most cost effective upgrade route

Since spending money and making things louder is addicting, I'm at a point where I'm not sure what would be the most cost effective upgrade to get a bit more output from the subs. Currently, I have a 2011 Jeep Liberty with two 12" Alpine type r's (the new models) being pushed by a Sundown Saz-1200d. They're in a custom built box (rear facing subs and port) ~1.5 cu ft/sub tuned to 35hz. They sound good, but could be a bit louder and I'm not sure if I should be looking towards a bigger amp for the type r's, different subs, etc. Any recommendations on what I should upgrade next would be great.

a new box with a different design would probably be the most cost effective upgrade. it sounds like your box was built to alpines specs but the factory spec box is usually not the loudest design. im not sure if there is a difference in the newer type r subs but ive heard those subs get extremely loud when you give them more airspace than what you are giving them now

soundnsecurity wrote:

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a new box with a different design would probably be the most cost effective upgrade. it sounds like your box was built to alpines specs but the factory spec box is usually not the loudest design. im not sure if there is a difference in the newer type r subs but ive heard those subs get extremely loud when you give them more airspace than what you are giving them now

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Hmmm maybe I'll have to try that out. When I only had one of the type r's, I tried it in multiple ported boxes from 1.38 cu ft (alpine's spec), 1.5 cu ft, and 2 cu ft. I honestly didn't notice much of a difference between them and modeling out the sub in winISD doesn't seem like 1.5 to 2.0 cu ft will do much. I mean a larger box and lower tuning models to be a bit louder (and extend lower of course), but I'm not sure if I want to give up 3 cu ft per sub. Maybe sub up, port back opposed to what I have now (rear facing sub and port) would get a bit more SPL? Not sure how much sub and port orientation would increase though.

what is the resistance of the voice coils? could it be that you are running them at a higher impedance than what the amp will allow. ie: running the amp at 4 ohms instead of 2.

auto enhancers wrote:

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what is the resistance of the voice coils? could it be that you are running them at a higher impedance than what the amp will allow. ie: running the amp at 4 ohms instead of 2.

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4 ohm DVC alpine type r's wired down to 1 ohm nominal (so like 3.7 ohm real resistance per voice coil and .8ish ohm final).

Another thought was would it be worth it to swap out the type r's with higher end 12's with the same power (600W-700W per sub) or swap 2 12's with a nice 15 on 1200-1400W?

After thinking about it more, I guess the term "cost effective" wasn't really what I was going for. Anyway, I think I'm leaning towards swapping subs. What are some subs that sound somewhat decent, but louder than the type r's? I'll be running 600-700W to each sub.