Bass.... the Heart Stopping kind....

[Speck]

Currently have 2 12" JLW3's in a sealed box. The amp, believe it or not, is an RF 200S. It sounds great, and gets amazingly loud.... but I would like to get the system (when I want it too) to get that "I can't breathe, my heart stopped" bass. Not all the time, just some of the time. I don't want to change my subs, but I am looking to switch my amp. I cannot afford anything expensive, I have put way too much money in and it appears our family is going to be +1 soon. :)

Will upgrading the amp to, say, a 600watt give me this bass?
What do you all recommend as a "cheap" amp for this type of bass?

OR.... will I not be able to do this with these woofers?

-=speck=-

[EPHatchgirl]

This might sound crazy, but if you were to switch to just one of your 12's, it would be WAY more fully powered than both that you have now. I recently got one 10" W3 in a ported box, and with 250 watts (I got the JL 500/5) to the sub, it's louder than many 12's I have heard (and very clean). Right now, with both of your subs, they are both taking up precious power from your amp. I am not sure on the price, but if you want "kick your ass loud" the JL 250/1 will do it.... for one sub. You definitely don't want to under power such a beautiful speaker. Just my two cents... otherwise, you may need to seperate amps, cuz these speakers have ridiculous power-pushing-abilities.:D Lemme know if you find an affordable amp to power both of those puppies!!:)

[Speck]

I do agree a bit as far as one sub goes, I had a single 12 previously, but I got such a deal on picking up 2 12's in a custom box and trading in my single 12 (I love Pawnshops) that I couldn't turn it down. I was running this one 12 with the same amp, and I do have to say, it was rather amazing. But, I have noticed a difference in the 2 12" from the single.

If you are going to be at the bbq, look for the Euro Yellow and come check it out :)

[jaydub]

We aren't comparing apples to apples here. It is PHYSICALLY not possible for one 12" to be louder than 2 identical 12's, because of the total cone area. More cone area = louder. More than anything, it has to do with the ENCLOSURE. If you're using the wrong type of box, or a box that isn't the optimum size, the sound quality of your subs will suffer. The enclosure is more important than even which subs you pick, and any leaks in the enclosure will completely ruin the sound and punch. The only way one 12 can be louder is if it's running a great deal more power than the two other 12's combined.

It is also very possible that the previous single 12 you had was receiving more power, because of the ohm rating of the sub. As the ohm rating gets higher, the power it sees is cut in half. For example, if you're running a 4ohm load (which is optimum), your amp will put out whatever its rated at. If you change to an 8ohm load, it'll only see half the rated power.

[EPHatchgirl]

Originally posted by Speck
I do agree a bit as far as one sub goes, I had a single 12 previously, but I got such a deal on picking up 2 12's in a custom box and trading in my single 12 (I love Pawnshops) that I couldn't turn it down. I was running this one 12 with the same amp, and I do have to say, it was rather amazing. But, I have noticed a difference in the 2 12" from the single.

If you are going to be at the bbq, look for the Euro Yellow and come check it out :)

Definitely will be there, can't wait to hear it!! :D

Jaydub- Like I said, just making a suggestion so that he wouldn't have to change his amp.... thanks for the expert info!;)

[jaydub]

And a good suggestion at that. :) For the original poster, I'd be really interested what the sub's ohm ratings are, and how they're wired. I'd have to look at the spec sheets for the JLW3's, but if they are Dual Voice Coil, they could be wired incorrectly.

[Speck]

Gotcha covered, Jaydub. Ask and ya shall receive.

SUBWOOFER: 12W3-D4
Free Air Resonance (Fs): 26.1Hz
Electrical

[EPHatchgirl]

Thanks Jaydub- I fear flaming... didn't want you to think I was THAT stoopid (to think that 2 wouldn't be louder than 1 in a perfect set up):p :D :D

[jaydub]

Wow, running that amp at a 1ohm load! :eek:

I checked at RF's site, and it didn't say whether that was recommended or not, the lower the ohms, the more power, but there's more distortion. Either way, I'd say the amp is pretty well matched for the subs, but I'd be curious about the enclosure. The reason I say this is because i had 2 12" solobarics being pushed by an MTX Thunder302, and in the first box they sounded great, but in the second box which was a bit smaller, they sounded horrible. Same subs, same amp.

[Speck]

Man, I wish I could give you details. The enclosure is a custom built one.... prob is I didn't build it. I could take the plexi off the front and do some measureing. But I gotta tell ya, this thing is built like a tank! The plexi is THICK!! About 1 inch or so. I will make sure to get some pics of this monster and post em.

Key thing is that I have spent alot of money so far, and my wife thinks MORE than enough (she cringes when I point out a cool new audio product). So, I still have this big box and have not had anything installed the way I want. You know, embeded in the trunk, looking like it came that way, and sounding like I spent far more than I did. :)

-=speck=-

[BlasTech]

Is heart-stopping bass bad for expectant mothers and thier babies?

[jaydub]

Originally posted by BlasTech
Is heart-stopping bass bad for expectant mothers and thier babies?
hehe I wasn't going to get into that discussion. I'm a sound quality guy. :D

[Speck]

Good point :) But then again, that is why she has her own car.

Besides.... play a bit of Pink Floyd for the kid, make it grow up right.... then again, my parents put me to sleep with Dark Side of the Moon... now I can't listen to the whole album without zzzzzzzzz


-=speck=-

[BSEVEER]

Originally posted by Speck
Good point :) But then again, that is why she has her own car.

Besides.... play a bit of Pink Floyd for the kid, make it grow up right.... then again, my parents put me to sleep with Dark Side of the Moon... now I can't listen to the whole album without zzzzzzzzz


-=speck=-


I think that happens to everyone...:D

[napapacoda]

:p (drooling...) dark side of the moon is awesome. Never puts me to sleep but gets me to relax from all the stresses of life.

[EPHatchgirl]

DARK SIDE RULZ! Especially with the Wizard of Oz.

:D

[BSEVEER]

Don't get me wrong, Pink Floyd is one of my favorit all time bands and I've seen them in concert twice and I fell asleep both times:D Maybe it had something to do with THC:D

[Speck]

The best album in the world, IMHO, to relax too is Pink Floyd: Meddle... there is NOTHING like listen to Echoes while driving down a long dark road with the windows down on a hot night...... did that last night :)


Oh, and getting back on topic, stopped by an audio shop here that is highly respected. They said my problem is that I don't have enough power. Now, they recommended replacing my Alpine with an RF Power 551X and the RF 200s with a RF Power 501bd. Plus would trim in the box that I have (it looks ooogly), upgrade my wireing for $1500 max. Now, is it just me, or is someone full of shit here? I am taking the specs from those amps and doing some research for comps.


-=speck=-

[SiR Medic]

BASS...

How low can you go?

Death Row...

What a brotha' know.

Once again black it's the incredible...

Rhyme animal



:D :p

[Speck]

<*cracks open SiR Medic's head*>

mmhmmm, just as I thought....

<*pulls out a cd with scratches on it*>

He's skipping again. :rolleyes:

Wth was that about?? :)

-=speck=-

[SiR Medic]

:rolleyes:

Obviously your not a Public Enemy fan...

Or an Anthrax fan neither...:(

[sniperSI]

I've got 2 jl 10w6's powered by a bridged 600watt phonix gold sub amp, those things can handle power (jl's) so if you get enough wattage, you should definatly be able to be gasping for air, maybe even get a 3rd 12 and bridge them down to 1ohm, talk about drop.

[DocofMind]

From all the sound systems i have done (about 10 in 4 different cars) I v come to one conclusion. Ported box.

The sealed box will not get down low enough in frequencies to produce the earth shattering bass you are looking for. There are some + and - with this. First of all, you need a much bigger box. Ported box's must be larger than the same box in a sealed version for the same subs. I remember the 2 tens that i was running way back in the day required almost 4 cubic feet of air space:eek:

Another downside is clarity, usually sound quality will diminish a little with the ported box. But its bass, how bad can it be right?

The other good side to all of it besides the lower frequencies, a ported box is much, much more effecient. So you need less power to make it work well :)

[Jpax]

My friends 7th order bandpass box with a single 12" sub moved enough air, you could watch his body pannels and trunk move up and down liek 2" both ways. very scary.

[Speck]

SiR: Sorry, never was a public Enemy Fan. and Besides "I'm the Man" I never got into Anthrax, they was kinda freaky.

Ok, So, I am going to go down to the local here where I work at, I know they carry JL Audio equipment and I am going to check out their boxes, see what's what and see what Can be done.

Will be too bad though, I LOVE the look of this box, let alone what it could do :)

Then again.... maybe if I can get it out of my trunk...... I might be able to get some accel back again, omg that box is heavy.

-=speck=-

[DocofMind]

Thats the one problem with sound systems. Weight. Music is my biggest passion next to my car so i was forced to figure out some way of having one without hurting the cars performance too badly.

I ended up having a custom fiberglass ported ;) box built to sit where my tools would normally go in my s2000. I also made it completely removable for road racing :p

[Speck]

That is definatly one way to do it. ok: update. Just picked up a Depth Charge amp, 400watts, not too shabby. It isn't the bass I described, but after feeling it and listening to all diff music. I think it will do just fine until I decide to leave JL behind. Only prob I have now is the excursion :) I can deal with that for now.

Thanks all!!!

-=speck=-

[Speck]

OMFG!!! I got DB tested today ($10, sheesh) and scored a 138.6. Not bad! This thing is kicking!

Then I had to buy some new spade connectors, cause the ones I have don't fit right.... and I noticed: My gain was set at zero, my Bass Boost was at 0db and my low pass was around 60!! OMG!!!! I changed it a bit.... jesus, my ears are STILL hurting. Wanted to do another db test, but don't want to shell out another $10. Will do it after I play with everything...

Oh, and I had to set my headunit subwoofer setting to -10 (one more click down and the sub is off!!).

I am a HAPPY camper now!!

Thanks everyone!!!

-=speck=-

[sniperSI]

I got one of these (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F002%5F003%5F018%5F000&product%5Fid=33%2D2050)

Cheaper one though, mine was only 19 bucks and a digi read out, not as many options, best 20 bucks i ever spent for my systems.

[foilpan]

it depends what kind of music you listen to most often. i guess it's too late, but i'd recommend getting a more efficient driver. the 87.2 db rating on those JLs is a little low, so you need lots of power to drive them cleanly. with more efficient subs, you could settle for less amp wattage and get a comparable level of "loudness."

[Speck]

Saw one of those today, but It only goes up to 126. Are you not up that High? I don't see how that would do me much of any good.

-=speck=-