MA Audio...... I put together a nasty system in my roommates Scion XB and he would be more than happy to go to a bass off with it..

 

werd on the image dynamics

ID MAX's are beasts

I currently run a SI MAG, I'll run with you guys .

 

They are really just the best subs I have ever heard/owned I have used them for quite along time and they have never lost their punch. I am also a fan of your sig, as a dj I am driven by music.

 

not true, though most people never notice it, the larger the sub's surface area, the more prone to flexing it is, which distorts sound.

i will agree about the encolsure being the main thing affecting sound though. i have 2 mtx (boo) 10" subs in 5th order bandpass boxes, that i built myself, and they're freakin LOUD with only 200watts (but that's good clean power).

i'm a kicker fan myself, my old civic had 4 comp 12's behind the seat (hatchback), two firing forward and 2 firing straight up, and i hit a 155.9 with old style orion hcca amps. not too bad for a ghetto setup with a seriously leaking sunroof. the only person that scored higher had anastro van with a wall of 10" jl's, so i don't really think we were in the same class.

 

Yup, completely true. I run 10inch image dynamics at almost 1000 watts and they are pristine. When I hooked up the amps to a pair of 12's it was not as clean. Do not be fooled into buying a system that has titanium cones either, its a waste of your money. Also overpower your subs. 500 watt sub? Get a 750 watt amp at least. As you get higher in power it is not the sub that actually distorts as much as the signal coming from the amplifier ie running your 500 watt sub out of a 500 watt amplifier at 500 watts its pushing your system to the max. 500 watt sub, running 500 watts from a 750 watt amplifer is good clean power. Not entirely reccomended. If you do not believe me or steve about the size thing though do this. Go to one of your local clubs that is huge and runs 18 inch EAW or JBL subs and listen to the bass distortion in the club. Next take a walk over to a lounge that at best has a 15 inch sub. notice a difference? Crisper sound. And you may cite differences here such as size and power, but it really comes down to a factor of being too big. You could fill the big club with smaller speakers and get better sound, less damaging to the ears too.

 

People also need to know that you will blow a speaker 10 times quicker from distortion not from over powering the sub. Also, you can take a $200 system and a $2000 system and the $200 system could sound better due to proper tuning of the curves....

 

He just wants 12's so he can make his liscense plate rattle really badly!

w00t w00t

 

yup, i run a line driver to up the signal voltage to my sub amp, so that i can keep the gain low. keeps the amps cooler, and you're not forcing the amps to push themselves so hard, which equals less distortion, which keeps subs happy. and it sounds alot better. i can adjust my signal strength from .2v all the way up to 9v from the dash. i guarantee my lil 200w amp pushes alot more than 200w with a 9v signal, but since the amp isn't really working hard, it stays clean.

in some cars though, it's hard to tell the difference between distortion, and the car rattling itself apart.

also, the less extreme the frequency range that you try to get a speaker to play, the less likely it is to distort. a speaker can only play so many frequencies cleanly at the same time.

maybe i'm just overly picky though.

 

yeah, just keep the sigal strength low and the gain turned down, and it'll sound alot better that way. just beware of bottoming out your subs. you'll hear it when you do

 

Hahaha no not picky. I tell people when they are doing research on subs that the real point of the sub is not so you have excessive loud bass, but it is so you can feel the bass. You have two types of subs for example I pick Image Dynamics because I love them and Kickers because I hate them. Image Dynamics are not overly loud at all infact they are rather quite. But they will shake the car 5 down from you. Kickers loud as fuck, but I do not feel it really from them. Steve I run filters and bandpasses in and out of my subs as well as frequency cut offs. They mids and tweeters for a reason, I just do not think some people understand that. What I actually like the best is when somebody buys a great pair of subs and amps, and forgets about their tweeters and mids and does not match everything. I have seen more then one car in which all you hear is thump thump thump and nothing else because the mids and tweeters are getting life sucked out of them by the subs. I run a dedicated amp for my tweeters and mids and match them power wise to the sub. I am a dj and occasionally produce so I am very picky about my sound.