Near Future Set-up. Which route to go?

[hispls]

I probably only have about 5 net max. 7 gross. I know the WGTI is more of a SQ sub, but the funny thing is that I found a competition design for it from JBL. The tuning for that design is 55-70 hz and I don't plan on competing, I would like this to be the loudest it can musically. I'm willing to give up some low end response to make it more peaky. I was thinking around a 35 hz tuning. Why do you say not get anything below the HDC line?

These are all going to be sub and port forward, trunk wall.

HDC line is pretty solid and a great performer for the price. I've seen quite a few stories (and some in person) of them breaking at right about or under rated power. Most of those "budget" Chinese 3" coil subs are just all around poor, you'd do better to go for a higher quality 2.5" coil like Sundown SA series.

Anyway 5 cube net should be great for single 15 or pair of 12's. I very much like a single 15, all things being equal I find a single 15 at just about any price point will outperform a pair of half that price tier 12s. Build your port BIG and you can always shrink it to tune lower but tuning higher and adding more port area after the fact can be messy or impossible.

On 1500W the JBL should hang pretty well as will HDC 15" or other comparable subs. If you plan to run 2 amps down the road you might consider looking into a 3" 8 layer coil or 4" coil sub.

[hispls]

5 ft^3 should be good for 2 12s bit no way to really tell until you model it. Some subs prefer larger enclosures while others prefer smaller. As for 5 ft^3 for a 15 that seems a bit big but I could be wrong.

HDC is basically old style DD 95XX clone. Those do very well in 5 cube with big port, particularly if you only have 1500W on tap in the near future.

[vnisme]

Damn... I was hoping the HDS line would be a good budget sub... for the price it seemed killer. So would yall do the EMF Banhammer 15 or FI SP4 15, over the 2 HDS312?

[hispls]

Damn... I was hoping the HDS line would be a good budget sub... for the price it seemed killer. So would yall do the EMF Banhammer 15 or FI SP4 15, over the 2 HDS312?

That's the point, is that if the good 3" coil subs are so much more money how many corners are cut in the Chinese sweatshop to save that much cost? I'd say if you were doing 600-800W each doing a big cone area build they may be a good bet, but still at that point I'd go with a 2.5" coil sub like SA or FU or similar.

Personally I'd go with Fi over the EMF since they actually manufacture in the USA and I support that whenever possible, but the EMF for 400$ looks like a pretty good deal compared to similar offerings of other Chinese off-the-shelf 4" coils. One thing worth considering is Fi has been known for long build times and I've seen reports that SP4 really wants a lot of power to get going, so that tier sub on only 1500W may be a bit lackluster until you get your second amp on it.