Impious

The remedial version is this: All of those factors you mentioned can't be ignored. They all need to be considered when selecting a driver. How much and how important different factors are is going to depend on different variables. The skinny is that if you are not a discerning audiophile, chances are good we could toss out a selection of 5 drivers, you could pick your favorite based on aesthetics alone (Ooh, that one looks pretty!) and you would end up a happy camper. However, I would want to find out more about your current installation, setup and equipment before recommending you spend money and time installing midbass drivers. Where are your current speakers installed? Do you have sound deadening applied? What are your current speakers (not just brand, but model)? What are your current crossover settings for the mids and subs? What subwoofers are you using? What do you feel you system is "missing"? What headunit are you using, and does it have any equalizer adjustments?

You are looking at around .05db....five hundredths of a decibel. The meter might round this up to one tenth of a decibel......so you might, might gain .1db on a meter.

At 2kw with a 3' run of wire you would see a voltage drop across the wire of .42V, which equates to .08db. How important is eight hundredths of a decibel? 12ga would be fine. They are idiots.

This in all likelihood NOT the correct way to fix your problem. In fact, it could possibly make the problem worse, or at least more difficult to get rid of. But, we'll come back to this. No. It doesn't change the HU's signal output. No. Results would likely not differ between the two. Not enough to matter. Now, with that out of the way....why do you think a line driver will solve your noise issue? What type of noise issues are you having? Do you know what the source of your noise is? What is the problem that is causing you to have noise in the system? Given your post, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't know what the cause is, someone just told you that a line driver will help (or you read it online somewhere). Unfortunately, that's not the correct answer. Chances are good the outcome will be that you unnecessarily wasted money on a line driver and still have pretty much the same problem. The very FIRST thing you need to do is determine the cause and source of your noise. You can not correct a problem until you know the cause. There are several different sources and causes of noise in a system, and most of them a line driver will do nothing to fix (and in the case of ground loops, may just compound the problem). There is a Noise Troubleshooting Guide stickied at the top of this subforum. Read it, and follow the process until you find the source of the noise. The primary cause is poor grounds causing a ground loop. The fix here isn't a line driver, but to simply create a proper ground. Another issue may be that the RCA wires are routed near a noisy area in the vehicle. Again, the fix would be to simply reroute the RCA wires rather than add a line driver. There are a dozen other reasons you could be having noise, none of which are solved by adding a line driver. So, my suggestion is to follow the guide linked above and locate the source of your noise. Once you have located the source we can go about attempting to help you actually correct the problem.

The question couldn't be any more vague. For starters, we haven't got a clue what your system does or will consist of. Some headunits have a feature built in that allows you to turn off the sub output. If your headunit doesn't have that feature, the 2nd most simple option is the install an SPST switch on the REM wire for the subwoofer amplifier. What? Is this a separate question, or related to the first question? You either design a box or have one designed for you, cut MDF to the appropriate dimensions and glue it together.

with all that? hell naw unless you wanna get one from japan. I know pioneer carrozzeria , kenwood japan, and alpine would have all them features but not for no $450. More like $2000 or more. Your not gonna find anything like that in america cause majority of us are too cheap. Yeah, I'm looking at the DEX-P99RS. It does everything I need audio wise. Then I might put a single din flip out vid/nav system that links to the P99RS. Does anyone have a better idea for 3-way or even 4-way active video/nav HU? Price for me is less of an issue. I can't help the OP, but if your budget isn't extremely limited (which I would guess it isn't considering you are looking at a $1300 deck + a flip out) I'd suggest buying any flip-out that has the multimedia features and auxilliary inputs that you want, then connect it to JBL MS-8 and let the MS-8 handle all of the audio processing.

Sounds like the best thing for you is to track down what is rattling and why. Is it a plastic panel vibrating against another panel? If so, get some CCF to stick between the pieces. Is it a panel resonating? If so, put some CLD on it. If you just want to spend money for the sake of spending money, then let me give you my paypal address and you can send it over to me instead of spending it on a product you might not need

Neither of those products are designed to directly affect the performance of your speakers, but LLP may indirectly impact the performance by way of reducing inbound noise from the engine and road. However, to really achieve substantial improvement you would need essentially need to cover the entire vehicle. Just doing small sections isn't really going to do much for you. And even then, the amount of improvement depends on how much of a problem you feel the road and engine noise is. For example, LLP isn't going to solve many problems if you spend a lot of time demo'ing the system parked. How much money do you have to work with?

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? What are your goals? Overkill is a closed cell foam (CCF). CCF is generally pretty poor at absorption of sound due to it's thickness and material makeup, but also not heavy enough to make a good barrier layer for reducing the tramission of things like road noise. It's best use is basically just as a decoupler for a barrier layer (i.e. used under a layer of mass loaded vinyl), or used in between panels to stop buzzing and rattling. It's pretty ineffective at most other tasks, or there are much better materials to use. Luxury Liner Pro is a mass loaded vinyl product. It's use to to block the transmission of sound, such as road noise. Luxury Liner Pro is mass loaded vinyl (MLV), which is the mass or barrier layer, bonded to a thin layer of CCF, which is the decoupling layer. If you wanted to reduce the amount of road and engine noise that enters the cabin, this would be the type of product to use.

Keep in mind efficiency is not a fixed value. An amplifier's efficiency will vary based on power output at a given impedance. For example, class A/B amps are significantly less efficient at 1/3 power (i.e. 33w on a 100w RMS amplifier) than they are at full power. Generally they are only around 30-35% efficient at 1/3 power even though they can be 60%+ efficient at full power output. Class D typically do not experience that dramatic decline in efficiency with power output. And as mentioned, music is dynamic. Your amplifier will spend much more time in the 1/3 power range than it will at full power. Which means that even though two amplifiers may be the "same efficiency" at full power, one amplifier may actually draw more current from the electrical system throughout the rest of it's power band (i.e. like while playing music).

The relationship is logarithmic not linear, but other than that I agree with your premise. Not enough of a difference to be audible. 10*log(Power1/Power2) = decibels

10*log(4500/3500) = 1.1db That's the maximum theoretical difference. Realistically that doesn't account for factors such as power compression, the ability of your electrical system, etc. Just factoring in power compression you are going to be looking at an increase of somewhere less than 1db. Audible difference? Nada. Difference on a meter? Probably, but only worth it if you are trying to chase down every last .1db If this is for a road warrior system with minimal competition time, probably not worth it. If louder to your ear is the goal, this upgrade likely won't get you there. Increasing power to increase output is the least efficient and least effective (and normally most expensive) method of accomplishing that goal. If you want to increase output, look at improving your enclosure first and foremost. It's the easiest, cheapest and most effective method.

Hmmmm.....when I clicked the link 10 minutes ago I had no problem viewing all 3 pages of the thread. Now it says I "do not have permission to access this page". I wonder if someone saw that thread linked from SSA and took it down? I did just sign up there, so I guess it's possible the account had some restrictions imposed after sign-up. Basically the jist of the thread was that nobody on CACO has the mental capabilities of following the simple rules outlined here on SSA.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys! I've been surfing on Walmart's website and it seems that their prices beat even the online retailers. For example, the Nikon L22 (I'm guessing it's a newer version of the L20?) is $129 @ ecost but on sale for $99 @ Walmart, Nikon S570 is $150 @ Tigerdirect and $130 @ Walmart. And given they can do free site-to-store and are super easy to return products to in the event I don't like the camera, I think I might go the Walmart route. Are these decent? Walmart.com: Nikon Coolpix L22 Black 12MP Digital Camera with 3.6x Optical Zoom: Digital Cameras Walmart.com: Sony Cyber-shot W330 Silver 14.0MP Digital Camera w/ 4X Optical Zoom: Digital Cameras Fujifilm AX250 Silver 14MP Digital Camera Bundle, 5x Optical Zoom, 2.7" LCD, HD Movie, Image Stabilization includes 4GB SDHC card, Camera Case, 100 Bonus Prints Offer Reviews - Walmart.com Walmart.com: Nikon Coolpix S3000 Black 12MP Digital Camera w/ 4x Optical Zoom: Digital Cameras

Need you guys to throw out some options for digital cameras. My son dropped ours today, which is okay because it was an antique. Anyways, budget for a new camera is $150 or less, preferably less. Refurb is okay from trusted online sellers like Tigerdirect/etc. I know nothing about cameras. Features/benefits of one camera over another might as well be written in German. Just looking for something that takes clear, crisp pictures in a relatively compact form (my two biggest complaints with our current camera....it's pictures are shit and it's gigantic). I don't have steady hands, so if it has something fancy that takes a crisp picture with shaky hands, that'd be an added bonus.

Too bad SSA didn't have a pure SPL sub, then you could get a "fart canon" tattooed on your butt Dude, did you just fart? Nope, just burped my subwoofer....must've cooked a coil because it's a little stinky. I've been thinking about getting my avatar tattooed on my back between my shoulder blades for years, but have a hard time trusting someone enough to permanently inscribe artwork on my body for fear they would fuck it up and it would look like shit.

There are many more important things to consider than sensitivity. The change in relative output could simply be a difference in frequency response and wholly unrelated to the sensitivity. It's also important to consider how the sensitivity was rated as there are many things that can be done that makes two different "rated" sensitivities not directly comparable. I would look for performance within the intended bandwidth, distortion performance, how the T/S fit with your intended use, etc long before I considered sensitivity. As for drivers, what is your budget?

It's only "better" if the higher gain setting or lower voltage of the signal results in audible noise in the system. If you do not have audible noise in the system as a result of those two factors, a higher voltage signal (aka a line driver) will do nothing useful. In fact it could make things worse by adding another potential noise source to the system. If you aren't having a problem with noise, there will be no difference in sound between a lower voltage signal with a higher gain setting and a higher voltage signal with a lower gain setting. There is nothing wrong with having a higher set gain as long as it is properly set for the voltage level of the signal. This is the purpose of the gain knob. A line driver does not allow you to get any additional power from your amplifier. What does your system consist of, and what "problem" are you trying to solve? If your problem is not being able to get the volume that you want out of your system, then there are other solutions to the problem. Adding a line driver is not one of those solutions.

He's a bumbling buffoon.

Is he dead set on those subs? He could do a lot better for the money.

Yup, definitely sounds like that 2nd driver is toast Unfortunately there's nothing easy you can do to improve thermal power handling, which is apparently the issue you ran into given the VC sounds roasted.

I would suggest manually moving the cone up and down a good bit with a DMM on the terminals to see if there is a significant change.

Moved to the Amplifier section since this isn't a question about Fi products but about amplifiers. As to your question; We need to know what coil configuration your BL has. It is available in both D1 and D2

I really don't see why impedance rise would be a problem or causing the amplifier to cut out. The impedance of a driver could be 20-40ohm at resonance and amplifiers handle this with no problem. I would double check to make sure you don't have any shorts in the speaker wire or the terminals touching any metal. I'm wondering if maybe there isn't a physical problem with the drivers themselves, leads or VC shorting out or something along those lines.

Assuming your amplifier has two outputs then yes, you can wire one coil to each output. However, 10ga wire is pretty excessive for what you are running. You could simply run slightly smaller wire and be just fine.