I thought that topic title might get some attention, but it's actually only part of what my questions are. You see, it's time for a new sub for my box, and am going to go with with either a single JL w3 or a single Boston G2. That being said, your thoughts? I know there's a problem with brand name loyalty. However, impartially, what are your opinions on them?

That leads to the second question: 10" or 12" in a ported or sealed box? No matter which sub, I'm going to make a custom enclosure for it. First off, I listen to a variety of music, so something that can do the power hits, and also the fast bass as well.

Thanks for input.

 

for my sub, a JL12w3v2 D4, the people here said I'd be fine considering my wide range as well. In a sealed box. I just read elsewhere hear about the Earthquake SWS series of subs, with their 12' requiring like 2.25" mounting depth and as little as like .65 cu.ft per sub, maybe less? Thats insane as far as my experiance tells me, and lends itself to a world of difference as far as smaller enclosures go.....

 

I'll admit that I'm a big JL lover, but if you are looking at the W3, the G2 could be comprible. However, if you want something of exellent tone quality, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a sealed 10W6v2 with plenty of power behind it. You could easily throw 600W RMS on the 10W6v2 and it wouldn't balk at you one bit. Very very tight, clean sounding bass that can hit the fast numbers as well as pull out the long tones.

 

hey thats my avatar! lol. Anyways, if your want solid, acurate bass, I would go with 12" sealed. It'll have the ability to get louder/lower than a 10, and the sealed box will give you excellent transient response compared to ported. Also when in cabin gains are taken into effect, a sealed box can go surprisingly low. Just be sure to match that sucker up with a high quality amp.

 

For that price range you might also consider a Diamond Audio. Any of them would sound great though......

 

Yeah, going with a 12" sealed is what I was leaning towards. That's what I'll do. Now it's only a matter of Boston or JL.



"fI'll admit that I'm a big JL lover, but if you are looking at the W3, the G2 could be comprible. However, if you want something of exellent tone quality, I wouldn't settle for anything less than a sealed 10W6v2 with plenty of power behind it. You could easily throw 600W RMS on the 10W6v2 and it wouldn't balk at you one bit. Very very tight, clean sounding bass that can hit the fast numbers as well as pull out the long tones."


I agree, the W6 sounds awesome. However, that's a little to0 much for what I'm looking for. I don't need the bass to blow out my window, plus, I think the W6 is going to be hogging up alot of power my amp doesn't have.



"hey thats my avatar! lol. Anyways, if your want solid, acurate bass, I would go with 12" sealed. It'll have the ability to get louder/lower than a 10, and the sealed box will give you excellent transient response compared to ported. Also when in cabin gains are taken into effect, a sealed box can go surprisingly low. Just be sure to match that sucker up with a high quality amp."


I agree, like I said, that's what I'm going to do. I just need some more opinions on Jl vs. Boston. Also, I had this sig first...

 

If you want good audio opinions, check out the forums on www.sounddomain.com

Theres tons of good info there, and it may even open you up to some more options.

 

How much power @ what ohm is your amp capable of? I'd agree that it sounds as if you need a 12" sealed.... but don't let the W3's fool you, they can handle a lot of power as well... I've thrown 900 RMS on my 2 12w3's and they still sounded wonderful and hit hard!!!

 

Subwoofers do not "hog up power". The amplifer produces power into an impedance load. It does not know what brand, size or model (or even if it's a speaker).
A 12W6v2-D4 is the same thing as a 12W3v2-D4 as far as the amplifier is concerned. The W6v2 being born from the W7 genome will offer better SQ than a W3v2.

 

Exceeding power recommendations can result in warranty-voiding damage to the woofer. It could be that the woofers have been hanging in there because your amplifier manufacturer is not being honest about it's 900 Watt rating. For example, if that number is based upon the magical 14.4V number, the amp is actually only a 600 Watt amp in real life. Two 12W3v2 subwoofers are rated to handle 600 Watts RMS.

 

I agree with you that it CAN result in damage.... but what I'm saying is that from my own personal experience, JL's can handle a lot more than they lead you on to believe. 1000 watts to a 10w7, done it (1 year beating hard and no problems).... or a 15w0 with 500 watts... done it (went 4 years and was sold, never had a problem)

All I'm saying is that JL's can take it w/o hesitation... as long as you know what you're doing, you can put more power than RMS to them...

END

 

I'm going to agree with you both.

A 900 watt constant signal (sine wave all day) would break the W3's, the coils couldn't thermally take it.

An amp capable of making the 900 constant signal with a sine wave above playing music will rarely, if ever, actually put out it full power with music. The pair of W3's would do just fine since normal people don't listen to sine waves all day, and as long as it's not a clipped signal, it'll go all day.

JLTD, I'm assuming you work at JL and are just trying to cover yourself by saying don't do it, but my first sub was a W6 off around 700 watts...with music, it does just fine.

 

 

Yes, thanks for telling me something I know. When I said "hog up power" I meant it would be trying to take more than my amp can give.

 

I think you're a bit confused here.

While a W6 could probably handle more power than your amp would put out, it's certainly not going to harm the amp if it's wired correctly.

Say you have an amp that does 500W at 4 ohms. You hook up a D2 sub in series that's rated at 1000W RMS. The sub is wired to 4 ohms, it'll take 500W out of the amp, no more, no less.

Could the sub handle more power, yes. Will that amp be damaged being hooked up to that sub, no. Will the sub be damaged because you're "underpowering" it, no, unless you turn up the gain on the amp to the point where you're clipping the hell out of the signal, nothing bad is going to happen other than the sub will be ~3dB quieter than if it had 1000W

 

Only 300 RMS at 4 ohms
Now that I look at the JL site more closely, I noticed that the 10w6 needs even less watts RMS than the 12w3.

 

"I think you're a bit confused here.

While a W6 could probably handle more power than your amp would put out, it's certainly not going to harm the amp if it's wired correctly."


No I understand completely. I never said it would hurt it, it's just that I'd rather have a sub match up to my amp efficiently in terms of the watts.

 

Just for the record, I'd take the JL 12w3 over the Boston (I'm partial to JL though).... sounds like it'd match up to your amp beautifully too!!

 

Yeah it would, both the JL and Boston 12" both have 300 w RMS listed on the site.

 

Thanks for your help guys. I think I'll go check some other places in terms of the actual sub vs. the other.