Question about underpowering BTL

[46panel 10+ year member]

I recently heard a new BTL 18" in a wall in a suv behind the second row of seats that was done by a young kid...(I am one as well tho). He blew his RF t2001bd and had it playing on a borrowed mtx amp that was only pushing around 800 watts. It still was dang loud, sounded decent and definetly louder then my two T1 12's off a T1001bd. Ever since I heard it I planned on getting two 18's. I have one of the older style directed 2400D amplifiers that actually put their rated power of 2400 at 2 ohms. I have heard that the BTL is much more effiecient then the BL and most people recommend just getting the BTL . My first plan was to get two BL's but now after thinking about it I really want the BTL's cuz I know I would want to upgrade my amp eventually. After hearing only one 18 BTL off 800 watts I just know that two off 1200 a peiece would be very nice. I know that power would be better for a Q or BL but I know that I would get more power eventually. I plan on walling off my car I have already designed a few boxes that would work. Around 14 cubes after sub and port, tuned to 33. I will do the big three for now and have a solid battery under the hood as well as one in the back and then when I do upgrade my amp, I would get a high output alt. I would set my amp correctly cuz I know it would not even come close to powering them all the way and wouldnt want to send it a bad signal, but I'm sure it would still be dang loud and leave room to upgrade. Anyways hopefully someone can give me reassurance to get the BTL's.

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[DDeitz 10+ year member]

first off.....paragraphs sir! second...you answered your own question

 

[46panel 10+ year member]

Sorry, and thanks for the opinion.

 

[Andrew12 10+ year member]

Sure why not? You've heard it and said you liked it so go for it. Just make sure that you're not trying to over play on it with the smaller amp to avoid clipping and damaging your equiptment

 

[46panel 10+ year member]

Sounds good, so I guess I'm going with the BTL's and hopefully they will do the job with 1200 a piece for now.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Did a box for an 18" BTL earlier this year and he only had 1200watts and it hit pretty hard, but the box was 8.5cubes, so that helped some. In a "smaller" box like yours they'll want/take MUCH more power.

Will just motivate you to upgrade amps...

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

I recently heard a new BTL 18" in a wall in a suv behind the second row of seats that was done by a young kid...(I am one as well tho). He blew his RF t2001bd and had it playing on a borrowed mtx amp that was only pushing around 800 watts. It still was dang loud, sounded decent and definetly louder then my two T1 12's off a T1001bd. Ever since I heard it I planned on getting two 18's. I have one of the older style directed 2400D amplifiers that actually put their rated power of 2400 at 2 ohms. I have heard that the BTL is much more effiecient then the BL and most people recommend just getting the BTL . My first plan was to get two BL's but now after thinking about it I really want the BTL's cuz I know I would want to upgrade my amp eventually. After hearing only one 18 BTL off 800 watts I just know that two off 1200 a peiece would be very nice. I know that power would be better for a Q or BL but I know that I would get more power eventually. I plan on walling off my car I have already designed a few boxes that would work. Around 14 cubes after sub and port, tuned to 33. I will do the big three for now and have a solid battery under the hood as well as one in the back and then when I do upgrade my amp, I would get a high output alt. I would set my amp correctly cuz I know it would not even come close to powering them all the way and wouldnt want to send it a bad signal, but I'm sure it would still be dang loud and leave room to upgrade. Anyways hopefully someone can give me reassurance to get the BTL's.

If your going to give them the power down the road then go for it. But otherwise dont waste your time, get Q's or BL's.

BTLs need a lot of power to get moving. Anything less than 2krms its going to be laughing at. So in that case, get something else.

Not to mention, if you want to power them properly down the road, your gonna need between 5-6k for them, which is going to require a beefy electrical to support.

Which is going to be a big chunk of change.

Dont waste your money, just get a pair of Q's or BL's, they are more musical anyways and you will save //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/greedy.gif.5a53e6246569d7ab79867170f3b06629.gif:greedy: while still breaking 50's if you know what your doing.

That or just get 1 BTL.

Whats your electrical consist of right now?

 

[fbi90909 5,000+ posts]

i have to agree with mikeyb, if you don't have the proper power for a btl don't bother. btl's are nice but i myself wouldn't recommend them unless if your going for spl. i'm quite sick of mine and it is true as they are not that musical. people put too much hype in it. if your going to get 2 speakers and run 2400 in total you should look into getting 2 05 18" XXX's.. they will run great on 1200 each and get plenty loud and sound **** good while doing it.

 

[46panel 10+ year member]

Hmm...thats the thing I never heard a BL to compare to the BTL. I just read that the BTL gets a lot louder (with more power tho). I've read people comparing two BL's to one BTL and say that it should get louder but I want it to be a lot louder then the other kids I heard with the one BTL.

At first I was wanting it to sound good also, but now im like 70 spl 30 sq, I'd spend no more then 900 on subs,gonna be walling off the car. With 2400 watts, whats gonna give me the loudest set up and still not be absolutely awful on music. I'm leaning back towards the BL's. Can the sq between the BL and BTL be noticed.

My electrical will consist of a solid battery up front and another in the rear along with the big 3, I'm in the process of getting a new car so not sure exactly yet, but I know it will have to be up to par even with 2400.

The reason I was wanting the BTL's is because when I do get that itch to upgrade all i'd have to do is get a different amp. Hopefully with the BL's or whatever else I decide I wont want to change for a while.

Give me some more opinions guys.

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

Hmm...thats the thing I never heard a BL to compare to the BTL. I just read that the BTL gets a lot louder (with more power tho). I've read people comparing two BL's to one BTL and say that it should get louder but I want it to be a lot louder then the other kids I heard with the one BTL.
At first I was wanting it to sound good also, but now im like 70 spl 30 sq, I'd spend no more then 900 on subs,gonna be walling off the car. With 2400 watts, whats gonna give me the loudest set up and still not be absolutely awful on music. I'm leaning back towards the BL's. Can the sq between the BL and BTL be noticed.

My electrical will consist of a solid battery up front and another in the rear along with the big 3, I'm in the process of getting a new car so not sure exactly yet, but I know it will have to be up to par even with 2400.

The reason I was wanting the BTL's is because when I do get that itch to upgrade all i'd have to do is get a different amp. Hopefully with the BL's or whatever else I decide I wont want to change for a while.

Give me some more opinions guys.

With more power on them, yes, the BTL's will get louder. But off 1200-1500wrms a piece, a pair of BL's would have the potential to be much louder than a single BTL off that same amount of power. Cone area > All

Honestly, stick with a pair of BL's, in the long run they will be best for you imo. The BTL is a sick woofer, no doubt, its just not as suited for daily use as a BL would be.

The BTL is power hungry and to run a pair of them the right way your going to have to spend a lot of money, a hell of a lot more than running a pair of BL's.

Get the BL's and if you want to upgrade in the future, sell them and swap in something different if you upgrade your power.

First step is first, get the electrical system and power together, choose the woofers from there. If you know your going to upgrade, why not just save up the money from the get go and just do it how you want?

Thats what I would do.

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

BTW what kind of vehicle do you plan on putting this all in?

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

i have to agree with mikeyb, if you don't have the proper power for a btl don't bother. btl's are nice but i myself wouldn't recommend them unless if your going for spl. i'm quite sick of mine and it is true as they are not that musical. people put too much hype in it. if your going to get 2 speakers and run 2400 in total you should look into getting 2 05 18" XXX's.. they will run great on 1200 each and get plenty loud and sound **** good while doing it.

Exactly, at first I was amazed at the authority and low end of it, but I got bored quick.

It has a very peaky upper end, really just has too stiff of a suspension imo to get that musical. The low end is were it shines, but it wont shine there unless it has the power on it to dig down low.

After running mine in my wall for a few months I got sick of it and now look at what I have //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

The BTL is really suited, in a daily environment, for someone who is all about SPL and really doesnt care about the response in their system. Not to say you cant make them sound pretty good, because you can, but you have to tune very low to eliminate the peak that it has in the upper end.

But doing that will bring most of the output down to the lower end, and overall it wont be as loud.

But to be honest, an 18" BTL tuned

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Everyone use to say the MT's required lots of power to 'get them going' too... until some folks at RE did a side-by-side comparison and the MT came out as their loudest speaker on 1000 watts.

Just because a BTL can take gross amounts of power, dont assume it requires gross amounts of power to get good performance. The size/alignment/tuning of his box will make a much bigger difference on system efficiency than will the raw driver anyway.

 

[MikeyB 5,000+ posts]

Everyone use to say the MT's required lots of power to 'get them going' too... until some folks at RE did a side-by-side comparison and the MT came out as their loudest speaker on 1000 watts.
Just because a BTL can take gross amounts of power, dont assume it requires gross amounts of power to get good performance. The size/alignment/tuning of his box will make a much bigger difference on system efficiency than will the raw driver anyway.

True, just with my experience with the BTL, due to the stiffness of the suspension, it took lots of power to really get the low end out of it.

Its hard to compare it to another driver off the same amount of power, but its clear that you wont get near the same performance or low end ability out of it with little power. (Though it may indeed out perform another driver off the same power heads up)

It just seems like a waste to me to grossly under power it.

But to the OP, if you really do plan on upgrading your electrical and adding another amp down the line, then the BTL wont be a bad choice, I just really dont favor it all that much for daily use, unless your tuning it really low. Thats just me personally though, and to each their own.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

But to talk 'real wattage' when I clamped my KX 2500 (which birth sheets have claimed up to 2900wrms @ 2ohm) on my BTL, at most it was seeing 1660wrms.

But that thing did 'SLAM' the low end like no other driver Ive heard. It has tons of authority, I just dont personally like that with all music.

 

[46panel 10+ year member]

Gosh this sucks, I guess since I wont be getting them till december I can think about it.

I would really like to put them in my panel truck but dont want to tear that all out just to have a big system in there, so its going to be going in my car which will either be a dodge avenger if I decide to get it fixed or some other car I buy which is what I would rather do. No matter what I'm going to wall it cuz I have no need for my back seat in a car.

I listen to rap prolly 75% of the time and 25% other stuff. I planned on tuning between 32-34ish, but if people think with that little power it wont hit the lows I could tune 30-32ish. I mean if the BTL's being underpowered gets just as loud or close to the BL's being powered good I will just get the BTL's and get another amp in the future.

The BTL I heard I agree didnt sound like the best thing in the world but it was still able to play pretty much anything thrown at it, and that was with only 800 watts.