Live with it,keep tuning,add another sub, get a smaller amp

[WadXpress]

I've had a long battle with my first build.....

The focal components sound great
The zapco sq 4ch amp is awesome.
Th pioneer 7200nex with idatalink maestro works great.

My issue is the sundown SA12. Or the zapco 1350xmii being to powerful. Or the lack of air space in the sealed foxbox. Or all of them at the same time.

It doesnt hit hard at all, I dont know how to describe it. Maybe i expected to much. It's not very satisfying and it doesnt blend with the highs and mids that well i think.

Anyways i have a few options. Keep messing with it. I can put a 500 watt older kicker i have in place of the zapco for now. I could get another sundown sa12 and wire them in series and get a ported box with more airspace.

The guy at the local audio shop said i should go with 4 8s that's what he runs and they are insane. I didnt check out his car though they were busy. He didnt seem impressed with what the sundown could take/how it was performing.


What do you guys think?

 

[WadXpress]

Man. Maybe it's not crazy over powered. Its pushing about 1k at 2ohms. Rms is 750 watts on the sa12. Maybe it's just a airspace issue?? Or tuning issue

Scrap the bass knob all together or tune it with it turned up to 3/4-full ? Any other advice or options I dont see?

 

[appzattak]

It's got to be a tuning issue, I know my SA12s hit like a madman im my fox box although it is ported and not sealed.


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[TomT]

What frequency are you crossing the sub at? Are you missing punch or low extension? Have you played with the phase on the sub?

 

[BWL]

That sub needs 1.15 cu.ft airspace including displacement for a sealed box. If your box is smaller than that the performance will suffer. Needs a minimum of 1.65 for ported. Foxbox makes a few different boxes so I couldn't say for sure if the box is the problem, but I doubt it's the amp having too much power as you can just turn that down.

 

[WadXpress]

Lpf is 80ish
Subsonic is about 30


I'll play with the phase and a few other things. Something must be wrong with the tuning or something. I was thinking it had to sound better then it was..

I dont know what low extension is lol.

I have the passenger side fox box which I dont think is listed anymore. It was either at 1 ft3 or a little over.

 

[appzattak]

What are 5he settings for LPF and bass freq set to?

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[WadXpress]

What are 5he settings for LPF and bass freq set to?

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80 lpf
Bass frequency 35.
I posted a pic of the settings on the amp^ above

 

[appzattak]

is your head unit doing any crossover on the low pass frequency?

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[WadXpress]

is your head unit doing any crossover on the low pass frequency?

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I'll have to look. I dont think so. We are having a garage sale so I'll look this afternoon. I didnt adjust anything at the hu but maybe their is a default setting

 

[TomT]

How did you set the input gain on the sub amp? It’s hard to tell from the picture if it’s fairly low or wide open. One of the reasons I have never been a fan of those type of adjustment screws (unless they are clearly marked).

Maybe open up the gain a bit and see what happens? Also @appzattak may be on to something with the head unit crossover. If you are running both then the slope is compounded.

 

[BWL]

Any change there's an air leak or leaks in the box?

 

[adrianp89]

I am going with some sort of setting or install error. 1kw in a truck is loud. Even if it wasn't loud enough for you, you would know the difference between that and something wrong.

I would make sure all settings are correct on HU and amp (filters, gains, phase, etc), polarity is correct to woofer. Maybe try a second set of RCAs directly from amp. After that if it doesn't work... try just swapping out the amp and see if a difference is made. If not, see if you can find a woofer to swap out quickly.

 

[WadXpress]

Thanks for all the tips. I'll probably dive into it tomorrow. This 2 days of a garage sale wiped me out...but we made out pretty good$$

I would have more ram upgrade money if my amps or rims had sold though

 

[WadXpress]

About to jump into this. Couple questions. Should get rid of the bass knob or set the amp with it at 3/4. Should I turn off all the crossovers on the hu and 0 everything out on the eq setting?

 

[WadXpress]

I wish I lived near one of you or I was home in vegas where I have friends that know about this stuff. October cant come soon enough.

 

[appzattak]

I'd 0 out everything on your head unit, and it doesn't hurt to use the bass knob

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[WadXpress]

I tried a little and got frustrated. I'll mess with it more tomorrow. I dont if the sub is damaged or something. If I turn the gain up past 1/4 the sub makes a bad noise lol. If I was In vegas I could call a buddy to bring a sub over but I dont know anyone in vegas.

I'll try everything and if nothing changes I'll have to buy a new sub I guess.

 

[TomT]

Any chance you could stop by a shop and just plug in a prefab sub setup like a JL Microsub to test? You could also hypothetically buy one from Best Buy or anther large store and then return it.

 

[WadXpress]

Maybe I'll take a video tomorrow if I can figure out how to upload it