hi..guys..
I am thinking of getting 2 kicker solo-baric S12L7..
there are some questions that I would like to ask...
1. What amp should I get for these subs, I am looking at JBL 1200.1 and Orion 1200D and HiFonics BX1500D?..which one of is good?
2. I looked at some other threads about this sub..ppl always say that ported box is good for this sub?...where can I get those boxes?...do I have to customize doing it or I can get it from somewhere?..How big should the box be?
3. I have a 2002 TL...is the trunk big enough for 2 solobaric L7 if I want to ported them?..
4. I just want to hear some advices on this solo-barics L7...are you good subs? Is there some other comparable subs to these?..do I need a break-in time for them?
5. Should i go to 2 12" L7 or 1 15" L7?

Thank you guys..any advice welcome..

Jeffrey

 

1) If you have a rear-mounted antenna amp in your TL, I think that a Hifonics or Orion Class D will interfere with your FM reception - the only Class D amps I think MAY be OK are Alpine and JL Audio. There have been reports on this forum by TSX drivers with this problem, and it's also happened in other vehicles. Has to do with the power supply generating RF interference... I think you can find good amps also from JL Audio and others... not a JBL amp fan although they have their fans.

2) I would NOT port SoloBarics. Small. Sealed. Traditionally, Solos are very small and very sensitive - if the box is too big, they have no power handling and rip themselves apart - which is also EXACTLY what they will do in a misaligned ported enclosure. The Kicker web site will have the best sealed enclosure for these. Ported will give you the loudest output, but porting is a way to make a small speaker sound bigger - if you already have a small speaker, and you are not experienced at this, go small sealed and get good performance and low risk.

3) Since I would go sealed, mu ("unask the question").

4) The Solos are not BAD... but they are engineered for small boxes and to be hard to hurt when used correctly - not neccesarily for sound quality. There are better subs for sound quality. If you have any SQ interest at all, you should check out many other subs - JL w6v2 - Shivas are a big fave of tuan209 - soundslpinter is too - elemental design is interesting - etc.

You definitely need break-in time for Solos, and really you do with all subs, but they are especially stiff out of the box. There are several comparable subs, and I think you can get better SQ in that range.

5) 15" are so large that they sound muddy in almost all situations. The cone mass starts moving one direction, and the electrical power required to magnetically brake that motion and reverse it is so great, your cone motion lags where it should be - muddy bass. Unless you want to be the ice cream man in your neighborhood, avoid 15".

Also, from a volume perspective, 2 12" have more cone area than 1 15", and theoretically can play louder.

 

hey elduderino,

how do the l5's compare to the w3v2's?

 

sorry man, did read the whole thing..but do not get L7's...they suck....

my brother has gone through about 4 of them....yes they warranty them, but they are not as loud and do not give the best sound from perspective....he blew them with the reccomended amp and gain and stuff...

Unless you are getting a steal on them....

I'd spend some more money and get JL audio...I have had the same W6 V2 12" for ever and it's still louder tham my bros L7's that are 12"

 

i concur stay away from solobarics. the #1 reason people blow them is because Kicker flat out lies about their power rating. they use too small of a voice coil to handel the power. based on the diameter of the coils they are realistically about 380 watt subs. since they fry so easily i would go ported and run about 1/2 the rated power. but you need to tune the box relitivly low correctly so you dont get too much cone travel below F3. and that F3 needs to be below the range of bass notes you will be sending it. you can also pick an amp with a subsonic filter to fix this.

if it were my money i would scrap the L7 idea all together. the L7 has a cone area advantage over other designs. however its shortfall is the fact it has a low xmax. there are a lot of other subs of similar size that have better output and will handle power better for about the same money.

 

I have a 12L7 in a sealed box with 600 watts. Sounds good, but as others have stated not exactly an SQ sub. My Infinity Perfect was much better at SQ. I've had it for 1.5 years and it is still not blown. Maybe these other people have had it in a ported/vented enclosure, which most people know can't handle as much power as compared to a sealed enclosure.

 

actually that is backwards, ported enclosurs will handle more power than sealed do because ported boxes have less cone travel than sealed do. as a result they actually exhibit less distortion than sealed boxes do.

unless you make a practice of playing frequencies below the tuning frequency of the enclosure usually about 30 hz of less in most applications.

you can however put a sub in a really small sealed box and get some more power handelling but at the expense of the low frequency responce and SQ of the sub.

there are a lot of myths out in the audio world, most of which are invented from a lack of knowledge on the subject.

 

BM and I are not supposed to argue... but I will mention a few differing opinions in the audio world.

Ported boxes have lower power handling over the full audible range - which is NOT the range that music occurs in. Within the assigned passband a ported box has higher excursion-limited power handling, because at the porting frequency the woofer hardly moves. THere are many speaker box builders who would NOT recommend a porting frequency of 30Hz or lower... especially since music usually occurs above 50 Hz, and rap with fake bass still is usually above 40... but it is true that if a ported box resonates too high, you will have power-handling problems. The rule of thumb is that 1/2 octave below your porting frequency your power handling goes totally out the window and excursoin goes wack. So a box tuned to 30 will lose its power handling at about 23 Hz, and a box tuned to 40 will lose it at 30, and a box tuned to 50 will lose it at 37.5, which will probably cause problems when listening to rap-hiphop bass (but not much else, frankly).

And when it comes to distortion, there are different kinds, and ported boxes exhibit a great deal of TIME distortion, or phase delay, or group delay ( different terms). Of course, you get some of this by putting the box farther away from the listener than the mids and highs, but phase distortion IS distortion, and ported boxes have more of that than sealed. Transient accuracy - time response - is best in sealed boxes, as a rule.

A while back someone posted some Infinity Perfect tech sheets, and the group delay of a ported box vs a sealed box was graphed... useful to know.

I am a big fan of ported boxes when done well and in the right application, but as BM says, we wouldn't want any misunderstandings, especially though ignorance...

 

agreed, i was trying to be a little less technical in my post. however with respect to phase delay many of the theroys are 100% applicable when building home speakers. i would hope we can agree that since a subwoofer is usually sitting in the trunk and its direction is usually pointed to the rear of the car. combined with the fact its location is as many as 8-10 feet from the front speakers phasing with respect other speaker's is really a moot point be it sealed, ported bandpass or any design.
unless you have some electronics to compensate for the phasing problems inherent with any automotive application i really think its a moot point.
over the years i have always inside my head laughed whenever i hear someone talk of sound quality in an automotive environment. i laugh even harder when i hear them follow up that statement with "when playing rap music"
unless extensive planning, tuning and time correction and optimal speaker placement has been addressed in a car system, (which probly 98% of car systems have never used) true sound quality is somthing i have seen very little of in any auto environment.
most of the distortion sources you speak of will generally never be noticed by the average listener. usually most people in cars with big systems or big bass are usually listening to audio material that could never be called anything close to quality.
also with the noisy environment of about 90% of the cars on the road today to overcome engine and road noise i think personally it's kind of a waste to go to the effort of attempting to make that environment a sound quality one.
dont get me wrong ive heard some good systems, even designed a few but for anyone who wants 12" subs in their car or dedicates 600-1000 watts or more to the bass section isn't really looking for quality. they are actually looking to be obnoxious to the neighborhood.
give me a benz or bimmer, about 10,000 in equipment and a month or 2 to install it and ill show you a quality system. give me a few hundred to a grand in cash and a 30,000 car and ill make you a bass machine. i think you get the idea of what i am trying to say.

but as a general statement and i belive you reinforced it ported boxes will take more power with less mechanical distortion. mechanical distortion is usually the most easily heard. speakers pushed beyond their xmax or mechanical (xmec) limits will exhibit far more audiable distortion than group delay. you will never notice a difference in time or group delay unless your listening to it with respect to the other speakers in the system. further most subs being locked in the trunk have a lot of distortion masked by the fact they are in the trunk.
a clipped amplifier signal hooked to subs in a trunk is a perfect example. usually the listener would never know the subs are clipping over all the other noises in the car combined with the fact the sound is muffled by the sealed up trunk.