New Sub Recommendations

[CocaColaEatsPie]

You CAN NOT make a 12XXX sound good ported with 3 cubic feet of space. You have to consider port area, woofer displacement, AND the wood. It won't happen. Go with one 15 considering the ammount of space. 0 guage wire would be good, but it probably isn't required.

[pac4eva5]

i had the same decision too. i went with one 15" brahama because
1. its the best sound quality ive ever heard for a 15 and still fuckin loud!
2. its a 15!!!! not too many people have 15s
3. its much cheaper to go w/ 1 15, then 2 12s
4. you can port a 15 and still have more room
5. its a 15!!! did i mention that already?

2 12s would hit a little harder but the 15 is all you need

[sr20de4evr]

Well, whether you need 4 gauge or 0 gauge depends on whether you get 2 12's or a single 15. If you get a single 15 you'll only be taking 1500rms out of the amp, and 4 gauge should be fine for that, though it is on the upper limit of 4 gauge. If you got the pair then the amp would be putting out 3000rms, and you would definitely need at least one run of 0 gauge for that amount of power, not to mention an extremely large alternator.

Seriously, your electrical system can't handle a 3000rms amp, it doesn't matter whether a pair of 12's on 1500rms each would be louder than a 15 on 1500rms, because your electrical system simply cannot handle the draw required to actually get all 3000rms out of that amp.

[KMoney28]

Man, I don't mean to beat a dead horse but I'm still confused as to why 2 12's won't hit hard or sound good in my car. I know you guys said I didn't have enough cf of room but what is the range of cf needed to build a ported box for an XXX12? With my 3 12" L7's for instance, for maximum spl, each sub needed 3.25cf, the minimum space needed to build a ported box was 1.75cf. The 3 that I had in 3 separate ported boxes each were getting either 1.9 or 2cf, so a total of 6cf or near there for 3 subs, and it sounded pretty good, it hit hard, mid 140's I'd say, and wasnt too distorted even though I was nowhere near the max recommendations for cf space. What is the range of cfspace needed to build a ported box for an XXX12? Can I not have the same results if not better with 2 XXX12's that I had with the 3 L7's if I don't give the XXX12's the entire amount of cf needed per sub? I don't mean to come off as hardheaded, I just wanna get all the facts before I go out and buy something that I've never heard in my life.

[Haibane]

http://www.reaudio.com/ has the specs for a single ported. Also try giving them an email. I don't know how it would sound compared to your 3 L7s, I have never heard L7s, but I personally love the sound of the XXX. Some say it is something you either love or hate.

[sr20de4evr]

Originally Posted by KMoney28

Man, I don't mean to beat a dead horse but I'm still confused as to why 2 12's won't hit hard or sound good in my car. I know you guys said I didn't have enough cf of room but what is the range of cf needed to build a ported box for an XXX12? With my 3 12" L7's for instance, for maximum spl, each sub needed 3.25cf, the minimum space needed to build a ported box was 1.75cf. The 3 that I had in 3 separate ported boxes each were getting either 1.9 or 2cf, so a total of 6cf or near there for 3 subs, and it sounded pretty good, it hit hard, mid 140's I'd say, and wasnt too distorted even though I was nowhere near the max recommendations for cf space. What is the range of cfspace needed to build a ported box for an XXX12? Can I not have the same results if not better with 2 XXX12's that I had with the 3 L7's if I don't give the XXX12's the entire amount of cf needed per sub? I don't mean to come off as hardheaded, I just wanna get all the facts before I go out and buy something that I've never heard in my life.

you keep forgetting to count port displacement....if each of your L7s had 2cf, then your final box was not 6cf, it was 6cf plus the port, sub, and building material displacement. Assuming you had the significant amount of port area that you would have needed, you box would have easily been 8-9cf or more.

Or going the other way, if by external dimensions each sub had 2cf, you were giving them WAY less space that what you should have, because the actual volume of the box that the sub was seeing was closer to 1cf, which is much much much too small for those subs. If you had scrapped one of those L7s and built a correct box for the other 2, it would have had at least the output that the trio had, and it would have sounded much better in the process.

You cannot compromise and put a sub in a box that's too small for it just so you can add another, especially if you're talking about ported boxes. One sub in a correct box will sound 10x better than 2 subs in boxes that are too small for them, this is why we're telling you to go with the 15 because you cannot get the volume you would need to port a pair of 12's correctly.

[KMoney28]

Your right SR I'm not sure if the space available is 6cf or more. If I remeasure the trunk and post the specs could you calculate it to cf and then give me a final recommendation, that way I'll be close to having a definite choice on which size I will buy?

[KMoney28]

Also, any suggestions on what kind of port I should use? Right now I have a slot port for the L7's. Do different subs require different ports? Someone told me I should get arrow ports. Is this a good idea?

[CocaColaEatsPie]

A slot port is fine, I'm not sure what an arrow port is.

[sr20de4evr]

what is an arrow port?
or do you mean aero port?

different subs don't necessarily require different ports, but the more volume the sub is capable of displacing, the larger the port will need to be so that all that extra air doesn't cause any noise. Also, a sub with a lower Fs can sound better with a lower tune than a sub with a high Fs, just by the way the sub retains its composure at lower frequency. But a 30hz box is a 30hz box, regardless of what sub you have in there.

You could remeasure and see how much room you have, but keep in mind this sub will have to fit through the opening to get into the trunk, so it can't be much wider than the hole or it won't be able to get into the trunk, even if it could technically fit in the trunk if you could somehow get it in there. Or you could build the box actually in the trunk, but you'd have no way to ever remove it without destroying it.

Anyway, going by RE's recommendation, you need over 4cf of space per sub to get a proper ported box (2.5cf plus port, if you do the math on their measurements it comes out to 4.2cf for the SQL box and unknown for the SQ box since they did their measurements wrong). If you look at the dual boxes, it's 6.6cf for SQ and 7.2cf for SQL

[KMoney28]

Does anyone have any experience or info on the Digital Designs 3500 series subwoofer? How do these campare to an RE XXX? Any recommendations between the 2? I was jut wondering because a friend suggested them and I don't have too much experience with Digital Designs except for another guy I know who has 2 18's which he uses for spl competitions only.

[Haibane]

DD are generally more SPL oriented

[KMoney28]

Do DD subs sound good or do they lack sq? Right now I'm debating between the DD 3500's (possibly 2 12's) or the RE XXX's. Is there going to be a big sound difference both sq and spl between the RE's and DD's?

[pac4eva5]

get one 15" xxx. you will be very happy

[sr20de4evr]

Originally Posted by KMoney28

Do DD subs sound good or do they lack sq? Right now I'm debating between the DD 3500's (possibly 2 12's) or the RE XXX's. Is there going to be a big sound difference both sq and spl between the RE's and DD's?

the only DD subs with SQ worth mentioning are the 95xx IMO, the rest are really more SPL-oriented. I don't think the 3500 can even think about comparing to the xxx, but I've never heard it personally