The end

This is the end of the blog and much of what I have told you most likely has alot of people who think differently and have their own opinion, but much of car audio is opinion based and that the beauty of it. Car audio is a form of self expression, just as much as painting or any other art form. People who are truely bassheads or even SQ junkies all have their favorite brands such as myself.
I love old school car audio such as Fi, Orion, and Soundstream. If the newer generation got into the old brands then I think the original idea of car audio competitions would come back. People who go to competition just for the trophy dont deserve a trophy. The real people are like some friends that I have made at these competitions, that would help me just out of sheer kindness.

Noncircluar Subwoofers

There has been a huge rush for the next greatest design for a subwoofer. Kicker has been a poineer for the solobaric line of subwoofers. The Solobaric line of subs starts with the lowest ranking square sub on the market which is an L3, which is very comparable to kickers CVT line of subwoofer. The next line of subwoofers kicker has is the L5 and that is comparable to a CVR. The L7 is by far the best for the average person and is almost equal to a CVX. Kicker came out with a monster of a subwoofer that is absolutly a monster, the Solo X is by far the biggest square subwoofer on the market.

Kicker isnt the only brand that is pumping out subwoofers that arent circular. Brands such as Hifonics and Xant and Mtx are now using the square shape, but Xant is also making a triangular subwoofer also. Sony also makes a pentagonal subwoofer. The only reason why somebody would want to have a square subwoofer is to have more cone area then a circle. The downfalls to having a square sub is that the corners wear out fast on the cone.

Loudest 8 inch Subwoofer

I tested three 8 inch subwoofers in an spl and sq settings. I used a jl 1000v1 amp on all the subs and kept it at the same settings. I also used a box that was built to 1.66 cubes and tuned to 37 hertz. I tested all the subwoofers in the same car on the same day to prevent any anomalies. I mounted the meter on the windshield of the car and hooked up a Alpine type r. The song I played was a hertz sweep from 100 hertz to 10 hertz and on the first test the Alpine hit a 137.2 db. Then I hooked up a Sundown audio and on its first test 138.8 db. The last sub I hooked kicker L7 the kicker did the worst and distorted really bad and hit a 134.1 db. All the subs tested well except the kicker which highly surprised me but the best bet from this group would be the Sundown Audio. The Alpine being the cheapest out of the bunch is most likely the best bang for your buck.

One of my friends came by with his digital designs 8 inch and just for grins we metered his sub and it hit a 142.2, which blew all the other subs out of the water and sounded amazing. I believe 8 inch subwoofers are way under rated for their abilities and need a person that will take his time and not expect huge deep bass out of them.

Electrical System

The easiest way to upgrade an electrical system is to increase the alternator output and the big three upgrade. The big three upgrade is running a ground wire that is bigger then stock from the engine block to the battery, and one from the body of the car to the battery, and last one from the back of the alternator to the positive on the battery. My car came with a 150 amp stock alternator but then it was enough so I decided to upgrade to a 320 amp Mechman alternator. Mechman is a huge name in car audio alternators and is the best in my opinion. After the higher output alternator you should look at using larger cable or power wire. If you are still energy starved then its time for more batteries or a power capacitor.

 A power cap is pretty much the same as a battery just not as effective. I prefer batteries because of the amount of power you can store. Capacitors have a bad habit of blowing up when over charged, and with batteries the only way you can over charge one is if it hits 20 volts and melts. I had a total of 5 extra batteries in my rig but then I decided it was killing my fuel milage to much so Im now only running 3. Each one of my batteries discharge 300 amps a second for 10 minutes.

Cheap Brands You Should Know

This article will tell you about some less expensive brands that put out good power for less dough. If you are running a little low on cash or just didnt have a lot to begin with and want to do a system in your car here are some brands that will fit your needs. Legacy is a brand that some times ends up being a first system for alot of people and for good reason. The price is down right dirt cheap but so is thequality the amps have small boards and high power consumption. The subs are thin coned and cheaply put together and easily blow up. Pioneer is another brand that is cheap but in this case you get a good deal. The pioneer subs handle good amounts of power and produce some what clean bass. The amps are very nice and do quite well for the price range.

A brand I started with was Planet Audio and for good reason. The older Planet audio amps were very nice and produced good bass, but the new amps arent very good and I do not recommend them. The Big Bang series for subs is most likely their best and do very well in all categories. Power Accoustik is a brand that is lesser known and can impress people very much. I have four Power Accoustik 12 inch subwoofer that were heavily modded by myself to handle more watts. The reason why I pickId these subs were because of the spider size, the cone depth and the coil configuration. The subwoofers arent "stock" and do handle five times more power then when I first got them but it was cheaper then buying subwoofer that have the same capabilities

Component speakers and midbass

Component speakers are the speakers that produce vocals or anything that isnt a bass frequency. There are many different brands that sell these speakers and most every brand does. Some of the "big" brands are kicker, rockford, or JL audio but those brands dont always do the best job and there are others that will do better such as Re Audio, Orion, or Gonzo. Re Audio makes speakers that will put JL to shame with there midbass or high notes at about half the cost. The warranty on Re Audio is second to none and has a dont ask dont tell policy, you dont need to say how the speakers blew up, all you have to do is send them in and they will replace them.

Orion is an old brand and has some of the best 6.5 inch and tweeter sets out there. The set comes with everything you need to install them, including a passive crossover. Orions cost is its only downfall, still it is less then JL but its up there. Gonzo is the last but not least. Gonzo is a brand made by Robot underground. Anyone who is into car audio and has been for awhile knows of the wonders at the Underground. These speakers handle more watts then any speaker on the market. I have a set of 6x9s and they hit harder then rockford 10's and put out alot of vocals.

Enclosures

In the world of car audio the type of enclosure is a huge varible on what the resulting sound will be. The enclosure or box is most commonly made out of a high density wood particle board or MDF board. The size of the woofer makes a difference is the thickness of the box. If you want the woofer to hit a lower note the box needs to be a little bit bigger, and if you want the box to hit higher notes you would build the box smaller. I build most of my boxes to get the most sound with the best sound quality out of each box. The best frequency for 12 inch subwoofers is between 45-47 hertz. The way you would obtain this frequency is to build the box and figure out how large the port needs to be.

The box i have currently is 12.8 cubic feet with a 48 by 4 inch port tuned to 46.3 hertz. I built the box so that each woofer is getting the same amount of airspace after the displacment of the magnets on the subs. Sealed boxes are normaly smaller then slotted or ported boxes and wont hit as low but work well in tight spaces, such as behind a seat in a pickup. The box will make or break a system, and can make cheaper subs in a better box sound better then a good pair of subs in a terrible box.

Multiple Amps and Straping amps

There are many reasons why you would want to run more then one amp at a time, whether it be different size subs or even door speakers. The door speakers use a different channel on the HU (head unit) to receive a much different signal then the subwoofer channel. An amp sometimes can be used as either a sub amp or a door speaker amp, it just depends on the controls on the amp. Most amps are meant to either be a subwoofer amp or a door speaker amp. The best subwoofer amps for the most part are monoblock amplifiers. A monoblock only has one speaker output channel and uses the inputted power much better.

To strap two amps together there are two ways to do so that work better then any other ways. The two ways both need to have amps that are the same output power.The first way is the easiest and you need two amps that have a master and slave mode. A master amp is the amp tat you tune and it will send out a signal too the slave amp. The slave amp's board is dead and isnt able to be tuned without tuning the master amp. The master amp is full positive, which means the speaker terminals that are positive are still positive, but you run the negative into the slave amps negative speaker terminals. The slave amp's positive is now the negatives for the subwoofers. The other way is to use a multimeter to measure the output of both amps and equal them out by adjusting the gains.

Orion Vs. Fi Btl

Orion is one of the longest running quality car audio companies out there, and they know what they are doing. Orion has a line of subwoofers named HCCA and these vary from a 10 inch to a 15. Each one of the woofers are very conservatively rated for watts the 12 inch and 15 inch are rated at 2000 watts rms and 4000 watt peak power handling. These woofers are very expensive but the performance is second to none. If you buy a Ferrari of course you would expect it to be more expensive then your common Ford. The sensitivity on these woofers are at 84.7 which is challenging the JL W7 that many people call the best woofer ever made but its peak is only 1500 watts, these woofers are no joke. The Orion hcca amps also put out big power the 2500 watt mono block draws less amps then any other amp is its class. Orions amps use to be referred to as "cheater" amps because their rated power was much less then their actual output giving the edge to any competitor.

Fi btl is a subwoofer brand that has been around for some time now and have made a name for strict competition quality.They make 8 inch and all the way up to 18 inch, and each subwoofer once again is under rated. The most common product you will see from Fi Audio is there 12s and 18 inch woofers. The 12 and 18 both handle 2000 watts and 4000 peak but the 18 has more cone area thus moving more air. The highest quality builders use Fi Btl in their rigs such as Steve Meade, he had 6 eightteen inch woofers and 30,000 watts of power. Fi does not make amps but has released many notices saying that they may start doing so, they claim that none of there amps will be under 2000 watts.

kicker vs rockford

When you think of car audio you think of a couple of big names and Kicker and Rockford Fosgate are huge. The kicker was the first to use a solo baric and also was the first to use a square as a shape for more cone area.Kicker has made many amps and has come along way but by far the largest amp they have made is the Warhorse, and the is a 10000 watt amp at 2 ohms at 14.4 volt which will run 14500 watts at 16 volts.
 Rockford has made a name for itself in car audio for building quality car audio componets. Rockford fosgate was the first to use Titanium in there cones with the T series. The T1 has been understated and uses between 500-1000 watts of clean watts and produces an impressive amount of SQ or SPL from so few of watts. Rockford watts are now being used as a measurement in wattage. Some people say they have 5000 watts or 4500 rockford watts which has many more stipulations. Rockford does make a tk15 which is a hybrid 15,000 watt amp and stores power when not being used and is a worlds first.

Subwoofer size

Many people believe bigger is always better but i have come to know that thats not always true. I have found that a Venom series II 8 inch woofer is a BEAST.(my profile pic) This 8 inch woofer can handle a mind boggling 5000 watts rms, and thats the same as a kicker solo x 18 or a Treo XCT. The differences in sizes can change the sound outcome such as an 18 will hit or produce lower notes then an 8 inch but it varies heavily on the box tuning and size.
In my personal opinion the 12 inch subwoofer is the best versitile size made, and my reseason for saying so is that they will cover a nice low note but also mid and higher bass notes. The Stereo scene is vast and many people have different views but one thing stays the same, and that is everyone who enjoyes a good stereo has common ground..... well atleast until someone starts talking about brands

Reply to jake

Sorry to not explain the terms used the term efficiency means how well the subwoofer or componet uses the power provided or being able to get "louder" on a lower wattage. The voice coil of a subwoofer is the part that takes the power from the amp through the tencil leads and powers the subwoofer and comes in different impedences that is measured in ohms and most commonly you will find a dual 2 or dual 4 coil configuration but they also come in single coil configurations and they come in 2 and 4 but in home stereo and one brand 8 ohm. A decibel is a unit of measure that measaure sound. hope this helps

Solo x vs. Jl w7

The kicker solo x comes in a 12 or 18 inch and the watts range from 2500 rms wattage which would be a constant running wattage and a peak power of 5000 watts, or you can get an 18 inch solo x and the handle 5000 watt rms and 10,000 watt peak. The solo x is a great spl (sound pressure level) subwoofer but due to its lack a flat voice coil it doesnt produce a great SQ (sound quality). If youd like a large amount of brute force sound this would be a great single woofer set up. The solo x has a large magnet structure and this makes it very difficult to mount. The solo x 18 that i owned was 112 pounds and i had the dual two ohm cone the subwoofer was so large it made it difficult to move or mount. if you purchased the 18 from a dealer it would be around $1500.

The JL w7subwoofer comes in a 8,10,12,13 inch cone and most popular is the 13. The JL w7 13 uses 500-1500 watt rms and 3000 watt peak. This sub is highly under rated and can easily push 2000 watts daily with little to no damage to the subwoofer. The subwoofer is amazing for SQ because of its huge flat voice coil and dual 1.5 ohm coils. The JL has a very high efficiency and doesnt take much to get to a higher DB (decibel). The w7 weighs roughly around 78 pounds for a 13 inch woofer it uses a large neodenium magnet. The JL can be purchased for around 750. Personally i have seen a solo x 12 go against a jl w7 at 1000 watts each and the w7 was 2 decibel louder and had better SQ then the solo x. My choice would be for the JL at a 13 but the solo x for the 18 just because of the ahhh factor and brute force.

Not melting down a system

This blog will YES also let you know how to not blow up your stereo and many ways to blow it up. As Edison made the light bulb he said that he found a million ways to not make a light bulb but only one to make one.

Intro

This will be a blog about the Pros and cons of the highest ranking car audio subs and amps. This blog will be based on opinon and facts, but will also have many test done in the duration.