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.