Sa12 replacement

All your bass settings maxed out is why u hear distortion. Gotta have a clean signal going to the woofers

Get a bigger amplifier if you have to max everything.

Thinking about replacing the dual sa 12’s I have they sound noticbly better with the right enclosure and amp but I still hear distortion at certain frequencies but way less now. It sounds good but I want it to sound and feel incredible
I’m thinking the sundown u series 12”s but there seems to be almost no reviews for it except one that says it’s a sa12 on steroids the bigger magnet and more Xmas looks appealing but the cone itself doesn’t look beefy enough

anything that will work with the current enclosure I have now for the dual sa 12’s

4.3 cubic ft tuned to 35hz

Does anyone have any recommendations for two 12” sub drivers that will effortlessly play with no distortion and all bass settings maxed out full tilt and will work with my current enclosure?

Click to expand...

what amp do u have? if u maxing out bass on sa u sure can't push 2 U's you would have to go to 1 U with power you have..

Settings all maxed out must sound horrible or can only be played at very low volume.

Try this...

HU volume as low as possible.

On HU, set all EQ settings at zero.

Place sub volume on HU to maxed.

Turn off all mids/tweets or unplug Mid/tweet RCAS with CAR OFF

On sub amp

Bass boost- Off (low as possible)

subsonic and LPF- set according to box or do a quick read on these two settings (very important or sound will be off)

any other amp settings should be off

With sub volume off, your looking to put the HU volume around 70-75% of the max volume on the HU (example: HU vol of 40 will be set at vol 30).

Now, play a song that you know well. Put HU at the 70% number (example from vol 30) and turn the sub volume up at the amp slowly (mids/tweets still off).

You should be set!

4.3 net for a pair of Sa-12's... tuned to 35hz?

That should do rather well if your levels are set correctly and you got sufficient amp power...



What amp/load are you currently using?

Hows your electrical? Big3? HO alt?

If no to any of these, it's a waste of money buying a pair of U, V or W series.

No point in upgrading subs with amp and thin wires melting or getting loud and having to replace battery every other week.

Wolfram 1500 it sounds way better than the prefab box it was previously in much cleaner but still hear distortion I listen pretty loud most the time the max volume on my car is like 60 and I listen 25-35 most the the time time
I’ll do what you guys recommend to see if it improves sound but I know I’ll probally get the u’s and upgrade the amp shortly after unless anyone can recommend better drivers for the same enclosure

Click to expand...

Most new head units go up to 90% clean on the volume knob (rca outputs wise i mean, if your door speakers are on head unit power than it'll vary depending on the company.

TBH All your settings sound beyond fked up dude. You'll most likely lose loudness going to the Us because you dont have the port to push them, you'll literally notice no difference or maybe even some losses with the so called upgrade. Tune your sh*t right

How did you set the gain on your amp?

With my SA12, I found that a 24 db Linkwitz–Riley (L-R) filter gives me cleaner sounding bass than a Butterworth or similar filter. I get a little more kick with the Butterworth, but at the expense of allowing more distortion by. Same thing with my Sundown SD3 in my truck, although that subwoofer plays a little cleaner up higher. Anything above 75 Hz on my SA12 in its current box, and I notice distortion. I think the box construction, shape of the box, and box port tuning play a huge roll in this. The current box my SA12 is in now is an experimental box that could be built with a little more stiffening, and not have all equal parrelel sides. I do have a DSP and some head units have these LP filter options as well, so you need to experiment with those more and also look hard at that box. You will read about the most experienced people here say over and over, the box makes or breaks how good the bass sounds, irregardless of the subwoofer driver itself.

I found the same thing with my Alpine SWS subwoofer and box construction. It sounded meh, until I built a box that was solid and tuned right for that subwoofer. Now it sounds like it costs way more than I paid for it. Play with the phase relationship too, especially if your front stage has a lot of mid bass. If they are out of phase with each other than the bass will suffer greatly. Same thing goes for the phase for each speaker driver you use. Use AudioControl’s speaker pop app to diagnose this. Best tool I have found for me to quickly find out of phase drivers without having to remove them.

I have it at a little over half over on the amp volume gain, subsonic filter at 25-35hz it’s not marked so hard to tell lpf all the way yeah I like it as boomy as possible no bass boost,on on the hu I have all the treble midbass and bass maxed out it sounds alright with these settings on most frequencies but I can hear some distortion on certain frequencies if I lower it it doesn’t have the punch I crave. It barley has it with the bass maxed out right now it gives a good back/ seat vibration but I want it to really slam and feel it in my face and chest and stomach

Click to expand...

try to get ss filter close to 30-32hz set lp to 80hz (on hu if u can) turn bass boost on hu and amp down to +1 or 2, same with sub volume don't use any preset eq and don't raise manual eq on low freqs, also lower boost on mid and tweet to maybe 1/2 anyway and maybe set hu volume higher 40 or so let the higher hu gain make it louder instead of boost..

try to get ss filter close to 30-32hz set lp to 80hz (on hu if u can) turn bass boost on hu and amp down to +1 or 2, same with sub volume don't use any preset eq and don't raise manual eq on low freqs, also lower boost on mid and tweet to maybe 1/2 anyway and maybe set hu volume higher 40 or so let the higher hu gain make it louder instead of boost..

Click to expand...

Don't you want more output at the HU for Sub Vol output? I would max Sub Volume (not to be confused with HU volume). I noticed when I had Sub Vol @HU at +1 to +3 that I could not get as loud. With Sub Vol @HU maxed, my little truck started to fall apart lol. All other settings never changed, strictly messing with HU Sub Vol and Amp gain.

Maxed Sub Vol @HU got me cleanest and loudest results to the ear (E-40, The Game, YG). I gave the music just in case the type of music plays a role in settings.

Don't you want more output at the HU for Sub Vol output? I would max Sub Volume (not to be confused with HU volume). I noticed when I had Sub Vol @HU at +1 to +3 that I could not get as loud. With Sub Vol @HU maxed, my little truck started to fall apart lol. All other settings never changed, strictly messing with HU Sub Vol and Amp gain.
Maxed Sub Vol @HU got me cleanest and loudest results to the ear (E-40, The Game, YG). I gave the music just in case the type of music plays a role in settings.

Click to expand...

lol when i 1st got my hu i set sub volume at +10 too.. any boost or in that case it's more like boosting gain to sub i'd think which will make u clip.. u can set gain with 50hz tone set amp for 1500rms @1 ohm that would be 38.7v on meter., turn all bass boost off, eq's flat, sub volume at 0 is ideal (but since u wanta use it maybe leave it at +5) put hu volume at 35-40 turn gain on amp up or down til meter reads 38.7 or close (unhook speaker wires and just stick meter probes into speaker outputs on amp) once u do this never go above what ever hu volume u set it at and don't boost anything any higher (unless u play rock music or something with very little bass)