I am very sorry if this has been asked before. I read through all the threads and couldnt find much. I have a 2001 F-250 Ext Cab Diesel. Any suggestions on what size sub/subs and if I need to build the box with some weird dimensions. I know there aint much room back there. I would prolly go with Kicker Solo Baric L7 8 in. They dont take alot of air space. Any suggestions on setups is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Three or four 8" in a box sounds sweet in our trucks! Alright... they probably sound good in Chevy's and Dodges too!

When used in multiples, the 8's have lots of cone area, and the 8" have faster movement (more responsive) than any 10 or 12 inchers!

Another case where bigger isnt necessarily better!

 

Thank you, finally someone who agrees!

Go with 8's, you will not be dissappointed! Three eights have the same "air pushing" surface area as of two twelves. If the port is tuned correctly, you can hit just as low as twelves. They will pound hard in a ported box if you use good dvc woofers and feed them lots of power. Point the woofers to the floor and fire the port forward.

 

Hellfighter...

I worked as an installer for 4 years back in my college days, I am still good friends with the owner and sometimes hang out and lend a helping hand.

I crack up at some of his customers that insist on gargantuan boxes with multiple 12's or 10's, and they just go boom. He will try to talk them into something more reasonable, but think they know what they want! No natural sounding bass... Too much reading of car audio magazines and not enough listening to quality systems.

Multiple 8's sound so sweet... and I agree about using DVC's as well... even sweeter!!!

 

JHL, that's a cool insight on the eights, I'm currently running two RF punch 8's under my rear seat, and they sound great. I'm upgrading to DVC's when I have the money.
My brother wanted 8 12" RF Audiophile in his 97 Ext Cab, so I built the box and finished it up for him. I was shaking my head through the whole buildup, but I did it, he was happy. Afterwards, he traded in the 97 for a 99 F350 Dually Ext Cab, so in went the new woofers with a different box. Loud as hell, but ixney on the clarity, though. I'll get some pics in my gallery sometime, those boxes were hillarious.

 

8 12" woofers???

In my opinion, the only vehicles that should have such a setup are ones that compete in max SPL contests. They are loud, but never clear or the type of system I would want in a daily driver!

I actually like to listen to my music!

 

Better check your math there again.

 

Alrighty:

I'm going to offend and annoy you now. 8 12"s huh; wonder if he is compensating for something. I understand your logic of 8's having a quicker response than 10's, 12's and especially 15's however a has a much better throw rate and deeper area to push. I cannot fathom how any four 8's would be deeper than a pair of Decent (keyword there) 10's. If you want that type of bass a set of 6x9's would be the same thing.

 

Find a quality high end stereo shop and ask them... or better yet try to find such a system and give it a listen.

The problem with this type of discussion is that music is subjective... it depends entirely on the listener. "One mans trash, is the others treasure!"

The type of music that a person prefers will also have a lot to do with what type of sound system they prefer.

For example, a person who listens to RAP "generally" will not appreciate a system that delivers accurate reproduction and response... this is due to the way the music is recorded and the "generally" over exaggeration of the levels of bass. This type of listener will "generally" prefer multiples of larger speakers that deliver the sounds and levels they prefer.

AGAIN GENERALLY...A more discerning listener would prefer a single 10" or 12"... or multiple 8"s with well planned enclosures and quality x-over points as these tend to be more accurate for their listening preferences.

In addition, it is true that 10's, 12's, & 15's have longer throws and therefore will push more air!

Also...
Bartak1 is right! Remember: pie are square!
2 ea 12" woofers = 226.2" of cone area
3 ea 8" woofers = 150.795" of cone area
(it would take 4.5-8" to equal the cone area of 2-12" woofs.)
If you want to compare 3-8's evenly they are approx the same area as 2-10's!

However, the faster response time of the smaller woofer can make up for the smaller cone area!

 

"I'm upgrading to DVC's when I have the money. "

??? wtf ???

 

DVC = Dual Voice Coil below is an excerpt from JL Audio's website:

A dual voice coil speaker is simply one in which two separate lengths of wire are wound together around the same former and terminated independently. Except for some exotic exceptions, both voice coils have the same number of turns and length of wire, resulting in identical electrical characteristics.In most cases, one coil is wound onto the former first, and the second one is wound over the first one.

Naturally, it is more expensive to wind and terminate dual voice coils and you will typically pay a small premium compared to a similar single voice coil speaker.

So what do you get for the extra few bucks? Do dual voice coils offer a performance advantage? Not really. Do they offer any benefit over a conventional single voice coil design? Definitely.



Here is some more info from their site:

What is the advantage of dual voice coils?

The primary advantage of the dual voice coil speaker is wiring flexibility. A single dual voice coil driver offers the user three hookup choices...parallel, series and independent. In a parallel hook-up the drivers impedance will be half that of each individual coil (a dual 4 ohm speaker would be a 2 ohm speaker in parallel.) A series hook-up results in twice the impedance of each single coil (a dual 4 ohm speaker results in 8 ohms if its coils are wired in series.) Finally, you can wire each voice coil to a separate channel of your amplifier, which can be useful if your amplifier is not mono-bridgeable or if you are bridging a four channel amplifier down to two channels to run your sub.

The independent wiring application is the one that brought about the need for dual voice coil speakers in home audio. Unlike most good car amplifiers, home amplifiers and receivers are typically not mono-bridgeable. For this reason, dual voice coil woofers were developed so that a subwoofer or center speaker could be driven from the left and right channels of the average stereo home amp/receiver. Since sub-bass frequencies are hard to localize, the dual voice coil subwoofer allowed sub-bass reinforcement within one cabinet and one speaker. This cabinet could be placed inconspicuously in a corner or along a wall of the listening room, with the obvious benefits being space-efficiency and lower cost than two independent bass cabinets or a larger cabinet with two subs in it. Many popular home subwoofer / satellite speaker systems still use this basic configuration.

 

I understand what it means, just not the reasoning for "upgrading" from svc to dvc. If the ohm load presented by the sub(s) matches what your amp is designed for, why would you "upgrade".

 

Hmm, seems like I opened up a can of worms. texas_fordlover, as I mentioned earlier, the system with the eight twelves was for my brother, who is into bass, not me:




As for me, I'm more into this:



I like clarity and stealth, which is probably why my brothers truck was broken into and his 4-channel amp was stolen (the one in the middle).
spr_F150, I'm upgrading because my subs are over 6 years old. They're still firing okay, but some of the edges are getting rough and falling apart. I mentioned DVC's because I do like the flexibility in wiring options, and I have heard the difference between SVC and DVC, and to me there was a slight advantage to going with the DVC IMHO.
JHL, excellent advice and knowledge, I learned a few things reading your stuff, thanks!

 

Most of the time SVC/DVC subs of the same brand/model/size should sound the same, but if the T/S parameters are different between them, then they should sound different.

 

jdpollen:

You are welcome, but most of the info was from JL Audio's website... much easier to just cut and paste than type that much!

Look into focal 8" DVC's or Morel's 8" DVC if you can find someone in your area that carries tham.

Not a mass marketed "name brand" but they built their reputation the old fashioned way... in home audio, and they have quite a loyal following. I had a focal 8" DVC in my old 1984 Ranger... sold it to a buddy who is using it in his 3rd vehicle! It still sounds sweet!!!