need some bass

[sam 74]

i currently have a 8" bass tube that has a built in amp, i thought saving the space would be nice if it worked, i was wrong. i'm looking for something that'll fit into the bazooka bass tube enclosure and a nice little amp to go with it, not looking to spend a lot of cash on this, any suggestions?

[mitch_04]

I've never heard a bass tube that impressed me. Subwoofers need a certain air volume in their enclosure, except for free-air subs which I've never been impressed with, regardless of the shape of the enclosure. I've also never found a tube to fit well in a car...anywhere! Most cars are more square than round.

What I'm getting at is that I would recommend building a box to fit your car, with the correct air volume for the subwoofer you decide to purchase. I've always found Kicker and Pioneer products to be great for the money if you are tryin' to stay on budget. You should give us an idea what you want to spend, but remember that quality costs money. Sealed boxes will be the smallest, and smaller subs almost always take smaller boxes.

I'd sell your current tube and put that money towards a new subwoofer and amplifier. It'd also be nice to know the RMS power rating of the amplifier you currently have (the tube) so we can better help you. What is it that disappointed you about your current set up? Too little bass would more than likely be the amplifier than the sub, clarity would be the subwoofer. Of course there is tons more too it but let us know all you can so we can help you. What kind of music you listen to, do you like tons of bass or just like some fill, etc etc...

[sam 74]

the main problem is you can't hear it, i think its 50 watts so it isn't all that special. i have a bass tube in my truck with an amp thats 300 watts and it sounds good, i never used a tube with an inter amp so i thought i'd give it a shot and am unhappy with the results, i was hoping to avoid having to purchase a new sub, woofer, and enclosure, i used to have a JL 12 w4 and it was in a bandpass box that really shook the heck out of the car, i'm not looking for anything like that i just want it to sound good and i've been out of the audio loop for some time now.

[nekkidhillbilly]

you just need a good 200-300 rms watt amp and decent sub like a 10 inch in a nice sealed box. a 8 inch is never going to make enough bass really even with 200 watts. the tub you have would have been ok in a truck but still not great. i run infinity speakers in all my cars.

[MonzaRacer]

you just need a good 200-300 rms watt amp and decent sub like a 10 inch in a nice sealed box. a 8 inch is never going to make enough bass really even with 200 watts. the tub you have would have been ok in a truck but still not great. i run infinity speakers in all my cars.

First of all while partially correct its mostly wrong.
When buying an amp you need to MATCH the RMS output to sub rated wattage RMS at very least.
I see all the guys pushing 500-600 watt RMS amps then see them over excursion the speakers or burn voice coils.


That said, Sam, Just what are you looking for, trim rattling bass or just the ability to FEEL the bass and fill in the low areas?
Any name brand 10 in sub will provide in the 50 to 150 hz in bass, also keep in mind this is NOT heard, its felt.
Bass isnt heard directly, its registered by your ears from parts of the car vibrating.
In my Monte Carlos I had my Marantz mono block amp, specs were from 1 ohm UP, but I ran everything at 4 ohms, never had heat issues and plenty of bottom end.
At 4 ohms the amp pushed clean 90W, I used Blaupunkt Pro Components 10 in 100W @ 4ohms and ran 6.4 mH inductor coils, (this first order cross over, very basic and really not much else was needed. This crossed the subs at approx. 100hz, filtering the higher freq. from those two lines. I used y cables on my RCAs and never had an issue, pushed it from my old KDC4003 Kenwood and other head units, my truck has same amp set up only with 2 blocks instead of 4 and a Dual head unit.
My Montes had Optimus 6x9 100w@ 4 ohm with dual caps filtering the bass so as to not hit 6x9s too hard, and still use those same caps and coils.
My Monte hit 139 RTA out of 140 so it worked ok and could thump well enough but not kill you or your ears if I remember corectly it would push either 112 or 121db clean and a dirty(distorted ) 131db.
I could switch from country to metal to rap to pop and all it took was different bass/treble settings. Nothing more was needed to adjust.
Well designed systems are small ,compact, efficient and dont require 1000w @0.68 ohms and $10k in drivers.
Even if you want a little more thump then you can switch too 2 ohm drivers as long as your amps and wiring are set up right.
I try to keep my drivers(speakers) at no more than 90% driven, IE amp as 90wRMS and driver(speaker at 100wRMS) and this is with inductor coils or caps.
So many people keep trying to over thonk and apply their friend Bubbas wired together mess of a set up or "professional" setups.
Had local guy spend $20k on his car, sounded like ass.
So I helped him REWIRE it. They even had 4!!!!! 220 amp alternatorson the darn thing.
Had so much noise and feed back it was pitiful, good parts, lousy execution.
So we pulled out the 4, 1 ohm 18s, sold them, switched up to 4, 4ohm 10s, wired them up to come in at 2 ohms, added couple pair of 7.0 mH inductor coils each, and he had 1, 15" driven at 2 ohms if he really needed it, it came out easy as it was in actual box the 10s fired free air.
In rear arm rests (car was 4 door but still had plenty of real estate) we had pair of 8 in MB Quarts in there, in the rear doors we ran 6 1/4 or 6 1/2 and pair of tweeters, front doors ran same set up, front kicks got pair of 5 in mids, in dash we pit some smaller 4 in high end drivers and some very small tweeters all in where stock speakers fit.
Car would push clean 153db and you never had to push it past 4 or 5 out of 15 max on volume. Most of the amps were Kicker, one big Lanzar Optidrive, one small Kenwood and I forget what head unit.
God its been years since I have done any real building, I do know its near impossible to get a clean sounding 6x9 3 or 4 way with a rating at or near 100W.
Properly matched and properly crossed setups will sound better last longer and do everything you want.
Ill try to dig up my old reference book for title, It actually came from Radio Shack, very smart.

[sam 74]

thats a lot of good info, thanks, i'm not looking for anything crazy, i just want to fill in the low end, i have the mids and highs and i thought the bass tube would fill the lows but i guess i'll be looking into a new 10 inch sub and a matching amp.

[mitch_04]

I completely disagree with the statement that you don't hear bass and that it's the car rattling. You hear bass the same way you hear any other frequency, it's a sound wave. When a car panel vibrates it actual detracts from any bass because it's absorbing the sound wave, which is why people use products like Dynamat.

Listen to other people systems that have the amount of bass you like to hear, then ask them the power rating of their amplifiers as well as the size of their drivers. This isn't going to guarantee the same output for your system, but it is as close as you can get without copying their system. The enclosure, the type of car it's in (how it reflects sound waves), all these things matter. The type of CD player affects the amount of bass, everything.

[scott_fx]

I completely disagree with the statement that you don't hear bass and that it's the car rattling. You hear bass the same way you hear any other frequency, it's a sound wave. When a car panel vibrates it actual detracts from any bass because it's absorbing the sound wave, which is why people use products like Dynamat.

i agree with you on this point,

i tend to always suggest going with a 12 as long as space permits. (you can get 12's that will fit in a 1cu/ft box). Also, power is your friend. you aren't going to blow a sub with more power then it's rated at (especially if you're using a sealed box which helps control the sub). the key is to set your gains correctly. Please do your research if you have any doubts about this. I'm sure you'll find out that this is correct.

you wont see benefits in a 10 over a 12 when it comes to sq now adays (everything else being equal) that is an old rule of thumb that may have only applied to older speakers.


just to back up my claims about power, from a quick search i found this faq from crutchfield (very reputable e-seller):
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-R8cmgCDbFBz/learn/learningcenter/car/speakers_faq.html#3