1 efficient 12" or 2 (far) less efficient 10"s?

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OK, first off I’d like to stay with the equipment I have instead of buying new items. That being said, I have a 50W X 2 Alpine MRV-T505 amp that has a phase switch and 1-band (adjustable) parametric equalizer on it and an old Fosgate Punch 150 75W X 2. Both amps can be bridged, the Alpine will bridge down to 1 ohm per channel it says.

I have two JL Audio 10W3-D4 dual 4 ohm voice coil 10’s and one Kicker Competition C12-8 8 ohm single voice coil 12”. The 10W3’s have an SPL of only 85.3 db, while the C12 has an SPL of 94. I was planning on using the two 10’s, but after plotting several enclosures together on WinISD for comparison, the 12 puts out more SPL given the power I have available, given a similar total enclosure volume. Car is a 300ZX (hatchback) with 75 cubic feet volume, I listen to rock/pop/techno-electronica. I guess I am aiming for the most bass with the equipment I have, and trying to stay at or below 3 cubic feet of total enclosure volume. I do want some midbass, as I feel the components don’t cut it. I have been considering sealed, ported, 4th order bandpass, and Weems dual chamber ported enclosures, or a combination of them. I.E. the 12” in a bandpass for low bass and one or two 10’s in a small sealed enclosure for tight midbass.

What amp(s)/sub(s)/enclosure type(s) combination would you suggest? Keep in mind that one of the amps has to run my component mids (Boston Acoustic 6.5’s plus tweets) whether or not a sub is also pushed by the amp in mixed-mono or stereo mode.

Thanks,

Mike
 
Use the punch 150 to run your jl 10's bridged mono. Use the Alpine to run your mids & highs. You will not be able to get the full potential out of your amps if you use the 12" being that it is an 8ohm sub. If you were to buy another 12" 8 ohm sub than you could get the power that you need. Hope this helps.
 
clayton, I have the Alpine set up running my mids/tweets right now, but I think it is really meant to push subs, as it has the parametric EQ on it, and can run at 1 ohm per channel.

The Punch used to run two 12's in parallel, but one got stolen, that's why I only have a single 8 ohm 12.

When I model the subs in enclosures on WinISD, the 10's are so inneficient, that even with the 12 being only 8 ohms it still puts out significantly more SPL.

I need to know more about modeling Weems DCR enclosures before I make my final choice, but another option I am considering is:

12" in a 3 cubic foot 4th order box for low end running bridged on the Punch 150. Should get 150 watts at least, Punchs were underated so it will probably me more. Then, run both 10's, each is a small sealed box for my upper/midbass.

I can run the 10's with the 12 off the Punch with the 10's wired as 2 ohms each in stereo, or at 2 ohms in series for a 4 ohm load in parallel with the 12. That would load the Punch at 1.3 ohms per channel, which it could probably handle, especially as I won't be running it wide open. Or run that combo on the Alpine, since it can definitely handle a 1.3 ohm per channel load, and run teh components on the Punch.

Or, just run one 10" in a small sealed box, wire it for 8 ohms, and run it in parallel with the 12" for a 2 ohm per channel loading on the Punch.

Or, I could leave the 12" bridged on the Punch, and run the 10's @ 8 ohms each, in parallel for a 4 ohm load and run them in tri-mods on the Alpine with the mids/tweets in stereo.

Or, run the 10's @ 8 ohms each and run one 10 on each channel of the Alpine in parallel with the components. W/ 12" bridged in a bandpass on Punch.

Or, run the 10's @ 2 ohms each in series with the components on each channel fo the Alpine. W/12 bridged in a bandpass on Punch.

Haha, just a few combinations, eh? I don't need ultimate SQ (thinking more on about the mids/highs) as my car's sound floor is loud and I won't hear the differences while driving, running the components on teh Punch probably isn't a problem.

Which combo and why?

Thanks,

Mike
 
beady said:
Or, I could leave the 12" bridged on the Punch, and run the 10's @ 8 ohms each, in parallel for a 4 ohm load and run them in tri-mods on the Alpine with the mids/tweets in stereo.


Or, run the 10's @ 2 ohms each in series with the components on each channel fo the Alpine. W/12 bridged in a bandpass on Punch.

Either one of these two would work. The first one is the one that I would go with. For sq it would be the best out of the two. The second one would give more power to you 10's and components but you would loose some of your sq. Also by using bandpass box you would get more boomy bass if that is what you are looking for.The others that you posted wiring the 10's & 12 together on the punch would not work so well. Your 10's would actually get more power then your 12 would.
 
I've been doing quite a lot of reading on midbass, seeing as that is sort of what I wanted the 10's to do if I had the 12 for low end.

Seems a lot (most) people say midbass is directional and you will be able it is comming from behind you.

I would only be able to locate the 10's in the rear, as I'm not going to even try to mount them in the doors. So, I'm not sure if I should do that.

Also, even if I ran the 10's as subs also, I read that it may do more harm than good having different subs in different enclosures. I don't know if that is true though, I ran one JL10W3 and the C12 in parallel off the Punch and thought it sounded fine......

I plotted various enclosure designs and volumes for two 10's or the one 12. The single 12 in a sealed box seems to outperform the 10's almost everywhere until you get down to around 40 Hz. Unless I run the 10's in a vented enclosure, then the 10's have more low end extension below 40 Hz. I don't know how much you experience in the below 40 Hz range, so I can't make an informed judgement if the reduced efficiency above that is worth the tradeoff.

Mike
 
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