Wondering if i could get a little help. I apologize, this is going to be a little long.
I'm not getting as much out of my sub as I thought I would and figure it's either the box or the sub itself. And hoping if its the box I could get a new sub that would work better with the box I have.
I had 2 RF P3-12s 4 ohm dvc in my old truck, it was running off an extremely old rf punch 150. No idea how, but it worked. (apparently they were underrated but I don't see how it could be that much.) I was running them at 4 ohms bridged. These were also in a prefab box that I had to modifly slightly after buying the subs due to them being much bigger than the old kenwood subs I had had since high school. Each chamber was only about .6 cu ft. Doesn't sound ideal right?
Well I got my new truck, it had its own challenges as far as the box went. I raised my rear seat 2.5 inches. Got ahold of soundoffaudio and they were able to modify one of their box designs to work with this sub as far as mounting depth goes. I also decided to only run one sub, using the full dual sub box design figuring that would be about right for airspace rather than running 2 subs with very little. (sealed) So basically its their dual sub box, without the passenger side hole cut. And the divider is opened up in the middle about 4"x4" to use both sides for airspace. It is still 5/8" mdf. Should be around 1-1.2 cu ft airspace.
I also grabbed a new amp. Picked up and RF P1000x1bd to run my sub at 2 ohms. (I know not many people are huge fans of RF but it is what it is and I already bought it. lol.) I am running an audiocontrol lc2i off my rear speakers to get the signal to the amp. And using their bass knob.
Now the problem Is i feel like the old setup was much louder. I am not sure how my old kenwood headunits bass level worked, but I usually kept it at 0 and would turn it up a bit if i wanted a little more bass. I was hoping to do that with this setup and the lc2i knob but I always have the knob cranked and if a song is a little lighter on bass I can't do anything about it. I have a feeling I was probably distorting the hell out of the subs before with such a small amp and maybe that's why it seemed much louder. But i was hoping having proper airspace and a much better amp would make up for the fact that I lost 1 speaker. Currently I also need my headunit to be up to about 35/60 in order to really get much at all out of the sub and at that point the mids and highs are getting up there a bit higher than I'd prefer for normal listening.
I have set the gains using a 40hz test tone and a multimeter with the headunit at 50/60. I was shooting for 35 volts and the amp did it fine. I have since turned the gain up further until the clipping indicator came on and then backed off slightly, probably sitting around 37 volts output right now. so I should be close to 700 watts. But everything sounds clean and the amps clipping led, however accurate that is, doesn't come on unless i crank my head unit.
What I would like is to be able to have the headroom to have the bass knob somewhere below fully turned while listening normally, and crank it up if i feel in the mood for it.
So if you suffered through that much, Is there anything else I could try to get more output out of this thing? If not, would a different sub make much of a difference if i could push it with the full power of the amp? probably a 2 ohm dvc so i could run the amp at 1 ohm? Any recommendations on a different sub that would be about the same size depth and width wise as the p3? preferably under $200-250
TL;DR
1 rf 12 inch p3-12d4
1.2ish cu ft box
p1000x1bd rf amp
lc2i from rear speakers.
Not lound enough
I'm not getting as much out of my sub as I thought I would and figure it's either the box or the sub itself. And hoping if its the box I could get a new sub that would work better with the box I have.
I had 2 RF P3-12s 4 ohm dvc in my old truck, it was running off an extremely old rf punch 150. No idea how, but it worked. (apparently they were underrated but I don't see how it could be that much.) I was running them at 4 ohms bridged. These were also in a prefab box that I had to modifly slightly after buying the subs due to them being much bigger than the old kenwood subs I had had since high school. Each chamber was only about .6 cu ft. Doesn't sound ideal right?
Well I got my new truck, it had its own challenges as far as the box went. I raised my rear seat 2.5 inches. Got ahold of soundoffaudio and they were able to modify one of their box designs to work with this sub as far as mounting depth goes. I also decided to only run one sub, using the full dual sub box design figuring that would be about right for airspace rather than running 2 subs with very little. (sealed) So basically its their dual sub box, without the passenger side hole cut. And the divider is opened up in the middle about 4"x4" to use both sides for airspace. It is still 5/8" mdf. Should be around 1-1.2 cu ft airspace.
I also grabbed a new amp. Picked up and RF P1000x1bd to run my sub at 2 ohms. (I know not many people are huge fans of RF but it is what it is and I already bought it. lol.) I am running an audiocontrol lc2i off my rear speakers to get the signal to the amp. And using their bass knob.
Now the problem Is i feel like the old setup was much louder. I am not sure how my old kenwood headunits bass level worked, but I usually kept it at 0 and would turn it up a bit if i wanted a little more bass. I was hoping to do that with this setup and the lc2i knob but I always have the knob cranked and if a song is a little lighter on bass I can't do anything about it. I have a feeling I was probably distorting the hell out of the subs before with such a small amp and maybe that's why it seemed much louder. But i was hoping having proper airspace and a much better amp would make up for the fact that I lost 1 speaker. Currently I also need my headunit to be up to about 35/60 in order to really get much at all out of the sub and at that point the mids and highs are getting up there a bit higher than I'd prefer for normal listening.
I have set the gains using a 40hz test tone and a multimeter with the headunit at 50/60. I was shooting for 35 volts and the amp did it fine. I have since turned the gain up further until the clipping indicator came on and then backed off slightly, probably sitting around 37 volts output right now. so I should be close to 700 watts. But everything sounds clean and the amps clipping led, however accurate that is, doesn't come on unless i crank my head unit.
What I would like is to be able to have the headroom to have the bass knob somewhere below fully turned while listening normally, and crank it up if i feel in the mood for it.
So if you suffered through that much, Is there anything else I could try to get more output out of this thing? If not, would a different sub make much of a difference if i could push it with the full power of the amp? probably a 2 ohm dvc so i could run the amp at 1 ohm? Any recommendations on a different sub that would be about the same size depth and width wise as the p3? preferably under $200-250
TL;DR
1 rf 12 inch p3-12d4
1.2ish cu ft box
p1000x1bd rf amp
lc2i from rear speakers.
Not lound enough
