Need advice?

[AcuraSubs]

Back in september i purchased 2 10 inch memphis power reference subs, and a power reference memphis amp as well. i had these installed in a sealed box, and after barely 3 months they both are blown. Apparently, according to the place who installed them, im getting 2 new ones from memphis as part of a warrenty i paid for. I want to switch to a bigger, ported box as well, and now on top of that (which they say will run me 135) they are suggesting to bump the 10 inch pr subs to 12's, and install dynamat (which they say will be 200-500 depending on car and places where it needs to be put in).

Also, besides this, i drive a 2003 acura tl, and they never were that loud (partly because the old bose speakers don't let me higher it enough before they crackle). I have a friend with a 2009 mazda 3 and he has the same subs as me in a ported box and they hit ridiculously hard. My headunit is a kenwood (forget what model exactly, spent 200 on it a few months ago), and his is some 500 dollar pioneer, but theres no way the box and headunit alone could make that insane of a difference. You can hear him coming down the street loudly, but barely mine.

The people in my store said it was because the acura's are built way better and sound doesnt leak out as easy as the mazda, but from in the car as well his subs sound insane. Is this because of the box, headunit, newer bose (mine being 2003 his being 2009) and fact that he has dynamat? I really want my setup to sound more like his but i don't want to have to dish out so much money to do so. Plus my car has 130k+ miles still running strong but i don't want to make any long term commitments (dyanmat/speaker replacment).

What do you guys think about my situation, thanks a ton for reading.

Click to read more...

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

get the ported box and replace all the door speakers.it will make a big difference.if your car has a trunk, then you may want to mat the trunk.you may want to ask your friend how much power he is running too .he may have a bigger amp than you ,power wise.

 

[sacsking916 5,000+ posts]

yes a ported box will yield better results USUALLY. no need to bump up to 12s, just a good correctly built and tuned enclosure would be enough. it doesnt cost that much to do some deadening, and if there are no rattles, or vibrations then you probably dont have to worry about it.

 

[AcuraSubs]

yes a ported box will yield better results USUALLY. no need to bump up to 12s, just a good correctly built and tuned enclosure would be enough. it doesnt cost that much to do some deadening, and if there are no rattles, or vibrations then you probably dont have to worry about it.

Thanks. Also, is rattling usually worse with a sealed or ported box?

 

[mylows10 5,000+ posts]

ported because there is more output from a ported box

 

[AcuraSubs]

ported because there is more output from a ported box

Thanks, they also told me that putting new 10's in a ported box will be more likely to pop than sealed. But could the reason these broke in the first place be due to the small size of my sealed box? Here is a video of my subs, if you skip to about 2:10 you can see the box a bit. Its really small and im wondering if playing them so hard caused too back pressure on the cones. Two 10 inch Memphis subs - YouTube

 

[THATpurpleKUSH 5,000+ posts]

After the shop replaces your gear, I would never go back. I would also learn how to properly set the gains or have someone else do it because it sounds like they dont know how to set gains. PRs will get loud in the right car, I saw 3 sealed PR 12s do 139.9db in a late 90s Camaro on around 1200wrms.

 

[Robert 2001 10+ year member]

Id try porting before I bought larger subs. Sealed box should allow higher power to subs than ported. Soumds like they set the amp where its clipping and possibly the boxes to large or small for the sub. Each sub has min and ax volume for enclosure too large or small sealed or ported can cause issues to small u work the sub harder to put out the same sound too large and your sub unloads prematurely both are an issue.

 

[duanebro 10+ year member]

It's all in the box. Ported are louder than sealed - power handling can be better also. Depends on the setup.