glott

Hey guys,

Just thought Id share. Just got my car back from Sound Advice (aka Tweeter for your northerners) in Miami. Got a 10w7 in a custom box with a nice embossed JL logo. Thing slams way harder than any other system I've had (12w3, two 10 mb quarts). I also got my car rewired with 4 gauge power for each amp. Everything sounds and looks great. Let me know your thoughts! Enjoy the pics!

http://homepage.mac.com/glottenberg/PhotoAlbum4.html

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

Looks awesome man. Question how much did they charge for the box. I just wanna get a rough idea of tweeter prices.

glott

A lot, about 450 for the box and amp rack. It was completely custom and built to exactly what I told them, still can't justify (maybe 350 would have been better) it totally but I am thoroughly please with it. They gave me a deal on the sub (200 off, GREAT PRICE) however. Also the embossed JL logo was thrown in for free so I can't complain.

stphy32

Looks nice! and happy to see another JL whore with me

Tweeter of course is going to charge more. You should have gone to a smaller custom place they would have done a better job and not charged as much.

My experience with Tweeter people is that they are idiots. Maybe its just cuz I am a girl and they were trying to scam me....but the idiot there told me I could push a 12w7 with a 500/1.

Needless to say, Um I left immediately.

glott

well, i had actually gotten more expensive quotes at the local places upwards of 500 for nothing more complex. This sound advice was great actually, the installer was completely professional.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

Well actually you can. JL recomends it to. The palce that did my car actually suggested it. And all I can say is that its loud. Really loud. My system is louder than 3 JL w3v2 on a kicker 800.

Spoon

According to their web site 500 would be the "minimum", approx. 800 "optimum". Which is not to say it's bad, but to spend that kind of money, might as well get the most out of it.


http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs.php?series_id=9

glott

of course, porting that 12 will allow the 500 to push it perfectly and be quite loud., sealed youd probably want a 1000/1 by a 500 is by no means going to sound bad.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

O yea if I had sealed I would defintly do the 1000/1. I was thinking of upgrade my system anyways.

Thinking of doing a 13w7 on 1000/1 and JL Zr components in the front and Xrs in the back on a 450/4.

Tsx536

Looks good man. Really clean. Do you have any rattles at all?

I bet it pounds though!!

glott

yeah it rattles decently, but not much that i can here from the inside. I do have dynamat on my trunk lid but it seems that the lower bumper and side fenders rattle from the inside quite a bit. The sound quality inside sounds great although I could probably use another 200 bucks worth of dynamat to get the most out of it.

stphy32

exactly.

I mean whats the point in spending so much for the 12w7 and not getting the adequate power to support its potential?

Doesnt make any sense.

I already had the 500/1 and I walked in there asking for a 10w7 or a 12w6 and the guy didnt have the 10w7 in stock so he tried to up me into getting a 12w7..

wasnt having it.

Of course its better to underpower than over power the sub but what is the point?

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

ALso I dunno if this is the same case with the TSX. But in the TL I adjusted my trunk latch so the trunk closes a lil tighter and that helped a lot with the rattles.

glott

what do I need to tighten on the latch?

Spoon

I damped my trunk lid and didn't notice a damn thing. The bumper and tail light housings do buzz a bit. Biggest rattle reduction (for me, so far) was to damp the rear deck and isolate the high mount stop from the deck with foam.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

remove the plactic covering around the where the trunk latches in. In the tl there are couple of bolt holding it in. Same should be for the TSX. Just loosen the bolts and move the latch down about 1/6 of a inch.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

Then again I think your licence plate is on the trunk isnt it. thats gonna be where most of your rattles come from.

stphy32

I put some weather stripping behind mine and its a lot better now

C-Cook

It's actually better to get an amp that runs at peak power or more and turn the gains down. Underpowering it usually means having to turn the gains up which ends up causing distortion which leads to subs blowing.

stphy32

when you over power the sub you risk burning the voice coils

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

Actually this is also a myth. I have pushed my JL 500/1 on my JL w3v2. I worked fine. You actually blow a sub when the amp gains are turned up and you end up clipping the single. Clipping is distortion. A lot of high end home subs not feature a anti clip amp so the sub does not die.

Hope that kinda helped.

stphy32

I was running the same setup before also dnd.. (now I have 2 12w3v2's) and when I went to add the other sub and switch to a new box for some reason the glue had melted around the lip of the sub and the box, it was weird... I mean this could have been shitty glue used but I dont know if the sub was getting hot

Oh your setup right now? Are you using a sealed box? I had my first one in a ported but I bet it would have been better in a sealed with so much power (and the gains were turned down)

The 500/1 amp seems so freakin strong can I just say that.. Damn, I mean I am using that amp right now to push the 2 12w3v2s and I dont have my gains turned all the way up and that thing bumps hard...

if you still only have one 12w3 I would recommend 2 because when I added a second I noticed much less distorted bass and crisper sounds.. much better...

C-Cook

When I say over power I mean just get an amp with more power than the sub can handle then turn the gains down. The gain knob basically adjusts the power but at the same time if your gains are to high or too low it causes distortion or clipping. You never want to buy an amp that is the same power or below the RMS of the sub, unless it's a big sub and you can't afford it like I once did I had to replace 4 subs because the dust caps kept blowing off from distortion. And then finally it led to my surround ripping apart.

Spoon

It's not a myth, if too much current passes thru the voice coil, it could burn. How much is too much? That's a different issue. A severely clipped signal played for an extended period of time could result in heat death of the sub as the cooling process is impeded. However, clipping is not directly tied to the gain. The gain could be turned up all the way and if the input signal is really weak, not clip. Conversely, the gain could be all the way down and a clipped signal could be fed to it from the HU, EQ, etc.

Spoon

Possibly you weren't driving the two as hard as the one, due to the increased loudness?

stphy32

Well it is definitely louder but the sound quality is much much better...

stphy32

Yes the knob helps but you shouldnt just rely on this (thank God I didnt) at a meet once, these teenagers (no offense if it was some of you on this board) got into my car cuz they wanted to hear the bass and they turned the knob up all the way and that was when I only had one w3v2 Thank God I had the gains on the amp itself tuned very low or else I would have had to kick some lil boy ass

btw: you dont need to explain to me about RMS power and which sub and amp to buy and why. I already know But thanks

CJams

First off.......System looks good!

So I take it you're happy with the work Tweeter did? That's the first time someone has posted something positive about Tweeter. Usually the store Tweeter is associated the word nightmare.


I'm thinkin you should play the lotto!

glott

yeah im happy in general, the price was high but the work justified it. The installer that I had was rated tweeter/sound advice's top installer in the southeast, so maybe I just got lucky. I def had heard stories of issues with their installs in the past, but they might have been location or personnel specific (i.e. a moron or lazy person doing it)

stphy32

or the equivalent of a (majority) of Best Buy/Circuit City employee

optomos

Tweeter used to be good, but most of their top installers have left. I guess in your case he's one of the few quality installers left. I think you got a good deal.

stphy32

glott: I cant really tell.. how much space do you have between the top of the box and your trunk? I guess I am asking b/c is it high that it is almost/ or is hitting your 6x9's?

Mine is so high that it is no good and practically pounding mine out if I have the gains up med-high... I need to get those cups to protect the buttom so they dont pop out

glott

the box isn't close at all to the 6x9 (probaby 6-8 inches of space). The actual height of the box is probably around 12.5 inches, specifically designed not to touch the navi dvd unit which I believe is approx 14-15 inches from the floor of the trunk.

CJams

glott---What was the name of your installer? Was it Tim? You went to Sound Advice right?

glott

his name was john, sound advice in dadeland (miami, fl)

glott

let me just reiterate that the sound quality of the 10w7 is utterly amazing. At first I thought it was the output that amazed me, but now that its breaking in I can hear some bass quality that I never thought I could. Some people say that JL is overpriced and overrated, it may be over priced but clearly you get what you pay for, I've simply never heard bass sound so darn good!

Spoon

Yeah, right, what I was getting at was that all things being equal, two subs will play louder than one for a given power level. So, most likely, under normal usage, the amp isn't being driven as hard, which in turn doesn't drive the sub as hard, reducing the potential of both electrical and mechanical distortion.

dnd2984

iTrader: (6)

The one W3 was just temporary. My current system is in my sig. For sub I actually have a 12w7 ported and also a 13w6v2 sealed. Some weeks I really need to use my trunk so I go to the 13 and take the w7 out.

stphy32

the 13 w6v2 is not in sig? You have both? What amp are you running to that? thats a lot of bass you only need either one of those IMO

glott

you missed the point, he swaps them out