Give me some input on my Tahoe!

[BigDaddy13440 3]

I've got enclosures fiberglassed into the rear quarter panels of my Tahoe, and can't give up any more of my cargo room. I work as a General Contractor, and frequently carry plywood and sheetrock in the back of the truck.

My current Celestion AD15H's sound great with the crossover point set at 40HZ, reproduce the low frequencies with great detail, even with the measly 250 watts I'm sending them each through my Lightning Audio 500 watt mono amp (2 ohm load). The only problem, I've found that they have a tendency to "blatt" (for lack of a better term) if I up the crossover point to even 50HZ. Could this be a result of too little power, too small of an enclosure, too high (or low) of a tuning frequency of the port?

FWIW, the enclosures are approximately 2.5 cu ft gross, with a 3" diameter port x 9" long. I believe it's tuned to approximately 30HZ, at least that's what I was recommended in an e-mail from Celestion. The AD15H's will supposedly work in a ported enclosure as small as 2.0 cubes net, that's why I felt fine with 2.5 gross.

Otherwise, what sub/subs would you guys "in the know" recommend for my enclosure volume? Are there any 15's available that would work in my existing enclosure w/o modifying it, or would I have to alter the port to change the diameter/length? Would I be better off with a pair of 12's in that size enclosure, would I get more/cleaner output? Very simple to remove the front baffle and make a new one - hell, if (4) 10's would be a better alternative, I'm all for that. I just don't want to sacrifice the low-end extension by going smaller.

I'm not a hardcore rap kinda guy, my tastes vary from 3 doors down to Metallica, from Sublime to ZZ Top. However, not to say I won't go deep into my music vault, and dig up some old 2Pac or Beastie Boys.

Eventually, I intend on delegating the 500 watt amp to my 10's (low/midbass from 50-150HZ) in my console, and probably running 500-700 watts RMS to each of the subs in the rear.

Any suggestions?

[BigDaddy13440 3]

33 reads and nobody has any input?

[BigDaddy13440 3]

51 reads so far and NOBODY?

Talk about a tough crowd......

[nick_19 1]

I would seriously recommend switching to a sealed setup judging on your music tastes...

If you went sealed, you could run 4 10's or 2 12's (maybe these)

Sealed will give you a tighter and more controlled sound, as well as cut down on enclosure size. It will also level out your frequency response. When I think of 15" ported, I just always think of something more like what I use, nothing but deep, low rap. (Not always, but 99% of the time ) I'd say you should try out 2 sealed 12's or 10's... You will still have great low end, not as boomy mind you, but I think you will be happier with the overall sound.

OR

You could try out 4 12's sealed... Depends on what kind of power you will have on tap and how much you are willing to spend, but there are a lot of 12's that would love 1.25 or so cubes a piece... I'm thinking if you could have about 400 watts going to each pair, you could try 4 of these.

2 in each box. They are recommended for .8-1.6 cubes sealed, so it would be perfect like that. And you could feed them up to 250 a piece, or 500 for each pair.

Edited December 27, 2008 by nick_19

[akjay907 0]

"Blatt"??? haha what does that mean?

Sealed enclosures would be good for those applications, like what Nick19 said too. Ascendant Audio makes quality products.

METALLICA is awesome!

[BigDaddy13440 3]

I'm really liking the idea of (4) 12's.

Comparing the two series (Assassin vs. Arsenal), looks like there isn't a whole lot of difference in the specs? Other than double the RMS power handling for the Arsenal series (per coil, or per sub?), looks like they will both work in the same enclosure reasonably well. Both are dual 4ohm, which means I could wire up each pair as a 1 ohm or 4ohm load, and present a single amplifier with a 1/2ohm load or 2 ohm load continuously. I know almost EVERY decent amplifier can handle a 2ohm load all day long, but how many can drop to .5ohms and be reliable? I'm talking about something that can do around 2K at .5ohms .

Another option would be to run these in a series/parallel configuration with my two 4ohm 10's in the center console, but using two amplifiers, one for the left and one for the right...

2 ohm load (to one 12") + a 2 ohm load (to another 12") + a 4ohm load (to one 10") = 2/4+2/4+1/4 = 5/4 = .8 ohm load, if I'm not mistaken? In this configuration, assuming I use an amp capable of 1000 watts RMS at the .8 ohm load, I believe each of the 12's would see power of approximately 400 watts, with the 10 seeing approximately 200 watts?

I'd assume there are a lot more amps capable of dealing with a .8 ohm load than a .5 ohm load?

I could even dump the two 10" I have in the center console, and add a fifth (and/or sixth!) 12" to even out the frequency response. I've got about 2.0 cu ft gross I can play with between the seats up front. Six 12's would give me a load of .67ohms per amplifier, or 1.33ohms to a single monster amp.....

Any thoughts, other than "it all depends on how much power I want to run"?