2 L5s or 1 L7 8inch?

[razah9]

I'm looking to add some bass to my car. I listen to mostly Techno soI was told the smaller subs like 8" & 10"s hit faster. Then they said8" solo-barics sound like 10"s and 10"s sound like 12"s. So I guessa Solo-Baric 8" would be perfect.

I want to know what's better, 2 L5s on the sides in thier own boxout of the way or should I just do 1 L7 8". Here's what I'm looking at:

ONE8" L7 $170 2-Ohmhttp://www.hookedontronics.com...2-OhmKicker ZX500.1 $240http://www.amazon.com/Kicker-Z...r=1-1TOTAL:$410

TWO2 8" L5s $180 4-Ohmhttp://www.hookedontronics.com...18797Kicker ZX550.2 $200http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...eller=TOTAL:$380

[Looneybomber]

**Everything I'm about to say is assuming the subwoofers motor is of high quality and strong enough to properly move the cone.**

8's vs 12's vs 18's. Which one will "hit" harder?

"Hit" is the all encompassing laymans way of saying fast transient response and low group delay.

"muddy" is encompassing of high group delay, low transient response, and/or high distortion.

So the quick and easy answer is the bigger the woofer the better! Sound is created by the compression/decompression of air. The bigger the woofer, the more piston area it has, so the more air it can compress given the same amount of stroke.

For example, if an 18" moves 3mm, it will displace ~360cm^3 of air. An 8" L5/L7 would have to move ~13mm's. So will the 18's cone move the distance of 3mm faster than the L7's cone will move 13mm? That 8" L7 will have to move over 4 times faster than the 18 just to equal it in transient response with the same SPL. If it only moves 3 times faster, the bass will sound more "muddy" from the L7 than from an ordinary 18" woofer.

The other thing to mention, the farther a cone moves, the more distortion it produces and thus the worse it sounds. So not only will a quality 18 play louder than an 8" L7, it will be "tighter" and cleaner. Both mathematics and objective testing proves it. Bigger is better all the way around!

I have gotten into an arguement before on here about size. Bigger has it's advantages so long as the motor is up to the challenge. Some manufactures put on motors that arent strong enough to move those big cones and the air, which is why people typically think big woofers sound muddy. In those instances, I've recommended 2, 12's over a single 18.

But again, when saying bigger is better, I'm talking quality speaker drivers here, and not these cheap-o things that have been produced. My vote goes for dual 12's or a single 15, say the Creative Sound Solution's SDX-15. I too listen to a lot of techno; I have two SDX-15's and am pushing around 2000w. It does the job...in my house

[razah9]

I'm not looking for a 2k watt system just alittle something toboost the stock system. Thanks for all that great informationI appreciate it. Would one SDX-10 -http://www.creativesound.ca/de...SDX10Be better than 2 8" L7s?

Wish the site gave power details.

[Looneybomber]

I don't know all the specs on the 8"L5, mostly because I haven't looked them up. Though, two 8"L5's vs. a single SDX-10...Hmm, I may have to lean towards the L5's. But, I would take two SDX-10's over two 8"L5's any day.

On Bob's website, the front page lists a little info about that SDX-10.http://www.creativesound.ca/index.htmlFs 26 Hz, Qes 0.47, Qms 4, Qts 0.42, Vas 53 l, Re 3.5 ohms, Xmax 18.4mm, <--- This is important to know!Sd 300 sq cm, Le 1.42 mH, BL 11.8 Tm, Mms 112 g, Pe 300 watts

He specs it at 300w, but that's just a thermal rating. It'll handle quite a bit more power peak. For example, if you played a 600w sine wave at a 50% duty cycle (1 second on, 1 second off) that would result in 300w RMS. You gave the driver 600w, but in the duration of 2 seconds, it averaged 300w, which is that drivers heat disipation limit.

Because of the nature of music, you can typically aim for 3x what the driver's thermal rating is. Depending on enclosure and the driver's excursion capabilities, that could be 2x, or it could also be 10x, so if you're wanting to push a driver to it's limits, you need to know what you're doing so you don't release the magic smoke that makes sub drivers work. But since you're just wanting a little extra thump, I'm sure you'll be fine.

If you have questions, give Bob, the owner of Creative Sound Solutions, a call. I've talked to him a couple times myself. Nice guy and the best customer service I've ever seen.

[Looneybomber]

I just found some specs on the L5http://www.thielesmall.com/inc...ype=1

Production status Active 2003 Nom. diamerer [inch] 8 Vas [Liters] 15,904 Qts 0,642 Qes 0,692 Qms 8,873 Fs [Hz] 38,9 Sensitivity [dB] 83,8 Max Power [W] 150 Power definition RMS Lower freq [Hz] 28 Upper freq [Hz] 100 Rec. Filter freq [Hz] 60- 80 Hz xmax [mm] 9,65 <--- There's that number again.

Basically what that tells me is the sdx-10 will move twice as far (within a 70% linear Bl) as will an 8 L5. The long and short is one SDX-10 = two 8"L5's

[Broadfield]

For the love of god stay away from the Solo's. It's the only sub that I have ever carried that has a massive failure rate with consumers. I have no problems what so ever with the Comp VR's.

[NissanS13RB26dett]

well it depends how loud you want it if you want loud go with two because it will move more air and give you a louder sound. but i have 2 l7 12's in my car and i can hardly even stand the volume past 10 on the radio it hurts so bad to turn it up. im a professional installer and i have had nothing but good experiences with kicker solo's

[Broadfield]

im a professional installer and i have had nothing but good experiences with kicker solo's

I am not saying there isn't people out there that have had really good luck with them. I'm just saying that the failure rate to good luck is WAY too high. I have been a installer/owner for almost as long as you have been alive, and Solo's have been by far the worst in failure rate out of any other subwoofer that I carry. Keep in mind that I stopped carrying Kicker a few years back because of this. So maybe they have since fixed the issue. The Kicker Competition, which later turned into the Kicker Comp VR, has always been one of my favorite subs for the money.

[NissanS13RB26dett]

i do agree that the comp vr's are really nice i was just saying that it all really depends on how loud you want to go and how much you really want to spend but i do trust your judgement if you have been the business for as long as you have. if so you might be able to figure this out for me im getting an r32 and want to know the speaker sizes and wire colors im planning on putting a z2, also maybe for an alarm im thinking a viper/python paging unit anything would be cool.

[Looneybomber]

im a professional installer

And yet you say something as meaningless as this?

i have 2 l7 12's in my car and i can hardly even stand the volume past 10 on the radio it hurts so bad to turn it up

That tells me absolutely nothing. Recorded SPL's or even amp outputs (in either watts or volts) could help. Instead, you give us all a worthless number. Sorry to be harsh, I like to point out the short comings of "professionals", but will gladly help amateurs.

More volume funnieshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akaD9v460yI