**** I think they're dual 2 ohms.. That means I'll be underpowering them.. nooo.. gonna have to cross them off my list..
Blazian, your box is full so here is the reply to your last PM..
Shorting rings are used to reduce inductance based distortion. Basically as the coil moves back and forth it's impedance varies wildly depending how much coil is in the gap and how much is out.. This increase in resistance varies with frequency as well. So as you go higher in frequency your subwoofer gets less and less power because the coil is acting like an inductor in a crossover would. Shorting rings are used to get rid of the stray flux that causes this effect at higher frequencies.. If you've noticed, many low powered woofers sound very punchy and can play high bass no problems. Then when you deal with many high power high output subs, they can't really play bass much above 60hz. This is because the larger coils acts as an inductor at a lower frequency..
Shorting rings fix this issue. For example, my current subwoofer is a 21" sub with a 6" voice coil, much larger than what you'll find on any car audio woofer. It can handle well in excess of 2k RMS for hours upon end, rated like most car audio woofers, it is easily 3k RMS or more, although the motor is so powerful, it doesn't want more than that without running into it's limits. This "subwoofer" can also be used as a midbass up to 400hz without any ill effects.. So what shorting rings often give you is a nice blend between highs and lows, with the output of a bigger sub.. They also tend to be expensive to implement as they reduce the amount of motor force, so to make that up, companies need to use more powerful motors, which adds cost, as well as the cost of the solid aluminum rings used to make them.
Anyway I prefer fairly low Q subwoofers.. .5 is generally about what I like, especially if the woofer has shorting rings. Gives a nice balance of highs and lows, with just a bit of extra emphasis on the bottom end. Anyway the QTS of the dayton is .41, which means you'll only get a .41 total Q if you put it in an IB alignment.. 1.6 cubes isn't that big, without modelling it, .45-.5 is probably about where it will end up.. Shouldn't be too low at all.. If anything, you may reach mechanical limits before thermal, which is almost always a good thing. It's much easier to know to back off when you hear minor mechanical noises than it is to smell coil.. Plus the woofer has some displacement of it's own. I'd try it and see, they are so cheap vs your other options and you won't find a better sounding woofer.. If you decide after a few months you need even more output, with a 1.6 cube box you could even cut out a hole for a aeroport with no issues. Compared to your FI Q, you'll find the daytons won't be as sloppy sounding when you tune them low. FI Q's roll off hard above 50hz. SO when you ported it, it probably sounded slow or sloppy when tuned too low.. These daytons won't do that.