Not happy with my bass response

[Flyin11]

Well, I don't think I'm getting enough bass out of my subs so I'm looking into some options which include maybe going for 1 15" to get that more intense bass kick for my music. I just don't know if 1 15" will sound better than my 2 12's or if it will be more muddy sounding. Power to the sub is not a issue as I'm looking at a 15W4-D2 JL Audio and it says 200w RMS and the amp I have is putting out around 375-400 @ 2ohms with wire length loss and all.

Have also been considering getting 2 8ohm 10" Kickers and wiring them in parallel inside the box, adding that to my other 10" 4ohm I have at home to make 3 10's and then wiring them all in parallel outside the box for a 2ohm load and having 3 10's.

I'm also maybe looking into just getting a really good quality custom box made as maybe it's my enclosure that isn't producing the bass I'm looking for.

What else can I do? Does the 1 15 sound like a good way to go?

[davidallancole]

If I am correct, 1 15" equals 2 12" for surface area. What 12"ers do you have and what size of box are they in? Is it a ported box or sealed? What kind of music do you listen to?

In standard rock, the low E on a bass guitar is 40Hz and a kick drum is sounding around 60-100Hz. So 2 12"ers should be able to pound this out easily. Dance and Rap and other stuff like that will have a lot of energy down to 20Hz as well, so 2 15"ers or something might be needed to give that authority but 2 12"s should still make it decent enough.

[Clipped]

what kind of car do you have?
what kind of box do you have?
what is the boxes orientation?
what kind of twelves? (svc or dvc)
what kind of amp?

changing to a 15" JL sub wont make things better, maybe even worse...

probably need a bigger amp.

[Flyin11]

Maybe I need to look for 2 12's that have more handling power then? Not sure...JL's are expensive and I thought I was getting great quality out of the ones I have but I might have to go to another brand like MTX, Kicker, or Rockford....

I have a 2003 Honda Civic EX coupe and I only listen to rock. I have 2 JL Audio 12W2v1 SVC subs and they are 4ohms wired in parallel for a 2ohm load in a sealed enclosure with 1.27cu ft of air space. The enclosure has the subs facing the back of the car towards the trunk, it's just a simple rectangular enclosure (Not rear firing, wedge, or slanted). I tried turning them around once and it sounded awful like that. Plus, I need to have them like this so I can mount my amplifiers and stuff on the back of it. The subs are rated at 150rms each so that's 300w for 2 and I'm not in any danger as the gain is not up into the high range. The amp is a Rockford P300-1 mono amplifier but it's certified to put out 431w @ 2ohms at 14.4v. After power loss from power wire length and all, it's really only putting out about 380w max. So, I think I'm good to go on the amplifier.

[MartyM]

Can I make a comment?

The power loss in the speaker wires, under normal (sane) circumstances, is next to nothing and negligible. Where did you come up with that estimate?

Also, is that volume per speaker or total?

Also what is the audio source? That's very important!!

[Flyin11]

Power estimate loss came from Perry's site under the wire section. I agree with what his site shows as the only way you can even get close to full rated power is if you have it at max power.

Cubic volume is per chamber...

I guess by audio source you mean headunit...I have a Kenwood Excelon KDC-X891 5V. Nothing wrong with it and I love the headunit.

[Glowbug]

Strong midbass should be job of the...err...midbasses, not the subs

1 15" should give you all the subbass you'd need for what you listen to, just make sure you keep the LP filter set relatively low so you don't have the sub playing up to 100Hz where it shouldn't be...

How did you set the gains?

[Flyin11]

Just saw a tutorial on YouTube someone was doing with a 8" sub last night he was saying because he like a lot of bass in his rock he sets the crossover at 100hz on the amp, maybe a click more. Got me thinking about that but I don't go that high. I like it around 60hz or 80hz and 80 didn't sound all that clean.

[davidallancole]

Might be the case of wrong speakers for the application. In WinISD, these things are -3dB down at 60Hz and -9dB down at 40Hz. -3dB down means half as loud, so when it hits 40Hz, its 1/8th as loud then anything else at the flat level. I don't know much about cabin gain in a car but this seems relatively low to get a big thump, thump out of them.

So you need to either increase the bass in the box you got by equalization, or have vented boxes built for you.

[Flyin11]

What do you mean by equalization?

Yeah...I started to think about a ported box but I've always heard that a sealed box was the best choice for rock music and that ported sounded like junk with rock. I have a ported box that I got from Crutchfield with a couple 12" Punch Stage 1 subs a while back so I might grab that and see what it sound s like with the subs in there. I don't think it meets the specs for a ported box with these subs but it's worth a shot. The punch subs sounded pretty good when it was in there but the kick drums sounded like they were flat and echoing. You heard more bass but lost the kick from the kick drums. Like I said before though...That was a angled box....So maybe I need to try a box that is angled and sealed?