i have owned 1 of the drivers in question and i have played in depth with the other... so my statements are not with out research

You don't need to own both drivers to know where they excel. T/S parameters are available for a reason.

I have own both and my statement would be the same. If you even considering getting the BL or the Q, you want the BL. If your SQ oriented, you will not even consider the BL at all.

I have own both and my statement would be the same. If you even considering getting the BL or the Q, you want the BL. If your SQ oriented, you will not even consider the BL at all.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it's impossible to purchase a Q and fall in love with it. Just because it wasn't exactly what you were looking for doesn't mean that you chose wrong.

I mean...how often does one buy something that is exactly what they thought it was?

I have own both and my statement would be the same. If you even considering getting the BL or the Q, you want the BL. If your SQ oriented, you will not even consider the BL at all.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it's impossible to purchase a Q and fall in love with it. Just because it wasn't exactly what you were looking for doesn't mean that you chose wrong.

I mean...how often does one buy something that is exactly what they thought it was?

Always .

Way to keep your variables the same, lol. If your basing that as your comparison nothing I say will be convincing. If your happy, stay happy, it's better for all of us.

Nice answer to my question, lol.... have you ever even owned either driver in question??

You dont have to convience me of anything, you choose to join in on a thread started by someone asking a question and yet you dont not even remotely try to convince him or really even help.

Im sure we are all glad the "SSA Tech Team" representative is such help to us all with your smart ass short "high and mighty" answers as ALWAYS.

But I will say this and leave this thread alone. Being a successful business owner myself, nobody would be allowed to represent my company name in the way you do SSA. You honestly bring negativity to almost everything you post in, your sig is proof of your self thought holiness.

For clarification, I haven't owned either driver. Familiar with them though. Just the same as the Porsche Cayenne Turbo and BMW X5 M. i haven't owned them either, but am very familiar and instead made a different decision in the ML63. Amusing to me that the expectation was that I own them, but the comparison was in a vehicle "that I heard" also showing no ownership.

As I've said in every thread like this. 99% of the time Q buyers should buy the BL. There are exemptions as they've sold over a 100.

In this thread that was obvious as well as a whole it wasn't thought out very well, not much detail was shared, and a very simple question ended in 3 question marks. The OP obviously couldn't figure the answer out himself which means in implementation there will be difficulties, his goals are probably dubious, and there is a definite advantage of the BL for that sort of user. Don't think you can attempt to argue with that.

As for trying to attack me, if it makes you feel better feel free. I don't and won't state my business status or my background to try to develop respect as instead I'll let my posts do it for me. If you don't like what I say, that's fine I don't expect everyone too.

Guys I already own the BL's and was just asking a question in case i decide to change subwoofers. Since i have never heard a set of the Q's i thought i would ask to see if anyone knew the difference. If the SP4 come out in 12's i am going that direction.

Let's Hope That Happens, Because That's What I Am Waiting On As Well. Last I Heard The Tooling Was Supposed To Be Done.

I have own both and my statement would be the same. If you even considering getting the BL or the Q, you want the BL. If your SQ oriented, you will not even consider the BL at all.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it's impossible to purchase a Q and fall in love with it. Just because it wasn't exactly what you were looking for doesn't mean that you chose wrong.

I mean...how often does one buy something that is exactly what they thought it was?

It's not impossible but its unlikely unless it was actually what you were looking for and you didn't know it. But the forum's here to help so that you don't buy excess stuff that you didn't want and waste money. If it was the case that you wanted to waste money, then go ahead and buy whatever you want and don't ask the forum.

sealed - q

ported -bl

pretty simple

agreed. Love my Q in my sealed, it shines. Love my friend's BL ported to specs on 2k..

I purchased two Q's a few years ago i love the sound that they produce in a ported box but then again im not looking for sq..... if you have q's and want to get louder for a cheaper price just upgrade the speaker to a bigger size

Has anyone put around 2,000-2,500 watts to one fully loaded BL?

Has anyone put around 2,000-2,500 watts to one fully loaded BL?

I'm sure some have, why do you ask?

I want to put that amount of power to each one of mine.

eh dont think you are giving the bl its "SQ" credit. for the average person who mainly listens to mp3's it has good enough sq. I haven't heard a Q but i have heard a idmax and a AA avalanche. and based off of memory i would easily through it in the same category. it also had much better top end bass than those ported and can still drop like a bagged impala as far as the 30 hz range is concerned. a lil eq cutting and it can "blend" in easily

With the proper box and clean power im sure the bl's will cope with the power you want to put to them. Ive owned and have experience with alot of Fi's subs from first gen Q to Sp4's even the X. People told me it was a waste of time and money to build a box with a subs forward port back config. in an suv... I built the box and i got results tohelp me out pic subs/box size, tunning, power,etc in the future. Ask...Get an idea... Make a choice...And test. Just my thought.

I'm sorry (dunno why I'm apologizing) but I'm with M5 on this one. SQ is not objective first off, and its judged by ppl who KNOW what SQ sounds like. Im sorry but youre looking for the wrong things. I personally guarantee you (and most of you others) that you don't know what SQ sounds like and would never ever ever ever be willing to sacrifice a bigass expensive woofer like a Q12 for that purpose if you knew. X10 maybe. For any amount of real power, BL all the way. TS specs muddy under thermal duress anyways. Not that most wouldn't be equally happy with one or the other, or could even tell the difference lol.

Now I've owned a triple stack Q15 for daily and a plug mag Q12 also for daily. I had SPL BL 12s for SPL (duh) and a BL 15 for bassrace. I now run two BtL N2 12s for daily and bassrace. That's post army, I ran rockford Hx2s and TRFs mostly from 96 and on, with some random JLs and kickers and Soundstream mixed in. I've installed every brand of woofer except DLS and Ground Zero, in most configurations and sizes. With any brand, individual model, size, and power class, you can just as easily have a good result as a bad one, if you are a half-assed type of person. Chances are you couldn't guess the brand of any subwoofer if you were to only hear it playing, so how different can they really be? Obviously there's variability in construction quality, so it makes sense to choose consistent brands like Fi/SSA.

Somebody even said you really don't know until you hear it, which is true for 99.9% of car audio. But its up to you to DESIGN the system correctly around the equipment and the space available, budget, etc. If you don't know how to DESIGN a system, you ask stupid questions like "which plays lower?". You can get a 5" midrange to play 5Hz (probably not audibly, but you didn't specify that did you?) its not up to the speaker. When I had a Q15 I had it tuned to like 29Hz in an explorer, and it played plenty low, and loud over almost all frequencies. I did a Q12 sealed in 2 cubes in my wifes jeep and hated the lack of low end produced by the loading direction of the sub. Ported the enclosure and tuned it high, like 36, and i still play down to 25 easy because it loads much better now. My current setup with two BtL 12s plays the loudest on the lows out of all the setups, even with a trunk wall, because my sedan has a long cabin that I take full advantage of.

Point I'm making is you have to have goals set and prudent planning to make a great system. Brand names are an after thought. If its going to sound good It's because it was designed properly. End of story. You know what i look for in a woofer? Low Vas. That's what gets me excited. More room for ports baby.

Edited October 7, 201212 yr by SubSam

Thats a great post Sam!

Has anyone put around 2,000-2,500 watts to one fully loaded BL?

I know this is an old question but I just saw it.

I have an AQ2200 on each of my BL's and they take it pretty good. they have never been hot or smelly.

but I try to be smart about it.

I've got a couple of vids hellaequis (youtube)

Your comparisons were biased to the results you wanted. Did you compare them in boxes geared towards doing the same thing? I know it's a rhetorical question, but obviously not.

A few other misnomers, tuning to 25Hz in a car is a waste, makes no sense at all.

You are exemplifying my comment though. Of course it was the right choice for you since you have it. No use comparing things evenly. Ugh.

Please do explain why tuning to 25hz in a car is a waste? I tune most of my daily driver boxes in the upper twenties and my clients are all very pleased. JL Audio even tunes some of their factory enclosures to 25hz. Some people actually want to listen to music with their subwoofers...

Your comparisons were biased to the results you wanted. Did you compare them in boxes geared towards doing the same thing? I know it's a rhetorical question, but obviously not.

A few other misnomers, tuning to 25Hz in a car is a waste, makes no sense at all.

You are exemplifying my comment though. Of course it was the right choice for you since you have it. No use comparing things evenly. Ugh.

Please do explain why tuning to 25hz in a car is a waste? I tune most of my daily driver boxes in the upper twenties and my clients are all very pleased. JL Audio even tunes some of their factory enclosures to 25hz. Some people actually want to listen to music with their subwoofers...

There isn't much music that goes below 30hz.

You can get a 5" midrange to play 5Hz (probably not audibly, but you didn't specify that did you?) its not up to the speaker.

No speaker can play 5Hz audibly... 5Hz isn't audible!

However, I'm mixed in this discussion. I am leaning more towards the "if you have to compare, you don't want the BL" side, but still fairly close to the middle.

I bought Q's. I have two Q12s in the GTO and one Q10 in the Audi. I wanted SQ, and didn't spend much time looking at the others. I was a little curious about them though. That little 10 delivers an enormouse amount of SPL at very low frequency for a 10 in a sealed enclosure. And it sounds soooooo dang good doing it! Smoothest, cleanest sounding sub I've heard.

Your comparisons were biased to the results you wanted. Did you compare them in boxes geared towards doing the same thing? I know it's a rhetorical question, but obviously not.

A few other misnomers, tuning to 25Hz in a car is a waste, makes no sense at all.

You are exemplifying my comment though. Of course it was the right choice for you since you have it. No use comparing things evenly. Ugh.

Please do explain why tuning to 25hz in a car is a waste? I tune most of my daily driver boxes in the upper twenties and my clients are all very pleased. JL Audio even tunes some of their factory enclosures to 25hz. Some people actually want to listen to music with their subwoofers...

There isn't much music that goes below 30hz.

And cabin gain takes care of the LF roll off. No gain in tuning lower than what is compensated by the vehicle itself.