I was at my local shop today. Now, this shop is pretty popular around town. It's a small shop but a lot of 1st and 2nd place bass race and spl comp guys come out of this shop and compete at Carl Casper. There show room is flooded with trophies right now so you would think that they have a LOT of info in the audio world.

While i am researching for the best subs that would meet my application, i was just curious as to what they would suggest me.

They sell off the top of my head - Alpine, Soundstream, Powerbass, JBL and a couple others but nothin bigger than them that i remember.

Anyways, i asked the guy if he could recommend a 10" sub for a ported box that would do well in no larger than 1 cubic foot NET that is rated for 750-1000wrms.

Answer - That sub does not exist.

um what? The smallest your gonna get a 10" sub in a ported box is 2cubic feet!

I also asked him for one that can get pretty low.

He said 10s cannot get low in terms of - no 10 can hit 20hz in the world!

I told him as long as it could go down to 26hz would put a smile on my face then i told him about Fi's Q10.

He said, companies can post whatever specs they want but no 10" sub can drop that low for ya.

I don't like arguing with audio reps so i just said thank you and left but i know for a fact that's crap because-

I used to own 2 Audiobahn Eternals(i got a story about those if someone wants to hear that) ported in 1.2cuft boxes and they dropped LOW. I used to play 25hz test tones on them and they picked up just fine so i know that was a lie.

Well, i know i get more knowledge on here and other boards than in person... that is sad.

I used to have an Adire Brahma Mk2 10" in 1.3cuft.

It got pretty dam low.

So yes...10's can get low

I used to own 2 Audiobahn Eternals(i got a story about those if someone wants to hear that)

im always up for a story

ok i'll go ahead and post the story about the eternals.

This is one of 2 reasons why i will never own Audiobahn again.

These 2 subs were wired down to 0.9 DCR on a Cadence ZRS10.

I wanted to do a field test and see if Audiobahn rates the thermal power handling properly or not because i hate lies. You get a BAD rep if you overrate your equipment.

Eternals are rated at 900wrms.

I threw on a 35hz test tone and let it burp. These test tones are created by me at 0db amplitude. Amp is guaranteed not to clip.

Metered distributed power to each sub is 334w of power.

These test tones were generated to play 60 full seconds.

So i started-

At 47 seconds, sub number 2 started to severely smell so i attenuated the sound then paused.

Sub number one did not have a problem. It got a little smelly but that's it. Sub number 2 got extremely smelly, cannot handle as much output power now because if it moves too much, it starts to pop or move erratically in a weird manner.

Only receiving just over 33% of their rated power non clipped...

The old immortals, same way.

Rated for 2000wrms, haha yea right.

Now, i give it that it could take 1000wrms all day but not 2000wrms.

Slight clipped signal at approx metered power of 1150w at 50hz for 3 minutes, fried both tinsel leads.

Other reason about AB is the last sub i ever bought from them, i was jammin on a 1000wrms rated 10, giving it about 400-600w actual power on a song. All of a sudden, the glue around the spider came unglued and the sub jumped out of the gap and slammed back down... it got messed up obviously.

Overrate their subs and don't use enough glue. I'm done.

10's can't get low? That's a new one to me. Mine seemed to do pretty well in .75 cubes.......lol

was that ported? what sub was that?

And again, see, i knew he was retarded.

If you can hit 20hz outside with a ground plane measurement, then you can easily hit 20hz in a car where the cabin gain helps a LOT. It's all in the enclosure design and the material being played.

-Robert

Edited February 16, 200817 yr by Robert_J

that was a pair of DD 9510F's on 4 Sundown SAZ-1500's, .75 cubic ft chamber, folded horn style box.

What's fun is getting 4.5" midbasses to play subbass confidently

The ICON 10" will take that much power in that box size and blow you away with lows. No problem.

i'm lookin into it

What's fun is getting 4.5" midbasses to play subbass confidently

then watch them sizzle and pop when they cant take the excursion

The ICON 10" will take that much power in that box size and blow you away with lows. No problem.

The ICON 10" will take that much power in that box size and blow you away with lows. No problem.

I had an Audiomobile Mass 10 in 1 cube with about 600rms to it and it went very very low...used to demo it to my friends with 20hz test tones. Also I would be willing to bet the Soundsplinter RL-i 8/Audiopulse Epic 8 can get that low as well.....But I'm sure Mr Local Stereo guy is right...it's all just manufacturer marketing ploy!

LMAO...I can NAIL 10hz with my 10" subs and flex the tops

of my doors with notes from 10hz to 20hz with ease...

here is Video of one of my Test Boxes with a 10" woofer in it

MUgjacrYXt4

here is some door flex with the same 10" woofer

dW0pfBQPJGY

I have been able to nail 10hz with every system I have owned

I was running this 10" sub with 1.60cf3 plus sub snad port displacement

and 2400w rm

Edited February 16, 200817 yr by SSaudio
emeded youtube.

Ya I went into a local shop that sells JL, Kicker, Pioneer, Eclipse, Alpine, and some others. I thought they used to sell RF. I went in to see if they were an RF dealer because i wanted to see what they'd charge for a 3sixty. They were never RF. Then I said what else is available for processing/OEM integration. I then stated I did not want a Cleansweep because I wanted the processing capabilites. This whole area has a boner for JL so you can never say anything remotely bad about them. So then hes asking me why I don't want one because it's the best and has 8 volt preouts and the 8v was his only real argument for it over a 3sixty or similar which is "only 5v". He then said why do you need an EQ, SQ competitors don't even use EQ's anymore. Then I kinda mumbled ok alright whatever and left. I never really liked that shop much anyway.

dont use EQs anymore? Wow, i guess amps just come out of the box winning already.

And cars have perfect in cabin resonance and reflection.

Goes to show you what a trophy is worth these days, obviously there are too many floating around. Pretty easy to dig the lows with a 10.

he could have meant there is no 10 that "they carry."

But he never said that so... you know.

Oh, i never told you guys what he suggested.

He told me the only thing that would work for me is Alpine Type Rs.

...i've never ran anything that is "oh so popular". I hate that.

Just beacuse u got the trophy doesn't mean you earned it or REALLY know what your talking about.

J

Just beacuse u got the trophy doesn't mean you earned it or REALLY know what your talking about.

J

That seems to be an all to often occurence in stereo shops now'days. There is a stereo shop around where I live, a very popular shop that has been around many many years, I even bought my first amp/sub from them about 15 years ago. The sales staff consists of a handful of 17-20 year olds that know very little about car audio on a technical level, and are all caught up in the hype that big name manufacturers pump out. What's more is most installers know just enough to do their job but really can give a $hit less about what it really takes to "know" car audio. Being an obssesive car audio guy since I was a teen I would love going to shops and talking to installers and sales guys just to learn more and be around like-minded people. Now that I'm all grown up and know much more that the average stereo shop drone, I don't even bother going to local shops anymore...waste of time. They hate it when you know more than they do(which most people that spend any time in these forums do). It's sad that the industry is fueled by these kids and/or installers that don't know $hit and don't really care to. If the Alpine Type R is their "premium" go-low sub then they NEED a new subwoofer line-up!

Edited February 16, 200817 yr by nstaln

haha any sub can get "low" it just depends on the box. i'd bet money that a "good" 6.5 woofer in a tline or tpered horn designed specificly to get low would hold it owns. like i allways say 20% equipment, 80% install.

Edited February 17, 200817 yr by dustin

you gotta remember that the guy said it was impossible to do it with a 10 in 1cubic foot or less.

Also, not every sub can reproduce the low end range as well as others.

Take into account drivers who are more geared toward the upper midbass range, whether it be comp only subs or some midbass drivers, they will not be able to produce the low end properly.