am i missing out on power?

so i have a kicker zx2500.1 pushing 2 L7 15's in a sealed box, in an integra (sealed box), which yielded me 146.1 db which i thought wasnt bad. but i think i could be getting more with my setup

i have the stock battery, stock alt, the only thing i did was add a yellow top in the trunk. from what im reading these amps are incredibly power hungry and im just starting to think with my stock alt, am i starving this amp? could it be putting out more if i had a bigger alt? my lights do dim, but not that bad.

just thought someone might want to see it. that is my temp box, once i get the money for some fiberglass and such ill have some trunk again

if pure output is what youre looking for, id change up the box. a well designed ported or bandpass box will yield much higher SPL numbers than what you have with that sealed box. As for the power, how big is the cable you are using between the batts? have you upgraded the big 3 yet?

eh...as far as a well designed ported box...i just dont have the room for something like that. MAYBE if i used the spare tire well..but if im dealing with fiberglass i want to have some more trunk space so the box is going to stay sealed, i just dont have the room.

and yes, the big 3 are upgraded

Direction of subs can play a big role on spl as well as high output alt. In that car, the alt. is very small. When you turn ac alone on the lights would dimm at idle.

I think the way the subs are positioned right now are perfect for SPL. hatchbacks usually do best aimed straight up at the rear glass.

Upgrading the alternator will definitly help. By the way did you add a battery isolator for your yellow top in the trunk?

The big problems I see.

Looks like 8 guage running to that amp, it requires 1/0 guage wire minimum!

If you still have the stock battery under the hood, replace that.   Upgrade the alt, then you should be able to get full power from that amp

on a normal basis It should pull close to 150-200 amps of current to reach full usage.

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

On another note, you can get a ported box in the space you have, it might actually sound quite good!

Try something around the size you have now which appears 4 to 5 cu ft, and port that at about 35-40hz    that would be decent for stret and yeild quite high number in the SPL comps

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
2007 USACI World Champion
2007 World Record
2006 USACI Finals 2nd Place

Jeff is the man to be listening to.

you definatly need some bigger wire from the looks, and sealed is defineatly holding you back from some bigger numbers. even one in a properly tuned ported box could be louder (and take up less space).

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99 Blazer LT.   Yellow Top. Big 3. Infinity Kappa Speakers All Around. Jensen CD/DVD flip out. 2 Infinity Kappa Perfect 12DVQs powered by a Alpine PDX600.1 (in one custom box, building a FG box)