which amp?
 

i have two 12 inch JL w3v3's, what amp should i go with? ive heard these subs powered off of one bridged JL 500/1 and sounded amazing, should i just go with the 500/1? or should i look into others?

the 500/1 is a little steep pricewise for me, so hopefully cheaper.

jl hd 750/1... it will make those things slam and will be considerabally more effecient

The JL Audio HD750/1 would be the optimum choice. The next step down would be the JL Audio
XD600/1 at a little less than 60 percent of the cost.

David
Earmark Marine

the hd750/1 is definantly out of my price range, the xd600/1 one is more my range, i was looking at it a few days ago, but was wondering to myself if it would have enough power. im also still debating if i want to go with one 12 or two 12's. decisions decisons.

Ryan,
The boat will often dictate how much space you have and were that location will be, particularly when you are talking about an enclosed sub. But keep a few things in mind. A single location in a towboat is always going to be the most efficient as the second location is almost always more of a compromised position plus two locations will have some phasing conflicts. This is not only due to different distances from two sources to varying listening positions but also due to dissimilar cavities and surrounding boundaries. If you can build a single and larger bass-reflex enclosure you will have approximately the same output as two equal woofers in sealed boxes. The single driver represents less mass and is easier to drive. In that case an XD600/1 even at a 12.5 volt supply it would drive a 12w3 to its potential.

David
Earmark Marine

David, would you mind expounding on the pros and cons of both? Maybe with respect to space, music taste as well as your personel prefference?

Hate,
Don't mind kicking around some thoughts but be more specific as to what you mean so that I don't go off on the wrong tangent.

David
Earmark Marine

I'm just interested to know the pros and cons of sealed vs ported. If one offers better performance for certain types of music and the listening environment of the boat. I'd also like to know your personal preference between the two. I always respect your opinion and ability to explain things without dumbing it down.

i.e.
Sealed offers tight accurate bass reproduction but requires more watts to do so.

this system is actually for my 2004 dodge ram quad cab. i ended up returning the 12's and swapped them for 2 10w3v3's. the company that i am buying the box from only has sealed boxes for the 12's so i dropped down to the 10's and am ordering a ported box. just gotta wait till the 22nd for my check so i can order the box and amp. still debating on which one to go with, especially now that i have the 10's instead. would you still recommend the xd600/1 for the 2 10's?

haha sorry i wasnt more clear on where the subs were going.

That XD is right at their RMS at 2 ohms so yes it is a good choice.

sounds good, im not really a stereo guru, but my subs are the 4 ohm versions, is it okay to run the amp at 2 ohms even tho the subs are 4?

When they are ran in parallel to the amp they will be showing it 2 ohms. Parallel is both positives and negatives wired together then to the amp.

Here is a diagram from bcae1's website:

ohh okay, thanks man, so i guess that is what bridging it means? or am i wayy lost haha, sorry if these are dumb questions.

thanks for the diagram, that helps me out alot.

Bridging is when you combine two channels of an amp. In the case of this amp it can't be done as it is a one channel or mono. When you bridge two channels you lower each respective channel to 2 ohms combining together to make a single 4 ohm with the power of the two 2 ohm channels combined.

see:
•Power output RMS @ 4 ohms: 2 x 180 watts
•Power output RMS @ 2 ohms: 2 x 350 watts
•Power output RMS @ 4 ohms bridged: 1 x 700 watts

Hate,
Here is what good quality bass means to me. Bump and boom is monotonous and tiresome after a while (actually immediately). I don't care how hard it hits if I can't tell exactly what is doing the hitting. I want articulate bass with some defining tonal construction. I want to hear the attack of the drum skin or the leading edge of a plucked bass string. As the bass notes move up and down the musical ladder I want to hear the difference in pitch and not just an indiscriminate and smeared rumble. I want deep bass extension that has a linear response. I don't want the amplitude jumping around as a reflection of a peaky subwoofer. I don't want a single note resonator that can be heard across the marina but lacks musical contrast and clarity in the boat.
There are several types of bass-reflex enclosures. There is the under-damped peaky type that is built for maximum output but totally lacks sound quality. Some do this one on purpose but most have misaligned enclosures by accident. Then there is the well-damped type with a smooth response that is more comparable with a good acoustic suspension (small sealed). As long as either is executed properly I can enjoy both sealed and ported. However in an open field environment its really helpful to have the extra leverage of a quality bass-reflex system.
Personally I don't believe that the type of music you listen to is relevent to the enclosure type as long as the enclosure is right. An accurate speaker is neutral to all types of music. This only becomes a factor on a highly colored speaker. Most of our music regardless of type was engineered on bass-reflex studio monitors (Apple Studios for example). Some of the best two-channel speakers in the world are bass-reflex such as the benchmark B&W 800s or Wilson Audio or Dali, etc.ranging from $15 to $35k a pair. Its hard to argue with any of these after a listen.
I'm not in favor of massive woofers that are built just for power handling and maximum abuse. They are clumsy sounding at any volume level in any enclosure even though they may handle 2000 watts and really 'hit'. There are just a few woofer manufacturers that don't use the same off-the-shelf parts and that use advanced computer modeling and finite element analysis to create truely responsive drivers from scratch. Put these in the right enclosure, loaded into the boat correctly and tuned properly and you can have a sub where you start listening to music rather than listening to stereo equipment.

David
Earmark Marine

Spoken like a true audiophile ;)

Thanks for that explination it helps me out a lot and as always I appreciate your ability to articulate.

so my friend did know what he was saying when he said he had two w3's bridged off of a 500/1?