused on this

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Can you explain how an amp rated for 1000 will only push 600 then please? If so me and the manufacturer are going to have a problem for false advertising, and i will send it back.

However, that does bring me to another question. I have a 250 watt kicker amp, it has the certificate saying 260 or something. Is it possible to hook two amps up to the same sub? If so, problem solved.

Alex - thanks for the recommendations! I'll have a look into those. And i think im going with ported on the box if there is room, which there should be

Read up on Impedance rise/box rise, read up on Efficiency, and voltage drops explains itself. Plus hifonics is overrated. See a few real world clamp tests for true rms, you'll see people wired to 1 ohm nominally but its actually 1.8 - 2.4 ohms after rise. Straight up man, your amp is enough enough to fully push a 600 rms sub unless you have a box thats big and efficient enough for beefier woofers but it sounds like you are limited on space also.

 

[LosIsATool 5,000+ posts]

Like Jeff said. It just happens. Good amps are rated by a test bench, on a resistor, playing sine waves. You are not using any of that so you get imp rise. You get voltage drop. You won't get rated power but for split seconds at a time. Normally you get half or less.