Worth the Upgrade Costs?

[Daniel644]

OK, my system is currently a pair of Planet Audio BB212D 12" (bought new for like $240 US for the PAIR) powered by a Hifonics Brutus BRX2000.1D in a box I built large enough to ultimately house 2 15's and tuned based on the idea of one day upgrading to a pair of DC Audio Level 4 15's, my question is, is it worth the cost? will swapping out to the 15's make sense given I have ZERO plans to upgrade the amp (as I have a matching 4 channel amp for my mids and highs), will I gain or lose SPL? how will the sound quality compare? this is a daily driver and I have not competed professionally in over a decade (which was on a completely different setup back then), I'd just like to get some more flex if possible.

[notorious97200]

If your box is big and good enough for 2 Lvl 4 15 it should be a serious upgrade : more cone area, and better subs.

 

[06RTCharger]

What about building a box specific for ur 12s? If ur current box is built for those 15s and tuned for those 15s, i would think the 12s are not being utilized to its full potential. 

Buy the 15s and Swap out the 12s. Build another box for the 12s and keep using the 12s in its new box till u can get a amp to match the 15s. 

Maybe just buy the 15s and sell the 12s with the brx amp. Put that money toward something stronger. U can check the forsale section here for used amps, theres a feedback section too that u can check out, shows what people said about the seller. 

[06RTCharger]

Taramps HD5000 are on ebay/amazon for lil under $600. Not sure what other decent budget 5k amps are out there that dont have too much of a bad rep yet. 

[Daniel644]

12 hours ago, 06RTCharger said:

What about building a box specific for ur 12s? If ur current box is built for those 15s and tuned for those 15s, i would think the 12s are not being utilized to its full potential. 

Buy the 15s and Swap out the 12s. Build another box for the 12s and keep using the 12s in its new box till u can get a amp to match the 15s. 

Maybe just buy the 15s and sell the 12s with the brx amp. Put that money toward something stronger. U can check the forsale section here for used amps, theres a feedback section too that u can check out, shows what people said about the seller. 

I don't WANT to upgrade the amp (I don't need a competition grade amp, this is a daily driver, I just want bigger better subs that can handle the power of my current setup) and even if I did I don't have the budget for a full system rebuild anyway, the amp matches the 4-channel amp that is running my mids and highs and was enough of a pain in the butt to find since it had been discontinued between when I got the 4 channel and when I bought it, so upgrading the sub amp means upgrading that amp too, then I don't really have anywhere that can fit physically larger amps anyway so the point is moot, the box is still fine for the 12's just a slightly different tuning due to different displacement of the 12's vs the 15's, this is a simple A/B comparison question given that the BB212D's have a higher rated efficiency (don't know how accurate that is), would that be offset by the larger surface area 15, would the increased capacity for air movement from the larger surface area give more vehicle flex?

 

edit, I also have a box for my other car that the 2 12's can go in and my old amp in that car, but that box is custom built to fit in place of the backseat of that car and so it wouldn't be usable in the trailblazer.

[zoeboi954]

The DC level 4 would give you better results in bass but don't expect much since you are going to be using the same power.

(since company bashing and versus aren't allow here i am going to have to say this in the best way i can )

the planet audio is a budget friendly company and DC audio is more a competition company. with that said SOME budget companies ratings might not be as accurate as others. the BB212D takes 1200 (Dual 4ohms) per sub where as the DC lvl 4  takes 1400 (d1 or d2 ohms) per sub. Your Hifonics BRX2000.1D does 700w @ 4 Ohms, 1400w @ 2 Ohms,  2000w @ 1 Ohm (also take in consideration that the amp might not reach its rating). Since i cant seems to find the BB212D in any other ohms option i'm guessing yours is 4 ohm probably wired down to 2 ohms. which mean your subs together is getting around 700w each now. if you where to buy 2 dc lvl 4 @ 2 ohms each you can wire it down to 1 ohm, which means those sub will see about 1000 what each from your amp. so you will be pulling more from your amp just cause of lower ohm rating (Not calculating box rise). but its been said the most competitive companies subwoofers can hand more its power raiting. so baiscally 1 dc lvl 4 can take on a BRX2000.1D by itself. so really your going to see half the potential of thoses subs if you keep everything the else the same.

[ShadeTreeMechanic]

I am sure it will be louder on the same amp because cone area is king. As long as the box is big enough for 15s I say go for it. What is your charging system like? If you haven't already run 1/0 front to back that would help along with the big 3 and a battery in the back.

[Daniel644]

59 minutes ago, zoeboi954 said:

The DC level 4 would give you better results in bass but don't expect much since you are going to be using the same power.

(since company bashing and versus aren't allow here i am going to have to say this in the best way i can )

the planet audio is a budget friendly company and DC audio is more a competition company. with that said SOME budget companies ratings might not be as accurate as others. the BB212D takes 1200 (Dual 4ohms) per sub where as the DC lvl 4  takes 1400 (d1 or d2 ohms) per sub. both recommends 1.5³ ft per sub. Your Hifonics BRX2000.1D does 700w @ 4 Ohms, 1400w @ 2 Ohms,  2000w @ 1 Ohm (also take in consideration that the amp might not reach its rating). Since i cant seems to find the BB212D in any other ohms option i'm guessing yours is 4 ohm probably wired down to 2 ohms. which mean your subs together is getting around 700w each now. if you where to buy 2 dc lvl 4 @ 2 ohms each you can wire it down to 1 ohm, which means those sub will see about 1000 what each from your amp. so you will be pulling more from your amp just cause of lower ohm rating (Not calculating box rise). but its been said the most competitive companies subwoofers can hand more its power raiting. so baiscally 1 dc lvl 4 can take on a BRX2000.1D by itself. so really your going to see half the potential of thoses subs if you keep everything the else the same.

I currently have the 2 Dual 4 Ohm BB212D's wired in parallel at the voice coils and again at the amp (separate wire runs to each sub from the connections at the amp) to operate at 1 Ohm load at the amp (not accounting for box rise), if I go to the Level 4's I would get the dual 1 ohms and wire them in a series/parallel combination to reach the same 1 ohm load at the amp (due to that being the lowest stable load the amp is rated for), from what I researched on this amp prior to buying it does come a little shy of the 2000 watts at 1 ohm, but only 1 or 200 watts from what I remember, I am totally aware that Planet Audio is a budget unit (I paid $238 for the PAIR after all) they are just thoroughly impressive for the dollar spent, and I do personally question the Efficiency rating simply because it doesn't state which measurement system was used, like if it was 1 watt at 1 meter or the 2.83 volts one or if it was either of those standards which was why I was kinda leaning toward the does the surface area of the 15 make enough of a difference at the same power draw to make them better question.

 

33 minutes ago, ShadeTreeMechanic said:

I am sure it will be louder on the same amp because cone area is king. As long as the box is big enough for 15s I say go for it. What is your charging system like? If you haven't already run 1/0 front to back that would help along with the big 3 and a battery in the back.

charging system is stock alternator (145 amp) with a 1/0 welding wire big 3 at the stock battery (Autocraft Gold 800CCA) and a 1/0 line running to under the rear seat where it gets split through a fuse distribution block to the 1/0 for the sub amp and the 4? (it's been a while) gauge for the 4 channel amp, no extra batteries, no real place to put them without modifications and more money then i'm willing to invest at this time. if cone area is king and subs of this quality can handle more power then rated for would maybe a Level 3 or similar grade of sub be a smarter buy then opting for the level 4's? Like would it be a more evenly balanced system? Kinda like how in computers it make s no sense to put a top of the line GPU with a cheap CPU or vice versa.

[Triticum Agricolam]

What are the specs on your box?  I'm looking for net volume, port dimensions, & tuning frequency. 

Efficiency measurements on subwoofers are nearly meaningless.  There is no standard way to measure them.  

Based on what you have described I think upgrading to the 15" s will be a worthwhile thing to do, but I'd like to hear what your box specs are. 

[Daniel644]

2 hours ago, Triticum Agricolam said:

What are the specs on your box?  I'm looking for net volume, port dimensions, & tuning frequency. 

Efficiency measurements on subwoofers are nearly meaningless.  There is no standard way to measure them.  

Based on what you have described I think upgrading to the 15" s will be a worthwhile thing to do, but I'd like to hear what your box specs are. 

attached are shots of the original design which never got the center section divider shown in the wireframe model (so it has shared airspace and the later revision to the box (which involved removing the existing port sections and install new longer ones to the length depicted in the drawings) to tweak the tuning frequency where I significantly lengthened the ports, calculations put the raw interior (factoring out board thicknesses) volume (not counting ports or speaker displacement at 6.828342013888889 Cubic Feet port openings are 4 inch wide by 15.5 inches tall for a total between the 2 of 124 square inches of port, should calculate out to like 35Hz if I did my math right. would be like 3.204 CuFt per sub after accounting for sub displacement of the level 4's.