Impious

How much power are you using on your sub, and what impedance is the sub? You want an L-pad, but you aren't likely going to find anything cheap for a low impedance or that will handle high power.

Grab a DMM and 100hz test tone. Unplug the subwoofer, set the DMM to Vac and put it on the speaker outputs of the amplifier. With the test tone playing, turn the lowpass crossover knob from minimum to maximum (or vice-versa) and see if the voltage output from the amplifier changes. If not, then it's fairly conclusive that the amplifier is indeed defective.

1w, 2w, 1n, 2n are the parametric Q-factor adjustments. They stand for 1 wide, 2 wide, 1 narrow, 2 narrow. In simple terms, when you adjust a band on an equalizer up or down, that adjustment is not affecting only a single frequency. The "frequency" of the EQ band is center frequency of the adjustment. So if you increase an EQ band centered at 500hz by 2db, then 500hz will increase by 2db...but the frequencies both above and below 500hz will also increase in level. The Q-factor adjusts how wide or narrow the range of frequencies above and below 500hz that are also affected by the level adjustment will be. "Normal" parametric EQ's have Q-factors stated in numbers which equate to certain bandwidths....but Pioneer simplified this process for average users by limiting the Q-factor adjustment to 4 adjustments and labeling them with easier to understand labels. As intuition probably tells you, 2W (wide) affects the widest bandwith of frequencies and 2N (narrow) affects the narrowest bandwidth of frequencies. Just to pull numbers completely out of the air for example purposes, let's take two examples. In both examples you have the center frequency set to 500hz and you increase the EQ level adjustment by 2db: With the Q-factor set to 2W; 500hz will be increased by 2db; 450hz and 550hz will increase by 1.5db; 400hz and 600hz will increase by 1db; 350hz and 650hz will increase by .5db; at 300hz and 700hz the increase is 0db (i.e. the EQ adjustment no longer has any effect). With the Q-factor set to 2N; 500hz will be increased by 2db; 450hz and 550hz will increase by 1db; 400hz and 600hz increase by 0db (i.e. the Eq adjustment no longer has any effect). Also keep in mind that in the above example I just would have picked points off of a "curve". In example 1 all of the frequencies between 500hz to 300hz and 500hz to 700hz would be increased in level by decreasing amounts. Look in the manual on page 26 for a visualization of this "curve". There isn't a right or wrong setting here.....set them to where ever sounds best. Also remember that increasing an EQ band in level requires the amplifier output more power at those frequencies. A +3db increase in level requires the amplifier output twice the power. Boosting an EQ can cause the amplifier to clip, potentially allowing you to overdrive your speakers. An EQ should be used more to reduce peaks in the frequency response rather than boost valleys.

Ever heard the saying "Six of one, half dozen of the other"? Very applicable here. There is no difference between a 1ohm load on each amp individually and strapping them at 2ohm. It's the same thing.

You need to fuse every wire connected to a battery as closely to the battery as possible. For a wire connecting two batteries, you should fuse that wire at each battery.

Are you using external amplifiers? I'm too lazy to look up if that HU has both an antenna REM output and amplifier REM output. But if so, and you are using external amplifiers, you may have the REM for the amplifiers connected to the antenna lead instead of the amplifier lead. Anytime you change to a source other than radio the antenna output will "turn off" it's output, which would turn off your amplifiers. If this is the case, rewire your REM wire to the amplifier output wire rather than antenna output wire.

Yup, in the little description just to the right of the pricing info.

That's not a regulated power supply, that would be regulated outputs. A regulated power supply maintains relatively steady power output with different power input voltages. But he already stated he has an SAE 1000D, so neither of those scenarios are applicable anyways. As to the original question......it's hard to say why you aren't experiencing dimming headlights. There are several different factors that could be at play. It may be the musical content you are listening to isn't very demanding. It could be that your various system settings are conservative. It could be that your stock electrical system is strong enough to handle the load. I'm running atleast 600w worth of comparatively inefficient class A/B amplifiers and I have barely noticeable dimming with headlights on and AC running.....my only electrical "upgrade" is the Kinetik HC1800 under my hood. Stupid question, but you have the coils wired in parallel and not series, correct? Even though the output voltage is the same at 35V, the lower impedance requires the amplifier output more current. The combination of voltage and current is what determines power output. So the amplifier will be outputting more power at 2ohm which requires higher power draw from the electrical system. Also, you didn't go from 24" of cone to 15" of cone. That's not how cone area is determined. Cone area is listed in the T/S parameters as Sd and is typically stated in cm^2. A typical 12" will have ~480cm^2 of Sd and a 15" ~810cm^2. So a pair of 12's only has about 15% more cone area than a single 15" driver.

First, get the sand out of your vagina. Second, all you've accomplished thus far is to demonstrate your ignorance and complete lack of understanding of the usefulness of objective measurements and the problems associated with subjective opinions. I'm sorry you don't understand this, but that's not my fault so there's no sense in getting pissy about it with me. How do you think most speakers on the market are designed? By one guy sitting around tossing together parts until he stumbles upon something that sounds subjectively "good" to himself? No, there is extensive computer simulations and direct objective measurements made before they are brought to market. But all those dumb objective measurements are useless, so why bother, right? The work of a couple guys you may have heard of, named Thiele and Small, form the basic set of parameters used to describe every loudspeaker produced and are used extensively to determine performance related to enclosure type and volume, among other things, without having to go through and build infinite alignments and testing each one individually. But objective measurements are useless, right? How lost we would be if it wasn't for objective measurements. And how lost you are because you don't understand this. And, actually, you are the one who just came here. So I suppose if you don't like it, you can go crawl back under your rock Show me where I stated an opinion of them. Find one sentence where I stated an opinion of their performance, other than saying they'd better perform well given their price tag. Beyond that, all I said is that I'd be far more interested in seeing some objective measurements rather than listening to he-said she-said subjective statements about how great they are as those opinions are of no actual value regardless of who they came from, and that the "proof" presented so far of how great they are isn't really any "proof" at all. Now, don't you feel stupid for getting all worked up and acting like an idiot over something I never said?

Yes, there are differences in surrounds as far as thickness, stiffness and material. I would ask Focal if they can give you any details on the surround.

If you had the question, chances are someone else will aswell.

Is it just the surround that's damaged? If so you wouldn't need a full recone.....just a new surround.

Why did you edit out your question? Half of the usefulness of a thread is the ability for other users utilizing the search function to find the thread, which may also answer their own question or provide them with information. That's sort of difficult if the OP's edited out all of their posts.

Jason Ewing once scored the highest in his class in the sound quality portion of a fairly major competition with stock VW speakers. Does that mean OEM VW speakers are some of the best speakers on the market? Worth $900 a set? The proof is in the pudding, right? "Ears" are inferior to objective measurements. That is indisputable. Your ears are prejudiced and subjective. Your ears are inaccurate measurement devices. Likewise, attempting to make a comparison between speakers when listening to them in different environments is a completely useless endeavor. You aren't listening to or comparing the speakers; you are listening to the entire system including installation, tuning and environment and basing your decision off of your personal opinion of what sounds "good" among other issues. That is not a valid or valuable comparison. Last, the competition format is not a format designed to compare individual components in a car audio system. How one fares in a car audio competition with a particular set of speakers is not necessarily an indication of the superiority of that particular speaker brand or how that speaker brand compares to other speakers on the market.

No program is going to give accurate in-room or in-car simulations because the response is going to depend on the particular environment. If you really wanted, you could try to map out the response of your car or room so that you would have an idea how the simulated response would be affected by your particular environment. For the most part, I use Unibox. It's basically just a formatted Excel spreadsheet, so the user interface leaves some to be desired and the units are metric.....but it's fairly intuitively easy to use still and is supposed to be pretty accurate.

Subjective opinions about performance aren't all that useful. I'd be more interested in seeing some independent objective measurements.

As 95Honda said, XBL has nothing to do with the number of magnets. XBL is "created" by notching the top plate and pole piece to create two independent gaps that the coil travels through. Dual Differential Drive (the technology in the WGti) according to the white paper you posted uses a single magnet with two plates (one above the magnet and one below the magnet) to create two gaps of opposing polarity. The two coils are then also reversed in polarity. It isn't different from a standard driver in that one of the coils "pushes" the driver forward while the other "pulls" it back, the operation here is pretty much the same as a standard driver with the motor responding to the signal (for both "push" and "pulling") and the suspension providing additional restoring force. In DDD since one coils is 180* out of phase and in a field of opposite magnet polarity, the motion through their respective gaps will be the same (forward or rearward) but the coils and B fields will be electrically out of phase with each other which means the motor-related distortion mechanisms will also be out of phase which will reduce the distortion (this also aids in reducing inductance; likewise the opposing polarity of the B fields creates an inherent self-shielding). There is also the ability to electromechanically "brake" the cone's motion. (Though the WGti doesn't use the "braking coil", I believe it's "brake" is one coil entering the B field which is in opposite polarity to it's own)

Even in higher tuned enclosures this was still an issue. In the car audio world it is more practical to tune a bit higher and eq in some low end allowing for a better blending into your front stage. Andrew The inductive corner frequency of the Brahma Mk II, for example, is 262hz (2.8ohm Re, 1.7mH Le). The upper end response was not limited by the driver itself. And given we are dealing with subwoofers the driver would be operating well within it's piston range, so high end response would again not be effected by the driver itself due to issues such as cone size, shape and material like we may have in midbass and midranges. As 95Honda said; It was exaggerated low end not a lack of high end, unless there is some mechanism I'm missing that would have negatively affected the high end response.

Shorting/Faraday rings are completely separate and independent of XBL. XBL is a dual gap technology, created by adding a notch in the top plate and pole piece. Shorting/Faraday rings are copper or aluminum "rings" placed strategically throughout the motor. An XBL motor may have Faraday rings in them, but that's not what makes it an XBL motor. A non-XBL motor may also use Faraday rings (and many of them do).

You're not understanding right When you are self-employed you will have to file a Schedule C with your tax return. The Schedule C is where you will list your gross receipts (i.e. what you received for pay) and all of your work related expenses (tool purchases, mileage and auto expenses, meals, etc). The difference between what you received in pay and your work related expenses will be your net income (or loss). This net income (or loss) from Schedule C is transferred over to the first page of the 1040 (the "normal" individual tax return form) and is used in the calculation of your "adjusted gross income". This is why many self employed borrowers don't really have to pay any taxes.....they deduct everything they can and show little to no "net income" on the Schedule C. You will still have the option to take the standard deduction or itemize your personal expenses (percentage of you medical bills, interest and property taxes for real estate, etc) on a Schedule A.

Why does the description say it's made "of a flexible vinyl barrier and acoustical grade open cell foam" if there's no open cell foam on the product?

I hope they gave you a discount

Yes, you are technically self-employed for tax purposes. Like he said, save all receipts for WORK RELATED expenses. (i.e. Don't keep the receipts for beer/etc, you will have to be able to prove they were actually work related expenses if you ever get audited). Also keep a log of any work related miles you put on your personal vehicle, if you drive it for work. Whether or not you need to save back money for taxes depends on your tax bracket and how much you will be able to claim as expenses. If you are really worried about it, your best bet would be to consult a tax professional. I personally would save back some money for taxes as a CYA. I personally would save back around 20-25%....but if you claim a lot in deductions it's possible you may not have to pay much if any in taxes at the end of the year. I'm not sure how long you plan on keeping this job. But keep in mind some creditors will use your tax returns to verify your income if you attempt to get a loan (for a vehicle/etc), and if you can't prove positive net income on your tax return it may exclude you from being able to get a loan through certain creditors. So it's a gray line you have to walk.....claiming as many deductions as possible on taxes to reduce your tax liability at the expense of being able to prove to people you actually make money.

LOL....wow. Pretty salty. Wish their website had (a lot) more info on it. But those would have to be some pretty spectacular pieces of equipment to support those prices, considering they're priced up there with some of the best performing speakers on the planet.

I don't know the 40% power thing to be true. But, regardless, as with anything there are advantages and disadvantages. XBL is a good technology with some nice advantages. But, there are other ways to obtain good results. Some of the best drivers to hit the market have used well designed standard over or underhung motors, or variations of a standard over or underhung motor. The W7 for example uses basically a standard overhung motor with holes crossdrilled in the pole at the gap. Aura NRT is basically an underhung motor. And companies like Peerless and Scanspeak have done well producing very low distortion drivers with basic overhung motors. But, here is a comparison by Neil of the 3 "main" linear BL topologies; An Unbiased Comparison of Linear BL Technologies - SSA Car Audio Forum