Which subwoofer shoulld I go for -- Ascendant Audio, JL, Dayton, other?

[Paradigmonds]

Hello guys,

So, I got paid today and I'm determined to have some bass in my vehicle within the next 7 days. The goal of my setup is sound quality, but I don't want a sub, or subs, that sacrifice output for the ability to be musical and that offer accurate reproduction.

Likely setup will be:

Sealed box -- 1.5-1.75 cu/ft per side

Power -- 700-800 watts per sub

So, here are my current options:

Ascendant Audio Havoc 12 -- $250 -- I've got a guys who is offering a Like-New Ascendant Audio Havoc 12 for $250. I'm a huge fan of Ascendant, as I have run their old Atlas and Avalanche subs and I know that they are great SQ subs in small sealed enclosures. The only problem is that I really intended to get two 12's, so I'm worried that I will want another, and these seem to be difficult to find.

JL Audio W6 12" or 13.5" -- I've found a good number of W6 12's and a few 13.5" online and locally. I can pretty easily find two for around $500 or so. I've heard good things about them and while I have not ever owned JL subs before, I have had friends that did and they were good SQ subs.

JL Audio W7 12" or 13.5" -- I have also found a couple of W7's online. I don't really care for the look of the W7's, and the price is a good bit more, but I don't know if there is that huge of an improvement in SQ from the W6 to the W7.

Dayton Ultimax 12" -- The last option I was looking at were two Dayton Ultimax 12's. I knew a guy who had 2 Dayton 8's back in high school and his bass blew away people who had two 12's or two 15's.............and it sounded unbelievably good. Crystal clear and accurate. My only concern with the Dayton subs is that they seem to require a large amount of space. I'm hoping to have a sealed box size of around 1.75 cu/ft per side, and the Dayton's say they require 2.8 cu/ft per side sealed and 5.58 ported. Thats huge.

There's a few decent deals on Focal subs, PSI subs, and I found a good deal on some Incriminator Audio Death Row 12's.

Anyway, I know I might get a few different opinions, but I'd just like to hear what folks have to say.

Thanks!

Para

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[Nut Hair Trick 10+ year member]

Havoc

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

The dayton specs are IIRC, more for home audio than a car. You can probably do a smaller box, but still the Ultimax wants a box on the larger side. The dayton HO do really well in small ported boxes and are very reasonably priced. For upmost quality that can get get good output, they'd be my choice, if you indeed want quality more than loudness overall. If your looking more for loud than quality, the other choices will all sound good/decent in the right box, in that case I'd go with the havok. w6's are very nice, if you can get a great deal on them go for it.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

c2 audio threatcons sound real nice and get respectably loud in a sealed box on 800 rms.

 

[Paradigmonds]

Just had a guy offer to sell me a fully loaded Dual 1 Ohm Fi Audio BL 12" for $265.00. Never owned a Fi sub before, but I've heard that they make Ascendant, so they must be decent.

Another guy has a Focal 13" 33 KX selling for $435.

Should I consider either of these?

 

[tc300 10+ year member]

ssa icon if you can spend the $$ if not c2 audio threatcon 2

 

[CSCStang]

ssa icon if you can spend the $$ if not c2 audio threatcon 2

Those Threatcons are brutal.

 

[neo_styles 10+ year member]

I'd vote for that BL if you want sheer output, otherwise the Ascendant for an all-around daily. Both subs have a pretty unique signature to them. Don't discount other new option in that range like the SSA GCON, Obsidian OA, Sundown SA, and Dayton HO. Hell, for just a hair over the $250, you could get a pair of the Dayton HO and win on cone area.

 

[Paradigmonds]

Yeah, I'm not looking for brutal. This is a daily driver and I'm looking for decent output, but on a sub with very very good SQ. I want a sub that has super fast attack. I think when alot of people come on here talking about subs, when they say they want something that hits hard, they're talking about getting big SPL on booming tracks. Thats all well and good, and I like that from time to time, as well, but as an SQ guy, you can really tell the difference between a sub that has a very fast attack and one that is just slightly sloppier. Thats one reason that I am leaning toward the Ascendant. When I had my Atlas and Avalanche subs previously, they were just fine in the output category ( especially the Avalanche with enough power into it ), but they were both very quick on a bass slap or hard kick, and even performed extremely well on super fast bass tracks like fast metal and drum and bass.

I still haven't made up my mind, but I will probably buy something before the end of day tomorrow. I've got guys offerring me JL W6's and W7's left and right, and like Neo-Styles said, I've still got the Dayton HO's in my back pocket.

 

[Paradigmonds]

Just bought the Ascendant Havoc for $250. Can't beat that in my opinion, and if it performs like any of my previous Ascendant subs, I know I'll be happy.

Besides, if I decide that I want more output, I'll just search for a matching Havoc 12 and then when I finally find it ( took me about a month for this one ), I'll just build a new box.

 

[tc300 10+ year member]

ssa icon for SQ....

 

[boomzabit 10+ year member]

Man I wish I had a chance to hear/test son of these woofers. I always liked w6's but I bet the Havocs and Icon's would be exceptional as well.

 

[mrpep]

I cant speak for most of those brands but Ive had RF punchs, Pioneers, CVR's , L7's, Cerwin Vegas and a few others brands that dont mean much today. Today I have a JL audio in a JL audio box

and it is very very clean / SQ. Theirs no sloppiness to the bass at all. Its tight, punchy clean crisp bass like I've never heard. I only have a single 10'' and its all I need. This is my 3rd set of tens in my history and the rest have all been 12's and I can say that this JL 10'' sounds like a 12.

HO110-W6v3- Car Audio - Subwoofer Systems - H.O. Wedge

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Why not try the AA sub ported? With the right box you can have output and plenty of SQ....

 

[Paradigmonds]

Why not try the AA sub ported? With the right box you can have output and plenty of SQ....

Actually, that is what I am trying to decide right now. The sub will arrive on Tuesday, so I will be building the box this weekend.

To start, I have always used sealed boxes. I have never once had a ported box in a vehicle that I owned. Now, that doesn't mean I haven't heard subs in ported boxes that sounded nice, but I've also heard alot more subs that sounded like *** that were in ported boxes than I have in sealed boxes. I may lose a little output, but sealed boxes give me the speed and depth and sound quality that I prefer.

Problem is, I keep hearing people try to convince me to "try" ported, and I sort of want to. I really wish that someone could send me plans for a foolproof way to make a ported box that you could flip a door closed and latch it tight, and then you've got your sealed box back. That way I could try it ported and if I didn't like it, switch back to sealed, and back to ported ( if I did like it, or if it worked better for certain applications.

Anyone out there tried something like this? Is it possible?