Looking to build a new sub, need driver recommendations/help

[darkside]

Sad news peeps, my dad axed the 12w6v2 saying it was "too big for the

car" so instead im thinkin an Assassin 8 in a 1/2 cu ft box made of

3/4" MDF or plywood with outside dimensions being 11.5" deep by 11"

high by 13.5" wide with an internal volume of .6597 cu ft allowing room

for bracing and the driver displacement. Off 75watts WinISD shows good

results... and its a heck of a lot cheaper than the 12w6v2, which may

help my side of the case.

[DrWho]

too big? lol - that's not possible with audio!

If you go with the Assassin, I would try real hard to go with at least the 10" driver. It'll be everything that the 12" is, just less output. I believe the 8" driver is using a slighlty different suspension / voice coil that raises its Fs.

[darkside]

Yeah, I was going to try the 10 originally, but I was afraid that would

get axed too, so its probably too late but I may try again later. But

too big is not possible. I agree

[darkside]

Yet another twist friends. My dad and I went out looking at subs at the

local Fry's Electronics and guess what??? We settled on a Kicker (Yes

Kicker!) Comp C124. Surprisingly, it was the best sounding woofer they

had, even amongst Infinity kappas. I would have never guessed, but it

sounded better, to both of us, than the solo barics. If you look at the

specs, it may seem pretty crappy (less than 10mm xmax, BL of 12.50,

etc. etc.) but it sounded good and can get loud. However, my dad also

says that I don't have time, nor do I know how to build a box, so I

can't which is pretty disappointing, but whatever...

[darkside]

Another question.

The Mustang has the Mach 460 installed (I'm
not sure if I mentioned that or not) which has two amps in the rear to
power each side. Ok, so I was wondering, would it be possible to find
the power cables going to those amps and splice a seperate power
connection to a 150 watt amp? Or would it be a better idea to run an
entirely seperate cable to the battery?

[CECAA850]

Ford, like most manufacturers, has most likely figured the load on those amps and used the wire size that will supply just enough current to the amps with no room to spare. They wont use 16 ga wire when 18 will do, it's pure economics. I'd run a seperate fused supply to an additional amp if it were me. Run it directly from the battery and supply an equal ga wire size to the amp for a ground. The owners manual of your amp will give the correct sizing.

[DrWho]

Yes, you can splice into the power supplying the rear amps in your car. I highly doubt you are going to be drawing max current on your power line....and if you are, then you are just playing it way too fricken loud [] But seriously, for all the work involved with running another powerline to the front of the car, I don't think it would be worth the minor gains. If you wanted to be hardcore, you could calculate the voltage drop on the line at peak output of the amp, but in the end it's probably not going to amount to much. The people going with 0 guage wire and all that crazy crap are trying to squeeze out every last drop of performance. By no means does a moderate installation need to go to such measures. You're probably going to be excursion limited anyway (which makes any loss in possible output a mute point).

But then again, I'm also extremely lazy... []

[darkside]

Yeah. So which really is the better idea. I can certainly tell you that

the amp will not be at max power ever and besides, its an efficient sub

with a low watt amp (120 watts at most) so a ton of power won't be

needed.

[DrWho]

-

[DrWho]

Wiring to the amp is better. Splicing in to the exisiting power cable is easier. Both are going to work. I think I mentioned it already, but I just hooked up my 400W amp to the power cord feeding my cigarette lighter. I think the cable is 20 guage at best and I've had no problems whatsover (even when cranking it).

[darkside]

Well, I guess I'll figure out what to do with the amp once I get an

amp. Actually, one of the reasons I was seriously considering the W7 or

LMS 4000 was the 3 ohm VCs. The mach speakers are each 6 ohm wired

paralled so obviously running 3 ohms, which I figured if i could find a

dual 6 or single 3 ohm sub, I could just run that straight off the

amplifers in the Mach system. My only other options than the W7 or LMS

was a W3v2, which I really didn't want. We have an 8W0 in our van,

which is nice and all, but I don't like it that much...so ive settled

on Kicker

[darkside]

'Nother question y'all.

Does a subwoofer that can run free
air have a large flexibility in box sizes? Also, I happened to notice
for Kicker subs, there is an "Electronic Enclosure Module" that you add
onto the amplifier to run a free air sub better...interesting

http://cgi.ebay.com/EEM-Freeair-Module-for-KICKER-amps-NIB-Tighter-Bass_W0QQitemZ300060675426QQihZ020QQcategoryZ14931QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(How do you add a link to a post?)

[DrWho]

No

For what it's worth, there is no such thing as a "free air" subwoofer. The entire point of having enclosures and all that crap is to seperate the rear wave from the front wave so that you don't get cancellation. A quality driver will make no noise whatsoever when not in an enclosure. The point at which the rear wave doesn't cancel the front wave is when the distance from the center of the driver to the edge of the baffle (or the edge of the cone) is 1/4 wavelength. So for anything lower than 90Hz, you'll need a 3 foot radius...(not gonna happen).

Now if you're talking infinite baffle, then that's a whole different story - but I'll stand by my claims that it has no flexibility in box sizes. In fact, no driver really is flexible. There is an optimum for every configuration for every driver. You must choose your enclosure first and then find the driver that suits it best.

To add a link: Highlight the text you want to turn into a link and then push this button:
A window will pop up and all you need to do is put the URL in the URL box (don't gotta worry bout the rest).

[darkside]

Okay, thanks again Doc. So really, it'd be best to go ahead and plan a

box with the help of WinISD. My dad, however, will say that box size

doesn't matter, but I say he's wrong and he gets mad. But no matter.

Thanks.

[CECAA850]

Wiring to the amp is better. Splicing in to the exisiting power cable is easier. Both are going to work. I think I mentioned it already, but I just hooked up my 400W amp to the power cord feeding my cigarette lighter. I think the cable is 20 guage at best and I've had no problems whatsover (even when cranking it).

Groan.

The good Dr. almost allways gives great advice, you can take that to the bank. On the other hand, I could never bring myself to run a 400 watt amp off a cigarette lighter feed. I'm sure there's some melted insulation somewhere in his dash[].

[darkside]

yeah, prolly is.

[DrWho]

I'm sure there's some melted insulation somewhere in his dash[]

[]

Btw, I just checked some of the left over wire (same size as the wire under the dash) and it's actually all 16 guage - so not quite as bad as I thought.

http://www.caraudiobook.com/car_audio_power_wiring/car_audio_power_wiring.htm

[darkside]

Ok, we ended up with a kicker comp c12 that we are going to run off a

Kicker ZX100.2 bridged to 100watts. It will be in a 1.25 cu ft box. The

cutting/assembly will all have to be done Sunday since I won't be here

tomorrow and it needs to be done by Christmas...

[darkside]

Quick question...would it be a good idea to acousta-stuff the box? The box is sealed.

[DrWho]

probably not - and it's always something you can add later. You can model it in WinISD too.