Alpine all the way. Yet not satisfied.

i have the following in my vehicle: Alpine Head unit 9811 Alpine Amp   V12 MRV-F540 for the 4 speakers Alpine MRD-M500 for the sub and two Alpine SBR-122CR subwoofer boxes preloaded wtih SWR-1241D dual coil speakers each. I used Streetwires high quality cables for the RCA's. I still don't like my sound from the subs. I tried tuning both the amps and the head unit. Volume is more than I need but as far as SQ, I am not too impressed and quite dissapointed with the sound from my subs. I sacrificed losing my trunk space for the two subs, yet feel like I failed my goal of super sound quality that I was hoping. As for power, I have a 130Amp heavy duty alternator. I also have a 1 Farad capacitor. I tried with and without the capacitor and even exchanged the capacitor thinking that it might be defective. The lights do not dim at all when I play music or turn up the volume. So I know its not the power. Also since the MRD-M500 can work at 2 ohms and 4 ohms with peak performance at 2 ohms, I tried using one sub with coils in parallel to achieve 2 ohms. Still no luck. What could I be doing wrong and what can I do to check this setup? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

I will go to Circuit city this weekend and check some boxes then. And the type R if they let me test it. thanks.

I found the same thing when I put an Alpine head unit in my car. I was running a pioneer head and when I replaced it with an alpine I found that my subs turned to crap. I wasnt at all impressed with the way the deck processed the sub channel. I found that it gives the subs a shallow hollow sound. Just my opinion but Id try a different head unit and see if you like that better. If you dont want a different head unit you can try using an audio control 3.1 or some other type of preamp. That will also impact the way your subs sound, probally for the better.

Yea, those are Alpine 12" type R subs.  Alpine Guy is probably right on.  If you are getting good SPL but unacceptable SQ, it is probably the enclosure or the positioning in the vehicle or both.  Those enclosures are ported and designed only for SPL, by the way.  They come pre-loaded with the sub you mention.  Maybe they simply are not the right choice for your needs.  You'd get far superior SQ results with a pro0perly designed sealed system or with, say, an Eclpise 10" Aluminum. 

yes they are type R indeed. and they are 12". I didn't realise that/was absent minded earlier. I went home and checked it last night. this is what I got: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-4gHrAW99ZsV/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=10&g=67700&I=500SWR1241&o=m&a=0&cc=01&avf=N DYohn, what is SPL mean? sorry I don't know.

thanks for the info on SPL. I like to learn something new everyday.