s_carter

if you go with the xcon 18, dont even bother going with 1500 rms, stick with the 2500 and run it. as long as your gains are set properly, it will get down and dirty all day long, and will be louder and sound hella cleaner than two 12" L7's.

I thought the X series was only a single VC?

I have run my two SSD18's in my home theater, and it is just mind blowing. My first design was for one, and it was 8 cubes tuned to 20 hertz, and it was wicked, but I didn't notice a huge difference since going with my newest design, which is 6.75 per driver, tuned to 26 hertz. Don't be afraid to experiment, if you like music and movies like I do, then tune it to the mid 20s and call it good.

I glue, clamp and screw every enclosure I design and build. The way I look at it, when people come to me to design an enclosure for them, they don't want a cheap box that is going to blow apart at the seams after a year of rocking it. When they are willing to pay the extra money to have me build it, I do it right the first time and go that extra mile for my customers. Some of you may say it is unneeded, but after seeing probably a hundred or more prefab boxes (that were glued and brad nailed) blow apart at the seams, I know otherwise. Just my .02!

They most likely can and will, just gotta be patient.

Hell if you lived closer, i usually charge less than $250 for a custom built box. bummer. Good luck with your install, it should be bangin!

I'd take an FI or SSA sub over Kicker, Alpine, and the new RE stuff any day of the week.

I rock two 18" subs, and the sheer amount of output and SQ I get from them, is exhilarating. Hairtricks are a nice bonus too. Girls love that sort of thing. The response of a speaker is all in its enclosure and how the amp(s) and wiring are set up. Though I have noticed that slight manufacturing differences in two speakers of the same model, line, size, etc. do seem to change the sound ever so slightly, but its not a big enough difference to matter to 99% of people. To people who say an 18" sub is slow or muddy sounding, they seriously need to find a new enclosure designer, or stop rocking the one of the 3 prefab designs I see being sold all over the internet. My subs do not sound muddy or sloppy at all.

The SSD's are a very efficient woofer (almost 92 db for the SSD18) With my pair running on even as little as 100-150 watts per driver, it will still pull hair tricks all day long... but there is a lot of cone area in play there. Every 6 db means around twice as loud to the ear, and that adds up, watt after watt. So don't let that sway you from going with the SSD lineup. I love mine!

Save your money and buy what you really want, otherwise you will be wondering what it *could* have been. I went with two SSD18's just before the 18" XCONS were released, and after hearing them in action, I really want to upgrade! FI, AA, Sundown, and SSA are all excellently built drivers, and easily surpass 99% of mainstream brands in build quality and price IMO. Just be ready to have the smile blown off your face.

I would go with an Fi or SSA 12" myself, they are some beautifully built speakers, for a great price. In a well built box, they will get ridiculously loud and sound great doing it.

I have two SSD18's and in comparing them to the Warden 21", they hit way harder and sounds so much cleaner with less power compression. I hate to see single subs, they always looks lonely to me. That's why I would go with dual 18's. Or dual 21" or 22" drivers once they come out. Just remember that two vs. one means twice as much port, power and airspace. If you can afford that, then definitely go dual drivers.

Yes, I absolutely love my SSD's. I was talking about the fact that I have never pushed them to their mechanical or thermal limits, and I have pushed them hard. Every time I do push them though, I end up breaking something in my house, or getting complaints, though I can keep them at about 1/4 volume and accomplish that with ease. These videos were also taken with my windows and door in my room open, if I tried something like that with my windows closed, it would probably break them, which I simply can't afford right now. I just thought people would enjoy this fine creation from Custom Sounds NW, and hopefully get my name out there and bring some more business in. Happy Labor Day to all! I am hoping however, to get these metered at the Newport sound off this month on the 19th, so I can give you folks some solid numbers in a vehicle. Sam Carter

same thing you will find on a car audio shops display rack, a high amperage power converter and a battery bank. they arent cheap, however, you will be looking at spending about 500 to 800 dollars on a decent model new. sometimes you can find used one selling for 200 or less. try craigslist and ebay, though shipping will be probably about 50 bucks for something that heavy.

Surprising you put them in the very back instead of going with some subs under or behind the seats, but kickers aren't half bad if you give them a lot of room to breathe! 5*!

Prefab boxes by subzero are 1.75 cubes for the ported version for a 15, so running a 1.75 sealed box shouldn't be too bad. BTW, the subzero ported design sounded like ass with a CVR15 mounted up in it. Sounds like a one note wonder to me. funny, though I built a 5.75 cube box for it, and it was just outta this world in terms of output and SQ with an Alpine MRP-M500 powering it. BTT: 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of polyfill will help with that, if you can manage 1.75 after displacement. Should be pretty wicked! Edit: I see we have the same thing in mind^^^

Well, my setup is temporary, until I get my license back and can put them in my Bronco, but it definitely has potential, possibly too much. I have never been able to push these subs to their limits, I blow light bulbs and break things around my house from the bass, even at lower volumes, and my windows flex about 1/2 inch all around my house. I have had neighbors 3 blocks away complain about their windows and walls rattling, so I can't use it to its full potential. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD7dJm6bq6g

Stock alts are only designed to leave a few amps headroom on the charging circuit as the vehicle comes from the factory, so I would seriously look into a high output alternator, then the big 3, and the battery last.

Ideally, your looking at around 200-250 amps for a 2500 watt continuous amp, and 300-350 amp draw for a 3500 watt amp, so plan accordingly. If your stock alternator is 100 amps, then add that in as well. It usually has enough juice just to cover the vehicles electrical draw from the factory. If you are running a second amp, or any other aftermarket electrical, be sure to calculate that in too, remember, ohms law is your friend here. Adding in more batteries will help if you can't get enough charging, but it is like putting a band aid on a broken bone.

I would start looking for a bad connection, or even check your inline fuse. I have had a rash of installs I have worked on lately where the fuse looked fine, but once you turned the amp up it would start cutting out. Turns out the fuse was reading some funky resistance on a DMM and causing the problems. Changed the fuse, problem solved! Simple check, even if it doesn't solve your problem.

Personally i would have probably doubled the port area, but it should be a sick setup anyhow. What kind of amp are you running?

Yep, I have to agree, these are some very well built subs that surpass the standards of much more expensive mainstream subs in both build and sound quality and output. I have pushed my two SSD18's to over 3 inches of excursion and still have no mechanical noise presenting itself. Thank you Nick and Scott, for my small slice of heaven. I am running a 6.75 ft3 box (per driver, after port and driver displacements), with about 48 inches of port area per sub (I realize it is not near enough, but I was limited by amount of wood on hand at the time.) It is tuned to 26 hertz, though box size limits my response peak to around 45 hertz. I absolutely love it, but I was wondering if the subs would sound better in a small sealed box. They seem to have a slight null in the 50-60 hertz range, would running a small sealed box help with this? I was thinking of building a separate chamber sealed box to run, at 4 or 5 cubes per sub, to see how they sound, but that's a lot of wood to use, and a sealed box for two 18's is not easy to get rid of. So I though I'd ask first.

Haha, nick said boob! LAWLZ. Ehem, back to the topic on hand.

As long as you can feed them good clean signal, you can run that much to them all day long, stock. If you plan on really beating on them everyday, the cooling option never hurts.

magnet size is no measure of the magnets quality and motor force. bigger isnt always better.