Here's the deal. I live in a small eastern Montana town where the most exotic subs you see are the one or two people with a few Eclipses. Everyone here is running either Pioneer or Kicker (with almost no exception). I will give you a small rundown of what I have used most recently (and currently), along with what I am trying to achieve.
My favorite setup I have ran recently was a pair of 12" Cerwin Vega "Vega Series" in a large prefab ported box powered by a Rockford 250a2. It hit hard and I got it for pennies.
The current setup I am running is just a simple pair of the very low end Pioneers powered by an older Mobile Authority 400w in a large sealed box, in my 96 Talon I managed a 135.8 at a local comp (good enough for 3rd in my class).
Unfortunately my Talon has become a project car, thus I am picking up a 95 4-door Blazer as my daily driver. I want to put together a budget system for it (money is tight as the moment as I have a 3 month old baby girl now, and am starting my own computer repair business). I listen to everything from jazz and metal, to trance and rap. It all just depends on what I'm in the mood for.
My goals are a decent sounding system (on a budget) that plays low and loud. One of my good friends has an extended cab Ranger with two 12" CVRs in a slot ported box (prefab I believe), powered by a Kicker 600.1. At that same comp where I hit the 135.8 he was right around 147-150 (not sure what meter was in use). I would like to have the ability to be about that loud but when the mood takes me I want to be able to play much lower. For example, in his truck if I pop in Late Night Tip his subs completely unload and you get almost no sound at all on the low notes (just rushing air/port noise).
I am hoping to be able to achieve this with an 18" SSD with the dual 2 ohm coils and the copper coil option (for a bit higher power handling). Powering that would be a HiFonics BXi1608D ($215 at ikesound). I figure it should be fine since the HiFonics amps supposedly overrate their amps a bit. I would be putting the SSD into a custom designed enclosure that I plan to build myself, I have the space in the Blazer for it so size is not an issue (no wall though).
Even with this lower priced equipment I would buy the amp first and temporarily build a new enclosure for the Pioneers and run them with it at 4 ohms putting out ~400 rms to them to be safe. Then in the next few months I would pick up the 18" SSD and build the enclosure for it, run it at 1 ohm. From what I've seen from the one bench tested BXI1608 I should end up with right around 1200 rms at 14.4v. I will also be doing the "big 3" to the Blazer and would eventually add a second battery if needed. Also, later down the road (when I can afford it) I plan to replace the stock speakers and run them active. Shortly after that I could pick up a second SSD and 1608D, bigger alternator, etc..
With this setup would I be able to accomplish the goals stated above? Or would their be a better way to go about it. Unfortunately saving up for a btl and a $400+ amp is out of the question here. I apologize for the long post but I figure I can get some good advice here, and am looking forward to the input from the very knowledgeable people here. I also posted this over on the Fi forums.
Thanks again :hairtrick: ,
Lunari
That's what I was thinking, I guess I'll just be holding onto the RF until I order my Fi. Although, I could always get my old Vega back for a bit and have some fun with it for a bit Lunari :hairtrick: Edit: I might just have to try it anyways, running at 4 ohms final load they would be getting ~700 rms total which is rather high for those subs considering the pair is 300rms/1000w max. Although, (correct me if I'm wrong here), with properly set gains and keeping the bass knob down on my deck they should be okay for a few weeks?