ulrisa

Why not just dampen the tahoe and brace the trouble spots? A layer of damp pro all around isn't going to stop much of the vibration caused by 2 21"s. Until then, just turn down the gain when you don't need it to be so loud. I believe the 40.1 has a remote gain, it would be easy enough to use until you can properly stop the flex.

Haha, the big three is quite the pain in my car. The alternator is underneath tons on stuff and the only way to loosen or tighten the bolt is to use tons of rachet extensions. The engine block ground is underneath the airbox and tons of hoses. Needless to say, if my dad wasn't a master volvo mechanic I would have been screwed lol. So no, it's not just you.

They don't really compare. The W7 is an SQ oriented driver capable of high output, more simiar to an Xcon. The BL is an SPL driver that can sound decent on music. If getting loud is what you are looking for then get the BL, the cone area and power handling are going to make it much louder. It is all install dependant though, a W7 in a good install would be louder than a BL in a lousy install. Also, you should probably take a look at the noob posting guidelines considering you didn't state any goals, budget, or anything relevant to the question really; comparison threads like this are generally frowned upon due to the fact that most of them are apples to oranges types of comparisons. I'm not trying to sound like a dick, but you aren't going to get much help without this information.

Hmmm... lol. I started with hu, then speakers. Then I got a different car and started with a h/u and got a subwoofer and an amp. Then I got another car and used the same stuff for a while, upgraded the speakers and later upgraded the subwoofer. This was all while I was in high school though, so the budget was pretty low. After I got some money up I deadened some trouble spots in the car and sealed/deadened the doors. Then I really thought over and over about what I wanted to do for my major system upgrade. Read lots of reviews about different speakers flip flopped a million times lol and finally chose the set I have today. I already had an amp I bought on a whim that would power them nicely so I used that. Then I thought about my sub stage FOREVER, it was the hardest decision for me to go with the Xcon's or the IA DP's, and finally decided on the Xcons. I found a great deal on an IA 40.1 which I had wanted for a long time anyway and it has plenty of output for this system. I guess I didn't take the best path but I learned so much along the way and I still have a lot to do to finish what I've started. You are right though, that is how a lot of people look at it in the beginning.

I'd say the list is pretty good. When you think about sound deadening though you need to think about how far you want to go with it. You should probably seal and deaden your doors first off, and then go ahead and deaden the rest of the vehicle. Don't go overboard though, bracing is the only thing that is going to take care of panel flex properly. You might even want to put the subwoofer in and see what needs to be deadened/braced before you go ahead and do the whole car (unless you are doing a wall). Edit: Guess I misunderstood what you are doing. If this is your list then great, but as watts09 said everyone is going to want to start at a different spot. Choosing drivers for applications and then amplifiers is the way to go though.

I know at least for the 2006 model people claimed they were getting between 4-5k but you know how reliable that knowledge is lol. I would think at least 4k though, it's rated 3600 w @ 12v so it should be a little higher. Edit: Also Mark said 4500 rms on 12v and up to 8k on 16v, a lot of power basically lol

What part(s) of the amp should I check, And how do I go about checking them? Make sure the power light is on etc. Also, you can put the multimeter leads in the amplifer's speaker outputs, set it to AC voltage, and play some music. If it is getting a changing voltage (unless its a test tone) the amp should be fine. To test the woofer, take it out and test each of the coils and see if the resistance is close to what it should be.

For high power systems, higher voltages are desirable. I say this because on at 12v system a 5000 watt amplifier at 1 ohm requires more current to produce 5000 watts rms than a 16v system would due to the bump up in voltage. You do not want your car to be at these high voltages however, because a 16 v system needs to be charging at around 18v. The computers in my car would fry (most likely), as I assume most other newer cars would. Like others have said, either dual alts or a step down transformer are required in order to have a 16v system for your audio. If you are doing a daily setup with a crazy amount of power I would go the 16v route, but make sure to do it properly.

Off topic but you should go with the volvo

Congrats! Looks like a pretty nice place.

Loving the banned banner lol.

Looks loud man! Nice job on the build.

My 40.1 is my favorite audio purchase I have made. There is a picture of it's guts on this page of my build log http://www.soundsolutionsaudio.com/forum/topic/39469-ulrisas-volvo-s40-build/page__st__45 . This is the 2006 model so I do not know how it compares to the new one.

I think I might be needing some of these in the future

I saw that earlier after i posted. Just was wondering if anyone knew why they took it off of their web site. The last time I visited the incriminator web site it didn't look like it had been updated in a while. If anything it was taken off the website to update the page for the new 40.1.

You could also make a grill to go over the subwoofer and the port. Then you could face it in the direction that you want without having to worry about stuff hitting it.

If you are looking for higher numbers on the meter, then I'd go with the BL's not the Q's. I've heard good things about the RE XXX's, I'm sure they'd be fine. And for the fiberglass, I don't think that is going to affect the performance of the subs. Also, look into sundown/incriminator/cresendo/etc for amps. You are likely to find an amp that dishes out more power than the kicker for a better price.

Dude, no that is impossible BECAUSE THERE IS NO REM WIRE COMING FROM THE RADIO TO THE AMP! NONE AT ALL! I unplugged the rem wire from the radio and just left a 4 inch rem wire connecting both amps. I could throw the radio out the window and the amp will still turn on because there is NO REM WIRE COMING FROM THE RADIO TO THE AMP. I said this many times. I'm not meaning to be an arseho towards you or anything Ulrisa, i'm trying to make things clear. I don't know if i'm being blind and missing something here, but it doesn't seem like anyone is understanding what i'm saying.. Well for some reason that did not come across in your posts, it's clear now. Hopefully someone can help you with that, that is very strange seeing as how the remote output should not be putting out any voltage whatsoever.

I'd have to agree with shizzzon, it kind of sounds like it's touching a constant 12v source behind the radio or the radio's remote output is damaged.

Damn! It looks even sexier than my 2006 40.1!

These amps are beasts on a proper electrical. These are probably the most bad ass amps I have laid eyes on.

Wow! Thanks for making my next build a hard decision!!! lol Might have to give these a try.

I don't see why your heart is set on the q when it clearly is not designed for you goals. Not to sound harsh, but take the suggestions everyone is giving you. If you are getting 4 infinity kappa components you are not going for sq, you are going for loud. Just get a nice subwoofer such as the BL or BTL that is designed to be loud and musical.

I see your running XCON's ported, how do they sound with rock or metal? Do you like having your subs punch you in the chest? Lol, they are unbelievable on rock and metal. It depends on the song though, some songs are ridiculously awesome while others are lacking because my system isn't really focused on rock. I find that a lot of rock songs do not have the lower frequencies recorded loud enough, but that might just be the ones I listen to. I think if you were heading in that route you'd probably want a slightly higher tuning like 33-35 than what I have. This will probably help on rock in most cases, though a lot of it has to do with the dynamics of a particular vehicle. I hope you enjoy your XCON!

I would only recommend running the AA's crossed around 50 hz if your doors/pods/baffles are sealed really well. I actually do get a decent response out of them that low, but I ended up crossing them closer to 60 hz recently so I could get them a little louder without killing them. As mentioned above, for 50 hz a sub is going to work much better unless you have huge dedicated mid basses.