Kicker opinions, what now?
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=59151
Printed Date: June 08, 2024 at 5:28 AM
Topic: Kicker opinions, what now?
Posted By: jimmyrose
Subject: Kicker opinions, what now?
Date Posted: July 10, 2005 at 6:30 AM
Ok well i was hell bent on getting a L7 kicker 12" and i did a search to check out what you guys think and apparently.... they suck ass.... so in this thread, can you either back up the L7's or recommend something decent in a similar price range. i reckon im after a nice compromise between SPL and SQ. Ill be driving it with a lanzar vibe2000d which makes around 650W RMS @ 2 ohm from memory oh and id prefer something that isnt massively deep as I am trying to fit in under the targa roof in the hatch, so around 23cm (9.05 in) deep but this isnt neccessary.
Replies:
Posted By: 349517
Date Posted: July 10, 2005 at 6:50 AM
I own 2 kicker L7s and couldn't be happier. I pound on thoes things daily and no problems yet. If you going to only be giving 650 rms i would reccomend one of them seeing how they are 750 rms. Thats just my 2 cents though.
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Jim
Best Buy MECP Mobile supervisor in store 820
jimmyb3rddegree@hotmail.com
Posted By: pimpincavy
Date Posted: July 10, 2005 at 11:08 AM
The L7s are good subs if you want SPL and not SQ, but if you want a mix they arent the best choice (especially in a a hatch). I would look into a Ascendant Audio Atlas or a Alpine Type R.
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Posted By: Blowntweeters
Date Posted: July 10, 2005 at 3:52 PM
i would go with a 12" soundstream van gogh its a very well rounded sub
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1974 ford pinto 4 15" punch Z power punch bd 1001 pioneer DEH-6700
Posted By: jimmyrose
Date Posted: July 10, 2005 at 7:52 PM
im not sure whether i should look for some SQ in a sub or not cause ive heard the mk3 supra really sucks ass for noise distribution. anyone happen to know the total depth of the S12L7? noone in my town stocks them and kicker havent replied yet
Posted By: SoundAudio
Date Posted: July 10, 2005 at 10:26 PM
I worked for a shop that sold Kicker and I had heard a few before then and I was preety impressed by them. They are definitly designed more for SPL. Honestly I would go by your own ear as to whether you think they sound like what you want. Good Luck!
Posted By: jimmyrose
Date Posted: July 11, 2005 at 4:06 AM
the first time i heard an L7 i was impressed, had to laugh at all the price tickets moving around for a huge radius around the sub. i think i will be getting the kicker after all, i went around today in my crappy ass town and not 1 shop sells kicker, and the best alternative i was given was a 12" Lanzar heritage sub...
Posted By: soundmasta
Date Posted: July 11, 2005 at 7:42 AM
maybe every sub i've heard made by other companies besides kicker hads been blown or somthing, because every installi do with the L5 and L7 subs sounds great, and i do alot because i work at a kicker dealer. they are great subs, will easily outpreform anything comparable sony, pioneer, infinity, jvc, audiobahn, rockford fosgate, jello audio, or mtx will ever make, among other brands. i give this one four out of five stars. tust me, it's the truth.
Posted By: jimmyrose
Date Posted: July 11, 2005 at 8:05 AM
hey soundmasta, how many have you done with kickers "compact" ported enclosure specs. im trying to make the street bass format fit under my targa but its being a bit of a p***k to design. how much difference is there between the compact and street bass enclosures? is it worth trying to fit the extra .75 cu ft?
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: July 11, 2005 at 11:47 AM
Good bass is not about the sub.....it is all about the box. Build the wrong box and get the wrong results. I can take a bottom of the line el-cheapo Kraft red light special sub and deliver darn amazing results with a little carefully planned out box work. I can also take a sub like an Eclipse Aluminum and make it sound like bat barf by putting it into the wrong box. My personal opinion, they get loud with the right box....however, I like to listen to my music (sometimes loud) and any other sub is a better choice for my application. ------------- Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: tcss
Date Posted: July 11, 2005 at 12:01 PM
Agree with Rob, disagree with Soundmasta. You can't throw JL in with those 7 other low line sub brands you mentioned. If you were a JL dealer your opinion would be differant.
Posted By: jimmyrose
Date Posted: July 11, 2005 at 10:25 PM
oh dont worry im putting alot of effort into designing this box, only problem is i cant fit kickers recommended port size in without being in the road of the sub. 
limited space really is a pain in the ass, i might have to opt for sealed soon. ive read about "bending" the port (putting a 90 degree kick in it) and im wondering if there any big disadvantages to doing that? can anyone see another way id be able to put a port in?
Posted By: soundmasta
Date Posted: July 12, 2005 at 7:34 AM
use the L7 in a sealed box...thats the whole idea behind the entire solo baric line since kicker started making them. it will still play loud as hell, and the bass is very tight. sounds great. bending the port is common...as long as it's still tuned the same, it sounds the same.
Posted By: jimmyrose
Date Posted: July 12, 2005 at 8:23 AM
sealed you say? using the thiele/small parameters one of the calculators on the bcae1.com site it says sealed as well. how come the kicker manuals go on about how much better ported is? wasnt it designed as an SPL sub and isnt spl more inclined to ported? i guess i dont really want/need it to be that extra loud anyway
Posted By: SoundAudio
Date Posted: July 12, 2005 at 9:24 AM
Honestly I don't think you will notice that much of a loss of output if you go with a sealed enclosure. If you are really wanting a ported enclosure keep playing around with your design just keep the volume of the port the same. On a completely different note, at the kicker dealer I used to work at we had a Solo X 18 in a huge ported box. Everybody that came in the store looked at it and was wowed and then they would procede to get down on all fours and look in the port. Even had one guy stick his arm up in it. Its like they didn't believe the port was real or function. Funniest thing ever. Sorry this reminded me of that. Good Luck!
Posted By: forbidden
Date Posted: July 12, 2005 at 12:27 PM
The solobaric line was developed as a sub engineered for use in a small sealed enclosure. Why people go on and on about this new breed of subs in a ported box, this is it's happy home where it's output capabilies have been found. It plays by far and away louder, just as deep, but with far more output at those lower frequencies. Personally, I hate this sub, to my ears there are far more subs that eat it for breakfast in the small sealed box category and needing a monster slot load port enclosure for a pair of these is just not my idea of what I want to weigh my car down with.
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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.
Posted By: soundmasta
Date Posted: July 13, 2005 at 7:39 AM
the kicker manuals say that the ported enclosures are so great because, up untill kicker really started pushing them, not alot of slot ported boxes were being made, and they are more efficient than a sealed box. they kind of used it as a marketing tool, impling that it's a driver specific design or some sh*t, and mr. "avrage kid off the street" doesn't know the difference. the solo barics started out as a solution of sorts to isobaric boxes, which were a common way to save space then. the porblem was that to be able to use an enclousere half the size of the common reccomended size, which was usually quite large, you had to use two subs, and more power and you only got the results of one sub in it's regular, larger box. the solo barics' enclosure, much like it's isobaric namesake, was much smaller than almost any woofer on the market at the time, utilizing a stonger suspension and improved motor sturcture to allow for a smaller enclosure and great preformance. today's solo baric can play in a box as small as .88 cubic feet, smaller that both the kicker comp and comp vr.
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