Which sub?

[YoungCruiserrr]

Originally Posted by chris15

You find the bass lacking in a hatchback with a 1600-watt amp and two 12" subs? Your amp or subs must be crap then, or your amp's gain is turned way, way, way down..

If your trunk were isolated from your car, I could completely understand but considering 15s and 18s in a hatchback?

Do hatchbacks sound better then a regular car?

[chris15]

Well, think about it. In a "regular" car, the trunk is (most times) sealed off from the interior of the car. With a hatchback, the air that the subwoofer displaces moves throughout the cabin instead of just the trunk.

[bobdole369]

A single 10" JL 10W3v3 in a 1 cuft sealed box is MORE than enough with 200W going to it in my PT (<60hz). Also have boston acoustics sx65's w/ 75W in the doors (about 50ish hz up to 600ish), boston acoustics s35's in the dash - 75W (500ish up to 4khz) and dayton nd20fb-4's with 50W from 2.5khz up. These are mounted in the little flat area on top of the 6" mounting loc - pointed straight up.

Most of my music doesn't have much bass - lots of low guitar though. But it still shakes the crap out of the car on music that does have deep long hard bass notes.

[FreddyJLO]

i have a kicker L7 with an 1600a Infinity amp class d! sub is a 12 and its hitting harder than my friends 2 15s kikers cvr so the L7 is deff the way to go. its playing a 800 rms on a hatchback thats huge

[extski]

Well, I went out to buy a new amplifier for my Polk Audio db6501's (front and rear) before getting the sub. Was going to get the JL Audio Slash v2 300/4v2 and the sales rep advised me to save my money and go with the JL Audio G4500 amp. So I ended up getting that amp and the 10" W3V3 sub in a sealed enclosure today (still need to install it).

FYI for anyone in the MD Baltimore/DC area, check out Westminster Speed and Sound. The guys there are extremely helpful and seem very informative (they are a signature JL Audio reseller too). He saved me $210 on the amp today by advising me to downgrade due to my needs not really needing the Slash amp. He also suggested to save my money and not get the JL Audio 500/1v2 amp I was going to get for the W3V3 and first try to bridge the rear channels to the sub and just hook up the rear speakers to the head unit and power the fronts with the front channels of the amp. Then if I don't get the bass I'm looking for, then he said consider getting a stronger amp just for the sub and it will add about 20% more loudness. So he potentially saved me just over $800. I've only messed with a stereo once over 10 years ago, so kind of new to the audio stuff and they really helped me out.

Westminster Speed and Sound Online

[chris15]

I'm pushing about 500-watts RMS to a single 12" and it's more than enough for me. I'd like to pick up a second Alpine Type-R and feed both 250-watts instead, though, that way I'm not working the shit out of one sub.

[Wakinglife213]

I got the infinity basslink II it sounds good and does not take up a lot of space. I dont need a ton of bass but this added the extra thump i was looking for, and a very easy install.

[djdan74]

Originally Posted by chris15

You find the bass lacking in a hatchback with a 1600-watt amp and two 12" subs? Your amp or subs must be crap then, or your amp's gain is turned way, way, way down..

If your trunk were isolated from your car, I could completely understand but considering 15s and 18s in a hatchback?

Hey Chris, thanks for the comments. To clarify:

As mentioned in my previous post, I couldn't test the 15 and 18" correctly as the proper sub box sizes needed would exceed the space available between the hatch and the rear seating (ie the 18" scientifically needs over 30" to reach peak performance). I did not state that the bass response was insufficent for the 15 or 18". Space is the main issue with these sub sizes in order for them to properly function....that and power supply.

With 2x12, I suspect the bass lacking because of the power draw. As my volume or bass increases, I get the flickering lights syndrome with my headlights and dashlights (and trust me, the volume is not crazy loud...I like my hearing). I have a solid 4g connection for power and ground from battery to amp and a 1 farad capacitor inbetween. Subs and amp are mid-range value and gains are properly adjusted (I am a DJ and sound technician). Connectors to the wires are soldered gold connections and no contaminants are visible on the connectors.

One other point to mention is that I don't have the picnic table in the hatch area. For some odd reason, my 08 model came without it. With my former 05 model, I feel that the bass was more responsive due to this specific part as it acted like a bass cannon. To what extent though, I am uncertain.

I have had suggestions to bridge multiple capacitors to rebuilding my alternator. So far I haven't tried these suggestions yet as as I wanted to try a simpler (and less risky) solution such as testing a higher quality sound system (ie Bose) on a trial basis.

To YoungCruiserrr, absolutely a hatchback will provide superior sound to that of a trunk separation and will lessen the auxilliary rattling sound from your trunk, spoiler, etc. when playing low/punch bass music.

[chris15]

Ah, I understand. I suppose I interpreted what you were saying a bit differently than you had intended. My apologies.

When you say 'picnic table' are you referring to the storage shelf?

And to address your dimming situation: have you attempted the hyperground configuration yet? I had the same problems that you listed and was told basically the same things: higher output alternator or an Optima battery, or a capacitor. I'm of the type of audio enthusiast that doesn't like adding extra loads to a system so I didn't like the idea of adding a cap. Then I ran into the hypergrounding topic, ran a couple wires from my battery and viola! problems solved.

[bobdole369]

I have had suggestions to bridge multiple capacitors to rebuilding my alternator. So far I haven't tried these suggestions yet as as I wanted to try a simpler (and less risky) solution such as testing a higher quality sound system (ie Bose) on a trial basis.

I fixed my headlights dimming issue by just running a 4AWG from neg terminal of the stock battery to the chassis ground. Using a cheap walmart battery and stock alternator and running 650W total, (300W on a sub).

PT cruisers are known for poor grounds, Willing to bet that would fix it.

FYI: Bose does not = higher quality anything, just less money in your pocket for basically OEM quality components.