Need a subwoofer thats ideal in 1.2ft^3 sealed or less!

[JTriz631 10+ year member]

Budget for sub is $350 or under Im willing to allocate another $500 to an amp but I do already have a Kicker ZX400.1 (449watts RMS @ 2ohms)

I was looking at JL W6 but a few posters on a few different forums (including here) recommended me Sundown SA series. Im very interested in these woofers as I love the price point and I hear they can take a beating. Are they a good sub to run sealed (space restrictions- going in trunk of G35 coupe)? Is 449 watts enough or would I need to look at another amp for this sub?

Any other recommendations for 10 or 12" woofers that do well in that small of a space and match up with the zx400.1?

I listen to mostly rap, but honestly a little bit of everything.

Also if I get the Sundown which configuration is better when running a single sub?

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[UnderFire 10+ year member]

Don't get the SA, it was mainly designed for ported use, a good choice for sealed enclosures on a budget is the Dayton HF series, The 12 will take that power and work great in that enclosure.

 

[dragnix 5,000+ posts]

If I didn't just find a box for my 2 12w6v2s I would sell you one of them.

I do have a couple of amps for sale though //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

If you're going to keep your amp then I say go with dual 4ohm VC to get the most out of your amp. But honestly the Sundown would laugh at that power

 

[Spooney 10+ year member]

Don't get the SA, it was mainly designed for ported use, a good choice for sealed enclosures on a budget is the Dayton HF series, The 12 will take that power and work great in that enclosure.

The Dayton HF subs were designed for larger enclosures(more geared towards home use). I think you were trying to recommend the Dayton HO series which would be a great fit for what he is looking to do as they were designed and built for smaller enclosure use. They are also on sale right now . The SA subs are great in the right application but like UnderFire said it wasn't really meant to be sealed.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

Image Dynamics IDQv3 D4 12 should be happy in that box. This sub is good for SQ, but it also has decent sensitivity, to extract the most from the power you have. Also check the Arc Audio Arc12 (IDQv2 clone with a stronger motor). With the 450 watts of power you have, these subwoofers will fill the cabin with sound, though it is not a subwoofer to rattle your windshield wipers.

 

[zako 10+ year member]

The Dayton HF subs were designed for larger enclosures(more geared towards home use). I think you were trying to recommend the Dayton HO series which would be a great fit for what he is looking to do as they were designed and built for smaller enclosure use. They are also on sale right now . The SA subs are great in the right application but like UnderFire said it wasn't really meant to be sealed.

WinISD recommends 2.5 cu ft box for the HF12 subwoofer. A 1.25 cu ft box volume can be increased to effectively to ~1.5 cu ft with stuffing polyfill. WinISD gives qtc of 0.8 in this box, which seems reasonable. Has anyone listened the HF12 subwoofer in this box? The only issue seems that HF12 subwoofer only has a 4ohm SVC version. This may not be a big limitation since this subwoofer has only 12mm xmax, and good sensitivity.

I'd refrain from using Dayton's HO12 DVC subwoofer with the given amount of power. It has horrible sensitivity of 83dB with 1watt at one meter. You need to run like 700watts to it, to keep up with an average 12 inch sub running on half that power.

I feel silly to be "that guy" who always recommends Infinity Kappa 120.9w subwoofer. If you look past its "cheap" price, it's another great subwoofer for 1cu ft box. To my ear it sounds pretty clean, musical and balanced (e.g. I feel not need to boost or cut its lows, etc). It digs low, blends well with fronts, etc. 300-500watts of power would be fine for it. Again, not super loud in a sealed box. But then my interests are different. I mostly worry about how well bass guitar and acoustic drums play, and only sometimes listen rap mostly out of curiosity.

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

10″ Platform 2 Subwoofer | PSI Car Audio

I recommend this sub here,and later if you want to get a more powerful amp,it shouldnt be an issue for this sub..just my 0.02

10" Platform 1 Subwoofer | PSI Car Audio another recommendation

 

[JTriz631 10+ year member]

I like the sound of the Kappa but it says it will only take 350 watts RMS... maybe I should look into five channel amps because I want to upgrade my front stage as well

 

[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

The only 5 ch amp Id run, if you can find one that has a good sub ch would be an Elemental Designs Nine.5,other than that, id run a 4ch, and a dedicated sub amp for plenty of power to push a good sub

 

[zako 10+ year member]

I like the sound of the Kappa but it says it will only take 350 watts RMS... maybe I should look into five channel amps because I want to upgrade my front stage as well

The subwoofer has 15-17mm of linear (xmax) excursion. WinISD predicts you need something like 500-600watts to get there, so you will not have issues with power handling because of excursion. As for the thermal power handling, I think Infinity is being very conservative with its power ratings IMO. They never catered to people who you run massive power to their sub stage, and so they never felt the need to inflate their power ratings.

Infinity's web site says the following about power rating of this subwoofer: "Infinity subwoofers are tested according to the strictest and most demanding reliability-testing regimen ever designed for car-audio speakers. They are shaken, baked, frozen and dropped, all while they’re operating, and attempts are even made to destroy them with signals up to 10 times their rated power. When they’ve passed those tests, the subs are subjected to their RMS and peak power limits for 100 hours. Many competing subs are tested for only eight hours." I know this is written by marketing people, but I think it's probably a hint that they're being conservative with the power ratings.

In any case, I run about 400watts to mine with no problems. Also, in normal music "peaks" of sound are short lived, and so I see no problem even if the music peaks at times make the amplifier exceed that wattage. I never felt this subwoofer was sloppy even at high volume. The RMS wattage rating of a subwoofer refers on a continuous signal, which is rare in normal musical content. My main worry is not to overdrive the amplifier.

Anyways, if you're worried about power handling, then look into Image Dynamics IDQ (600-700watt RMS?) or JL Audio W6 perhaps.

 

[DoesDad 10+ year member]

I feel silly to be "that guy" who always recommends Infinity Kappa 120.9w subwoofer. If you look past its "cheap" price, it's another great subwoofer for 1cu ft box. To my ear it sounds pretty clean, musical and balanced (e.g. I feel not need to boost or cut its lows, etc). It digs low, blends well with fronts, etc. 300-500watts of power would be fine for it. Again, not super loud in a sealed box. But then my interests are different. I mostly worry about how well bass guitar and acoustic drums play, and only sometimes listen rap mostly out of curiosity.

I like Kappa's too. I had the Perfect 10's and 12's and I thought they were amazing. Especially the 10. Unfortunately they're not made anymore and pretty hard to find. Only sub that was better imo (but much more expensive) is the Focal Poly's. The Kappa's however are very similar to the Perfects. I've heard the 12's here in Tulsa and for a woofer that is only rated at 350-400 rms they had amazing output in the sealed box the guy had them in. He was only giving them around 200 watts a piece too.