My friend is selling his system. Should I buy or nah.

[Gatorade]

Id personally rather do a single 12 ported then 2x12s sealed. Much better options.

Your obsessing too much over running high watt amps and high RMS SPL subs. Your driving a small mustang, you don't need all of this SPL crap for a daily driver. A single 12 in a good ported box on good electrical rattle your entire car and completely drain out your front speakers.

I'm trying to get a sound that I had when I was younger. I didn't have great equipment, but I used sealed boxes at 1000 rms and it sounded amazing. (Granted that was in small cars and hatch style trunks, and my new systems have mostly been in suvs.) But the range of bass was awesome, nice lows and everything. I got back into systems in the last few years, and everything has changed. Everyone is saying go with a reputable builder and go ported. Which I done and I've ran three different systems. They're loud and they shake the heck out of the car, but I haven't been able to get that smooth full spectrum of bass I used to have. My wife is fussing at me about how much money I spend on this stuff, so I want to get it right this time.

Are sealed boxes not suitable for the amount of power I run nowadays (3k)?

 

[mastershake575]

Everyone is saying go with a reputable builder and go ported. Which I done and I've ran three different systems. They're loud and they shake the heck out of the car, but I haven't been able to get that smooth full spectrum of bass I used to have.

Either running the wrong subs, wrong box, or poor tuning. Ported now a days is great for a daily setup

They're loud and they shake the heck out of the car, but I haven't been able to get that smooth full spectrum of bass I used to have.

A high quality 12 inch sub in a custom ported box will play 25-80hz no issues

Are sealed boxes not suitable for the amount of power I run nowadays (3k)?

Well the problem is you have SPL level wattage which means the matching subs for that range are going to be peaky SPL subs that like large ported boxes

 

[SlugButter]

Best sub I’ve heard sealed is the Dayton audio ultimax.

 

[SlugButter]

Not the power handling of anything you want though

 

[Gatorade]

I apologise for my ignorance. I guess I need to rethink the whole thing. Sealed is out, Fi Q's out, everything in my plan out. I need to learn more about sub specs, and what I trying to accomplish.

I'm glad I haven't bought anything new for this setup yet.

 

[SlugButter]

I apologise for my ignorance. I guess I need to rethink the whole thing. Sealed is out, Fi Q's out, everything in my plan out. I need to learn more about sub specs, and what I trying to accomplish.

I'm glad I haven't bought anything new for this setup yet.

If you had sealed boxes and 1000 rms when you were younger, and liked it. Try doing a custom ported box modeled around a single 12 ported at around 1000-1500 rms. How “younger” are we talking here? 10 years? 20 years? 30?

 

[SlugButter]

If you really liked your sealed setup you used to have, 2 Dayton ultimax 12s in 1 cube sealed per sub on a solid 1200-1500 rms is a pretty damn nice sounding system. I’ve ran a few sealed systems in my past, and those Dayton ultimax subs are pretty darn good for people who like sealed systems. What type of music dominates your listening habits?

 

[AnthonyO 10+ year member]

If you want a sub that sounds great sealed, try and find a CDT QEX-1220. One of those in 1cu.ft sealed running off a nice 500 watt amp. The best sounding sub in a sealed enclosure I have ever heard.

 

[Marve_Lous]

Go with one SSA ZCON 12 in a @Buck designed box and you’ll be set.

 

[Gatorade]

If you had sealed boxes and 1000 rms when you were younger, and liked it. Try doing a custom ported box modeled around a single 12 ported at around 1000-1500 rms. How “younger” are we talking here? 10 years? 20 years? 30?

20 years ago, I was running a kicker 1000.1 for a while on various subs. I had a sealed pro wedge box that I reused with different subs JL wo, old kickers and fosgates. It was in a tiny neon with fold down back seats. Lol.

 

[Gatorade]

I really appreciate the info guys, so thank you. I guess I wasn't quite sure of what I wanted. I thought I wanted a sq system, but I wasn't clear on what that was exactly. Now I know what I really want, which is more of a spl set-up with a nice range of clean, hard hitting bass, including lows.

You guys know this stuff better than I do and the general census is to go ported, and to go with one quality sub in a decent sized ported enclosure over two subs in a smaller sealed enclosure. So my sub options have opened up quite a bit, and my sub budget will allow me to buy one really nice sub. So that's cool.

I'm a working family man so I don't have a ton of money to throw at this stuff, so thank you for preventing me from paying for something stupid. Lol, I guess I need to start looking for a really good sub. I'm going to start with adire, Incriminator, fi, and so on. Whatever I get will go into a professionally built custom ported enclosure.

And I'm getting closer.
Thank you fellas.

 

[SlugButter]

20 years ago, I was running a kicker 1000.1 for a while on various subs. I had a sealed pro wedge box that I reused with different subs JL wo, old kickers and fosgates. It was in a tiny neon with fold down back seats. Lol.

Same subs I used to play with a lot also. I I put the alpine type R in 5 different boxes one summer when I first learned to build boxes decently. I rolled around a whole summer with a Rockford Fosgate 15 in a 5 cubic foot ported box in my Chevy s-10 extended cab also. The good ole days. Lol

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Did somebody need a box design?

 

[mastershake575]

If you really liked your sealed setup you used to have, 2 Dayton ultimax 12s in 1 cube sealed per sub on a solid 1200-1500 rms is a pretty damn nice sounding system.

Yeah those ultimax are amazing for sealed. There easily the best bang for your buck before you start getting into the really expensive options (the next tier up like the IA Flatlyne or Audiofrog GB are anywhere from 2-3x the price).

I really appreciate the info guys, so thank you. I guess I wasn't quite sure of what I wanted. I thought I wanted a sq system, but I wasn't clear on what that was exactly. Now I know what I really want, which is more of a spl set-up with a nice range of clean, hard hitting bass, including lows.

You like the SPL feeling (high output, rattle your entire car) but want a more SQ based driver (low distorition, not peaky, accurate/tight).

If doing a single 12 ported I would do an Adire Audio Tumult on 1500 watts in a custom box. Has the classic sound of the Brahma but with signficantly more output (it's basically a better sounding JL W7).

Sealed on same power those Ultimax 12s are very solid