New to car audio - Need advice!

[Skater17]

So I just got my first car, a 95 Honda Accord, and my older brother passed down two 12' Kicker Comps to me.

My friend gave me an amp for $10, I figured it wasn't going to perform that well, but being on a budget, it'll work for the mean time.

Now that I've been saving up some cash, I'm looking to find the best bang for my buck and what I should use. My current set up is:

-Two Kicker 12' Comps, each in their own box.
-Kenwood Deck w/ Aux & RCA outputs.
-Alpine V12 T-303 (2 Channel Amp, don't know how many watts, but we made it work for now).

Any suggestions on what I should get? I'm still on a budget and want to save money, but I also want to use my subs to their potential.

The only way they sound good is if I turn the bass boost on the deck all the way up, plus the bass boost on the amp all the way up, which I understand is bad for the subs?

Any help would be very appreciated!

[SomeGuyInPDX]

You are correct, bass boost on the deck/amp is bad. Don't do it unless you want to increase your budget to include new subs. May sound good for a while, but it destroys the lifespan of your speaker.

[dangus]

Make sure the boxes are appropriate for the woofers. Look up what Kicker suggests, or get the T-S parameters and plug them into a box modelling program. Make sure the amp and subs are properly matched; maybe it's better to bridge it and parallel both subs (although if they're 4 ohms, the amp would have to be 1 ohm stable).

Get a separate amp for the main (L and R) speakers. The "high power" car deck outputs are only about 12 real watts. If that amp doesn't have a crossover or high-pass filter, get an active crossover. If the front speakers don't have to take the bass, they'll play louder and last longer. It may be easier to get a 4 channel amp that has a built-in crossover.

[carshateme]

What kind of 12 Comp Kickers are they? The model number...gotta give me some specs so I can throw some amplifiers your way. I know what you mean by budget...My system consists of a pair of 2 10" audiobahns ALUM10N ( $129 for both ) a dual box ($32) a hifonics hif2000d 2000watt amplifier; 2000 watt rms max ($208), a knukonceptz 0/1 power gauge set ($78) Sony CDX- GT43IPW stereo ($55) and a 3.5 farad soundquest lightning cap($35)

Well anyways. Lemme know the max wattage/rms on your kickers or the model number and I can find ya a good amp that'd be compatible with them, depending on the amp size I can also recommend the gauge of wiring you should get as well...depending on your budget.

[Luca B]

What are the specs on the enclosures you currently have those subs in? What exactly are your goals for this system (ie output or accurate sound reproduction). Can you give a more specific budget? What model Comps do you own? What impedance are the voice coils? A lot more information should have been included in your thread if you want some guidance. Depending on your current enclosures and goals you may want to start by building an optimal box to "use your subs to their potential".

[RiLoWa]

The MRV-T303 is a 50 Watt per channel amp. You may find that it works better bridged to ONE of the Kickers, which raises it's output to 150 Watts on a 4 Ohm load. Really a good $10 amp you have there. If you do get a more powerful amp for the kickers, the Alpine would be a good amp to move on to the front speakers.

Here is a link to the Alpine ower's manual - http://vault.alpine-usa.com/products...M_MRV-F303.PDF

[carshateme]

Originally Posted by Luca B

What are the specs on the enclosures you currently have those subs in? What exactly are your goals for this system (ie output or accurate sound reproduction). Can you give a more specific budget? What model Comps do you own? What impedance are the voice coils? A lot more information should have been included in your thread if you want some guidance. Depending on your current enclosures and goals you may want to start by building an optimal box to "use your subs to their potential".

Very well said.

Reminder to the poster of this thread...just in case you did not know. It's always better to overpower your subs than to under power them.

[luka]

Originally Posted by carshateme

Very well said.

Reminder to the poster of this thread...just in case you did not know. It's always better to overpower your subs than to under power them.

not really, what you should instead of underP is not to clip them... but you can clip while overpowering them too, so... NO CLIP

[carshateme]

Originally Posted by luka

not really, what you should instead of underP is not to clip them... but you can clip while overpowering them too, so... NO CLIP

Lol under powering them for too long will permanently damage the subwoofers. Trust me I know this from past experience.

[luka]

Originally Posted by carshateme

Lol under powering them for too long will permanently damage the subwoofers. Trust me I know this from past experience.

what are you talking about?? coz it sounds like if you don't play your sub at all which is about the same as playing it under its rated power (or you have other explanation for yourself?), you will damage it...hell no, only clip and far too much power will kill it