car audio: need recomendations for bass

[Mirlyn]

So far, this is what I found tonight in the store:

12" Pioneer 500w (TSW34C) $32
~or~
10" Pioneer 450w (TSW29C) $29

Kenwood 1000w Amp (KAC8101D) $155
Kenwood 6x8 3-ways (no 2-ways in the store) $43 (x2)
Sealed 12" Q-Logic box ~$50

The only component system they had were Fosgates, and they sounded bad. Not going to rule them out, but I didn't price those. The Kenwood components I was looking at were in Crutchfield....going to go check them out now.

 

[MuFu]

If you do go for an XLS-10, you might want to check these application notes out...

http://www.d-s-t.com/main/tech/appxlsc2.htm

From a 300W amp and 14 litre sealed enclosure. Damn it's easy to load a car interior!

I'm kinda new to this stuff MuFu...tell me what I'm looking at kid. I'm going to guess here.....Looks kinda like it rolls off around 2-3K, right?

Yah, the bit you're interested in is about 80-100Hz and below, where your mids will roll-off naturally and the sub takes over. 20Hz is about the lowest the human ear can hear and decent AV subs should be capable of going that low at a decent SPL (sound pressure level) and with little distortion. Music generally contains few frequencies <40Hz but a sub is still useful for filling out the low end and the odd track that contains explicit sub-bass (the 1812 Overture and "sk8ter boi" have shitloads for example, LOL).

That graph is quite extraordinary to look at for me because I am used to home cinema subs which have to load an area many times the size of a car. Readings are usually taken in a large rooms or an anechoic chamber and they aren't capable of producing plots anywhere near as flat and loud as that in the sub bass range. You'd need to spend a ridiculous amount of money to get that kind of performance in a home theatre.

That Peerless driver I mentioned is the car version of the one in my sub (that I posted about a while ago) BTW. Hence the recommendation - probably worth you looking at alternatives first though because it's made in Europe and will be relatively expensive in the US.

 

[Mirlyn]

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?DID=7&PartNumber=297-606

$61 + shipping

Found it in a catalog I have of theirs

 

[MuFu]

That's just a passive radiator - it has no voice coil or magnet. This is the subwoofer:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&PartNumber=297-604&DID=7

MuFu.

 

[Mirlyn]

Yeah, had two windows open, took the info from the wrong one

 

[Mirlyn]

Switched amps...now looking at the Fosgate 2-channels....401s (100x2) or the 501s (125x2). I found the Kenwood would phase out at the higher volumes (when windows are down). Haven't priced them yet, but my guess is $175-$200.

 

[tommyj27]

noooooo, pioneer subs IMHO are right down there with the B-word. I can speak from experience, i have two of the bastards in my trunk right now. But hey, that's what I get with 2 jobs where i get a combined average of about 7 hours a week.

 

[Justintime]

fosgates

 

[Mirlyn]

Aight, I'll price Fosgates tomorrow then (just got back from there).

 

[Inkara1]

You might consider some bass blockers (resistors that are hooked up inline between the amp and the speaker to cut off sound below a certain frequency) for the interior speakers. See if you can find some at 100-150 Hz or so. It'll save the speakers by not forcing the tiny woofers in them to try to reproduce loud bass, making for longer life and less distorted sound. Your sub will probably be reproducing sounds up to 200-250 Hz or thereabouts.

 

[Justintime]

Resistors or capacitors? i usually use caps for tweeters and mids, i think the coil resisitors are to kill off higher frequencies for woofers etc.. in passive crossover systems.

 

[Mirlyn]

Do component systems have them built in?

 

[whoreable]

LOL Me and some friends built a box for a couple extra 12s he had, we put it in my car along with a 400 watt rms amp I got from another friend. My car is so fuckin ghetto now when outside the car you can hear shit rattling more than you can music. Its much quiter in the car though so inside it sounds ok...for free at least.

The sad thing is I dont even listen to music that makes much use of em, I guess I should start listening to ghetto booty music too, maybe then I would have friends!

 

[tommyj27]

cerwin makes a really nice 12"

 

[Inkara1]

Resistors or capacitors?

I always thought capacitors store up energy. They make large capacitors to hook into the power lead to the amplifier to supply the extra boost of power needed to make that deep boom without dimming the headlights.

 

[Justintime]

Resistors can't dynamiccaly limit audio afaik, only volume. Capictors are used in many passive crossover systems to limit the bass to a certain point.