Newbie Questions

[Venom_5]

i have a 95 Camry LE sedan with an aftermarket JVC receiver and stock speakers, but i want to add some bass to my ride

i was thinking maybe a 10" or a 12" sub would be nice, but i dont know what i should be looking for exactly ... i want quality but i also want a lot of power ... i have no concept of what wattage to look for ... there are Pioneers [the blue ones] that say 800W peak, but theyre cheaper than some other brands like MTX that are 500W peak

any suggestions on something loud + decent quality thats not too expensive? i was thinking maybe an S or R-type alpine @ like 450W RMS?

and would a mono channel amplifier do the trick since its only 1 sub, or does it matter?

in terms of boxes, i figure anything ported would be okay, except those Q-Logic boxes look a little fishy to me

and where are good places to shop (price-wise)?

any tips/hints/links/suggestions are greatly appreciated, thnx

[Venom_5]

12 views and no replies ... thanks for the help guys?

[atobe]

my friend has alpine type S 12' powered by an alpine amp also... with a sealed box sounds pretty good.... your best bet is getting a 4 channel amp... use 2 for the sub and wire up the rest of the speaker to the remaining 2.. till you can afford another amp

[freestylez]

if you want bass, get an Alpine Type R ot Type X woofer with a MRD-M605/MRDM1005 amp
then buy a 4 channel amp to power the 4 speakers (replace the stock ones they suck) but i would also like to add that JVC headunits suck i had one hated it...i like Alpine/Pioneer headunits

[Venom_5]

i love my JVC head unit ... im not trying to go deaf, so it gives me plenty of power ... plus it is all buttons, no knobs ... because i hate volume knobs (yeah, i know im weird)

i dont know if i can afford getting multiple amps ... im not too worried about amplifying my speakers, because theyre already loud enough for my liking ... unless the sub would draw too much power from them (in which case i would need one, right?)

[xet]

First of all dont look at any max power ratings, you want to base all decisions off of rms values. Secondly you want to decide if you want your sub to be really loud (spl) or be a bit quieter but to sound nicer (sql). Also you need to decide how much space you are working with, how much you want to spend, how many subs you want, and what size.

But personally I would always custom make my boxes or having them custom made for me

[Venom_5]

I'm too lazy to make a fiberglass case for my box ... i could make a wood/carpet case, seeing as i made a wood box for 2 woofers in my house, but i figure i can just buy one for $50 anyways

i only want 1 sub so that it doesnt take up the entire trunk ... i think i want a combo of spl/sql, but i can only get so much because my funds are limited ... mostly i want it to be loud enough to be heard [but not from miles away], but i dont want it to be scratchy or distorted like my bass sounds now coming from 6" speakers ...

xet, do you know of any good setups or any ideas for the $300-400 range? or would i have to go up to get anything worthwhile?

[xet]

A mdf board box would be fine, you could buy a prefab one to save time and stress but if you are going to go ported most of the time it is going to sound better custom made but it wont kill you not to. But since you aren't expecting it to get crazy loud I think you could do a nice sealed sub for near that price range.

I think you could go with either a sealed 10" or 12" sub and you should have at least 200 left for an amp which can get you a good budget amp like hifonics. Then hopefully you will be close to not going over budget with like wiring or if you do it shouldnt be much depending on which sub you go for.

[Venom_5]

now you have me thinking about custom boxes ... maybe not fiberglass because that seems like hard work, but maybe some new style...

ive done enough custom wood work to figure something out, but i dont know much about mobile electronics to figure out what acoustic work i would have to deal with ...

oh, and i asked it earlier but idk if anyone saw it: when i add a sub, is it gonna draw too much power from my system and make my stock speakers quiet? [my receiver is 50W x 4 channels, of course] ... oh, and am i gonna blow my stock speakers with those 50W if i keep playing loud music? ive blown alot of home audio speakers before i did some upgrades and rebuilt my entire room's audio equip, but i dont know the tolerance of my car yet

[xet]

No, when you wire your sub you will run an alternate power cable from your battery directly to the amp then the sub. Your headunit will only run a pair of rca cables and an amp turn on lead which basically will just tell the amp when to turn on and off and what to play. The amp and sub will not draw any of the the power from the 50 x 4 from the headunit. It is completely seperate from that so no worries about that, unless you are already blowing them by trying to play them at too high of volumes. But that really doesnt have anything to do with the sub.

And normally for sub boxes custom made you will use 3/4 mdf board

[Venom_5]

sounds good ... will i be okay with a regular battery? or are my lights gonna dim n crap ...

im thinking of the 300W RMS range

[xet]

300 wrms you should be perfectly fine. Many people tend to use about 1000wrms as a general time where some upgrades need to be made. Personally I am running around 600wrms already with no problems and I plan on adding another amp for my front speakers