tejcurrent

Long gone, why?

Where do you play? Off 1500watts thats some pretty nice flexin there. Are those sealed? and if not, do you think you might be able to get a few pics of the port side of the box? What is the are and what is the tuning freq? Again, really nice.

hey sean, the OP wants to know "real numbers" his subs will be getting. as quoted above. that tells me in car, in enclosure using his subs as the final load. thus, using the methods described by chris and myself should be adequate, IMO YES. I am not trying to write a book of definitive results. I am not trying to prove or disprove what any companys say is true. I am trying to give myself (and others) an idea of what they can expect from a given amp in a realistic environment, compared to the benches of those with excessively expensive testing equipment, and resources unavailable to most consumers. I want to have results that are specific to my situation, in that it will be more realistic than what some will probably expect. I would like to start a topic stating something like, amp X put out 3913 watts @ Y load with Z volts. Many amps don't do what they claim, either over or under, but I would like to say for those looking for an amp that in a vehicle with X electrical hooked up to a single BTL dual 2ohm amp 1 puts out xxx1 watts amp 2 puts out xxx3 watts And so on. NO this will not be scientific at all in the classic sense, but it will be very realistic so that people don't get this 10gigawatt amp only to find out it does 3 gigawatts. Loud enough or not is a very good measurement too, but if a person was trying to hit the highest #s possible in a comp, there wouldn't really be 'enough', just the constant quest to advance. For the common consumer, what are the steps involved in testing their specific amp in their specific vehicle in their specific configuration? Thanks for all the speedy replies. (T-shirt?)

I have read many places different ways to determine the output of your amplifier as it is in your car, but none have given me the information I need to do this myself. I will be auditioning several amps in the next few weeks, and would like to have real numbers as they pertain to what my subs will really get. Can anyone break it down to where I can mess it up, as far as how to go about this, what equipment I will need, and the approximate cost of the equipment? I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to do this, and this will allow me to give accurate results and power output when I'm testing the amps. Thanks in advance.

The 22 deep will change a bit, but not a lot. Maybe 19-20 to keep 32hz, but as long as you're flexible and say between 30-32hz, then the original 22 inches will still keep you between 30-32hz. Cant wait to see some pics.

I know the 2 btls I have with 4k watts total would do a hair trick with the window all the way down, I'll see if I can find a vid.

Hey bud, so you are still making the port area 46.5x5, right? After port, subs, and bracing you'll have about 8cubes per sub. You're gaining 1cubic foot this way roughly, so just make it a little shorter. I'd use that port calculator from the other post, I think it should work for you. The laptop battery is about to die, let me calculate that for you in just a bit.

I got my first BTL 18 about 5 months ago, fully loaded dual 2 ohm version. It was the fist 18 I'd purchased or even heard in person, so I was a bit skeptical because of the mixed things people say about larger drivers as far as quality go. The last two setups I had owned were a kicker L7 15 in 5cubes tuned around 32hz, and and alpine type-x 12 in 1.1cube tuned around 32hz. I had been trying to find a very loud woofer that still sounded half decent, and while the alpine sounded nice, and the kicker got loud, neither did both very well. The kicker was very loud though, so I was really trying to find something that could out-do it. When I started trying to find out about the Fi products, I was extremely surprised to find out that I, the lowly consumer, was able to talk to the men behind the product, and that was amazing to me. The customer support was great from day one, and the interaction with scott/nick/shawn on everything was so helpful, I knew I was in for something good. I built a box 8ft^3 tuned to 35hz for daily with about 115sqinch of port area, but tuned a little high so I could put up a bit better score. There was a double thickness of 3/4inch mdf for the baffle, and 3/4 for the other sides. I couldn't wait to put my Hifonics bxi2006d on it, run with 1/0stinger wire from the 3 batteries and 200amp alternator. I have an alpine 9831 head unit, and CDT components, all I needed was that sub to strengthen the low end. I noticed upon arrival that the packaging was very good, and even though the weight was somewhere near 70lbs everything was intact. The sub looked great, beefy in all aspects, and was huge to say the least! I put the sub in the box and put it in my 99 yukon with adrenaline pumping in anticipation. I kept the volume low, and put in some rock to see how it would handle the kick drums. Whoa, it was articulate and crisp, and sounded DEEEP. After playing with it a while, I put in some rap, Jeezy I believe, and was taken back at the output. A normal listening volume is between 5-7 notches, but I kept cranking the nob, and at a volume of 10 it passed the output of the alpine (when at full tilt), at 13-14 it passed the Kicker L715 (when at full tilt), and it just kept going. At a volume of 20, I could still not hear any distortion, and the volume was incredible. I cracked my drivers window open and felt the air gushing in, actually blowing my hair - which had never happened with my other subs. It sounded controlled and deep, unlike any sub I'd heard before. So much for the 'sloppiness' of larger woofers, this was clean and simply amazing in output. I stepped out of my yukon and looked at the flex of the body. The lock on my trailer hitch was jumping, and my rear doors were moving like they wanted to come open. Getting back in, the bass in Young Dro-Jackie Chan hit so hard it took your breath away, and the lows in hypnotize by Jeezy made the air move in and out of my lungs like nothing else. A few days later I went and got metered. I knew it was louder than the low 140s I was hitting with the l7, but not sure how much. I put in some test tones and went to work on it, finding the peak to be at 42hz. I hit 148 and change, and still 145 and change at 32-34hz. I built a new box a few days later, CRX style with 7.5cubes tuned to 35hz w/ 115 sqin of port. This time I hit over 149. Since then I've purchased a 2nd sub and amp to match, and hit ~149 at 32hz, and a little under 151 @ 42. It stays loud from the low lows up, instead of dropping off where many others do. Now about 3 months since I've had both going, they've had time to break in. The SPL is still rediculous, they pound all day without a problem. After breaking in some of the initial tightness of them is gone, but that can be expected. I would say the SQ is not quite that of an alpine type-x- but close, and MUCH louder than average. I have a 4kw+ amp on the way, and plan to get another to give them a grand total of 8000+ watts, so I will update when I get this done. Being that this is my daily driver I do not plan on tuning higher, but I am very very satisfied with the sq that this spl driver can maintain. I've had people with 'competition' setups get in my car and have a shocked look on their face. I've had people who brag to be hitting in the 160s with 6 12's get in my car, and jump back out saying how ungodly loud it sounds -especially on the lows. Overall they are the best subs I've ever owned, great all around. Hope this helps with someone when trying to find a great sub, for a great price, that really belts out the power and sounds good doing it.

Posted. Thanks, I know it's a bit of an essay, but hopefully someone will get something out of it.

I was going to add to the good/bad/ugly post, but I'll just put here. I've been trying to think of something, and I'm having a very hard time. You guys are always on top of any question within hours (or often less) of it being posted, you don't have a demeaning attitude to inexperienced newcomers like many other companies, and you're easy to get in touch with. Your sub is even better than I expected, and while I haven't had experience with all of the lines, I do have experience with your 'flagship' sub, and it is fantastic. It does exactly what I wanted, and sounds much better than I anticipated. Given, I'd like to have better SQ, but it's a driver meant to get loud, not win sq comps, and it STILL sounds great. I haven't found a sealed/ported sub or box that didn't sound boomy in my Yukon. Shipping was between one and two weeks for both to ship a 70lb box from Las Vegas to Myrtle Beach, and being that you hand make each one to order, its kinda like waiting at Outback for your steak- its worth it (I'm partial to outback too...). Customer service gets 10/10 Shipping time get 9/10 Product 10/10 SPL 10/10 SQ 8.5/10 (taking into account its not meant for SQ) Best sounding SPL driver I've ever heard, and it will handle so much power, whats not to love. Over all I'd give it 10/10. I would complain that I want free stuff, but now it looks like you guys are giving that out too. I have had the best experience with your company and subs I've ever had with any company or product ever, hands down. So no, I just can't say anything negative!

I'm just trying to understand why the ssd? He doesn't want 2 subs, and really only wants one so he can say 'look how loud my one sub is'. I'll be making a box to fit on his seat in his single cab truck, He only has about 6-8" at the bottom to put a box behind the seat, so I will be splitting his bench seat with a box, but his shift lever is on the floor so it'll have to have some weird shapes to it to even get the 2 feet, but that is what he wants.

Ebay has some 2/0 wire, so does welding supply, but wouldn't it be cheaper and better to just have 2 runs of 1/0 since I already have 1 run? Thanks.

That must sound great. what was that going in?

Wow, I'm glad I've been saying it right! I figured it didn't really matter since no one around hear has heard of Fi anyway. I always wondered though.

My bro wants to use all the power, he wants a sub to match that amp. Would the SSD really be better? I'm just trying to find out why. Thanks.

I got my first BTL 18 about 5 months ago, fully loaded dual 2 ohm version. It was the fist 18 I'd purchased or even heard in person, so I was a bit skeptical because of the mixed things people say about larger drivers as far as quality go. The last two setups I had owned were a kicker L7 15 in 5cubes tuned around 32hz, and and alpine type-x 12 in 1.1cube tuned around 32hz. I had been trying to find a very loud woofer that still sounded half decent, and while the alpine sounded nice, and the kicker got loud, neither did both very well. The kicker was very loud though, so I was really trying to find something that could out-do it. When I started trying to find out about the Fi products, I was extremely surprised to find out that I, the lowly consumer, was able to talk to the men behind the product, and that was amazing to me. The customer support was great from day one, and the interaction with scott/nick/shawn on everything was so helpful, I knew I was in for something good. I built a box 8ft^3 tuned to 35hz for daily with about 115sqinch of port area, but tuned a little high so I could put up a bit better score. There was a double thickness of 3/4inch mdf for the baffle, and 3/4 for the other sides. I couldn't wait to put my Hifonics bxi2006d on it, run with 1/0stinger wire from the 3 batteries and 200amp alternator. I have an alpine 9831 head unit, and CDT components, all I needed was that sub to strengthen the low end. I noticed upon arrival that the packaging was very good, and even though the weight was somewhere near 70lbs everything was intact. The sub looked great, beefy in all aspects, and was huge to say the least! I put the sub in the box and put it in my 99 yukon with adrenaline pumping in anticipation. I kept the volume low, and put in some rock to see how it would handle the kick drums. Whoa, it was articulate and crisp, and sounded DEEEP. After playing with it a while, I put in some rap, Jeezy I believe, and was taken back at the output. A normal listening volume is between 5-7 notches, but I kept cranking the nob, and at a volume of 10 it passed the output of the alpine (when at full tilt), at 13-14 it passed the Kicker L715 (when at full tilt), and it just kept going. At a volume of 20, I could still not hear any distortion, and the volume was incredible. I cracked my drivers window open and felt the air gushing in, actually blowing my hair - which had never happened with my other subs. It sounded controlled and deep, unlike any sub I'd heard before. So much for the 'sloppiness' of larger woofers, this was clean and simply amazing in output. I stepped out of my yukon and looked at the flex of the body. The lock on my trailer hitch was jumping, and my rear doors were moving like they wanted to come open. Getting back in, the bass in Young Dro-Jackie Chan hit so hard it took your breath away, and the lows in hypnotize by Jeezy made the air move in and out of my lungs like nothing else. A few days later I went and got metered. I knew it was louder than the low 140s I was hitting with the l7, but not sure how much. I put in some test tones and went to work on it, finding the peak to be at 42hz. I hit 148 and change, and still 145 and change at 32-34hz. I built a new box a few days later, CRX style with 7.5cubes tuned to 35hz w/ 115 sqin of port. This time I hit over 149. Since then I've purchased a 2nd sub and amp to match, and hit ~149 at 32hz, and a little under 151 @ 42. It stays loud from the low lows up, instead of dropping off where many others do. Now about 3 months since I've had both going, they've had time to break in. The SPL is still rediculous, they pound all day without a problem. After breaking in some of the initial tightness of them is gone, but that can be expected. I would say the SQ is not quite that of an alpine type-x- but close, and MUCH louder than average. I have a 4kw+ amp on the way, and plan to get another to give them a grand total of 8000+ watts, so I will update when I get this done. Being that this is my daily driver I do not plan on tuning higher, but I am very very satisfied with the sq that this spl driver can maintain. I've had people with 'competition' setups get in my car and have a shocked look on their face. I've had people who brag to be hitting in the 160s with 6 12's get in my car, and jump back out saying how ungodly loud it sounds -especially on the lows. Overall they are the best subs I've ever owned, great all around. Hope this helps with someone when trying to find a great sub, for a great price, that really belts out the power and sounds good doing it.

I searched google for 18" woofers, found a bit of info on fi, so I came hear to find out a bit more before buying.

That really sucks! and the fact that its -20 degrees! it hasn't dropped below +20 all winter here in Myrtle Beach SC. Good luck, but yeah, he mistreated that kicker-I wasn't too surprised. So pretty much your whole system is dead?

Does the '2 18s in my dd topic' sound good for A? More pics when it's light out.

Over the past year alone I have been through almost a half dozen systems in the constant quest to find a sub that was not only loud, but sounded decent doing so. I've owned Alpine, Kicker, and many other brands in between. I would only purchase one sub at a time in order to decide if it was worth buying more than one, and I never bought more than one. I had never owned an 18 inch woofer, and having owned 10s, 12s, and 15s, I wanted to try the next biggest step, especially since my 99 Yukon had the room to accomodate the system. After I had placed my order for an 18" dual 2ohm BTL with cooling, 3rdMagnet, and HiXmCoil, I began to beef up my electrical system in anticipation. I already had a single Hifonics Brutus bxi2006d, and figured it should be sufficient after electrical upgrades (I found out later I was wrong). I put in a 200amp Powermaster Alternator and an Optima yellowtop to keep the starting battery company. I Ran 1/0 guage to the back after doing the 'big 3' upgrade, and put in a 3rd battery under the rear seat. I wanted to have the box built so I could have the sub in as soon as it arrived, so I started to build that as well. I decided to go for the simplest box I could make, so I just made a rear firing box with 8 cubic feet net tuned to about 35hz. Here is a picture of the sub in the enclosure. I only used a single sheet of mdf for the faceplate, and you can see it flexed enough to actually blow the rubber gasket from under the sub. This was a picture of me holding the sub to give you an idea of how large it is. This is how big it is compared to my alpine type-x 12 About 10 days after I placed my order it came in the mail. That night I had it in my yukon and started playing it. The hit it delivered amazed me, it was sooo accurate compared to the L7 15 I had just before, and even rivaled the detail and clarity of the type-x. I listened to some rock and enjoyed the way it sounded, then pulled out some Young Jeezy to see what it would do. WOW, at a low volume it started tickling my nose and shaking things. As I cranked it up it became uncomfortable to sit in the car. I did my first hair trick that evening, and was very happy to say the least. After metering this setup I found out it was hitting about 148dbs @ 42hz, and still 145.x @ 32hz. The strength on the deep notes was amazing to say the least, so about a month or 2 later I put in my order for my 2nd btl 18, and ordered a 2nd bxi2006d. After asking around I decided to make 2 CRX style boxes (7.5cubes net each tuned @ 35hz) so that I could remove one at a time for work. I also used 3/8" bolts for the terminals to prevent leaks and make a good solid connection that I could interchange the connection from 1ohm, to 4ohms easily. I tested just the one btl I already had in the new box and my score went up to about 149.x @ 42hz. In the building process I ran out of carpet, so I only covered one of the boxes, and as soon as the 2nd sub came in I put it in there. With 4kwatts rms going to 2 BTLs, it was by far the loudest vehicle I'd ever owned, and the loudest 2 subs I've ever heard. With my window all the way down I was able to get a good hair trick going, and figured it was time to get metered. At 42hz I was hitting just under 151dbs. To say the least I was pleased, but when I found out I was doing 149.8 @ 32hz, I was very happy with the increase. The lows are so strong you can watch your vision blur and feel the air move in and out of your lungs. These things really pounded. This is by far the best setup I've ever had, and aside from 1 or 2 others that cost in the 5 digits, it's one of the best I've ever heard. I know, the cars dirty. This is a really bad image of how I set up the boxes, just with the subs where I plan on making them in the future.

Well, 2006d is supposed to put out 2kwatts at 1ohm, but I think it's more like 17-1800, so that is what he's going to be working with. He wants to take advantage of the power at 1ohm, would a single 12" ssd still be the best option? I know the ssd is the closest to the L7, but he wants to upgrade. Would the SSD handle the extra power? Or do you recomend the ssd because of the small enclosure size? Whatever he uses I know him and he will crank that amp on it. Thanks.

Well, my brother purchased a kicker L7 12 about a year ago, and was powering it with a 1kw kenwood amp that really put out more like 3-400, and after selling him my bxi2006d he noticed that he kept hearing a slapping type sound. He pulled it out of the box and you could just smell the coil, and the sub was very hot to the touch. It wasn't the tinsels slapping or anything, it was something inside. He probably messed it up with that crappy old amp, so now he wants a new sub. With the hifonics amp I suggested a dual 2ohm BL with cooling, flatwind, and p chamfer options. This is going in the center console of his chevy 2500, which we'd really be making the box into a center consol, with about 2cubes tuned to 33-35hz. Does this sound like a good combo, or would another sub be better suited? thanks.

So one local shop is ordering and will let me audition a quantum 4k in the next few weeks, another just got in a memphis 4k that they are going to let me audition, so hopefully that'll turn out well.

Looks like you've got some beef in there. You should put up those #s when you meter it. nice looking box, like the sub flush mount.

2000watts on anything should be pretty loud in the right setup. There's really no way to throw out a # (db wise), even if you gave your vehicle, box size/tuning/amp info which would be very helpful in even hinting at a definite answer. 2 18s on 2000 watts should be loud regardless, given the right enclosure and some planing.