JL or Diamond Audio

How do they compare overall? What would you pick? Why? Etc... Looking for 1 or 2, 10 or 12 inch sub(s) to run ~500 watts RMS in my 2002 Sentra SE-R Spec-V. Considering 1 or 2 of the following:

JL Audio -

10W3
12W3
10W7
12W7

Diamond Audio -

D9 10 or 12 inch
2 Diamond Audio TDX 10" someone has for sale on the Spec-V forum.

Also, I'm going to put component speakers in the front (tweeters and woofers with a crossover). If they are recommended to run 50W RMS and my head unit puts out 50W RMS, should I still get an external amp for the fronts? If so, why?

How sure are you that your deck puts out 50 watts continuously? I'd bet my Blazer that is the MAX rating and not the RMS. I'm sure 98% of component speaker owners bought a separate amp for their setup. Its just the best thing to do. Even with full range speakers.

is the 500 for each sub or total? and yea u want to add a amp for your speakers and u want to soo ucan actully hear them over the subs

Ok Ive been down the "what sub is better" route with diamond audio and personaly I havent heard either of these 2 subs in the same place at the same time so I cant realy compare them. But I have talked to probably 6 or 7 people that know what there talking about in car audio and all of them told me to go with Diamond and doing research on it for probably 2 months I decided to go with diamond and realy everything about diamond is just slightly better then JL so if I were you I would go with Diamond.

Nope...the head unit is 22W RMS...thought I saw RMS after the 50 but I must be smoking crack. So I will be amping the fronts.

I guess I'll buy this dude's 2 Diamond Audio TDX 10"s. He wants $250 for them. That's in my price range (I was expecting to pay twice that for one sub...) but what would be a good price for them?

Also...any amp recommendations? I keep seeing an amp called a Zapco recommended for them...this thing sounds like a joke...

Zapco is one of the like top 5 quality amps out there, and their service is second to none. You will also pay a handsome price for them, probably out of your price range.

Headunit amps are rated at a rediculous THD level, if you compared them using an outboard amp's specs, it would be like 12 watts/ch RMS. That's "ok" for 5 1/4 coaxes in the front and 6x9 coaxes in the back but not good for quality seperates.

Yea, I dug around a bit on the Zapco stuff and it is REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY expensive and supposedly killer. I just think the name is hillarious.

I'm definately going to amp the fronts.

How do they compare overall? What would you pick? Why? Etc... Looking for 1 or 2, 10 or 12 inch sub(s) to run ~500 watts RMS in my 2002 Sentra SE-R Spec-V. Considering 1 or 2 of the following:

JL Audio -

10W3
12W3
10W7
12W7

Diamond Audio -

D9 10 or 12 inch
2 Diamond Audio TDX 10" someone has for sale on the Spec-V forum.

Also, I'm going to put component speakers in the front (tweeters and woofers with a crossover). If they are recommended to run 50W RMS and my head unit puts out 50W RMS, should I still get an external amp for the fronts? If so, why?

In my deneli xl I have a 10 inch w7 powered by a 500/1 and the truck bangs without distortion!! I have been a fan of jl audio for a very long time and will not settle for nothing less. I have blown Fosgates,Kicker,mtx, but the 3 w6's I had in my chrysler 300 never let me down. You just have to tune your amp right and the speakers will never blow.

JL makes some good stuff, just a bit pricey ..... have to admit though, the W7 series are some really good subs - even for the price.

My personal set is to skip the price tag of JL and go to total mobile amp. I say this because you are looking at the 2 ohm stable "true power rating" that you get from JL which is the parent company to total mobile audio, but less on the wallet. The other recomendation that I make is looking into planet audio 1228 rx dvc 12" subs. These things in a sealed box Rocked out a pair of kicker 12"solos L7 that had 600rms watts going to them in a local audio competition just recently. I loved these PA subs soooooooooo much more than the L7's I WAS going to buy for my caddy I went with them instead.Check the specs. out they are not huge rated power, but when they say 91 db's per1watt/1meter is no joke. My cadillac STS needs so much to push thru the factory sound dmpening to make good levels and these subs and matching amp from total got the job done so well that I had to invest in more for the full range chanels I setup before this!http://www.planetaudiousa.com/main/513

I'm not a fan of JL, way over priced. You can get much better for much cheaper

that's why JL is not as popular as it used to be