I have a 12" Rockford Fosgate P3 in a 1996 Civic coupe. I've read great reviews about this thing being a powerhouse for the price point, but I'm just not feeling it. After I set the gain on my amp, I can turn my volume up to 38 and the bass is there, but it's just meh. You can't feel it and it's just faintly in the background. I had a single 12" shallow mount JL W3 before that hit harder than this is. I can't seem to understand why a full-sized sub would hit so weak in comparison.
Since I know y'all are going to ask me what equipment I'm using and how I went about setting my gain, here's a bit more info:
Headunit: Pioneer MVH-2300NEX
Speakers: pair of Hertz HSK165's up front
Sub: 12" Rockford Fosgate P3D2 wired to 1 ohm in a 1.5 cu ft. sealed box
Amp: Cerwin-Vega H71200.1D rated at 500 wrms @ 1 ohm (sub), Soundstream TN4.900D rated at 150 wrms/ch @ 4 ohm (speakers)
Front battery: Optima Yellowtop
Rear battery: XS Power
Alternator: 260A @ 1800rpm from Mike Singer and big 3 upgrade in 1/0 awg
Wiring: 1/0 AWG from front battery to rear battery with 4 awg to amps. 10 awg speaker wire throughout.
So when I set the gain on my amp I set the eq on my headunit to flat, with all bass boost set to zero. Perfectly flat. I then used a DD1 to find the max unclipped volume from my headunit to be 38/40. I set the volume to 38, set my in-line bass knob to max, played a 0db 40 Hz sine, and set my gain using the same DD1. Got it as high as it would go without clipping and called it good. Get in the car and the bass is meh. I thought that maybe the sub was out of phase, but it's not. I double-checked my grounds, and they are rock solid. The only way I've been able to get crazy bass, is by turning up the bass boost on my headunit to 3/4 with the volume at 35. When I do that, the P3 wants to rattle my poor Civic apart. I don't want to push the bass boost that high though, fearing that I might clip the signal. Anyone got any idea what I'm doing wrong? This is my first pretty in-depth build, and any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, my door speakers sound great with crazy volume at full-tilt.