Car Audio Question for you all

[jamcneely]

Alright when it comes to Car Audio I'll have to admit I'm a novice. I've never really got into much in the past but recently I purchased some subs and an amp. The Subs are Kicker Comp VR's I have 4 of them. The Amp is a BD1500 Watt, the dude I got it from said it was a competition amp, and that it had a voltage mod to push it to 1800 watts.

So, I guess first question, will this amp be enough to push these subs? The amp is a single channel so I would have to run the subs in serries. I know all the stuff works because I heard it in the guy's Suburban before he took them out and sold them to me.

Second, what type of box would be best to run these in, right now I have some custom made sealed boxes, one for each sub. Would these run better in a banpass, or a ported box, or what they're currently in? I have run a banpass box before with a different system, and it was alot of bass, but it was also kind of sloppy bass too.

Third, what would be the best configuration in my trunk for these 4 subs. I was thinking two up against the back of the seat, facing towards the back of the car, and the other two on the sides faceing eachother. I have also seen people run them all facing eachother, would this be better?

Fourth, am I going to have to worry about the pressure in the trunk on the stock 6x9's on the shelf? Is it enough to cause damage to them, and would I have to have a port some where for the pressure?

I guess thats all the questions I have as far as the configuration of the subs go. On a side note does anyone know where I could get a good deck. Right now I have the stock deck which doesn't have any preouts. Its the Bose sound system that came in the GLS Intrigues, so it runs a 10 disk in the trunk(which looks to be a pioneer, just with a differnt cartrige), and some tweeters mounted in the doors too. I'm looking for an after market deck that can still run all that, plus has preouts, and is a double DIN preferably. Any help you guys and can provide would be much appreciated.

[stockgp]

take out the 6by nines. they don't play any real base and you have speakers in the front to play the highs and mids. generaly you want a sealed box if you want to sound good and ported if you want to be loud. bandpass is more for looks and loudness than quality.and if you have a bose system and you are running subs then either you are running off a line level converter, which will give you less signal than buying an aftermarket head unit.

do yourself a favor and get rid of the bose sytem all together. you can buy a head unit that will hook up to you cd changer and will have pre outs to amp your subs, and front speakers if you choose to. plus buying new speakers for the front will sound better than having the stock ones with an extra set of tweeters. think about a component set from memphis or diamond.

as far as head units go...clarion sounds the best. they have non faders for your subs plus they usually have hook ups for front channels, cd changers, tvs, vcrs stuff like that. they just don't have the bells and whistles like dot matrix displays.

oh and if you take out the rear speakers, it's going to rattle like hell. some kind of padding underneath would cure that. and if i'm not mistaken, the factory tweeters that came in your door were ambient, so they don't play any acual sounds, so replace them too.

[Bake82]

C-Bad. That is a great diagram IF his subs are 4 ohm DVC. To help you with how to wire everything, first let us know these things..

 

1. What voice coil configuration are your subs? Daul or single? also what ohms are they? 2 or 4?

2. What ohm load can your amp handle?

3. What ohm load does your amp put out 1800 watts at?

 

Something is telling me it's stable @ 1 ohm and it does 1800 at 1 ohm, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

For your boxes, I'd leave them Sealed. With 4 subs you are GOING TO BE LOUD. And you'll still probably have good SQ. Something you might want to try later is try and do a fiberglass enclosure with an amp rack and everything. I think it would look pretty sweet and maybe invert 2 of the subs or something. Things to think about later on.

 

On to a deck. I'll second stockgp's suggestion on Clarion decks. I went from JVC to Clarion. SOUNDS SOOOOO MUCH BETTER. I went with the 835. Got it for 400 cdn. which seems like a good deal from a local dealer. Do you want to go online or buy at a local shop? If online, http://www.sounddomain.com is fairly cheap and I think you get the required hardware to install it all. and it's authorized so you get the factory warranty. Go with a DIN deck and get a mounting kit, you'll have WAY more options and with a mounting kit it can look good. Anyways I'm gonna shut up now and I hope I helped. Get back to us on the things I said above.

[MommyTaz022200]

I agree with leaving the subs sealed. I have 2 12 inch Rockford Fosgate subs. When I bought them I got a sealed/ported box. Then I saw the bandpass boxes a year later and got one. It was really cool looking, plexi-glass with sound activated lights behind the glass. It made my car light up like a strobe light!, but it sounded like the interior was vibrating instead of the nice bass I had in my old box. After a week I put my subs back and sold the bandpass box for more then I paid for it.

 

Basically if you want nice smooth clear bass = sealed

if you want noise that sounds like you dropped a penny on your speaker cones = bandpass

 

As far as headunits, I also agree you should get an aftermarket. Clarion sounds good and some models look really awesome. I personally think Eclipse is better then Clarion though. Eclipse has better security, when you buy one you pick a CD from your collection and enter it into the deck as your "key CD". Whenever the constant power is disconnected you have to put the key CD in before the deck will allow you to use it, so it's useless to anyone else. Eclipse also will replace your deck if it is stolen by bringing in your police and insurance reports. If a thief steal the deck and sands the serial number off of the deck and it's recovered there is a combination of the buttons you push and the serial number will be displayed on the led screen. When I bought my Eclipse it was at a store that also sells Clarion, and the THD of the top low end Eclipse's were still rated better then any of the other high end decks.

 

I use to work at Electric Ave. in the audio department before they went out of business. So here are some tips so you get what you want and know what your paying for:

1. Go to the store (one that sells higher end aftermarket decks, not BestBuy) and listen to the selections.

2. When you go bring CD's of music YOU usually listen to (with no swearing or they won't let you play it). Stores love to play comercials or mellow music that don't cause distortion, next time your at BestBuy notice how they play a real short music clip of something real mellow and then it switches to an advertisement with a bunch of talking for like 3 minutes. Who buys aftermarket decks so they can listen to commercials?

3. Tell the sales person you want to hear the deck without any amps being used. 99% of stores have every deck running to an amp and then to speakers so you think the deck and speakers are really good and don't distort. Then you get them in your car and you think this is not what it sounded like in the store, but by then it's too late they suckered you so then you'll buy an amp too cause you want the sound you heard at the store.

4. Look at the THD (Thresh Hold Distortion). This is the amount of distortion the deck puts out to the speakers. You want this number to be very small. My deck's is 0.8% and I bought it almost a year ago. The numbers may be even lower now. If you don't see it marked on the sales tag or the box ask to look at the book for the deck. If a deck is even worth concidering the book will have the THD in it's specifications.

[92Cutlass4Dr]

i would also go sealed. the biggest advantage of ported or bandpass is volume, and with 4 subs you won't have a problem getting plenty of volume. As far as the subs wiring, they are dual voice coil and they should get about 350-400 watts each. You need to check ohms on the subs (should be printed on the magnet) and how stable the amp is (that might take a bit more research online).

 

I'd recommend Alpine, Clarion, Pioneer Elite, or Eclipse decks. They're some of the best around and will all sound a lot better than your stock deck.

 

MommyTaz- THD stands for Total Harmonic Distortion and is how far off-pitch the unit is as a result of distortion. THD is not a big issue until it is several percent. And while it should be posted, it doesn't really make or break a deck on its own, but it can be a good sign of how well a product is made. Companies post the number because it looks impressive since it is so small.

[per0781]

I agree with leaving the subs sealed. I have 2 12 inch Rockford Fosgate subs. When I bought them I got a sealed/ported box. Then I saw the bandpass boxes a year later and got one. It was really cool looking, plexi-glass with sound activated lights behind the glass. It made my car light up like a strobe light!, but it sounded like the interior was vibrating instead of the nice bass I had in my old box. After a week I put my subs back and sold the bandpass box for more then I paid for it.

 

Basically if you want nice smooth clear bass = sealed

if you want noise that sounds like you dropped a penny on your speaker cones = bandpass

 

When you had your bandpass box, did you cut the length of the ports according to the Vas and Fs of the speaker? Doing that can make them sound much better.

[jamcneely]

Wow, hell yeah I love this Forum! I put up a topic, come back in a couple days, and I've got 8 replys almost all 4 paragraphs or longer, and some with diagrams to boot. Thanks everyone!

 

Ok, I also got a couple of the store boxes that the subs came in, and on there it says.

 

Kicker CVR 12" 4 ohm DVC woofer

Maximum recommended amplifier power (watts peak)..................800

Maximum recommended amplifier power (watts RMS)...................400

Frequency Response (Hz).......................................................25-500

Mounting depth (in., cm)........................................................6, 15.3

Mounting cutout (in., cm)............................................10-15/16, 27.8

 

I did say I was a novice when it comes to Car Audio. So these questions may sound kind of basic to most of you. First, I'll probably run the subs in parallel like alot of you have sugested, according to CB's diagram (thanks for the excelent diagram, by the way), but what advantge is there to parallel vs. serries? Is it just to get the lower ohm resistance through the whole circuit?

Also, I'll stay with the sealed design. I'll probably make, or purchase better ones in the future though, but I have heard that seal puts out better sound before too. So, with all of you saying that as well just confirms it. 4 subs will definatly put out enough bass for me, but I want it to sound good at the same time.

 

Clarions, eh? I'll have to look into what they have. I'll go to their website and look around. I'll probably buy off the internet, becuase the prices are usually better than in a store, it just sucks not being able to hear the product before you buy it, thats all. I'll also look into what Eclipse has, becuase more than one of you has mentioned those as well.

 

I did get a post back on this same subject on a different forum that suggested maybe running an EQ off of my stock deck so I can get the preouts that I need. I know this a half ass way of going about it, but would that work? If I did, it definatly wouldn't be a permanent install, but I think I would be willing to waste some money on an EQ, so I can get the system running while I figure out what other componets I want.

[MommyTaz022200]

When you had your bandpass box, did you cut the length of the ports according to the Vas and Fs of the speaker? Doing that can make them sound much better.

 

I bought it at Soundworld Moble, which I'm not sure if they have stores all over or not but they do installs and lots of custom work involving Car Audio. (Like installing "built into the trunk" systems). They cut the ports out and they had my speakers, so I would assume they looked it up. I had them do it because I was afraid to screw it up and I got the speakers from someone else so I don't have the boxes and specs. on them. I'm not sure where I'd find the info. but I would think that a store that sells car audio would know and be able to get it.

[Bake82]

CHECK THE LOWEST IMPEDANE YOUR AMP CAN HANDLE! If it can handle 1 ohm then parrell everything and each sub will see 450 rms if the amp indeed runs 1800 watts. If it can't run at 1 ohm then see how much power it will do at 4 ohms and then divide by 4 and you will see how much power each sub will have!

[jamcneely]

the lowest the amp can handle is 2 ohms

[Bake82]

ok, that works good. Since your subs are 4 ohm DVC you can wire them down to 2 ohms. Ignore Dave's diagram as those are for 4 SVC 4 ohm subs. go here http://www.phoenixgold.com/tutorial/four_DVC.htm to see how to wire up your subs to achieve a 2 ohm load on your amp! Follow the first diagram to get the 2 ohm load. As you can see if you follow the second one, you will get a .5 ohm load which will fry your amp very fast! Good luck with it and it should POUND! Get some pics if you can, I'd like to see how 4 subs fit into your car!

 

Yah now I realized whats going on, so ignore my last post b4 this one. Follow the diagram

[topless94style]

a friend of mine put 4 12" subs into his early 1990s cavalier. With two amps and a cap, those things pounded....hard. It hurt your ears to sit in the car because of how hard the subs hit. The box for the 4 subs took up every last inch in his trunk.

[jeremy]

12" Comp Vr's are nice subs, I had Six of them in a custom box in my old Probe....it was too much bump actually...

[jamcneely]

Thanks everyone, I've learn alot. I'll have to get cracking on finding a Deck, and then I'll get the subs and amp in. I'll post pics if I take some.

[musthavemuzk]

not a rockford fan but that bd1500 is a bad ass amp.

used alot in SPL comp vehicles.

i would think that amp to be too much for those subs. at least i would not do it.

 

good luck

 

Monty