SS Teacher

Ditto on buying the RF amp used on this forum. I've bought lots of stuff here and always had great results.

I teach economics and history, NOT reading. hahahahahaha, my bad.

I'm not running it anymore, but I still have my PPI A404! Welcome to the forum.

I ran an XCON 10" on a 500 watt Rockford Fosgate T-500 and it sounded great. I upgraded to a T-1500 and it sounded great and got louder. You can run 3 18" ZCONs on a 5K and it will sound great IF your box is designed and constructed well, but you won't be getting full potential on 5K watts.

I probably would have gone that route, but Dayton hadn't made their DSP when I bought the Stetsom.

I didn't want to mess with a PC so I bought a Stetsom STX2436 sound processor because it's controlled and set up with an app for my iPhone. I paid around $200 for it and am satisfied. It expects only 2 inputs and has 4 outputs so you can't run three way active. I use the crossover on the sub amp. I just checked eBay and saw them for less than $150.

Looks great! It's nice to see photos of the 15" and 18" subs. It was a little weird when all the photos were of the 10" or 12".

Since you asked for opinions... I'd stick to a 1000 to 1500 watt amp so you don't have to do too much to the electrical and get a 15" in a ported box. Since the box is super important I'd pay for a box design and buy one of SSA's subs (I LOVE my XCON, but they don't make them anymore). Also, you might be able to save some money and pick up a used amp on Craigslist or OfferUp. Good luck on your bass quest.

The Stetsom is TINY and if fits my needs. Plus, i tend to horde car audio

I wish these were out before I bought my Stetsom DSP. I like the Stetsom, it meets my needs, but shipping took forever and the plastic body feels a little cheap, not to mention the Dayton is $50 less.

No, I have plenty of clearance. I checked out the tinsel and the one that broke is discolored and the spider is burnt. I guess the tinsel burnt? Weird...

The tinsel completely ripped apart right at the area where the shrink wrap stopped. I didn't take pictures and I've already cut out the cone and cleaned up the basket for the recone, sorry. I've never had an amp (I don't think I'll count the cheap PPI) that ran over a 1,000 watts, nor have I ever run a ported box before; I have no doubt something was off on the settings. I'm going to read a few articles and/or watch a few videos before I reset the settings. As to the unloading question, I can't see the sub as the enclosure (which SSA designed (and I LOVE)) is downward firing to keep the sub safe from prying eyes and stray kayak paddles. It sounded great, louder than ever before, and then the tinsel popped.

The 2+ year old coil looked just as beautiful as the coil on the recone I ordered! Love, love, love my XCON.

I was playing "Clearest Blue" by CHVRCHES and it was pounding, in a moment of foolishness, I pumped up the sub out volume on my HU and the sub was putting out some serious bass and then nothing. My fears were confirmed when I pulled the XCON 10 yesterday and saw the broken tinsel lead. I knew I didn't cook the coil as I didn't smell anything, in fact, the coil looked perfect. I do NOT want to do this again. I've had the XCON for over 2 years now and it's in a box designed by SSA. I've fed it with a Rockford Fosgate T-500 bd, then a PPI Black Ice 5000 (1700 watts rms @ 2 ohm (per manufacturer (yes, I know that number is grossly over inflated)), and finally on a Rocford Fosgate T-1500 BDcP. I know the 1000 or so rms @ 2 ohm didn't stess the sub thermally, but it has a subsonic filter set at 28hz and my box is tuned to 33hz. Could that have played a role in the failure? I picked up a PRV 1200 watt at 4 ohm amp for a great price. Would I be better off using the PRV because I can set the subsonic filter to 32hz? My recone is dual 2 so I can run it at 1 ohm on the T-1500 for about 1800 RMS, or I can run it at 4 ohm on the PRV at 1200 watts. I know I wouldn't be able to hear the difference with that little of a power difference. Advice? Oh, I fully understand not to push the sub output on the HU past flat! Hahahahahaha

Welcome to the BEST car audio forum on the planet.

For $200 I got a Stetsom STX2436 sound processor. It's bluetooth and I control it from an app on my phone. The crossovers are the best part with slopes from 6 to 48 db, programable frequencies, and a multitude of crossover types (butterworth, etc). It does have limited eq features however, only 11 bands graphic and 1 programmable parametric. Also, it's only 2 channels so I'm running my Evil tweeters and Evil mids (LOVE the results) but I have no eq controls on my XCON 10".

Thanks guys, I'll check it out!

I'm reconing my XCON. I was going to have The Speaker Exchange do the work, but after they told me $80 an hour for labor and it could take 2 hours I've decided to do it myself. Problem is I didn't order glue from SSA because I wasn't expecting to do the work. Does Lowe's or Home Depot sell a glue that would work? Thanks

The SSA store sells box designs. I am very satisfied with the one they did for my XCON 10".

My $.02... Don't waste any money on rear fill, with a properly set up front stage it'll only muck things up. Alpine amps are great, so are Rockford Fosgate amps. This is a car audio forum and many seek to try the smaller, less commercial equipment, but mainstream companies can and do put out some good stuff, especially amps. All the PRV mids you listed are 'pro audio" drivers. Their purpose is to get LOUD with relatively little power. The compromise they make to achieve this is limited frequency response. Pro Audio drivers typically lack midbass and unless you cross your subwoofers off at 120hz, you'll have very noticeable gaps in the frequencies covered. To go active you'll need to bandpass your midrange drivers, i.e. lowpass and highpass. There are a few amps that can do this, as well as a few head units, but your best bet is to get a sound processor. Many guys on this site use the mini-DSP which is full function and very affordable. I don't have a PC and really wanted to make adjustments easily so I went with a Stetsom STX-2436 because it was $200, tiny (I have a Jeep Wrangler with very limited space), and a bluetooth app that controls the unit. This was my first active system (previously I was a component guy) and I went with SSA Evil tweets and Evil mids. I'm still making adjustments, but I'm very happy I went the active route.

I'm running the same setup except for an 10" XCON and a RF tT1500bdcp!

It's really good for what it is. I would have greatly preferred to have an additional output channel so I can adjust my sub. The physical quality is decent, but it's nothing great. I love, love, love the fact that it's controlled by an app on my phone and that's the number one reason I chose this unit with a price of $199 being the second consideration. I would buy this again and recommend this for first timers and people on a budget, but with my next car audio build I will go for a unit that can process my sub as well. I guess I'll have to borrow a friend's PC (I don't have any friends with a PC so I'll have to make new friends ) and pay two or three times as much.

Update: Installed not just the DSP, but replaced the JBL component system with SSA Evil tweets and mids so I can't do a direct comparison. Installation: very, very simple. Interior space is at a premium in Jeep Wranglers and this thing got stuck behind the dash using double sided automotive tape. The 2 input and 4 output RCAs are labeled by stickers (one fell off), I would have greatly appreciated color coded connections, but I was careful and didn't mix anything up. Tuning: the app is very intuitive on my iPhone SE, it even includes a demo mode so I got to play around with the large, easy to use menus while the DSP was being shipped from Brazil. Most settings are easy to adjust by either directly typing in the desired values or by pressing an up or down icon. My fingers are large and my phone is small but I have no issues fine tuning. Sound: No noise... that's a very good thing! Functionality: 13 bands in the graphic eq section with htz values at 25, 63, 160, 400, 1K, 2.5K, 6.3K, and 16K. You can set different values for all 4 output channels. There is one user assigned parametric eq frequency. The crossovers are probably the best part with different typology and slopes from 6 to 48 db. Very easy to set and tinker with. In addition there is delay and phase controls as well as an audio generator and battery voltage tool. Conclusions: I'm the ultimate neophyte with active crossovers and sound processors so everything is new and I lack the proper vocabulary, so in layman's terms...

I ordered a box design from the SSA store when I bought my XCONN. I told them exactly what I wanted, gave them the max dimensions and they designed it for me. The cut sheet was super helpful, everything was clear and easy to understand, but most of all, the sub sounds great in that box.