well now, i have a 2000 acura integra and i would like to have some nice bass in my car but i happen to know basically nothing about car audio i would appreciate some help.
i pretty much decided that i would like 1 15" sub and was wondering what brand to chose for sub and amp and wondering the cost of the setup. your opinons would be greatly appreciated. :D

 

Are you keeping your stock HU and speakers? What is the goal for bass? Bone crushing or add meat to your music? If you are keeping hte stock set up, and just want to add meat to your system, then I would get a amp that you can bridge into one to power one sub. I would also advise NOT getting a sinlge 15", but instead something smaller. Because a bigger sub will also require more amp, therefore drives up the overall cost. You want to add bass, but you also want it to be balance without the sub to be overpowering the rest of your speakers. Feeding a smaller sub right will do wonders (with the right box), compare to a large sub that may be under fed.

Therefore I recommend 200W amp and a single 8" or 10" sub & box. Total cost $250. I'm not big on brand difference, so get what will fit your budget.

 

selling a 12" rockford fosgate hx2 dvc sub....takes 1000 watts. pounds like a ****. email me.

 

instead of one 15, i would get two 10's or 12's. The overall sound should be better, since they don't have so much speaker to move. For overall sound quality, I would go with rockford fosgate stuff, or if you have a LARGE budget, go for infinity. Good luck putting together your system.

 

Any decent car installation place will give you the advice you need.

If you're new to car audio - spend some time to learn about it first - read Car Stereo Review and Car Audio for a few months.

Don't buy a dual voice coil (DVC) sub for a beginner system - that's totally overkill.

Sound depends a lot on how the sub is setup - i.e. infinite baffle vs sealed box vs vented box. A 15" will move more air but is less efficient (i.e. needs more power) than smaller, lighter subs.

In a small car a 8, 10 or 12 is more than enough.

What kind of music do you listen to BTW?

 

What kinda music? Infinity has the best low bass, ie. hip hop, techno. JL has the best punch, ie. rock, classical, etc. Dont be cheap on the amp, you can have a ghetto sub w/ a nice clean amp sound better than the pimpest sub w/ a radio shack amp. For amps stick w/ Orion, Soundstream, or PPI. Dont run less than 200W (from a quality amp) if you want to be heard. By far the best deals and service I have found on the web is from http://www.thezeb.com they have super nice and knowladgable people actually awnsering the phone if you call, and I havent seen anyone come close to thier prices. Check out thier subzone enclourses, much nicer than Logic, and great prices.

 

If you're generally satisfied with the stock stereo except for bass, then I'd suggest a Boston Competitor C110. It's about $399 and is a sealed enclosure with a 10" woofer and a rearward firing passive radiator. The passive radiator is used to increase the surface area and the amount of air it can move. If you move more air, you get more bass. This little box POUNDS!!! The enclosure is really sturdy, is covered in black carpet and matches the trunk pretty well, if you have a black trunk. It also comes with steel brackets to bolt it to the car. Add this to a small amp, like the 2 channel MRVM100M for $199 and you're all set. This amp would be running in 2 ohms when wired to this sub and would be putting out between 150 to 200 watts RMS. The amp is pretty small so you can easily stash it under your passengers seat. It has line level inputs, so you can easily tap off the right rear speaker leads to get the signal from the sub amp. I figure $150 if you have it done right, including cutting a new piece of wood to replace that flismy cardboard thing under the carpet and over the spare tire. You want the sub to be mounted on a secure surface.


Why did you want a 15"? Larger subs have more cone area so they can displace more air, but you can also displace more air if the woofer has more Xmax or excursion, which is how far in and out the speaker move. Basically, it's the same idea as VTEC. You would think that an engine with a larger displacement has more power, but you can get more power by having the engine rev higher too. The same goes with subwoofers. The bigger the sub, the heavier the cone and the sloppier the bass response is.