iambgood

I want to add a couple of subs (10in Audiobahn's) to my 05 TL, but am debating about whether to seal them in a bandpass box or just use a regular sub box. I am going to dynamat the car either way to prevent the trunk rattle, but want the best sounding setup possible. Any suggestions?

p.s. - this is probably a repost but i'm lazy and didn't want to spend all my time doing searches.

Thanks,
~ B.Good

JPTL-S

Definitely go with a bandpass box, it will give you a louder, cleaner, deeper, and and more accurate reproduction if you have discerning ears. But if you are more concerend with trunk space a regular ported sub box will suffice. BTW I see you live in NOVA, you should come out to some of the Acurazine meets if you are interested https://acurazine.com/forums/acurazine-clubs-meets-15/dc-acurazine-meet-eat-official-thread-301682/ there is one coming up this weekend.

bklynpanman

jptl hasn't got a clue.. it depends on what type of music you like..

bandpass boxes are loud and boomy and very inaccurate. sealed boxes are the best for accuracy and deep controlled bass.. with my meters i've done many tests on boxes.. sealed boxes produce the most accurate bass response.. if you just like noise go bandpass.. if you enjoy music.. go sealed...

JPTL-S

Bklynpanman, thanks for pointing that out. I accidently got the two confused, check this out:

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/IS...nclosures.html

bklynpanman

i hope you're being sarcastic.. because even crutchfield has it right

JPTL-S

Not being sarcastic.....as you can see from my previous post I am admitting to my error......that is why I included the crutchfield link.

rickneuropa

I'd choose sealed over ported as well....much tighter, accurate bass. and instead of the bling bling Audiobahn sub, go with and Elemental Designs sub....you'll be much happier! Check them out here: http://edesignaudio.com/category.php?type=subs

I love my ed KV 12" sub.

millerrh

Did you guys do the install yourself or have a shop do it? I'm competent enough to install myself, but only comfortable to do so with a few pointers from those who have. Like where did you splice into? Where did you run your power wire, etc. Anyone got any info like that? Pics appreciated. I find there aren't too many DIYers on here. Might just take it to a shop rather than experiment myself....don't know.

iambgood

If the weather holds up ... I might be able to make it. Thanks for the heads up.

Also, whats the best brand of subwoofer to go with? I've always been a fan of the alpine's but may not know what I'm missing out on.

~ B.Good

Turbowhat2

you can dynamat all you want and it wont fix the main rattle
the main rattle is between your trunk and where it meets the car just above the rear bumper... You have to go to homedepot and get this door edge thing... It works great and it cost like $3

vidoprof

Ported = booommy, but louder
sealed = tight sound, better quality sound and much more accurate but not as boomy.

What kind of music? how much trunk space do you mind losing? do you want to leave the passthru down in your rearseats?

All valid and necessary questions that need answering FIRST before you decide.

I went with ported thru the passthru in the rear seats because i listen to RAP and Hip Hop music.. MOST of this type does NOT need to be THAT accurate.. but mine is much louder than anything in a sealed enclosure with the same equipment. The sealed would sound BETTER (meaning more accurate), but I don't really care about that MUCH with my type of music. I did buy VERY good equipment and that helps ALOT with accuracy. I have DLS stuff just in case you wanna know.

IF YOU use ported and go through the passthru your car it WILL not rattle.. I am pretty sure. Put it this way. I have 800W (true watts) going to each sub in a ported enclosure and i have NO rattles (except the change in my cup holders )

Hope that helped..

Ryan

iambgood

Dude thanks a lot, I am definitely going to look into that one. I'll let you know.
Ryan ~ Honestly I rarely use my trunk. I haven't really decided if I want to keep the passthru open or not in the trunk ... If i do decide to keep it I will probably invest in two seperate boxes and just put them on either side with the amp in between. By the way, this may be a question but what is DLS???

Concerning the music question ... I listen to everything but country. I like everything ranging from Eminem and The Roots to Nine Inch Nails and My Chemical Romance. If you really want to know the 6 CD's in my car right now are
1. mix of eminem, tu-pac, Method Man, the roots, snoop
2. mix of Atreyu, Rage Against the Machine, Papa Roach, and Slipknot
3. My Chemical Romance - three cheers for sweet revenge
4. Taking Back Sunday - both cd's
5. The Used - both cd's
6. Nine Inch Nails Mix

To All ~ What is ya'lls opinions on the subs that are on the market right now? I personally like the Audiobahn's and alpine's myself. Should am I looking over some other brand?

Thanks,
~ B.Good

JPTL-S

In actually had a 15" lightning audio (a subsidiary of rockford) sub in my last car http://www.lightningaudio.com/2004/home/ I acutally had the guys at the Sterling Myer-Emco take care of the install and they did a wonderful job! Right before I took mine in they were working on a Ferrari. As for my amp, I went with a MRD-M301 Alpine V12 AccuClass-D Mono Amplifier. If I were to do it again I would probably go with Kicker Solo-barics or Rockford Fosgates for the subs, although the lighting audio subs really did sound nice.

vidoprof

Bgood,

Not a stupid question at all.. It's an Audio company. They are in Europe not much presence over here yet, but they win all the awards overseas.. There are only a few distributors for their stuff in the US, but they make some of the best equipment you can buy. I know a couple distributors so that helped alot in my case. Alot of the best installs for Audio shows that win big competitions use their stuff. Kinda like focal if you ever heard of them, but IMHO better and MUCH better customer support.

I would NOT buy two seperate subs with two diff boxes.. unless you like that look.. IF you don't use your trunk you can still optmize space and put the subs in a ported box and put it thru the passthru in the rear seat. NO RATTLES is the key to the WHY I did this, but it sounds pretty good with that BOOM that I LIKE. Also you can still access your spare tire with this config.

Just please make it look nice and no wires everywhere. I hate that with the TL when people do that.. You have a beautiful car keep it that way. OO and post pics.

For your purposes.. use JL.. They make a ver efficient sub and you can put it in very small enclosures. They sound pretty good too.

Here is a link to DLS's website

as you can see they won a TON of awards this past year. I have all the Iridium stuff. I sounds PERFECT and LOUD. DLS Website


Ryan

vidoprof

OO yeah here are a few pics..

Vidoprof's TL

And the thread I started about it

Thread

vidoprof

I missed this post but i came back.. Kicker makes crap now. They USED to make GREAT stuff.. Their solobaric subs are the worse of the line with the L7 being the biggest piece of crap.

Alpine should only be used for their HU's if you want really nice stuff. Again.. you get what you pay for. I hope I am not coming across as a snob, I am really not I sware.. but when it comes to Audio stuff, yeah you can get a TON of stuff for WAY less than the quality stuff and it wil sound OK maybe even great to most people.. but it doesnt sound great. IF your ears cannot discern the difference get the cheap stuff.. it will all sound the same to you and you will save a ton of money.

I know people though that if they heard JL stuff in a car their ears hurt (exaggeration here).. they are used to the best though.. and that is a very small % of people ... so IF You want ok stuff and you can't tell the diference get the apline or the like.. JL is a step up for sure from the mainstream stuff like alpine, and infinity and Rockford Fosgate and such. but it's not in the class of Zapco, Focal, DLS, etc etc..

Ryan

ed99

Go with the Alpine DVC TYpe R subs. They are very good subs for the money. It doesn't matter how good of a system you have unless you dynomat the TL properly. Otherwise everything especially outside will rattle like no tommorow!! Dynomat is a MUST!!

vidoprof

I again totally disagree with having to dynomat your car IF you use a ported enclosure. If you have your subs facing the back of the trunk towards the rear bumper then i would agree you will PROBABLY need to dynomat. But don't unless you feel the rattle is too much for you.

Personally I can't stand rattles and my car doesn't AT ALL and i have a ton of watts in my system and it's probably louder then most people want/need/can handle


Ryan

Turbowhat2

which directions are you subs firing? because i thought that anysubs in the trunk with over 300 watts is going to create SP that flexes the trunk lid.

vidoprof

I have a ported enclosure that the port fires thru the passthru in the back seats.. That is why my car doesn't rattle at all.. and I love it.. No dynomat... and it is perfect.

Ryan

iambgood

So wait, If I install the subs firing towards the backseat of the car (instead of towards the rear bumper), this will solve the rattle problem WITHOUT having to dynamat the trunk? Let me know if I'm making the right assumption here.

Thanks,

B.Good

Turbowhat2

thats really intersting. i always thought subs firing in any direction in the trunk creates SP that makes the trunk flex, this is why the trunk rattles... it is flexing out and in and it rattles where the trunk meets the top of the bumper.

spyfish007

You usually get a bigger kick firing into the rear & you can get some additional SPL out of them. Some old box Chevy's respond best to 4 subs (2 subs firing to the each side) for the most boom. My point is each car responds differently and each person likes something different. Realize that there are tradeoffs here. Get a box and try it in your car to see what you like.

Also, many people are knocking ported boxes. A correctly tuned ported box can sound very tight. It can also sound like crap. It is all in the tuning and good tuning comes with knowledge of speaker design, box design, & EXPERIENCE! The advantage of the port is that the port can do additional work for you. This is essentially for free and can increase your deep bass response (too a point). For what it is worth, I say anything below 25 Hz is useless ....

iambgood

Is dynamat overrated??

~ B.Good

Turbowhat2

yes... dynamat is all marketing.

you can buy peel n seal at Lowe's for 10% the price of dynamat and it works just as good.

iambgood

awesome, I will definitely look into that.

I'm still looking for a good quality sub out there for the price. I'm probably going to do this next month, but wanted to get some input.

Another thing I've been seeing a lot of is this dual coil subs. Are these things even worth the cost?

~ B.Good

rickneuropa

What dual voice coils allow you to do, is match the ohm value to your amp. You can for instance, configure a dual 4ohm sub to be either a 2 ohm or 8 ohm value, depending on the wiring setup, or if you have multiple subs, can configure two to equal 4 ohms. That way, you can get the most power out of your amp to the subs. It's just ease of multiple configurations. See this wiring diagram to see what I mean: http://www.edesignaudio.com/wiring.php

Turbowhat2

OK, i finally figured out how you got the trunk to stop rattling Vido... when they built your custom system, they divided the trunk up

so the part of the trunk where your subs are are actually sealed form the trunk space that you see when u open the trunk... thats why it doesnt rattle. There is hardly any Sound pressure in the cargo part of the trunk...

Moosh

Why do you have a picture of a monkey in your avatar?

Sorry I couldn't resist

vidoprof

Well KINDA... Of course the box is "sealed" but it's ported and my subs don't "fire" into the trunk.. they "fire" into the cabin of the car. that is where the port is going thru the passthru in the rear seats.. so no pressure is in the trunk.. that is the design of the ported enclosure.. It doesn't use the actual space in the trunk to move the air. Which is what a SEALED enclosure would do.

that is why my trunk doesn't rattle.. It's all about the port and where it goes thru. IF I would have my port firing INTO THE trunk.. MY car would rattle like everyone elses. And I would need some form of sound deadening material.. but since it doesn't fire into the trunk I don't need any.. No rattles..



Ryan