Fi Q 12" Review

[juddspaintballs 0]

Well, as the sub is designed, I installed it in a strictly SQ setup in my 96 Jimmy/Blazer. I am powering one 12" Fi Q sub with a Hifonics BXi 1206D amplifier at 1 ohm (dual 2 ohm sub). So it is receiving a nominal 1200w, but more realistically about 1080 watts. I put it in a 2.8 cube ported box (after displacements) with a 6" round port. Pete over at hexibase.com/forum (user = HexiBase), the same Pete on TTB, helped me design the box specifically for SQ in my specific vehicle. My head unit is a Kenwood eXcelon KDX 589 with all EQ settings at zero (thats what the xover is for). I have the big 3 upgraded with 1/0 wire and then 1/0 wire running inside my frame to the back where it is hooked up to a stinger fused dist block and 4 awg wire for the 18" from the block to the amp (then one more amp for the active 3 way setup and a PPI xover off the fuse block too). No upgraded alt (yet...stock puts out 110amps) or upgraded battery (yet as well...i really wanna fit two Kinetik HC600's in the stock batt tray).

Customer service is great with Fi, I emailed Scott months in advance talking about box designs and such, and then again about a week before I started building the box to get some measurements so I could do a flush mounted sub in the box. I was able to complete the box before the sub came in, so...thanks alot Scott and the 12.625" OD on the sub was dead on.

From other reviews of this sub, I understand it takes a few weeks to break it in. I've been playing mine hard for 4 days now, and each day it sounds better. More warm you could say. I'm sure I'll be more pleased as it continues to break in too.

My previous setups to compare this to:

First setup ever was a 12" MTX 8000 hooked up to some Profile amp pushing 600w rms in a 1.25 cube sealed box I built. Not even gonna comment on that.

Second setup was two 12" MTX 8000's hooked up to an Audiobahn A8000T amp pushing 800w rms in a 2.5 cube box (but each separated into 1.25 chambers) that I built. The Q is currently about as loud as that setup was, but far better quality and far more efficient. Then the Audiocrap amp died and I bought the Hifonics I have now with some of the money I got as store credit for the Audiocrap (died 3 times in 2 months...each of them new).

Third setup was the same two subs in a 4.5 cube ported box at 30Hz. Way louder than a single 12" Q ported, but SQ went down on those subs when they went ported. They just could not hit the low lows like I wanted.

Fourth setup: I got tired of the 8000s and wanted to unload them while they were still worth something and before they died. I sold them while I needed some cash and I bought a 12" Dayton Quatro (while it was on sale for $60). I put the 12" Quatro in 3 cubes with a flared port tuned at 27Hz. This is where I can finally compare SQ. The Quatro is an amazing little sub that actually surprised me. I powered it with channels 3 and 4 bridged on a small MA audio amp while 1 and 2 ran the front passive DIY components. It was pushing 200w to the Quatro. SQ on that baby was up there, it handled lows like I liked, but once it got down in the low 30's and below it just could not rumble the seats and doors and floor like it should. You couldn't feel the bass. I think 3 Quatros powered well could possibly compete with a Q for quality and loudness, but it would take up a ton of room to do the same thing as a Q.

Now, I have a Q. I like to consider myself a bit of an audio geek. I have 4.5 days of music on my iTunes and about half of those songs are test tracks or frequency sweeps, waves, and also songs that emphasize several areas of SQ. I have several movie sound tracks, full orchestra songs, and even an IASCA cd. I play most of the music in my jimmy through the iPod.

First impressions:

The first stuff I played at low volume with bass turned low just in case I somehow set the amp way too high I wouldn't accidentally blow the sub. Then I turned stuff up and set the amp properly. I played my standard Test CD that I put together for people whom I build boxes for. Starts off with Pink Panther, goes through some Jazz, Rock, R&B, Country, Rap, "Quick Bass Test 2" by Doffo, and a Techno song. It handled those tracks pretty well; let's see what I can throw at it next.

Maroon 5...hmm. I love the stuff, has some gentle low bass in it, kinda soothing. I sleep to it sometimes at night. The Q handled it quite well by smoothly blending all of the lower frequencies until they rolled up higher where the midbass starts to take over. I have my midbass cut off at 40Hz and the sub at 90Hz so there is a 50Hz blending phase range (how my personal taste likes it).

What next? Onto some real bass: Rock the Shocker. Always a fun song. The snappy Thump Thump Thump it has a few times in the song didn't phase the Q at all. Even the sweeping bass it played with ease. Better than the Quatro ever could.

Hoods Run Down by Lil Wyte. Holy crap I love this song. I don't even know how low it goes but I've NEVER heard a sub hit it's lowest note. The Q will hit it all but the very last low bass (I'm going to guess it is below 20Hz). It handled everything quite well and really did not drop in volume as it progressively got lower and lower until I couldn't physically hear it. I could feel it though. The Q was still trying to push that ungodly low bass.

Hmmm. What about...Blues Man by Alan Jackson. Screwed and bass boosted version. I was in heaven; I closed my eyes and listened to this song. I HATE HATE HATE listening to country music, but it sounded so DAMN good. The bass was not overbearing like the MTX's in the ported box were at times, and it came out super clean. Moving on

A little bit of Michael Buble in Fever didn't really change things much from the Quatro since the song doesn't have a strong bass line in it.

I, of course, played through the whole 2001 IASCA competition CD and found out that I have a little noise in my front stage that I need to deal with. The Q performed like it was a natural part of the system. It never stuck out and never felt like the bass was behind you. It blended so amazingly well with the front stage.

A friend sent me some Clint Mansell and New Amsterdams to listen to for SQ. Quite impressed with the performance of the sub in those songs, but since I am not very familiar with them, I don't have anything to compare them to.

Now, on to some strictly fun test songs/tracks:

Law and Order Theme song. Again, sub blended so perfectly you didn't know it was there except it got the frequencies below 90Hz (but never overbearing).

Lots of fun toys from THX: Classic movie intro almost made me cream my pants. I never wanted a screen in my truck until now. It felt like I was sitting in a theater with no one else in there. My seat was shaking, my doors were shaking, the floor was shaking, the bass enveloped me and the trumpets were screaming in my ears from in front of me. I felt the bass more than I heard it.

Thunder, Train Effect, and Relaxing Thunderstorm were pretty nifty. Again, it felt like I was actually there. I was in an awesome summer thunderstorm or I was at an industrial train station at night and I was 20ft from a train as it took off.

Jurassic Lunch. OMG OMG OMG!!! I love it. Again, just like a theater. I FELT the dinosaur walking, I jumped a little when he made the loud noise/bit the critter, and I even felt the burp afterwards. I played this for 4 other people too. One of them jumped too (girl), two of them just said "WOW" afterwards, and I literally scared the crap out of another girl. She plugged her ears (as the dinosaur was walking in) cuz she knew she was gonna get scared, and then screamed when it made it's loud noise and bit the critter. Then she said it was like she was at a theater (I never suggested that to her I swear).

Then, I just started playing songs off my 12 hour playlist that I default to when I can't think of anything specific I want to listen to. Songs I like for their messages or tune, not test songs. Handled everything way better than the MTX's in any box. Songs that had a stronger and/or lower bass line, the Q handled with greater ease and very little drop off in volume than the Quatro did. The Quatro may have had a louder higher end on it though, BUT it was noticeable and thus the sub didn't blend as well with the midbass. I probably could have corrected that by lowering the LP filter on the sub amp...

Anyways, here is my impression of the Q over anything I've owned (I drive so much I get countless hours listening to them so I know the setups quite well): The Q really took the cake on the lower 30's and below frequencies than anything else. It performed about as well as 3 quatros could have had the chance to in the 35-60Hz range though. But, anything higher, it outdid the quatro because it didn't emphasize those notes too much. Like I said several times throughout this, perfect blending. If I had to summarize the Q in two words it would be perfect blending. There were very few times I felt like I had a large box and a sub behind me. Everything seemed to be coming from the front stage. My floor shook quite well, my seat shook, and movie snidbits really came to life. Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack was a fun listen, as was the Donnie Darko soundtrack and Garden State too.

Just for kicks I did crank the SW output on the HU and played some more rap (which I also do not enjoy listening to) to see what the Q could do. My back window flexed outwards just as well as the MTX 8000's ported made it. So that is a positive sign if I liked SPL at all I guess. My roof is ribbed for the roof rack, so it has never flexed too much. My doors are deadened so they had minimal flexing. But, since I have that back glass that opens up and then the gate that opens down, the air escapes out the glass seal easily so there really isn't too much to make things flex anyways. Good thing I don't care about SPL at all. No wonder I bought an SQ woofer

Overall, the Q is quite loud though, at times I was satisfactory with the SW output set at -5. It has a quite flat response in my box and vehicle, which is probably why it blended so well with everything. Since the box is setup specifically for this sub and my vehicle, and then for SQ with such a low tune, there is very little that the sub cannot handle. Hoods Run Down gives it it's biggest challenge, but it would just about any sub. That plays below the box tune. Biggest things I'm impressed with was it's ability to rumble without sounding like a rumbling sub and blending into the rest of my system. I love it and I could not be happier unless I were able to afford one when I first fell in love with them when they first came out.

[bigjae1976 0]

That's a low tune. Wish I had more trunk space to try that.

Good review. I was happy with the SPL when I first installed it...even happier as it loosened up.