Hi, trying to decide which would sound better and louder, two alpine type r 12's or 1 jl audio 12w6? I have the alpine pdx 1.600 amp that would push it. Currently I have 2 infinity perfect 10's in a sealed box and they sound good at lower to normal listening levels, but distort when turned up loud. I'm crossed between the two alpine type r 12's or 1 jl audio 12w6? If i had the money I'd love the jl audio w7's, or two w6's, but they are expensive. Any other suggestions for good subs are also helpful. thanks.
You have 2 perfect 10's, but you're unhappy? I bought a pair of those 5 years ago, and they are still going strong. I have to suggest you try a ported box first. They are quite versatile, but they really shine in a large ported enclosure. I've got one in a 1.75 ft box tuned to 28 hz, and it plays deeper than my kicker 15 in a sealed box. but if you are really pressed on using a sealed enclosure, go with the 12w6. JL optimized the motor for small sealed enclosures, and they have some of the best design software on the planet. Plus, it's made in America!
Well, everyone has their own listening preferences.
If the Infinities are distorting, you probably have them underpowered, they are getting ULF (ultra low freqs), low passed too high at the amp or head unit, wrong box or wrong size box, or all or some of the above.
Just my opinion, hope this helps. Good luck.
Thanks for the input and advice. I may try to put the My infinity perfect 10's in a ported box to see how that sounds. I've got plenty of power running with my Alpine PDX 1.600 amp that runs 600w x 1 in either 4ohm or 2ohm. If I remember those 10's handle 300w or 350w RMS each, its been a while and I don't have the specs on them anymore. Right now I've got them in a sealed box. They do sound good at normal volumes, but not as good at the more intense sounding levels. I was thinking of putting in 2 Alpine Type R 12's or maybe a single JL Audio 12W6. A JL 13W6 would be nice too, but that gets even more expensive. I'm also considering and wondering how a Single Alpine Type R 15" sub in a ported box would sound paired with this amp.
The infinty is rated at 350 rms, but i give it 500. If you have a subsonic filter and a well built ported enclosure, your sub can handle more power than in the sealed box. Here's a link to Infinity's box suggestions.
http://manuals.harman.com/INF/CAR/Boxes%20and%20Parameters/PERFECT10.pdf
The amp you have gives you plenty of options. A 15 in a ported box would be very very loud. But 2 efficient 10's in a ported box would be loud, too. It would be a shame to just side-line your infinity's if there's nothing wrong with them. I tend to crank it til they smoke, and those suckers have taken enormous abuse.
Thanks for the info. Any preferences between 2 alpine Type r 12's vs 2 jl audio 12w3's?
It's too close to call. They are very similar subs. If i had to choose between these 2 it would come down to cosmetics, and the Alpine just looks better. If i were to mount them in a way that would show off the back, I'd want the type-R. sorry JL!
I appreciate the quick responses and info. Thanks. Another question what would you think would sound better (2 alpine type r 12"s or 1 alpine type r 15")?
No problem. If you can fit a 15, the power handling of 1 type-R is better suited for your amp. The 12's would only get 60% of the rated power, which is not a big problem, but the amp would clip the signal (very bad) before they reached their full potential.
If you don't mind me asking what is your gain set on your amp running your perfects? That amp should be a perfect match and you said its sound good at normal levels. You might have your gain set to high and that would cause distortion at high levels. Just a thought. I had a set of Perfects awhile back and they were great sounding subs, not the loudest but some of the cleanest subs I ever owned.
1999 Pontiac Grand Am SE 3400 V6 http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3276185 Alpine, MTX, & Infinity System
A friend of mine told me that the 15" would definitely be loud, but said it would be less accurate than a 10" or 12", that it would react slower. I'm curious if that would be the case, I thought if I'd run enough power it would still react fast enough so that it would not sound delayed or anything.
I probably have the gains adjusted too high as well, I'll need to adjust them down a bit. Not sure if they are all the way up, but think they might be up there 80-90% up.
i have never noticed any perceptible delay from one size sub to another within it's designed frequency range. The 15's primary difference would be the frequency range it reproduces accurately. A 10 would be accurate from say 500hz down, and a 15 may only work well up to 250hz, but i doubt you would want either one to play frequencies above 100hz anyway. The box itself has more to do with delay than the sub's diameter. Sealed boxes are arguably more accurate than ported, but a typical group delay wouldn't normally exceed .001 seconds in the worst case. The 15" would play just fine. It's not worth figuring into your buying decision.
There are some excellent tutorials available on Crutchfield for setting gains properly. This is a VERY BASIC method!
1. Defeat any sound shaping adjustments on the head unit such as bass boost. Equalizers should be flat.
2. Select a test CD based on your personal listening preference. I like RATM's Renegades of Funk because of the bass line's dynamic range.
3. Start off with the amp's gain at zero, and try to determine the highest volume you can reach on your head deck before it sounds bad.
4. Once you determine that point, slowly increase the gain on the amp until it sounds bad. You'll want to leave it below that point.
Thank you so much for that advice. I think I've got my gains set too high, and at first I did have the bass boost on the receiver on and later decided to turn it off, because it just sounded bad at higher volumes. That is excellent advice on tuning the gains, and makes very good sense. I just didn't think about it. Another thing someone told me to do is to have the speakers directly wired to the receiver, right now I have just used the receiver plug/harness that I got from Crutchfield when I bought my head unit for ease of installation, but later found out it still goes through the factory amplifier from the receiver before going to the speakers. My friend here told me the sound output might be lower, but it will sound better and clearer, at least thats what Im told by rewiring to bypass the factory amplifier.
Almost any speaker wire out there is gonna be better than your 10 year old stock copper, so it's an upgrade worth considering. I didn't know those cars had amps. Who knows what the specs are on it. The internal amp on your head-unit may outperform it, but I wouldn't count on it. Maybe you could swap the factory amp out with a name brand one that accepts speaker level inputs. With all the sub you're considering, you'll want to amplify the other speakers eventually.
Here's what I have so far as far as my setup and equipment.
I have a 2000 Chevy Suburban. Upgraded the factory receiver to the Alpine iDA-X200 Digital Media Receiver, got the receiver with wiring harness from Crutchfield. The factory system had onstar and a factory sub. The wiring kit from the head unit directly plugs into the factory plug, but found out the receiver feeds to the factory amp that powers the speakers and factory sub. It was recommended to rewire and bypass the factory amp and wire directly to the Alpine Receiver. Using 4 Ga wire to power a single Alpine PDX 1.600 mono amp. Current subs are 2 Infinity Perfect 10's in a sealed box, not sure the internal volume 'cause it was a spare prefab speaker box that I had in the garage, but is pretty small. The subs sound fine up to volume 20-22 on the receiver then it starts to distort a little. It sounds loud, but in my opinion doesn't hit Hard. Nothing like my friends suburban that has a JL1000/1 amp to a single 13w7. His truck hits so hard it makes my insides hurt. Anyway, I know I'm pushing less power than his amp, 600x1 vs 1000x1, so I was looking to find the best possible sub combination for that power 600x1 that would hit pretty hard. My thoughts were to consider the following sub combinations. 2 Alpine R 12's, 1 Alpine R 15, or a JL 13w6 or JL 12w6 or 12w7. Was thinking about 2 JL 12w3's but not sure about that one. Any way thats my situation, and just looking for the best sound and best output for the power that I've got. I may even go up to the Alpine PDX 1.1000 later, 'cause my friend might sell me his.