Subs have come along way

[Deeznutz]

Ok, so this is my second post. I have an older Bimmer. 96 328i convertible. I purchased a pair of used Xtant A-Series 10D44 subwoofers from a pawn shop for $35.00. They were in a custom made 2cf slot enclosure. For the money I thought "What the hell sometimes you can find some awesome deals".

I made a 0.68cf box for the trunk and inverted the (1) sub so the magnet would face the inside the convertible cabin, firing through the ski hole, for euthestic reasons. Well looks like the sub(s) are making noise at certain bass frequences. Maybe the subs werre bottomed out by the prior owner, or they are on their way out due to age.

Anyhow, I have been out of the car audio stuff for yrs now. My last subs were the RF HX2's. And reading the manual the Xmax is only 14mm. New subs are surpassing that by a long shot.

I have only used the original (1995 series) MTX TA and (2000 series) Memphis 16ST series amps just because I am partial to them. And now you can find them on Ebay super cheap too!

So my question is, since smaller companies are now popping up trying to gain a share of this "CRAZY RMS Ratings" Subwoofer industry, where do I begin in terms of looking for a nice woofer???? I only need 1 ten to fill in the emptiness of low end my convertible Bimmer lacks. If the Xtant didn't sound shitty, I wouldn't be posting. lol. Except for the sour notes, the Xtant sub it filled in the bass gap nicely!

These are the following ampsI picked up at rock bottom ebay prices. Each $80.00 or less!!!!

Memphis 16ST250D (class D)

Memphis ST500D (class D)

MTX 2160 (class D)

So my RMS wattage range is from 250-500RMS @ 2Ohmsfor the Memphis and 300RMS @4Ohms for the MTX These are conservative 12V ratings. I have a 140amp alternator.

So what sub company should I be looking at? I do not need a 1000RMS 10" sub. At least I do not think I need that kind of sub. I do not want to buy a big bertha amp either. I mean I guess I could but I can't find a HO alternator for the E36 series Bimmers.

I like rap, top 40, and rock.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

-Frank

[Beanz]

Are you going to be making your own box? Is it going to be ported or sealed? What's your budget? Are you going to be using one amp or both for the Subwoofer?

[mbdblue]

If you wanted to keep it in the Memphis family, the PR10 is a great woofer IMO. cheap and does it's job....

[bighossf150]

Tc sounds epic for sure

[alaskanzx5]

You check Mechman DC power and singer ALTs yet? I'm sure one of them cam help you out

[Deeznutz]

As far as a budget, is not necessarily an issue. Paying for a $300 sub is no problem since I had 4 HX2s in the past and I can ebay some stuff to offset the cost. The big thing for me is the size of the motors, and wattage/voltage requirements of these subs. WOW,they are huge and require alot of power. I'd like to keep within the perimeters of the brand amplifiers mentioned. I want to keep everything under 100 amp draw if possible. The sub amp taking up at least 60 amps of it incase I want to add a second amp. I have a Memphis 16ST2004 and 16ST3004 4 channels at my disposal. Also picked them up on ebay for cheap!

The harmon kardon door speakers sound ok for what they are.

I purchased true OFC 4 gauge, monster cable XLN cables, etc for my project. At this point I need the bottom end. I will try to post pics.

-Frank

[Deeznutz]

[ncochran]

Since you don't want/need a high power setup..

There are tons of choices, but my first would be either Sundown's E or SA line. The E series will sound great (I ran 3 8s) and only needs about 200W to get down (but can take more than that). The SA is a little beefier and will sound great with 400W and up. There are other options out there though, but I have really enjoyed my Sundown Subs. The builds for my E8s and SA12s are in my sig below. Both subs performed as good/better than advertised.

[Deeznutz]

Thx. I will look into the Sundown subs. As well as the Memphis PR subs. I have seen them on Ebay. I heard a set of 12 PR subs recently. Those subs like to boom in comparison to the pioneer champion subs that happen to be underneath the PR subs , so nice comparison. I have also seen the RE subs.

Now, I have always been used to 12s. I tested out the other Xtant sub and she appears to be better than the first sub, but still that cones moves so fast, I do not like the response (sound) on certain DJ Magi\c Mike songs. It maybe the size of the sub or the supposed 250RMS rating. You can hear the air moving in the pole vent. Maybe these subs are rated for much less in relation to the cone movement. The pole vent sound is annoying. I may have to invert the sub back into the box to cancel out the pole vent noise.

I am running an old school RFX-8140 CD player, with an 8V/17V output. It's set at 8V output right now, fed through a Monster cable XLN RCA. So I do not think it's artifact noise making the sub sound overpowered "cone movement and crappy reproduction". I think these subs are just 'entry level'. They have the same surround as the MTX 6000 series subs. And those subs sucks, I tried a pair of 12's yrs ago. Turns out Xtant is owned by Mitek Inc, the same owners as MTX. So if they are the same sub, than that would explain the crappiness.

-Frank