Needs some help, w6v2 and 500/1?

[cha0 10+ year member]

Well where to start. ive always loved car audio but im a poor college student. my biggest hobby is playing semi pro paintball which is extremley expensive. now that i have a kid on the way im even more poor. so keep that in mind...

well if you didnt put 2 and 2 together after that^, i never had a lot of money to build a nice system. i got 3 12 inch infinity 1230s in a sealed box and a Audiobahn A1300HCT amp last year for like 400 bucks total. i never had any subs so for me it hit "real hard" for me. i dont think the 3 subs and that amp were really compatable. the amp started on fire when i was driving to school one day...

so the 3 12s sat in my room up until last week. i sold all 3 and the box for a hundred bux. i picked up a brand new JL 12w6v2 from a buddy for 200 bucks and a 1 fared cap for 20. basicly just stuff the rich bastard wasnt using. i was planing on getting a JL 500/1 as it seemed to fit it nicley although i really dont know jack about this stuff.

basicly my qustion is this. i know the infinities were complete garbage subs. so with that Audiobahn: A1300HCT amp i had, do you think the new JL set up will be louder or hit harder then the infinities? is this an over all good setup for what im getting the sub for?

im in the process of making a custom fiberglass encloser for the 12. theres a little over a cubic foot so it should be good.

i just want to know how the JL will stack up against the 3 infinities. im thinking that the JL might hit harder seing as it is a higher quality sub. my cousin had 2 10 inch power acoustics that hit harder X 2 then the 3 12s.

Thanks for any insight.

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[amartin_72]

It will be hard to make 1 12 "hit as hard as" 3, But witha w6 its certianly possible if youve built a decent box, although it already seems your heading in the wrong direction with such a small box. In order to make it even as close to as loud shoot for at least 1.75-2ft ported. Sealed, forget it.

 

[amartin_72]

PS the best way to spend your money for a stereo when your on a budget is on the box, the box makes afll the difference, the box is the main competing factor at comps, I really wish someone would have told me that so long ago.

Although the 500/1 is a very good amp, I have owned one, you can get alot more, " reliable, clean" power for your money.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

PS the best way to spend your money for a stereo when your on a budget is on the box, the box makes afll the difference, the box is the main competing factor at comps, I really wish someone would have told me that so long ago.
Although the 500/1 is a very good amp, I have owned one, you can get alot more, " reliable, clean" power for your money.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/word.gif.64b12e39f936af3b4fff38a1c0bd0244.gif to the entirety of the above-quoted post.

Even an entry-level sub in a great enclosure can sound better than a mid-level to top-shelf driver in an inadequate box.

The W6v2 is a really nice subwoofer and deserves a good box, period.

Unless you're getting an outstanding deal on the 500/1 you can do better (looking purely @ output watts vs. dollars)

 

[cha0 10+ year member]

the thing is the 3 12s were not set up properly. i believe my buddy bridged them all 3 of them together. and i think that audiobahn amp underpowered them. but once again im a complete noob when it comes to CA. ill look around on this sight for stuff regarding boxes. thanks.

what kind of amp would you suggest for one of these subs?

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Well, the W6v2 is a DVC 4 Ohm sub so you'll want something that makes an appropriate level of power @ 2 Ohms as the most common method for wiring a single sub like that would be to wire the voice coils in parallel like so:

According to JL's site that driver has a thermal input rating of 400 watts so look for something that makes 400-500 watts @ 2 Ohms.

The list of possibilities on that is pretty long, to tell the truth...

 

[cha0 10+ year member]

so putting it in turms for a retard like myself, any mono amp that handles 4-500 watts RMs at 2 ohms (not 4)

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Correct.

With the specific voice coil configuration on the W6v2 your only wiring options are wiring the coils in parallel to a nominal 2 Ohm load or wiring them in series for a nominal 8 Ohm load. Finding an amp that makes appropriate power @ 8 Ohms could prove a bit problematic //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[cha0 10+ year member]

ok thats easy enough. but just curious, when it comes to the box, what is the biggest factor on how loud it will be. im looking in the enclosure forum and i havnt come accross anything that has really taught me anything yet. do i just want this box to be as big as possible, ported a certain way, ect. what im i looking for specificly box wise. i really wanted to make it out of fiberglass but if a regular square box would be better then ill stick with that. thanks for the help thus far man, i really appreciate it.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

I unfortunately have to admit I know very little about enclosure construction/implementation personally and have to trust my local shop to treat me right on that score.

I do know that the enclosure size has to be appropriate for the driver you intend to have live in it. Bigger can be better to a certain extent but if you go too big your overall substage performance can suffer as a result. It can also be dependant on the amount of power you intend to feed it. A box that has "X" amount of internal volume might be just right for a subwoofer being fed off of "Y" amount of power. Then if you change the power source to something that outputs "Z" amount of watts said enclosure may no longer be the best fit for the application.

As far as porting goes you'll want that porting to be tuned for the specific driver you intend to use (in your case the W6v2). Tune to too high a frequency and you'll create a "one-note wonder" of a box that will only offer great performance at a certain range and outside of that range the output will be less than impressive.

Tune too low and you'll lose the upper range of your substage and the overall setup will suffer for the more-than-obvious sonic gap in between where your mids fall off and the substage picks up.

Other than that I'm sad to say I cannot offer any real specifics and hopefully someone with more enclosure expertise than I possess will chime in.

 

[cha0 10+ year member]

thanks for the info man that really helped. well i have a hundred bux worth of fiberglass into my box so far but i will gladly abondon it if i can make a MDF box that will hit harder...

 

[cha0 10+ year member]

iight, so this appears to be what im looking for?

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-x2526FeJABy/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=120&I=489AP1000M

this is a hell of a lot cheaper then the 500/1

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

iight, so this appears to be what im looking for?
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-x2526FeJABy/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=120&I=489AP1000M

this is a hell of a lot cheaper then the 500/1

I'm actually a pretty big fan of Profile's amps for reliable power on a budget. I've owned several of their California-series amps through the years and haven't had issues with any of them. The upside to buying through Crutchfield is that Profile extends their regular 1-year warranty to a 3-year parts and labor warranty for all amps purchased through Crutchfield. I don't know why but as it's in the buyer's favor I've never questioned their thinking on it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Additionally if cosmetics isn't of any great import to you if you'll look at the smaller print under the pricing for that AP1000M you've linked to they have one available in their "Scratch & Dent" section for $24 less than the BNIB unit and as per Crutchfield policy it will still carry the same 3-year warranty as the never-used unit does.

500w @ 2 ohms for $136+shipping including a 3yr warranty is going to be tough to beat, I'd say.

 

[cha0 10+ year member]

yes i saw the scratch and dent and i give a shit what it looks like. its going to be with my muddy paintball gearbag in the trunk. i think i will go with that. thanks so much man, you just saved me a few hundred bucks from staying away from the 500/1. now all i need is a box and ill be set.

 

[Prowler573 5,000+ posts]

Good luck with it, fella. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Just to add this, though...

Please don't get me wrong and think that I don't think the 500/1 to be a rock-solid amp because that simply isn't so. It inarguably is as are the rest of the same line of amplifiers from JL. The ability to make the full 500 watts when presented with any load between 4 and 1.5 Ohms is certainly handy (a feature of all of the Slash-series JL amps) but if that specific ability isn't particularly a necessity then there's comparable power to be found cheaper elsewhere.

That last bit is the only reason I personally somewhat steer people away from JL unless they just want JL amps for cosmetic reasons or something of that ilk.