Sub question???

[Beandip 3]

First i want to say hello, first time posting here (hope its in the right section) and after hours and hours of searching and learning i figured i would ask you guys.

Well my old system ended up taking a crap on me, the 7 year old crossfire cfa-402 amp i had finally died (still kept the amp) so i upgraded to a Alpine mrp-m1000 amp to give me some room to upgrade, about 4 weeks later my sub died due to my stupidity of not keeping my finger off the volume knob (mtx 5500 15"). but hey i bought it 3 years ago before i knew anything about car audio and it was only $164 and i know i can get alot better from Fi. So now I'm without bass and I'm looking to upgrade to Fi since i have been hearing NOTHING but good things from them .

Right now im torn between the 15" SSD +bp and flatwound coil, or the 15" Q with the bp option. even though my amp only puts out 1000 watts rms @ 2 ohms i want the sub to have a little more power handling than the amp can put out. i have made sealed boxes before but never attempted a ported so im going to keep it sealed for this new setup (also prefer sealed myself). i know the Q prefers 2-2.6 cubic feet and thats exactly in the range of my old box (2.4 cubes before sub displacement) but the SSD is sorta N/A on sealed enclosures so im not sure if that would work or not or whats recommended for those. For the SSD the price is just right but since it doesnt define the encosure size im kinda wanting the Q instead for just a little more $$.

So I'm really leaning towards the Q but just wondering if the amp can power it just fine? i have read on here people are powering the Q with just 600 watts rms so i believe i am good on the amp as long as i dont clip it and the electrical is up to par, but any opinions on that amp? good or bad. I am also deciding if i should just get the Q without the bp option, 1000 watts daily is way more than enough for me but i wouldn't mind having the extra power handling.

Just want some opinions on what should i do, too many decisions . I would get the SSD though only if i knew what enclosure size to use.

Here is a pic of my setup i have now, minus the sub

Thanks for taking your time reading this

-Jonathan

When i get the new sub in i will hide those power wires for an ultra stealth setup.

Edited November 2, 2008 by beandip

[///M5 2,833]

First i want to say hello, first time posting here (hope its in the right section) and after hours and hours of searching and learning i figured i would ask you guys.

So I'm really leaning towards the Q but just wondering if the amp can power it just fine?

Jonathan,

Nice first post. I love the comment on the searching, thank you for doing this the right way.

As for your question regarding the Q, your amp will be fine. Great choice actually. Considering you are going to run sealed I would pick the Q over the SSD. If you desire more output later you can just port the Q as well.

[chad y 1]

First i want to say hello, first time posting here (hope its in the right section) and after hours and hours of searching and learning i figured i would ask you guys.

So I'm really leaning towards the Q but just wondering if the amp can power it just fine?

Jonathan,

Nice first post. I love the comment on the searching, thank you for doing this the right way.

As for your question regarding the Q, your amp will be fine. Great choice actually. Considering you are going to run sealed I would pick the Q over the SSD. If you desire more output later you can just port the Q as well.

I agree with both. It's nice to see people take the time to research. As far as the question at hand the Q is a real good performer.

[dbjunior 0]

as far as the q goes no need to get the bp option. it will take the 1000w all day long. it can actually handle a little more thermally. as far as mechanical handling i dont think you will ever reach it. i was feeding mine 1200w daily in a oversized ported box and had no issues unless i were to go way below port tuning. the sub has great xmax but i can move even further than that before it bottoms. i have seen mine move a ton and never bottomed it out. due to money i had to sell my amp and now run it on the last 2ch of my 4ch amp its only 600w but you would never know that listening to it.

[Beandip 3]

Thanks for the input everyone, the reason why i was thinking of getting the bp option was to make sure i wont kill the sub due to thermal failure, just insurance i guess. my old mtx sub was only rated at 300 watts rms and i had it on that alpine amp wired to 4 ohms (600 RMS). if i turned it up to a certain point i could hear what i thought the voice coil bottoming out on the sub. im not 100% sure but what was weird was the sub excursion reduced by half during the popping noises( this lead to the coil being unraveled ), i thought i was clipping the signal but later i put my friends old kicker cvr 10" in a crappy prefab ported box tuned to who knows what, the popping noises did occur again when i cranked the system up, i did have the LPF on a bit high (100 hz) but when the popping was occurring the sub was no where near its xmax so that lead me to believe it was clipping. during that time i had a analog multimeter (i prefer analog over digital when measuring voltage on a sub due to the fast changes in voltage) and it stayed the same. i guess it could be a feedback issue, i found another member having the same problem as me but it was believed that the LPF was too high and the HPF was too low or something causing a feedback issue, yet again not 100% sure.

right now i have an old VR3 extreme 15" sub that was given to me for free (piece o crap sub lol) and i wired it to 2 ohm, and no popping noises so i believe the amp even though can power up to 4 ohm just doesn't like 4 ohm IF pushed to the limit.

sorry if i confused you guys on that post, kinda typing on the fly here. but during that "test" grounds are good, power is solid, power doesn't dip below 13 volts and i ALWAYS crimp and solder my connections so i know those are solid. It may be just because i was way overpowering the sub causing it to pop? either way its not doing it now while wired to 2 ohms so like i said the amp may not be completely stable at 4 ohms?

but back on topic, i guess i will go with the Q dual 1 ohm then, not sure how much shipping goes for on those subs but im sure that Q will be worth the money. IMO the Q would be overkill for me, im the kind of guy who bumps responsibly where other people don't have to listen to my bass only but me. I dont listen to it max volume all day, just a respectable volume where it wont kill my ears. so with the 15" Q the final box volume would be 2.21 .

Again thanks for the advice! but sorry for the book i wrote .....better to have too much info than not enough.

Edited November 2, 2008 by beandip

[///M5 2,833]

No worries on the book. Glad to help someone like yourself. You WILL enjoy the Q

[lee 2]

I believe you'll be impressed with the sub. You will be fine without BP as well

[Beandip 3]

Thanks everyone, Im really looking forward on how the Q will sound. I guess i will get it without the bp option......ordering now

Also im 90% sure i will need to do the big 3, even with the old mtx sub my voltage dropped some on the low notes so im sure with the Q it may just overpower that weak 105 amp stock alternator so i probably need to get a bigger alt too. if thats the case i will just keep the volume down until i overhaul the stock wiring.

Edited November 3, 2008 by beandip

[B7L|BL4Z3R 4]

i have heard the alpine 650 viper and it is amazing and very clear i'm sure your amp would sound great with the Q

Edited November 3, 2008 by stuartgoodenough

[Beandip 3]

Wooo! i got the sub in today and all i can say is WOW! this sub blows my old mtx sub out of the water and into the trash can. The bass is soo clean and crisp its just amazing! with my old mtx sub you could hear where the bass was coming from. Now with the Fi Q all i hear is bass all around me but you cant quite pinpoint where its coming from. Right now i have the gains set a little below than what the sub is capable of so it ensures me i wont make the same mistake again with this sub and if i were to play a song that is a little louder than others it wouldnt overdrive the sub. even though the gains are set a little lower than what the sub can take, its still much louder than my old mtx so either way im happy After hearing this i dont think i will ever buy anything else but Fi

before the package came in i decided to redo my setup. Ok, here is my old setup on my system (sub died).

Notice the ugly power wires just standing out wanting attention. also the RCA cables just coming from the middle of the box....well today i fixed that.

Now you see i COMPLETELY hidden the wires from view. I finally have that ultra stealth setup i was looking for.

close up pic with the side cover off. i used leftover carpet from the false floor/box and covered the wire so it blends in. I used 3M super 90 i had left over to glue strips of carpet on the wires and as you can see the wires blend in very well.

Those power wires makes me think of tarantula legs

Amp cover on.

RCA cables hidden.

overview of the whole amp. ahhh thats much better than seeing those power cables

So what do you guys think?

Oh and pics later of the Fi Q installed

Edited November 12, 2008 by beandip

[///M5 2,833]

I like the tarantula legs Nice work.

[Beandip 3]

As promised I have pics of everything installed.

Black amp, sub, box/false floor...its a match

also a quick video of it in action. for now the gains are set good enough, its almost using the sub's full potential but i want to set the gains with an o-scope before i push it anymore. I need to buy a Velleman Oscilloscope sometime.

Camera cant pickup the lows though.

again, thanks everyone for your input. Overall I'm one happy customer

Edited November 13, 2008 by beandip

[diablo_331 23]

thats a very clean install..i like the hairy wire...