Best Sub Under $175
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=48140
Printed Date: June 18, 2024 at 8:53 AM
Topic: Best Sub Under $175
Posted By: jettagli03
Subject: Best Sub Under $175
Date Posted: January 19, 2005 at 7:57 PM
my friend is looking to put dual 10's in his truck and only wants to spend $175 a piece on them.. what do you all reccomend... feel free to put in your say. thanks
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Replies:
Posted By: Alpine Guy
Date Posted: January 19, 2005 at 8:25 PM
Alpine type-R Eclipse Aluminum Infinity ------------- 2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.
Posted By: hoaxs
Date Posted: January 19, 2005 at 9:10 PM
Read the new CAR AUDIO AND ELECTRONICS magazine. They review 4 10 inch subs under & 150.
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Hurry get me a steel hanger, elec tape, zip ties, a monkey and a snorgle. trust me i've ran wires with less
Posted By: auex
Date Posted: January 19, 2005 at 9:22 PM
You have more problems then finding the best sub for the money. You need to worry about the best sub for the money that will fit in a truck.
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Posted By: bullman96
Date Posted: January 19, 2005 at 11:26 PM
if it doesnt fit, take out a seat. who needs passengers anyways. your spending a buttload of money on your nice system, did your passengers pay to hear it. only exception is a chick, but she should be on your lap anyways
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 8:09 AM
he has an extended cab so it doesnt really matter about the space, just doesnt want to spend too much as he is only 16 and works at Menards
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Posted By: pimpincavy
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 11:06 AM
The top rated sub in the previously mentioned CA&E article was the Arc Audio sub, the Crossfire was second best. CA&E isnt the best for un-biased opinions, but its a place to start, and all the raw data is there.
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Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 11:53 AM
Check out this, MTX top-of-the-line from last year (the 18" competition subwoofer being the only one better): https://www.cardomain.com/item/MTXT81044A If he has the space for a single 12 that will slam look into this. https://www.cardomain.com/item/JBLP1220 Neither of these subs are a joke, you will need plenty of amplifier power to make them sound their best. They both say 400w and mean it, ported or sealed they take POWER, I would not bother trying to run either of these below 300w from a good amp! Not Boss, not Pyle, Pyramid or other pawnshop brands. If you have the amp already and want to stick with a sub 300w power range try JBL GT series, type R alpine, MTX 7500 or 5500, JL W3v2, there are others. I would personally get nothing less then 400w rms and feel comfortable saying you should get MORE power (over 400w) rather then less. Ask if you want amplifier recommendations. ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 12:26 PM
heavilymedicate wrote:
Neither of these subs are a joke, you will need plenty of amplifier power to make them sound their best. They both say 400w and mean it, ported or sealed they take POWER, I would not bother trying to run either of these below 300w from a good amp! I would personally get nothing less then 400w rms and feel comfortable saying you should get MORE power (over 400w) rather then less.
This distinction between 300 and 400w and the assertion about sounding their best is, in my opinion, false and misleading. See my long post here: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=48102&PN=1 This is the kind of mis-information that commissioned sales people and amplifier manufacturers love. "It won't sound the best unless you buy my more expensive product." Please. Stop the madness. Heavy, I'm not trying to pick on you. It isn't your fault we're bombarded with screams of MORE POWER from every direction. ------------- New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 7:42 PM
No, I know your not trying to pick on me.
The point I was trying to get across is that when these subs say 400w, they mean it, they will not melt down or bottom out (proper enclosure assumed) if you give it to them. Not like the Jensen box that is sitting next to me (my brother in law gave me back the 12w0 I loaned him in it, the Jensen is his), that claims 175w. When I hooked it up in my wife’s car (amp MTX 202, her reg sub is a 10w3) we started to smell something funky after about 3 min. of hard listening. Funny, the amp only puts out 200w bridged but his dust cap was hot so we discontinued the listening (i was just bored anyways). Point being some manufactures lie about power handling, but these two can be believed. I've always said if your within 75% of the woofers rms power rating you have little to gain by adding that extra 25%, or more. So, if he has a amp rated at a believable 300w, that would be good enough in my opinion. Or, if he has a amp and wants to keep it, and its rated at say 150w, I would look into a different sub (when you drop bellow 50% I say look to a different woofer). However, if he does not have a subamp at all, I say: get a amp that is at or slightly over the rated rms of your sub, headroom is all, and maybe future proofing your setup. Ive never regretted choosing a amp with a bit of headroom. I understand there is little to be gained when you get close to the rms rating of a sub. I did not mean to imply that the sub would perform noticeably better with 500w vs. 300w, cause it mostly likely would not (not for most users, you would just increase your chance of frying up a subwoofer). Double or triple the power and you will gain little, what I was talking about was headroom and future-proofing the system. Typically, you don’t pay that much more for a substantial jump in rms power 50-70 dollars will get you the next amp in the line. But if someone was trying to tell you that you cannot run a 400w sub off a 300w amp and have it sound good and you need the 400w upgrade amp for an extra $200, tell em to shove it. Anyhow, no worries, thats my rational, more or less. These issues can be complicated and I was trying to make a statement without complicating the issue to much. Often we comment on issues that are more complicated then we can express in a reasonable lenght, so we make a quick statement, not meant to be read into very deeply. I think I may have come down on the MORE POWER side a little hard, opps. ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 8:33 PM
To the sophisticated buyer I think amplifier selection analysis should include, in this order:
1) Determine correct type / number of channels / stable at goal impedence load, features you need, etc.
2) Determine SPL goal and/or listening expectations
3) Look at the efficiency of the subwoofer. Determine how much power you need to reach your expectations.
4) Only use the RMS rating to limit the amount of power you buy. Power over significantly over RMS risks hitting thermal and excursion related limits if you're a volume person.
To summarize: amplifier buying, to me, isn't about matching RMS. It is about matching goals and expectations to speaker efficieny.
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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Posted By: uthinkuknoaudio
Date Posted: January 20, 2005 at 9:29 PM
What exactly is best to you? What are you looking for in a woofer? (Brace yourself people, you know it is coming) Well if my daddy gave me $175 for a 10" sub what would i buy? Hmm... let me think here... AH! I GOT IT! ....uh.... Well, what am i looking for? SPL or SQ... Luke: Father, i know not my path on which woofer to get! Darth Vader: Search your wallet, you know Nak to be true! Luke: No father! Way to expensive! I'm sick of you recommending the same brand! Darth Vader: Kiss my a$$ Luke, i am your father, now buy the g****** SP-W104S. Luke: Which one is that? Darth Vader: Its a crazy SQ woofer that you can get two of them off the online death star (ebay) for $140 plus shipping using Buy It Now. The wookee dealer awaits. Luke: What if i want SPL? Darth Vader: Well, search your pawn shop, kicker is your ally in this quest. Luke: And what about Rockford Fosgate? Darth Vader: Listen you Ewok freak, get a HX2 10" from fosgate, A kicker woofer (millions of them out there) or a JBL GT1041D! Luke: I'm sorry father for doubting you. Darth Vader: Leave me at once, i smell much fear in you. (Luke runs away like O.J. Simpson) ------------- "I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.
Posted By: Alpine Guy
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 2:10 AM
hahahahah, your a pot head!
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2003 Chevy Avalanche,Eclipse CD7000,Morel Elate 5,Adire Extremis,Alpine PDX-4.150, 15" TC-3000, 2 Alpine PDX-1.1000, 470Amp HO Alt.
Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 4:08 AM
kfr01] wrote:
o the sophisticated buyer
I think that’s the key, 'sophisticated buyer', someone familiar with the playground. For others it's hard to gauge what they expect if its realistic in relation to thier budget. You can sell 12" MTX 4500's all day where I live for 90 a pop. People buy two of those and a amp to roughly match em. But you could kill yourself trying to talk them into a 12" 7500. Tell them it has a magnet 4 times bigger then the 4500, a voice coil 50% larger, 50% more excursion and all this translates into better SQ and more SPL. Its like they don’t believe it. Like its some math equation they cannot solve. "No... no all my friends have 2 subwoofers, you need 2 subwoofers to get allot of bass." Later they come back talking about how low so and so's system hits, how hard it hits, how its only one sub. Yeah.. That usually happens to be the guy that actually bought the single 7500 (only 30$ more then 2-4500's!), and powered that mofo near the rms with a quality amp... The setup I tried to talk them into in the first place. I think I'm leading this thread off topic.. right. Maybe not thought, all this talk of amplifier power and buying tips may be just what he needed, if he's still reading. I cant say I disagree with anything in your "buying guide" but that it is truly for a buyer with a knowledge of products and performance in the car audio world. To me the amp and sub are a package; one should complementary to the other and the package be should choosen in a manner that mates well with the overall theme of the audio system. ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 8:46 AM
Heavy, your post is very realistic. I agree with your post for that set of buyers. Well said and argued. :-)
Cheers and thanks for batting that idea around with me.  ------------- New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 12:20 PM
Agreed, it was fun. Your posts seem to be a bit more to the point, more concise. It’s a quality I cant seem to grasp. Well-spoken, cheers!  ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: uthinkuknoaudio
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 6:37 PM
Vader: Ah, you have found the way of the force! It is your destiny... Luke: I love Pyle audio. Vader: I am no longer your father. ------------- "I don't play games. I play Nakamichi and that for real yo" - Probably some japanese kid said this in the early 80's trying to sell stereo out of his trunk lol.
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 8:03 PM
well i know my stuff when it comes to speakers/subs/stuff like that but we were just wondering what would perform overall the best, SQ and SPL included. im more into the higher end stuff  -------------
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 8:42 PM
we just ended up buying a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1D for $200 on ebay... so we got the money part and have heard nothing but good things about the Pefects. he went a little cheap and just got a Sony XM-DS1600P5 which puts out (supposedly) 1600w and that was only $150 so all in all its a relatively low priced system at $350. anyone know anything about the Sony amps? i havent heard ANYTHING about them at all and am wondering if he just bought a $150 hunk of metal/plastic and btw... what do you all reccomend on boxes, we were probly either going to make some sealed or 4th order bandpass to go in the back of his truck and make custom cushions/seats to go on top so he could still keep his seats in the back (its an extended ranger) BUT we're still open to ANY and ALL ideas... including the placement of the woofers and box types -------------
Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 9:11 PM
You want SQ and are considering a 4th order band pass enclosure? yikes. Stick with the sealed, or ported (i would prefer sealed to ported in this case). Down firing usually sounds good in a quad-cab truck. You could be really creative and put Plexiglas on the side facing the passengers and show off the subs, mount the amp in the middle in a recessed area, and make a faceplate to put on and only show the amp, and not the wires (making the amp stick out just a little... that would be sweet... Anyhow, https://www.crutchfield.com/S-44RDWUdwMQR/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=130&id=features_and_specs&i=158XMDS16P The real deal on that amp is 500w rms@4 ohms and 900w rms@ 2ohms.. with 14.4 volts of input... you'll be lucky to get much above 12.8 or 13, so its a bit overrated. Despite that it should be adequate for those subs, you did well for 350$ those Kappa Perfects are nice subwoofers. ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 9:16 PM
haha im the one trying to make them have SOME SQ and he pretty much just wants SPL so he can be "cool" like his buddies with the dual 12" subs running like 1000w off of no name crap... lol and the thing is... they THINK they have the BEST subs/setup around OH MAN. the sony was only because hes on a tight budget and he just wants a big number of watts.
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Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 21, 2005 at 11:06 PM
Those two subs should pound sealed, and hit lower then a bandpass, go ported and make a compromise if ya want, but ported boxes are larger. This reminds me of a story... A short one, goes like this. Once their was this guy from Alaska who came down to visit family in Kansas. All the people down in Kansas had been shopping at Wal-mart for their "high-end" audio needs. This boy from Alaska only buys wiring harnesses and sometimes a wiring kit from WallyLand, not subwoofers and amplifiers. When they heard his one 10" HX2 Punch and JBL 1200.1 they had a 'hoe-down' for it was a glorious thing to behold: one small subwoofer and amp that could 'boom' like that. Short of it is: if all his friends have been shopping at Walmart for audio, these subs should be quite impressive in any configuration. ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 4:48 PM
haha, i like that its so true too. i think we'll go with dual sealed to put in his ranger and each be made into some sort of seat -------------
Posted By: Drewt
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 8:33 PM
Eh, if you have 2 woofers, why are you getting the DVC version?? That way, you can only get 1 ohm or 4 ohms, not 2 ohms. hmmmm.....a enclosure that doubles as a seat.......have fun sitting there!!! In that case, I'd go with a sealed box, down-fire, that'll do nicely. As far as an amp, Sony amps are pretty much junk from what I've heard. You can pickup an alpine MRD-M501 (550 watts RMS, a damn lot max if you wanna talk in BS numbers) for $250 inc. shipping on some websites (use froogle!!!!) That'll actually put out 550 watts, actually more. Good choice on subs thou. I've got a Perfect 12.1D, and it's awsome. I've got a friend that got 2 Pioneer 10's and is like "mine can hit harder than yours".....well, lets just say that it is louder....but it sounds like ****.....
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 10:55 PM
the kid has no friends... no one will be sitting in the back anyways, its just incase he HAPPENS to stumble upon a reason to need seats in the back we knew the amp was crap but hes got a very tight budget at the moment and will eventually upgrade the entire system beacuse hes heard my brahma and knows what it can do even though i never turn it up very loud yeah we looked around froogle first but found the best deals on ebay so we just did it there. -------------
Posted By: yamahaking2000
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:07 PM
aint i mister popular........ oh well, i do have friends and the seat idea was jettagli03's idea lol what a funny kid that mormon. anyways im not trying to get spl, im more of a sq guy, but alittle of both would be nice so i could show all those awanabes at my school with their crap subs that they bought for pawn america! hahahahaha... i mean the moron tried to run his amp and stuff without a cap and blew his alternator in like 5 days.... cmon i even know better and i am new to this....
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:13 PM
yeah i know im a genius.. think about it.. if you've ever been in a ranger extended cab you know theres NO room at all for ANYTHING and a sub would get rid of the seats. sooo i was like just put the boxes where the back seats are and make then into the new seats.. i know im a genius.. hold the applause. but i like Drewt's idea of making them down firing... i'll have to incorporate that into my design plans
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Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:13 PM
Am I the only one getting annoyed wasting my time watching a couple of high school buddies using this forum for their arguments?? Mods, are you watching?
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:19 PM
what we're still getting input from people out there... whats wrong that we know each other.. we're not arguing at all... im just telling him what to do :-P and he knows it because hes never done this before and then we're getting extra feedback by people who know these products better than we do.. just look at it... like 30 replies and like 450 views... its not like we're bickering back and forth together
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Posted By: yamahaking2000
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:23 PM
stevdart go away if u dont like us not like you need to help us, we seem to be off to a good start with other people who are actually nice enough to give us some of their imput since they probably have more experience than us.....so chill its all good man
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2 Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1D - Sony crap amp(cant find my specs lol)
Posted By: MAXST
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:45 PM
hmm... i recommend a single RE SE 10". 600rms. Have a nice SQ system setup. ------------- I need quality equipment, feel free to donate.
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: January 23, 2005 at 11:51 PM
yamahaking2000 wrote:
stevdart go away
no problem, kid.
Posted By: petergozinya
Date Posted: January 24, 2005 at 12:23 AM
stevdart wrote:
Am I the only one getting annoyed wasting my time watching a couple of high school buddies using this forum for their arguments?? Mods, are you watching?
NO! YOU'RE NOT. But i said some crappy stuff to sombody the other day that said we were a bunch of idiot's so mabey us newbies will take into consideration the amount of perfesionalism contained in this site and that it it pricless to most of us.
Posted By: heavilymedicate
Date Posted: January 24, 2005 at 1:09 AM
petergozinya wrote:
stevdart wrote:
Am I the only one getting annoyed wasting my time watching a couple of high school buddies using this forum for their arguments?? Mods, are you watching?
NO! YOU'RE NOT. But i said some crappy stuff to sombody the other day that said we were a bunch of idiot's so mabey us newbies will take into consideration the amount of perfesionalism contained in this site and that it it pricless to most of us.
One big run-on sentence and then.... perfesionalism. Dude that’s sweet. Anyhow, yeah they are wasting space; I'll just unsubscribe from the thread. I really don'd care if these two girlfriends type forum messages back and forth till I send my youngest to college. Running your system without a cap can cause alternator damage? I had no idea! I better call the customers. Thanks, yamahadude2000! You have no concept of what those subs can do if you think you need to bandpass them to achieve a impressive spl level. As for you being a SQ guy, bandpass and SQ don’t belong in the same sentence. Use bandpass for one thing: to juice all the volume you can out of a crappy woofer at the cost of low frequency extension and sound quality. ------------- What will you get for Christmas, bad boy? Coal........or Visonik?? - stevdart
Wow, is everyone clueless and lost in the dark? - uthinkuknoaudio
Posted By: kfr01
Date Posted: January 24, 2005 at 1:26 AM
As an aside, I agree with heavy and stevdart here. This thread has gotten off topic and is just about as riddled with misinformation as it is not. I'm in favor of closing this topic.
I also agree with Heavy's opinion against the bandpass box.
On capacitors: I've never seen an ounce of proof they help at all. Personally, I think they're a waste of money for most systems.
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New Project: 2003 Pathfinder
Posted By: Ravendarat
Date Posted: January 24, 2005 at 3:35 AM
Hmmm, mis-information and flaming on stevdart, never a good mix. First off, the comment about him blowing his altenator because he didnt have a cap is about the dumbest thing I have heard in a while. Plain and simple, apperantly you didnt know better. If his altenator went then it was on the way out anyways and the strain of an audio system just brought its demise around in a timly manner. A cap would not have stopped this from happening or even slowed it down, that sucker was toast before he started. Now on to the comment about the bandpass box and sq and loud and what not. Bandpass boxes are loud, they are usefull in the case where you have a low end sub and want more output out of it. They do sound like absoulte sh*t. They are big and hard to build correctly. Those are the simple facts on Bandpass boxes. If you are using a sony explode driver, thats fine. If thats what you like then by al means use it and love it. I would recomending throwing it in a ported enclose as that it they way I have seen them preform the best. Also throw as much power at it as your wallet can afford because I have heard those sonys off of some larger amps such as a RF BD1000.1 and they definatly loved the extra power. This isnt rocket science, this is car audio. Its not medicine its car audio. If you f**k up no one will die, worst case senario is your stuff doesnt sount good or you smoke something. Not a big deal just live and learn. The only other advice I have for you is please make sure if you are gonna make a comment like that altenator one you reserch it ahead of time or explain why something like that makes sense or who led you to believe that. Its so much easier to correct misinformation like that right away then letting it spread like the small poxs through our little world here.
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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer
Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 24, 2005 at 7:35 PM
i love how half you you keep posting about what bandpass boxes are... as if no one knew...
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Posted By: jettagli03
Date Posted: January 24, 2005 at 7:37 PM
how do i close this thread? theres no need for it anymore... -------------
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: January 25, 2005 at 10:48 PM
If you are tired of this thread, log out. Then log back in; under Options select "Log in with Administrator privileges". Highlight the topic and click "close topic".
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