The Thousand Dollar Sub-stage

[Trepkos 10+ year member]

Ok, Well I had this sub-stage.

1x 15" Fi Q

3.35ft^3 Custom-Made Box(Fitting directly behind the seat)

This box has a 7x7 square port that was 20+ inches long and tuned to 34hz.

All this was powered by a Hifonics Bxi1606d amplifier.

Anyways it didn't turn out as great as I would thought. It wasn't very loud, couldn't hit the lows very smooth and starting clipping pretty easily. So now Im coughing up a good bit of cash on the following:

2x 12" Fi Q's(Yep going with the Fi's again due to large xmax for sealed enclosures)

Dual-Chamber sealed enclosure(1.6ft^3 per chamber after sub displacement).

This box is going to be custom-built. The amplifier powering this will be a AQ2200D mono amplifier which will hopefully supply the subwoofers with around 1100watts a piece. More than enough to get them moving and sounding nice, clean, smooth, and loud.

Any suggestions on this subject? Better amp? Better subs? Better setup as a whole? Not interested in blowthroughs. I just want something thats pretty loud but sounds great while doing it and hits the lows extremely smooth and nice instead of the usual clippy sound that I hear from the usual Jensen, sony xplode setup.

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[cdimic25 10+ year member]

2 9112s. Zapco amps and electrical to boot

 

[chaunb3400 10+ year member]

U want to spend 3k on just a sub stage???

Frontstage>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Sub stage...

 

[zack39648 10+ year member]

**** sorry to hear you couldnt get that 15 slamin this should be pretty loud ...

 

[Cravingbass123]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh theres no such thang as the term substage

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

if you cant get a 15" sub to hit hard. then i dont know what to tell you. sounds like the box was not designed very well. but i dont know anything about speakers.

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

U want to spend 3k on just a sub stage???

Frontstage>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Sub stage...

No not 3k, the title was

"The Thousand Dollar Sub-Stage"

As in 1k. Which is very reasonable for a substage.

And IMO, substages do exist. Just because in the perfect world of SQ it would blend perfectly with the front stage doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It is still there as far as I'm concerned, whether you can position it or not.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

I don't even have $1000 into my subs/amp...

IMO your custom boxes probably aren't being built very well.

Aslo, don't know who setup the amp, but a 1606 shouldn't need to be turned up to the point of clipping on a single Q.

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

1 15" Q in a ported box should be decent for a daily...if anything maybe upgrade to a better amp if that is underpowering it

 

[x2o 10+ year member]

Yeah that amp shouldn't have been clipped as the Q takes like 1000-1200 without the BP Power option. I'm sure the HiFonics could put that out even if it is a bit over rated.

I think you need to get your installs done somewhere else.

And if that 15" Q wasn't getting loud or playing well, i think you need a better box builder //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[Trepkos 10+ year member]

Yeah that amp shouldn't have been clipped as the Q takes like 1000-1200 without the BP Power option. I'm sure the HiFonics could put that out even if it is a bit over rated.
I think you need to get your installs done somewhere else.

And if that 15" Q wasn't getting loud or playing well, i think you need a better box builder //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

No. 1 - Installs are fine, everything else sounds/works fine.

No. 2 - This was the box.

No. 3 - I'm not here to cause negative publicity for my box builder, Hes building me my second sealed box. And there is honestly is no way you can screw up a sealed enclosure.

No. 4 - Ugh, I just used sub-stage as a metaphorical term.

No. 5 - 1k...

No. 6 - My front stage is pretty much complete, unless I go with another comp set in the kick panel.

No. 7 - DD subs in a sealed enclosure? :S

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

so you say everything is not working correctly, then you say everything works fine. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

2 12's is only a 22% increase in cone area, and in a sealed enclosure might not be much louder than a 15 ported on equal power.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

a sealed enclosure with 2x12 woofers versus a single 15 in a ported enclosure will be just about the same SPL level assuming all other factors remain the same.

you wont be getting much more, but you will be out $1000.

 

[Trepkos 10+ year member]

so you say everything is not working correctly, then you say everything works fine. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif
2 12's is only a 22% increase in cone area, and in a sealed enclosure might not be much louder than a 15 ported on equal power.

Front-stage is fine. And I didn't really hear the extremely large output in volume that ported boxes are "famous" for...

But like I said, it isn't a matter of upgrading for the hell of it and being out 1k for the hell of it as much as its a fact of trying to get the sub-stage to actually sound great which it did not before.

There may have been issues with the amplifier, I did trouble shooting, unfortunately i don't have a O-scope or a highly advanced DMM so I could do was use what I read on my rather cheap DMM. I hooked the subwoofer/box up to another amplifier in another truck with no marginal increase in volume. I hooked up the subwoofer to several different amplifiers, took the box and subwoofer and tried it outside, in other vehicles. Still nothing satisfactory.

I'm tired of seeing videos or hearing other system with their cheap Walmart/Pawn shop brand subwoofers and watching them outperform my subwoofers. I'm going with the safest and most foolproof bet here and thats two 12"s in a dual chamber sealed enclosure. So tbh if the 2x 12" subwoofers in the large sealed enclosures perform upto the standard that a 15" in a proper ported enclosure would? Then it would be a success.

I would blame the error on my install, or my wiring, or the head unit if it wasn't for the fact that the sundown amplifier and rainbow comp set, and the x991 were performing just as they should.

 

[WhoSayWho? 5,000+ posts]

a sealed enclosure with 2x12 woofers versus a single 15 in a ported enclosure will be just about the same SPL level assuming all other factors remain the same.
you wont be getting much more, but you will be out $1000.

So what then? Does he just have expectations too high? I wonder about this when people see vids of subs that are in enclosures built for SPL and then compare that to a low tuned box built for a flatter response.

I realize that we are all working at a disadvantage trying to diagnose the issue over the internet.