So, is my Shiva really supposed to be this quiet?

[leomon 10+ year member]

I know I'm working with an SQ sub here but I expected slightly more on the SPL side. I don't know if anything's wrong but the gains on my U.S. Acoustics amp (giving about 500w RMS to my single Shiva) are halfway up, yet unless the volume is uncomfortably high, I don't really hear any bass. I mean, I guess I can tell that my sub is working but if a random listener were to come in to my car, I doubt they'd say anything along the lines of "nice sub". At a volume level of 20 or more, I can start getting a decent amount of bass. The sub is properly wired for a 4 ohm load and amp is bridged. Using a CDA-9807 as my head unit which has a 4v sub preout. I've used a 1.5 cube box and even moved down to a 1 cube box (where it's at currently) since a knowledgeable friend told me a small sealed box would get me slightly more SPL.

Any suggestions?

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[Mark_ab 5,000+ posts]

What car is it, how is it positioned?

500W should be more than enough to rattle your car around. How does the sub sound when you have your trunk open and you're looking at the driver?

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by leomon I know I'm working with an SQ sub here but I expected slightly more on the SPL side. I don't know if anything's wrong but the gains on my U.S. Acoustics amp (giving about 500w RMS to my single Shiva) are halfway up, yet unless the volume is uncomfortably high, I don't really hear any bass. I mean, I guess I can tell that my sub is working but if a random listener were to come in to my car, I doubt they'd say anything along the lines of "nice sub". At a volume level of 20 or more, I can start getting a decent amount of bass. The sub is properly wired for a 4 ohm load and amp is bridged. Using a CDA-9807 as my head unit which has a 4v sub preout. I've used a 1.5 cube box and even moved down to a 1 cube box (where it's at currently) since a knowledgeable friend told me a small sealed box would get me slightly more SPL.

 

Any suggestions?

hmm, it looks like you might have reversed the polarity of the speakers. switch the positive (+) and negative(-) and keep us updated on it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[MikeofTulsa Moderator]

small sealed box would = less spl than a larger sealed box......might think about going ported but port low to say 28-33hz if your looking for a bit more spl but maintaining sq

 

[leomon 10+ year member]

Originally posted by Mark_ab What car is it, how is it positioned?

500W should be more than enough to rattle your car around. How does the sub sound when you have your trunk open and you're looking at the driver?

Subs facing rear of the car which is an 02 Mustang GT. Sub sounds fine with the trunk open, don't think cancellation is an issue...As far as reversed polarity goes, I doubt that's the problem since my wire has + and - marked so I don't think I fubared anything up there. Wouldn't that absolutely kill my bass though? I can get decent bass at volume levels of 20+ on my Alpine but that's just too high for everyday listening for me. I'll double check though when I have the time (even the 1 cube box is a pain in the *** to get out thanks to my tiny trunk opening). Porting really isn't an option for now either since I don't have the materials needed to make another box and don't feel like buying pre-fab.

Am I just expecting too much? For those with Alpine HUs, my daily driving volume I'd say is around 12-13 at most. Maybe I just can't get any bass with volume that low?

 

[Jdg784 10+ year member]

I'm not sure if your HU has all the features my 7894 does, but it has independent crossovers and volume for the subwoofer. Try cutting the bass from your speakers, cutting the high frequencies (above about 120 hz) from the sub, should make quite a difference. I've got my gains at about half on the JBL 12001. to a 15" XXX in a sealed 3 cube box and you can feel the bass at 12-13 depending on the music, sounds good but not too loud. At 16 or above, it starts to hit pretty hard, 21 and up..and it just pounds.

 

[leomon 10+ year member]

Well sub volume is at +15 (max), I'll try putting the cut off frequency at 120 Hz. Speaker bass is already at 0. On a side note, I have the low pass filter on my amp set to 80 Hz, should I raise it to 150? Also, do you use blackout mode or any of the preset "bass types"?

 

[Jdg784 10+ year member]

I don't use the preset bass types, the 7894 has the Bass engine plus, so I just set my bass at -2, treble at 0, and adjust the bass timing. Sounds like you need to turn up the gains on your amp. 80 hz might be a little low, you're cutting out about 40 hz worth of frequencies that the shiva can easily reproduce. And Blackout..very rarely, haven't bothered to check whether or not it makes a difference in output.

 

[leomon 10+ year member]

Originally posted by Jdg784 I don't use the preset bass types, the 7894 has the Bass engine plus, so I just set my bass at -2, treble at 0, and adjust the bass timing. Sounds like you need to turn up the gains on your amp. 80 hz might be a little low, you're cutting out about 40 hz worth of frequencies that the shiva can easily reproduce. And Blackout..very rarely, haven't bothered to check whether or not it makes a difference in output.

The 9807 has the Bass Engine so I guess I'll mess with it more. Going back to your previous post though, it's made me think that I'm getting the output I should be getting. If an XXX with BP1200.1 sounds good "but not too loud" at 12-13 then a comparitively wimpy Shiva getting 500w RMS doesn't sound like it would put out much bass.

 

[Jdg784 10+ year member]

Oh, well don't get me wrong, it's loud..and you can certainly feel it..just pales in comparison to about 22..which has caused my rearview mirror to fall off.

 

[infinotize 10+ year member]

I have a Shiva in my car getting 300 watts RMS, with the amp crossover set at about 150-200 hz (little high, but gives me the best results), the gains at about 60-70%, and the "bass boost" at about 4 or 5 (on a scale of 15). I have an ancient Alpine tape HU that I don't know much about, but I have the bass at +1 and normally listen at volumes from 16-20. At 16, most people would probably have no idea there is a subwoofer, at 18 there is significant bass and at 20 you can start to feel the bass, but very slightly. At 20 the music is still not loud, just loud enough to hear clearly over road noise. If I go much past that it can start to get ugly SQ wise, probably becuase of my gains and all, but at moderate volumes with most of the bass devices turned up the Shiva gives me a good sound. Also, I have a 1.25 cu box facing rearward.

Anyways, it seemed very quiet until I boosted the gains a little, added a touch of bass boost, and put +1 on the HU. Moving the x-over up to around 175 also gave me a noticable jump in bass volume. You might have different results though, I have older MB Quarts that get little to no mids/midbass from my HU and had to compensate a little with the sub. Other than that, if you have it all hooked in right 500 watts should make that sucker pretty loud

 

[gellis4 10+ year member]

My friends have had problems w/ alpines HU's and the amount of bass that they put out. One of them had 3 Type-R 10"s, and a Pioneer H/U and it was loud, he switched to an alpine H/U, and there was like zero bass.. he immediately bought another Pioneer deck and sold the Alpine, bass was killer. (he has the older 1500w Alpine amp). another friend had an Alpine H/U, and there was practically no bass from his Comp VR, he switched to a Pioneer H/U, and it slammed compaired to the Alpine.

I don't know if they just didn't know how to setup the H/U, but everybody in my area has has way better results w/ Pioneer heads.

 

[ASDF12345 10+ year member]

almost garuntee your box is too small.

 

[ws140 10+ year member]

I got an alpine h/u and for 2 kicker comps I got good bass. I maen you really feel it at 20+ on the volume up to 35.

 

[bootleg 10+ year member]

Try to open the rear arm rest, you know, you can open it and see into the trunk. Try that, you might have a problem with it not being albe to get thru the seats. Or you might try to take out the rear speakers so you have two ports in the deck or just cut new holes and dress them up for ports. I have that issue with a lot of people I install to.