Notorious97200

Your car must hate you, OP ! Do you still have a windshield ?!! Nasty, violent,... I'd love to have a demo !

What VC did you choose for the sub ? Will you be able to run it at 1 or 2 Ohms ? Maybe you could choose a 12" sub to run in a good ported box ? did you ever think about that ? The 15" will like the sealed box, for sure. With a little more net volume it can play better.

I love this car. There are only a few in my country, and I don't know what they worth. But I love it !!! Good idea to tint the front windows to match the rear ones. when you get more money, you will tint the rear to have some more privacy in the car. Step by step ! You won't need a H O alternator for your sysytem. do the big3, add a second battery and you should be good to go. The box tuning is low : 29 Hz ? Why don't you tune higher ? 29 can make you loose output.

Waiting on news from Shawn too ! for 2 BL to Martinique !!! Oops !

With your budget, OP, you'd better sell that beast amplifier. Get one that can do 1000 to 1500 @ 1 Ohm, you'll run it at 2 Ohms until you have the 2nd sub. How long will it take you to find money for a 2nd sub ? Maybe you could wait until you have a better budget, and try to find a better combo.

hairtricks are dumb : 100% agree ! In SQ 1000 watts is too much to use it all. You can have +1000 w but you can use a lot less in your system to achieve a well balanced sound. Subs are needed because you can't easily have enough bass from the doors. I'd love to have the same sound in my car, with an empty trunk !!!

Alpine pdx : but you may need more money !

Sounddigital has a really small amp. Why do you want to put an amp there ? Find a small one that can fit under the seats, or in the glove box, but behind the tablet with no air : is it a good idea ?

Need to improve bluetooth technology before !

Take a serious look at the classified section. You can find very good deals there. 2 12" Fi bl would be fantastic for you. You can get them and later find a powerful amp for them. But start small on amplifier power. Find out what they cal "big3" : you will need to do that, before adding any battery.

2 Gcons 12", a good ported box (@32 Hz), a single set of comp speakers, no rear speakers at all, and 2 amps : one for the comp set and one for the bass. Take a look at the sundown SA subs too. I don't remember their price though. RF amps are good, but expensive. You can find cheaper amps like Audiopipe, some Clarion,...A good 2 channels, or a small 4 channel bridged. I personnally like my Sundown amps, but they are not cheap as the Audiopipe !!! Don't go the cheap route on speakers : you need a serious set of comps. Try to listen to some if you can find a shop with some on display. Amplifiers : with your total budget, you need to go cheap, or used. There are good deals everywhere. 2 12" will be easier to fit in your trunk. You can make them fire through the cabin, but I don't know how is your car. (to lazy to google it !). Forget the 18" sub. It's not necessary. don't forget the money for all the wires, connectors, accessories,... Good luck OP

Why do you think your box was too small ? 3-3.5 That's within recommanded specs, no ?! I ran different 15" subs in a 3.1 ft3 box tuned @ 33 Hz with absolutely no problems. Xcon, BTL N2, Soundstream XXX : none of them blew or had any problem. And I was using only two 4" aeroports.

I have run several L7 15", and I agree with the last posts : the only times it was sounding goooood is with huge sealed boxes. Kicker says up to 5 ft3 net volume IIRC. I was not into ported boxes at that time. They murder the lows, but I felt them less accurate than the SSA subs I had later.

What car is i ? You can drive it ?!!

Xcons are fantastic drivers ! You'll love them. I had one in a 3.1 ft3 at 33 Hz and I loved it. A friend of mine had 2 15" Xcons in 4ft3 each, at 30 Hz, on 4 Sundown saz 1000 : it was incredible in his small car ! You could barely breathe at full tilt !

Get a second Icon and a good box. You will love them ! You don't need to run more power, but with 2 subs, you will play at 2 Ohms, so maybe you need a second one. Or an amp that gives you around 1500-2000 w at 2 Ohms. You can recone to a bigger size like an 15" or an 18". You will have much more output for the same power, without buying another sub and another amp, and electrical upgrade. You just need a bigger box !

I like this topic.Lots of intersting infos. I have tried the DMM method but I did not like the results. I don't remember why, but now I only do it by ears. I may not use all the power of my amp, but it is good enough for me. As soon as I hear something wrong, I use the remote control to turn the gain down a bit. It would be easier to have all the recordings made the same way, but it's impossible !!!

Thanks ! It's even harder for people who don't speak english everyday, like me !!! And I'm not the only one, on this forum. SSA is international !

I thought I've read somewhere that the Zcon needs less net volume than the Xcon, and so, a 3 ft3 box would be nice. For the power you want to use, I'd get the Zcon. But I must admit I'd like to try a Sundown Z some day ! (I want to try a Zcon before !!!). Sundown is a brand that I like a lot. As I like SSA ! good luck. It's up to you, OP.

Just FYI : the $ is very high these days, so it is not very interesting for us, Euro(€) users, to buy from the USA. I will have to wait for my next purchases !!

I forgot about this topic. We received the alt. I was waiting for a shipping number and receive the beast !!! installed it and...it broke a few minutes later : the "ears"broke. Defective case acording to Mechman. and they told us they would send us a new alt quickly. But the Golf owner made some welding and fixed everything. He did not want to send back the alt. Everything works great now. I can tell you Mechman was (and still is) very helpfull with all our questions. They're still waiting for pics of the alt because we wanted to have some more informations. We're still wondering if we need an external regulator, because my friend is afraid of the 15.5 volts on his Optima batteries !!! I even made another friend buy a Mechman alt for his car : but this new one will be a standard alternator; he will have to make some mods to install it in his car (an OPEL Astra).

32 Hz may be easier to reach, on your box : shorter port ! I loved the Xcons at 32 Hz, but I've never eared the 12", only some 15"s.

That amp is huge !!!! They all are like that ? with nothing to hide in it ? Or is there a glass to protect the internal of that amp ? Waiting for your install : 8 10" Xcons, that will be something to see and to hear !

On my stock alt (don't know specs) and 2 batteries (stock one of 4 years old) and a Kinetic hc 1200 in the back I don't drop below 13.3with AC on. It stays at 13.6 without AC. Without any sound I may see 13.8 v while driving on the highway, not more. I run a saz 1500 at 1 Ohm and a sax 50.4 bridged at 4 Ohms. It was quite the same with only the stock battery. But voltage stays a lot more higher with engine off, with the 2nd battery. If you have the money, get the 1500 for that sub, but the saz 1000 is enough and you won't hear the 500 w more !