Getting back into hifi with old gear

[bwalt]

So, back in the day I had 2 12" M&M godfathers with a hifonics hercules amp, don't recall the mids & tweaks, but all this was in a little ford ranger. Fast forward about 20+ years, I have a 2011 JKU so I pulled the amps out of storage, hooked them up to a pioneer 8000NEX, a JL 8W3V3 8" sub in the stock enclosure, Infinity speakers up front & in the roll bar and while it's much better than stock, it's far from the 2 12s.

I built a 0.3 CF sealed box for the JL sub (per spec), sounds much better, but still doesn't have the thump I'm looking for.

So, I'm considering a DD 2512c (2 ohm I think) I found on craigslist from another Jeeper or some other options from DD as a shop close buy sells DD equipment. If needed, I also have an old Phoenix gold MS2125 sitting around if I need more power.

Will 375 watts (2 ohm load) from the hercules run a DD 2512c well enough? If not, will that MS2125 be too much at a 1ohm load on that 2ohm 2512c?

Since I have the sub in its own box, I pulled the stock sub enclosure, seems to be room for a 12" sub in a sealed 16x16x7 box.

Appreciate thoughts on what you would do if you were in my shoes... If it matters, I listen to about all types of music.

Thanks all,

Benjy

FYI, the amps are old school (1990/1991 era), not the hifonics you see today which I hope makes a difference

[J-Lane]

If it were me, I would get that DD 2512C (dual 4 ohm coils because your MS 2125 is not rated for 1 ohm) and use the Phoenix gold to push it. However they recommend a minimum 1.75 cu. ft. Ported enclosure for that sub (sealed not recommended). In my personal opinion a ported enclosure, although more complex to build, is going to allow you to tune the box to your personal preference. If you can find room for it, I think you would like a properly tuned ported enclosure way better than sealed. BTW, here's your MS 2125 being run on a Dyno...

[bwalt]

J-Lane;

Thanks for the reply & link to that dyno, that's so cool. Can't believe I picked this thing up for around $100 (was broken, blown internal fuse). After testing things with the hifonics amps, I'll try swapping in the 2125 to see how that goes.

I called up DD in OKC last week, although the 2512c isn't designed for sealed, the guy I spoke with said it'd do fine in a 1CF sealed enclosure. Haven't got my hands on the 2512c yet, but planning on testing in a 1CF sealed box I built this weekend on the hifonics hercules, if it sounds good, I'll make the deal, if not, I'll find another DD sub rated for sealed since these things are spec'd for about half the volume needed for ported. Just for fun, I might make a full sized ported box as they show on their website. These should fit in the back, they'll just take up about all my cargo space.

The wife had a good idea on this, put the larger sub in for daily driving, but for trips, use my 8" JL sub. Just need to figure out a way to anchor the boxes.

Here's the boxes I built this weekend, 8" JL box

And the 12" sub box. Didn't get the cutout for the sub done, got a little rain in Houston this weekend. It's shaped oddly to get to a compartment in the floor and cutouts for the tailgate closer & wiring.

[bwalt]

Well damn, the MS2125 shit the bed tonight, popped the 80A fuse listening to country of all things, Alan Jackson if I remember right. Back on the hifonics for now, which does pretty well unless I hammer it hard for about an hour when it goes into protect.

The guy I bought the sub from wants to part with his DD m1d which used to power my DD 2512 and its mate.

1) Any thoughts on if the m1d runs at 2 ohms? If so, would this be too much for a solo 2512?

DD's website says n/a for 2 & 4 ohms which doesn't make sense for me unless it's a marketing thing. Amp draw is 170A for 1ohm, so either way I think I'll need to upgrade my electrical. Local weld shop has 1/0 real copper weld cable for about $3/ft, picked up enough to do the big 3 soon.

2) This 1/0 cable should be rated for 300A at 600v, so I'd imagine it cover my redneck needs for 12v work, right?

Right now, I'm using KnuKonceptz 4 GA CCA cable which looks like aluminum to me and is rated at 80A while the 1/0 cable looks to be about the same size, but is rated for 300A at 600v.

3) What gives? Just crappy aluminum vs highly conductive copper? I remember years ago they tried aluminum wiring in homes and caused too many electrical fires. Hate the thought of using aluminum, but I don't plan on sleeping in my Jeep much.