What do you recommend for a sound system?

Question

I recently put a system in my car... dual 12" subs and an amp ... I wanted to go for a loud "BOOM BOOM" that could be heard from a good distance. Mine seems quiet in comparison, is there an adjustmeny I can make? Or must I go to 15's? and how much difference does 8 guage wiring and 4 guage wiring have, thanks.

Answer 1

dual is just a crap brand that best buy sells, just to make money. they sound like butt, and they cant get very loud, as you have found out the hard way. you can try to adjust the gain and freq responce on the amp, but risk blowing the subs if you turn them up too high. so here is what i would do. i'd sell everything i had. amp, subs, box, everything. and start over. if you really want to be heard from a distance, and get that hard to breeth in the car boom, then you have to find a store that sells one of these brands.

Pioneer Premier
Image Dynamics
RE Audio

those 3 brands are the only 3 i would go with for SPL. i would not go with Kicker, JL, Alpine, MTX or any others people think are "the best". espcially not Alpine, they claim to be more of a SQ brand the SPL. Pioneer Preimer holds the world record for SPL with there 5000SPL woofer. granted the woofer is about a grand, but i've seen them online for less then $600. Image Dynamics and there IDMAXX line are some of the deepest sound producing woofers ever made. bass so deep, you cant hear it, but you can still feel it. and there sound quality isnt too bad either. RE audio is known for there SPL. infact all RE wants to do is go louder. any of there woofers would be a good buy. all of these brands are a lot more expensive then anything you can buy at best buy, or BB for short. but there all very much worth it. once you hear any of these brands, you'll understand. but you have to hear them before you can like or dislike them. so make sure you find a place in your town that sells atleast one of those brands. RE audio will be the hardest to find. but someone in your town shold sell Premier and Image Dynamics. also Eclipse's titanium series subs are not too bad either. i'd recomend them as well.

you dont need a 15" sub. people get 15's cause its a cheap way to get more bass from a crappy woofer. those brands i listed all make excellent high quality suff, that will last years, not months.

8 gauge wire is smaller the 4 gauge. 8 is what most people use to power there amps for there fronts and rears, cause they dont pull nearly as much power as a subwoofer amp. once you have more then 400 watts going to your subs, its time to use 4 gauge. if your amp is more then 1,000 watts, then nothing less then 1/0 gauge will due. if you've never seen 1/0 gauge its huge. just a comparrison your car uses 2 gauge wire to start. if that give you any idea the size of 1/0.

good luck to you, and please listen to the brands i told you too. do it for yourself, and dont make the same mistake 2x. stay out of BB and Circut City. they dont sell good stuff.

Answer 2

The set you bought is a bandpass system which is more of a tight bass. Thats for people that want to add to their current system and not kill their ears. I like all the name brands but one people sometimes overlook is sony. I had a set a while back and the banged in a sealed box with only half the rms from the amp. Wire guage makes a huge difference in how much power your amp gets. With the lower guage you would probably get a louder sub box. I have no experience with 15'' subs so I can't knoweldgebly (is that a word) answer your question.

Answer 3

Hey,

If you are building a system on a budget, my favorite brand is DHD. They are pretty cheap and deliver some nice bass and reliability for the buck. And you don't have to buy the 15s.
If you can spend the extra cash, go for MTX, Kicker, Fosgate, Alpine, JL. They all sell excellent subs and amps. Fosgate is by far the best for money and performance. JL Audio and Alpine are top money but sound really good. And all these companies make excellent amps, but I'd have to go with a Fosgate.

The difference between 4 guage and 8 gauge is that 4 gauge is alot more thicker than eight gauge and is thus capable of sending more electrical power to the amp.

Also, since you have 'em, try fiddling with the knobs and dials on the amp. Stores will install the amps but they will not tune them for best sound. Its done the trick for me many times in the past.

Answer 4

I think u should go trade them in 4 two 12" MTX or JL audio or Alpines. There Top of the line. jus ask the person there which ones are the best ones out of these brands cus i can't remember the number and everything but u have these 3 options. And 8 gauges is better because it gives u more power n ****. but the thing is with these system ur gonna drain ur battery faster so i suggest u put an extra 1 in the back.

Answer 5

Ok don't start "fiddling" with the knobs. Thats very foolish. You can easily damage your equipment. If you are not getting the output you expected you should change equipment. I seriously doubt you need 4 ga wire as I don't think anything dual can produce enough power to need 4 ga. Here is a article on how to properly set your gains.
http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?TID=85479&KW=gains