hey all, i was wondering if anyone here is running kicker solo-baric l7's in their car. im thinking about getting some of these and wanted to know how much you guys spent on em and how many u have in your car. trying to decide whether i should get 2 10', 1 12', or go nuts and get 2 12' l7s. thanks for the input

 

I thought they sounded allright when I checked them out at ABT electronics by my house, however from what Bass Mechanic had said in a previous post I would avoid them.

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7301

 

Didn't see a post by him on that thread.

Solo's tend to sound good with enough power and muddy without it. If you were going to run 2 12"s, you would need a very powerful amp to run them. They are also very, very finicky about the box they are in, so you can't just buy a box off of the shelf unless it's made for them (or you get them pre-loaded).

As far as size of woofer to run, that's really a function of the sound you're looking for and the music you listen to most often, and whether you are looking for high fidelity (which apparently no one looks for any more) or just lotsa bass.

If you want high fidelity you have to look at your front speakers playing the mid-bass notes, and design the speaker setup - where do you want the woofers handing off to the mids, how much work and money will go into making the mids play as low as possible, etc.

 

how much are you looking to spend? i say get some koda 10s or maybe an id sub?

 

well the choices i was gonna decide from were the rockford fosgate punch stage 3, alpine type r, kicker solo baric l7, or the jlw6v2 all at 12 inch size. i really wanted to get the jl w6v2s but i cant really find any justification to spending so much on just a sub + amp. the rockfords i read in other audio forums arent what they used to be in quality and performance so i was iffy on those, so i was pretty much trying to decide between the alpines or the solo barics. the alpines would cost me less than 100 for a 12, and the new L7 would run me 180 for a 12. the power the L7 could take in looked more appealing to me but ive heard good things about the alpines too.

im looking for some deep tight bass that will give good vibes to me sitting in the drivers seat. i like to feel my music. my friend told me that solo barics work well with a small enclosure also so that would save me some trunk space so that was another plus. im gonna be running stock speakers for now and the stock hu probably forever cause i like the way it looks. thanks for the tips!

oh yeah im looking to spend around 500 for a sub + amp, maybe around >200 for the sub so that i can get a stronger amp to power it instead of a expensive sub and underpowered amp. thanks again

 

Sorry wrong thread

http://www.acura-tsx.com/forums/show...ghlight=kicker

For what they charge for them I would just go JL...

 

OK read it.

Well, BM and I don't seem to play well together, so I will simply say that I've never met anyone in the speaker business who thought the other speaker manufacturers were doing anything right, and I think that's to be expected.

I'm sure his subs were good.
I've had good results with Kicker Solos... but certainly the easiest way to blow them up is to put them in too big a box.

I think that my bottom-line advice would be, if you make absolutely certain that the box is dead-nuts perfect for the speakers, you really won't go far wrong with any of the companies you seem to be leaning towards. We all have biases and preferences. I have a JL in the CR-V and I'm very happy with it. The Solo's I've installed had a tendency towards one-note bass, but that lessened after they were broken in (speakers take a while to break in), and they sounded pretty good.

If you are gonna run stock fronts, then go with 10"s (IMHO) because they'll do a better job at the mid-bass that the doors won't play. Just my personal preference - if your music has no snare drums or bass guitar you might not care.

Or you could use a system I used to like a lot: one 12" running like 50-60 Hz and down, and two 8"s running like 200 to 50, in stereo. You can run the snot outta the 8's and never blow them up 'cause they don't play the sub-bass, and the 12 handles the real sub-bass (technically, "sub'bass"is 50 Hz and down). The 8"s will help out your factory mids a lot (they don't seem to play mid-bass worth a damn). (Warning: If you fail to high-pass the 8"s at 40-50 Hz, the cones will hit you in the back of the head.)

This system either requires a pretty flexible amp xover or an external one. The Alpine amps seem to be flexible enough to do it., but I don't know if they have a big enough 4-channel that you could run in 3-channel mode.

 

i think ull like the adire shiva actually. really effcient and plays really nice. http://www.adireaudio.com/StockProdu...vers.htm#Shiva

 

ill agree with elduderino on this point, kickers would be happy in a smaller box but happier in a larger box with a little less power.
reason is simple. they have limited suspention travel and as i stated in that other thread they dont hold up well to large amounts of power. the concept of having large cone area is a good idea, however if your suspention travel is limited it really is counter productive.
i never really had any issues with the SQ of the L7 subs its just that if you like to replace them often why bother?

for what its worth i had a customer at my house that had a pair of 10" L5's Running their max "rated" power. needless to say after a couple months they were toast. he came to see me for a solution and i sold him a Dual 8 Power Mouse (my product of invention) anyway running only 150 watts per sub (rated for 400 each) he managed an SPL of 136.5 db measured at the dash of his WRX wagon. we got a dual 10 to spit out a whopping 150db.
as for frequency responce all my designes were tuned to play from 17-117 hz almost perfectly flat in car responce.

if your interested here is a direct link to my old website. im not selling or running the business anymore but some good memories are sitting here on a great product i just didnt have the time to bring to the market in a big way http://216.71.119.227/

 

why dont yall run the specs on a program called bassbox and youll get the correct box size. pretty simple.

 

thanks for all the input fellas, i think im gonna try out 2 10' l7's for now and see how i like em.

bass mechanic: those are some really good lookin subs, too bad you quit the game. how come you dont make them anymore? i would have really liked to try out some of your stuff.

 

well to be perfectly honest, heres my short version of the story.

i used to be a software test engineer for Worldcom from 10/1999 to 3/2001 i lost about a 70,000/ year income and was unemployed for 1.5 years. i began developing my system about 1 year before i got laid off. so the obvious thing to do when i got let go was to continue to grow my business. and grow i did! i was selling these systems all over the US. i was building them in my basement where i made a fabrication shop. as much as i like wood working and have all the fancy tools to make it happen i really just got burnt out being a slave to my own business. make no mistake this is a complicated box. there are 28 individual peices of wood required to make that box. every peice is jointed with Dado and rabbit joints and made of 100% MDF. then the carpeting of this unique shaped box all assembled so that there are no screwes or seams. then there is the plexiglass and graphic time to design each logo. then there is the cost of having your own subs manufacturered. then there is an additional labor intensive job of packaging it all up in 2 inches of foam to ship it off accross the US to the customer.
then there is the issue of shipping a 100 pound beast and getting it to the UPS or schedule a pick up.
the costs of shipping seemed to be getting more and more. and with my only profits being whats left over after all my work and time spent i couldnt really afford to support my family on the money i was making. i offered to sell my design to someone but nobody was biteing with the economey being so bad.
the subwoofers were a hit but unfortunatly because of the war parts from overseas and delays just put me over the top.
so i found my last carrear change in the insurance business. im happy to report im making money hand over fist and it's paying off better than i could have ever hoped. im making well more than i was at worldcom and i have my own business that i never have to worry about poor economey, job layoffs, or getting fired i have vacation whenever i feel like it and i come and go as i please. i guess you could say i never looked back. it was a fun and exciting business while it laster but i find with anything you do for fun that once you make a job out it you begin to hate it. for now im content with car audio as a hobby.
i still have parts but i lack the time, for some local people i would build one if they wanted one and i may put one in the TSX. its been about a year since i made one i may get interested to build another if the price was right. the prices i was charging many people said they were willing to pay a lot more once they got the finished product.
in fact just about 2 months ago an old customer in san diego called me to tell me he won best of show with a dual 10 power mouse in his RSX.

 

so the story is told! yeah your right, the process of building these things is time/energy consuming when your hand making each and every one. one can only last so long. still though, i think you made great products that gave customers what they wanted to their satisfaction and above, and thats all that really matters.