brahma or shiva

hightek, you are on the right track with the alternator. The alternator is where ALL of the power comes from for your car, not the battery. I got mine at Alterstart, and it has been a fabulous piece of gear. Oh, and get the red top Optima. Read this link about batteries, and if you think I am wrong, then go ahead and listen to uthink. He seems to know more about EVERYTHING than ANYBODY else does.It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Damn right. I was told that i would need to get a ho alt in my other car when i was running a big us amp in there and it was suckin some serious power. Well one yellow top was all i needed along with 0 guage wire and a 5 farad capacitor and i was fine. You can do the same with an ALT tho, it just is more money. Slightly more efficient, but after blowing 1400 on that amp i really was kind of short for cash and it worked out fine. Maybe luck , it it worked great. I have a yellow top optima in my explorer as well as a HO alt and it works out fine. The alternator charges your battery, so you should have a good one to begin with. I disagree with getting the Red top, as i have talked to several people and know employees that work and design for optima and say it isn't as good of a choice as the Yellow top, which is better for stereo and more efficient. The Spiracell tech though is fantastic never the less, and i plan on putting a blue top in my boat sometime this coming summer for my marine stereo. I am not an audio genius! I just kno a good amount of stuff! Sorry haemphyst! Glad that is cleared up! I'll check into alterstart myself ... thanks"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.

Build your own enclosure, hightek.  The end result is the most self-satisfaction you will have in building your system.  Subzero is a solid enclosure, but weighty.  They use HDP instead of MDF...I don't know why, but I know that particleboard has a higher glue content and weighs more.  I built my current box with it but only because that's what I had on hand at the time.  A few months ago I emailed tech support at SubZero and got that info.  But the overall preference in material is MDF.Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

i'm still planning on building my own box. the main thing i'm concerned about is the weight of the woofer and the box blowing apart. do i have to support the magnet or anything?

I'm a little new to box building, but it would be a good idea to double-baffle the woofer mount side for more stiffness against the woofer's incessant beating :). I know all the vets here at 12 volt advocate bracing as a key ingredient in box building to make it a bit sturdier. Perhaps using 1" instead of 3/4 MDF would help as well....although if you have limited space this could hinder you, as you need to adjust the overall size to compensate for inner box volume. Hope that helps.

The JBL amps are good, but they don't cut the mustard like cadence amps do. I would go with the Z9000 amp, as it will provide the most efficient power and least distortion to your woofer. In a sealed enclosure, it will no doubt sound fantastic.