Hey everyone, Im new to posting here but I have been reading and there are alot of people here that now what there talking about.
I want to add some subs and amps to my car but I know nothing at all about car audio and would like some ideas. I wouldn't mind staying in the range 500 to 1000 bones and would likes something decent ( of course ). I have read here that Rockford Fosgate and JL have some really good stuff so maybe just stay with them? I think I might just want 10's, they should be able to provide enough hit for me. Should I go with just a regular box or try and get one made to 'conserve some space (something I wouldn't mind keeping a little of). I have a soundstream VIR-7355NRBT in my dash now so it should be able to run subs and all that. I seen a box on ebay but should I try and get something like that or something better quality?
Well thanks everyone in advance for the help and let me know at all if there is something else you need to know to help you help me.........
Any ideas for a new sub package?
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living_it_up
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:52 pm
- Car: 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 CVT
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living_it_up
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:52 pm
- Car: 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 CVT
Re: (living_it_up)
welp, you have to choose a size for sure, how many watts do you want, do u just want loud, loud and clear or more clear than loud, are you looking for a lil more bass or a lot, do you want sealed or ported, are u installing by yourself, how much room in your trunk would u like to sacrifice.
i can suggest and help with alot of things but its just a matter of you giving some feedback. Everyone hears things differently and its hard to give an opinion because of that. However, people can be pretty good about suggesting opinion on quality of craftsmenship and what not. People tend to agree what sounds best as far as brands and models so in a way, people do here things the same way, but remember it is opinion. Subs are hard to choose without having heard them and store displays are terrible for examples
i can suggest and help with alot of things but its just a matter of you giving some feedback. Everyone hears things differently and its hard to give an opinion because of that. However, people can be pretty good about suggesting opinion on quality of craftsmenship and what not. People tend to agree what sounds best as far as brands and models so in a way, people do here things the same way, but remember it is opinion. Subs are hard to choose without having heard them and store displays are terrible for examples
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living_it_up
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:52 pm
- Car: 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 CVT
Thank you for replying back......... When I said I didn't know anything about audio I wasn't lying, lol. The wattage im not sure about... I mean im sure the higher you go the better right? I want subs that hit hard and solid... not to loud but I want to have the mirrors shake. Sealed or ported I have no idea about, I know one lets more air into to let the sub work better but im not sure how they compare to each other. I im sure I will not be able to install by myself so I will have someone do it for me. For the space in my trunk I would mind have the subs somehow on the side where I could still lay my seats down and put something long in the trunk..... the space is not that serious if I have to give it up its no problem at all.
In the end I would like a set up that provided a increase in bass but nothing to much. Something balanced where if I wanted to I could wake up my neighbor but at the same time something that I could make tame so my wife doesn't complain when she is riding with me, lol.
Thanks again for the help and just let me know if I need to tell you anything else.....
In the end I would like a set up that provided a increase in bass but nothing to much. Something balanced where if I wanted to I could wake up my neighbor but at the same time something that I could make tame so my wife doesn't complain when she is riding with me, lol.
Thanks again for the help and just let me know if I need to tell you anything else.....
Re: (living_it_up)
well, higher wattage isnt always better. Speakers have sensitivty ratings, the higher the sensitivity, the less power is needed to achieve the same volume as those with a lower rating, every 3 decibels higher in sensitivity(spl) half the power is require to achieve the same volume as something with 3db less in sensitivity.
now that that is dispelled, when you purchase an amp it will come with a gain knob, atleast any good amp will. This knob controls how much signal is translated into volume. The goal of this knob is to enable you to have everything in your system peak at the same time so things dont start to distort at different volumes. This is also known as calibrating it. Now, you dont have to do this, you can make it so yours subs peak out at half the volume of your speakers, why, i dont know why you would want to. However, if you find that you have too much bass with it calibrated, you can reduce the gain so the subs dont get as loud when you increase volume. This isnt something you would want to change everytime your wife rides in the car with you since its on the amp. Depending on what subwoofer features your headunit has, you can usually adjust the bass from that, but then again, this is all headunit dependent.
You would be surprised how much bass is really needed to shake your mirrors, not much at all. I had 1000 watts in my old car and i loved it, i have changed a bit, i prefer less bass down and a more accurate system overall, but there are definitly times where i want that 1000 watts bumping.
500-1000 bux will get you a nice system if you purchase stuff on the internet. Space seems to a bit of concern for you so i dont think 15's would be a good option. You can purchase 8's 10's or 12's, 12's will be the most of the time for producing the lower tones. If you want, you can look into slimline woofers, jl has one as well as pioneer and a couple of companies, i just dont know them offhand.
I like sealed boxes because they take up less room than ported boxes. Sealed boxes are able to maintain a fuller freqency range then ported because the port tubes are tuned to certain frequencies, they are also louder than sealed boxes because less power is needed for compression. However, ported boxes tend to be more sloppy than sealed boxes, this usually goes for car audio and not home audio, car audio just doesnt have that type of refinement in enclosures since everyone has a different application.
For your price point, you can look at alpines, jl's, rockford fosgates, soundsplinter, as well as a bunch of other brands. Now keep in mind, there isnt necessarily a benefit of 2 subs over 1, you can have 1 sub beat out 3 subs depending on what kind it is. If you want to, go to http://www.woofersetc.com and peak at the brands that are on there to see what products are offered. Ask questions along the way, they really have a pretty wide selection of stuff. I have never bought from there nor do i think i would, i just like them since they have a good selection.
Amp wise, i like alpine, jl, rockford fosgate, there are many other good brands as well, everyone has a preference and it is NOT worth it to skimp on your amp. Alot of brands are overrated as in they say it produces 4000 watts peak, if you look at their numbers, it doesnt produce anywhere near that in reality. Us Amps are supposed to be good as well and MB Quart. Just peek around.
now that that is dispelled, when you purchase an amp it will come with a gain knob, atleast any good amp will. This knob controls how much signal is translated into volume. The goal of this knob is to enable you to have everything in your system peak at the same time so things dont start to distort at different volumes. This is also known as calibrating it. Now, you dont have to do this, you can make it so yours subs peak out at half the volume of your speakers, why, i dont know why you would want to. However, if you find that you have too much bass with it calibrated, you can reduce the gain so the subs dont get as loud when you increase volume. This isnt something you would want to change everytime your wife rides in the car with you since its on the amp. Depending on what subwoofer features your headunit has, you can usually adjust the bass from that, but then again, this is all headunit dependent.
You would be surprised how much bass is really needed to shake your mirrors, not much at all. I had 1000 watts in my old car and i loved it, i have changed a bit, i prefer less bass down and a more accurate system overall, but there are definitly times where i want that 1000 watts bumping.
500-1000 bux will get you a nice system if you purchase stuff on the internet. Space seems to a bit of concern for you so i dont think 15's would be a good option. You can purchase 8's 10's or 12's, 12's will be the most of the time for producing the lower tones. If you want, you can look into slimline woofers, jl has one as well as pioneer and a couple of companies, i just dont know them offhand.
I like sealed boxes because they take up less room than ported boxes. Sealed boxes are able to maintain a fuller freqency range then ported because the port tubes are tuned to certain frequencies, they are also louder than sealed boxes because less power is needed for compression. However, ported boxes tend to be more sloppy than sealed boxes, this usually goes for car audio and not home audio, car audio just doesnt have that type of refinement in enclosures since everyone has a different application.
For your price point, you can look at alpines, jl's, rockford fosgates, soundsplinter, as well as a bunch of other brands. Now keep in mind, there isnt necessarily a benefit of 2 subs over 1, you can have 1 sub beat out 3 subs depending on what kind it is. If you want to, go to http://www.woofersetc.com and peak at the brands that are on there to see what products are offered. Ask questions along the way, they really have a pretty wide selection of stuff. I have never bought from there nor do i think i would, i just like them since they have a good selection.
Amp wise, i like alpine, jl, rockford fosgate, there are many other good brands as well, everyone has a preference and it is NOT worth it to skimp on your amp. Alot of brands are overrated as in they say it produces 4000 watts peak, if you look at their numbers, it doesnt produce anywhere near that in reality. Us Amps are supposed to be good as well and MB Quart. Just peek around.
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living_it_up
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 12:52 pm
- Car: 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 CVT
Ok you are so much more help then some of these websites I was trying to learn from..... So I understand what your saying about the amps and the sensitivity rating...... but I have another question about amps that maybe you can help me clarify. The channel and the bridging aspects? I have seen mono to 4 channel?
So if an amp said 300w bridgeable 2- channel that would mean that it can hook up to 2 amps of be bridge to just one? but if you hook it up to 2 amps would both be getting 300 or would it be split? Which class would be best for one sub and which one for 2 subs? ( not sure if I want to go with one or 2 ).
Subs...... what is the difference between the ohms and voice coils? In your opinion is there a big deference btwn 10's and 12's?
Thank you very much again for you help
So if an amp said 300w bridgeable 2- channel that would mean that it can hook up to 2 amps of be bridge to just one? but if you hook it up to 2 amps would both be getting 300 or would it be split? Which class would be best for one sub and which one for 2 subs? ( not sure if I want to go with one or 2 ).
Subs...... what is the difference between the ohms and voice coils? In your opinion is there a big deference btwn 10's and 12's?
Thank you very much again for you help
Re: (living_it_up)
Well, bridgable ability is handy in an amp because it allows you to have multiple configurations whether you want subs or speakers or both. Some alpine amps are 5 channels, 4 for speakers and 1 for a subwoofer, pretty handy if you ask me if you dont want or need a high powered sub but want some more thump. Generally speaking, the best and most efficient way of powering your sub would be with a class-d mono amplifier. Class d circuitry is something that i have only seen in mono blocks, if you can get it its great, if you can't no biggie really.
When they say 2 channel bridgable to 300 watts they mean you can combine the left and right channel to create 1 300 watt load. This is usually done by connecting the positive one one channel with the negative on the other channel thus creating the circuit. Good amplifiers are intelligent and will respond to that by knowing its a bridged mode, some amps you have to flip a switch to tell it to run bridged. I dont ever really remember seeing bridged modes with 4 channel amps tbh but im sure they exist in one form or another.
The next concept is tough to grasp and that is speaker impedence and SVC (single voice coil) and DVC (dual voice coil). First off, the lower the impedence the harder they are to drive but the more efficient they are. The higher the impdence the easier they are to drive but are less efficient. If you look at mono amps, many of them give ratings of 8 ohm, 4 ohm, 2 ohm and their respective wattages at each level. You will notice that 2 ohm always produces the most power. The reason SVC and DVC exists is so that you can create different impedences so that you have a wider variety of amps to choose from and lets you wires several subs in different ways to create different loads for your application. This is when you start to get into some math stuff and trying to figure out the different loads. The diff between DVC and SVC is that instead of one binding post with a + and - you have 2 sets on a DVC speaker. The higher powered woofers usually come in DVC and are usually DVC 2ohm or DVC 4 ohm. This is good because usually you can choose a subwoofer that you like and then start loking at amps and when you start comparing amps you can then choose whether you need DVC 2 ohm or DVC 4 ohm. Lower powered subs are generally SVC and offfer about half the configurations that can be done with SVC thus making them less flexible. There is now gain quality wise DVC for SVC so dont make that a main concern. If you have a 300 watt SVC sub, you will have plenty of otions to find an amp just for you.
Personally, i think there is definitly a difference between 10's and 12's, a general rule of thumb is that larger woofers can produce the lower frequencies much better than smaller cones can. That isnt to say and 10 and 12 both cant produce the same frequency, this usually plays a larger role at higher volumes. Since size seems like alil bit of an issue but not too bad, i would look at some 12's. If i had to do things again, i would even look at 15's, i dont think i would go larger than that as the box voume is quite large at that point.
When they say 2 channel bridgable to 300 watts they mean you can combine the left and right channel to create 1 300 watt load. This is usually done by connecting the positive one one channel with the negative on the other channel thus creating the circuit. Good amplifiers are intelligent and will respond to that by knowing its a bridged mode, some amps you have to flip a switch to tell it to run bridged. I dont ever really remember seeing bridged modes with 4 channel amps tbh but im sure they exist in one form or another.
The next concept is tough to grasp and that is speaker impedence and SVC (single voice coil) and DVC (dual voice coil). First off, the lower the impedence the harder they are to drive but the more efficient they are. The higher the impdence the easier they are to drive but are less efficient. If you look at mono amps, many of them give ratings of 8 ohm, 4 ohm, 2 ohm and their respective wattages at each level. You will notice that 2 ohm always produces the most power. The reason SVC and DVC exists is so that you can create different impedences so that you have a wider variety of amps to choose from and lets you wires several subs in different ways to create different loads for your application. This is when you start to get into some math stuff and trying to figure out the different loads. The diff between DVC and SVC is that instead of one binding post with a + and - you have 2 sets on a DVC speaker. The higher powered woofers usually come in DVC and are usually DVC 2ohm or DVC 4 ohm. This is good because usually you can choose a subwoofer that you like and then start loking at amps and when you start comparing amps you can then choose whether you need DVC 2 ohm or DVC 4 ohm. Lower powered subs are generally SVC and offfer about half the configurations that can be done with SVC thus making them less flexible. There is now gain quality wise DVC for SVC so dont make that a main concern. If you have a 300 watt SVC sub, you will have plenty of otions to find an amp just for you.
Personally, i think there is definitly a difference between 10's and 12's, a general rule of thumb is that larger woofers can produce the lower frequencies much better than smaller cones can. That isnt to say and 10 and 12 both cant produce the same frequency, this usually plays a larger role at higher volumes. Since size seems like alil bit of an issue but not too bad, i would look at some 12's. If i had to do things again, i would even look at 15's, i dont think i would go larger than that as the box voume is quite large at that point.