mjmarovi

from installs I have seen that amp isn't everything its cracked up to be, as in it doesn't push all its power at all ohm loads and voltages like it says, and I know for a fact that bitch draws some some power, so not real sure it's the most efficient amp out there, expensive, of course, quality power, of course, but I think you could def. sell that amp and get one larger amp that will do more for you.

nothing wrong with that amp, will push within 10% of its rated power, biggest thing is just not to get too gain happy and make it deliver a clipped signal. But plenty of clean power can come out of that amp to "push" a Q.

I hope this woofer comes out in the near future, would love to put four in my summer project

yeh sundown audio is also on the SSA forums just go to manufacturer forums and go to sundown audio. Sundownz is Jacob Fuller, the owner of sundown audio, obviously a good resource. Jacob knows his stuff and is great to work with.

one BTL 18 would be quite loud, it really just depends on what loud is to you. I mean to most people that would be beyond street beating, but IMO it would probably be just right for bangin around in the neighborhood.

or you could run the 3000d, sundown amps are def. underrated, and if you commit to a 16v system, that much more power, although IMO unnecessary since it sounds like you are just goin for a daily street beater, not an all-pro SPL build. 10-12cubes, I think that's a bit small for two 18's, especially after w/e port and displacement. with two 18's they're taken away .5 cuft right there. then the port for a box like that, at least another 2.5 cubes. just over 10 cubes is perfect for two 15's. IMO Although I do agree with Leister, if you are going with 18's just to look at an 18" woofer, than do one BTL 18. Put that thing in a 10 cube box tuned ~32hz on a sundown 3000d, My GOD that thing would be beatin!!!

def. need reinforcment, had one 15" Q bust a box twice on me, I didn't do a double baffle, seriously regretted it, even had everything glued, screwed, and had 1/5" wide mdf in the corners. Basically if you double baffle, the the baffle will vibrate that much less, so less stress on box and more output.

Not going to say a fosgate amp would bump harder than a Hifonics 4kw amp, considering any amp Hifonics/maxxsonics makes that is creating a ton of power would most likely be in their competition lines which are some fantastic amplifiers, not to be confused with their lower end lower priced products that are not held at the same standards even at the factory. I will tell you that I have worked plenty with fosgate amplifiers from all series, and the Power series, when installed correctly, are absolutely awesome and absolutely clean power. The biggest thing that makes an amp "clean" from "dirty", besides install of course, are basically two numbers. 1) signal to noise ratio: this is basically the amps ability to create sound over "noise", therefore the higher the number the better, (90 db signal to noise is always the goal, anything over is inaudible) 2) THD rating. anything under 1% on an amplifier you can get away with. It is basically inaudible and every speaker on the marker, at rated power, will have higher than 1% distortion rating themselves. Having said that, another thing to remember is that distortion heats up voice coils and kills speakers over time (enough of it will kill it in a short amount of time). Therefore, although anything under 1% is good, anything lower is that much better for the speakers. Speaker distortion is also amplified, obviously, when the higher the distortion of the amplifier is. This is why if you ever hop over to the SQ lanes of a competition you will see some pretty pricey amps that don't really push anymore power, sometimes less, than amplifiers pushing the same amount of power that are seen on the shelves of most audio outles, ex. alpine, kicker, hifonics, audiobahn, mmats, rockford punch series, mtx, soundstream, JBL, infinity, any others alike although great for average consumer, are nowhere near "audiophile" quality. Thats why amplifiers such as sundown audio, which are not overally expensive, are recommended so often, because they exceed the industries "standard" that is set by mainstream amplifier companies.

600 a piece is SO WEAK FOR THESE SUBS although that would sound great sealed, your output wouldn't be much at all. 1500 is just fine for a Q with BP power as long as it's clean power. I will be running at least 1500 to each of mine. Hard to say which would be louder, although it's obvious running the two 15's would be more cone area, more power in a much more sensitive box it's really hard to tell. I think for the single ported woofer you could probably build a box that would be louder, but only for a small range of frequencies, ex. spl burps. building the ports so that they don't take up box volume is a great idea, just wasn't really an option for me in my build. anything you can do to gain Vb is going to help. 1500 rms is really the most recommended from what I have seen to run these woofers on a daily basis. IMO the only problem you may have, is that because of the smaller box size you will lose some spl on the low-end but be just fine on the higher freqs. (low being below 36hz and high being above 40hz) To me above 40hz is a higher freq. for woofers. It sounds to me with amount of space you have and amount of power, you would have been better off with two 12's or one 18. That's just my opinion.

sounds like you are doing everything you should be to run that amp properly. I'm sure you are, but make sure to read up through the sundown forums on that amplifier, sundown amps are great, but to make sure you get everything out of it and to be sure it is installed 100% properly I would say learn everything about it that you can.

Q, I had one 15" Q with BP power before, and absolutely loved it, the lows were incredible (was tuned to 28hz). Got two brand new Q 15's on the way, can't wait!

Nice system, but have to admit I would expect more than a 142.3, even on music....

IMO, I say get the four woofers, and run the two amps you have for now, the BTL's, as said above are the most sensitive so would still get the loudest off such little power, after that, you can take your time saving for whatever amps you want, and also remember, if you are going to run 3kw to each woofer, or ever 2kw for that matter, you got a lot of electrical upgrades to do. Although many people expect a lot of 4 15's, I think after you tell them you have 2kw total power, as long as install is done right, most people should be impressed.

power handling depends a lot on user and install, but basically you are looking at 1500 rms sub with the BP power option.

1 18" BTL is not going to handle the power that two 15" BTL's can handle. for that amp, all that power, you need two BTL's, doesn't matter what size you go with, its their motor, and physical abilities that you need. the size of the woofers has more to do with how much space you have for a box.

I just ordered two 15 Q's with bp power as well, My box is ending up at 7.2 cubes after port, mounting woofers invertedly so that I don't lose out on displacement, tuning is 32.5hz. I will have ~13 sq. in. of port per cube of Vb. Pushing them with a crunch gp3000d-pro, backed by a kinetik hc2000, and hc 1400. Really, if you are looking at between 5-6 cubes, you are probably almost better off with 12's, when I was talking with Scott about tuning for my box, my first design was smaller, and on the low-end below 35hz, the numbers showed 12's playing louder in the same box. The 15's would still be louder higher than 35hz, so I went back to the drawing board and added a bit of Vb to come up with the 7.2 after everything. 32,33 hz no difference really. About running at 4 ohms, it really doesn't matter, clean power is clean power, trying to run at 4 ohms is most likely just going to end up costing you more for the amps. yes, amps are going to be more efficient at 4 ohms, but no matter what you need the electrical to back what sounds like for you a total of 2400rms. I have had a 15" Q with bp power before, had it at 4.8cuft tuned to 28hz on a fosgate 1001bd, it sounded awesome and absolutely crushed the lowest of the lows. I then built a sealed box later on to see how it would sound, still hit every low note, just sounded a lot cleaner, and not as loud. with the amount of space it sounds like you have, you may just like a sealed setup. I don't think those 15's are gonna hit the lows like it sounds like you want with a smaller ported box. this is just my experience and what I have gathered from reading and learning from others that also have experience with Fi woofers.

well the 8 15's would have ~1412 sq. in. of cone area and the 4 18's would have ~1017 sq. in. of cone area. in almost every case here, the 15's are going to win. For spl, the 18's do have a higher spl and bl, and may be able to burp a little louder. (this is my thinking) the BL's or Q's especially, are def. more a daily musical woofer, not saying they would play music necessarily louder, but def. with more quality. I mean exactly what is this setup going to be for? And how are you planning on installing them? xmax and bl can help determine what you are looking for is basically what i'm getting at, really bl and spl over xmax, they all can help determine.

not saying it was something you did, but that amp on that woofer, i'm sure you were stressing it out, even if the gains are lowered, if the signal is still strong and you turn up the volume on your deck enough, it will clip.

I would be careful about using the word retards simply because someone didn't have the money to dish out on another name. Yes, they don't have much to offer for a good 1kw sub compared to some other companies, but their big power XXV Hifonics series and the Crunch 3000D-pro are great amps that a lot of competitors, with trophies, run. Besides why go out of your way to bash a USA company? All maxxsonics amplifiers will push within 10% of their rated power from the factory, and the competition series amplifiers rated power is actually tested at 13.8v and is tested to actual rms not the 10% window. I mean, personally, I do think Sundown does make an outstanding product and some of the better amps out there, but so does fosgate, stetsom, audison, they are just a bit pricey.

If you really want the Q's fine, for short playing sessions you will probably get away with the 3400 watts for the both of them, but if you are doing all the electrical upgrades you should be doing, you will be running at ~14 volts, therefore putting more than double the rms on each woofer, not a good idea, I'm all for overpowering speakers, but if you are looking for daily pounding, that's way too much power, if you don't believe us then call Fi, or e-mail them, they will tell you go for the BTL's as well with that much power, of course you could get some beefed up BL's, and as long as you are careful you may be able to get away.

that would be sick, would have to make room for them somwehere.... oh yes, and I love the L1V2 tweets, although I loved the original L1's, the new V2 tweets are def. an improvement. gotta love those little push terminals! and the machined aluminum is superb! (looks amazing on black suede)

only problem I have heard of/seen with PDX amps, is that they blow fuses. That's usually not a good sign, but then again most people push the limits of their equipment without knowing. Small can be nice, but not always an easy find when talking high quality SQ amplifiers. Good choice on the speakers, and really I think PDX would work, although I have not been doing SQ for that long, I have not been able to find anything that puts up the numbers I'm looking for in a smaller amplifier. (numbers such as efficiency, low distortion, and good power.) oh and good design for dissipating heat, and keeping signal areas of the board apart from power areas of the board.

BP power option is good if you are planning on slamming them hard, but reason i said no to it, is because that amp will only put out probably 1600 rms of clean power. that means 800 rms per sub, will be easier to get the woofers moving without the BP power option. if anyone disagrees please state your case. also if you wanted to go sealed (which it doesn't sound like you do) unless restricted on space

i think 210 bucks for a pair of high-end tweets like those is a good price. not going to say that is not expensive for tweets, but to find anything close to hybrid quality you would definitely be spending more.

heard both, used both, the BL simply hits with a little more authority than the Q, and sounds like probably what ur looking for, so yes complete agreement with above posters. why stop at 15? the 18 will just be that much more output, really depends on where/how much space you are installing them in.