My current setup is two Kicker Comp 10's running off of Kicker zx400. 484rms according to the birth sheet. I have Alpine SPS-507 5x7 speakers in the doors with no amp to them. 4ga wire to the amp, no big three upgrade. I am pretty set on an SSA Dcon since SSA is a good brand and being 300w rms I wouldnt need to buy another amp. I want a 15" Dcon because I know that will pound in a 3.5cf box tuned to 33hz but im not sure if that will be too much. I will likely have to keep the gains down anyway but im wondering if the 15 will be too much speaker. I will be building the box myself out of 3/4"MDF and place it on my back seat. If I need to carry passengers, the box will come out and the 10's will be hooked up again. Just need your thoughts on if the 15 will be too much.
I have always loved the sound from ported 15's, but the 12's would also be nice and easier to move in and out of the back seat. I can still remember my two ported Cerwin Vega's in a ported box in the back of a '87 Shelby Charger back in the day.
It will be a single sub set up so i am wondering if a single ported 12 will be enough or if a single ported 15 will be a little too much. Im leanig towards the 15 since i will have to turn the gain down anyways. My current set up does not cut it anymore and I need more. A single 15 has more area than two 10's add in the port tuning and i should have a nice hard hiting system.
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2000 F150 XLT 4.2 V6- Pretty much all stock.
Kicker Comp 10's x 2
kicker zx400.1 amp
Kenwood KDC Mp345u Deck
Alpine 5x7's
The 15 will sound good ported if you only like your music down low, but you'll lose a lot of the high's from porting it. The 12 would be an all around better daily driver sub, you won't lose all the upper bass even ported that you would with the 15.
Sealed 15. Large ported speaker will give you that bloated bottom end and poor extension up top. Sealed gives you better overall frequency response but still with plenty of output and excellent low frequency extension due to cabin gain in the F150.
__________________ 2004 Lariat 4x4:
Troyer, K&N, Borla power - Fabtech, Camburg, Bilstein suspension - Helo bling - Toyo rubber - 12,000 lumens of HID projection -
1900 watts of Scanspeak/Stereo Integrity sound - lots of PTM
Sealed 15. Large ported speaker will give you that bloated bottom end and poor extension up top. Sealed gives you better overall frequency response but still with plenty of output and excellent low frequency extension due to cabin gain in the F150.
I was thinking about that but was wondering if a ported 12 would have more output and hit the lows lower than a sealed 15.
I was thinking about that but was wondering if a ported 12 would have more output and hit the lows lower than a sealed 15.
Ported 12 would have similar output but with a much less-smooth frequency response. Your ported 12 would be limited on the bottom by the tuning frequency while the sealed 15 needs no filter down low, so plenty of output down in the 20Hz region assuming you have enough airspace.
__________________ 2004 Lariat 4x4:
Troyer, K&N, Borla power - Fabtech, Camburg, Bilstein suspension - Helo bling - Toyo rubber - 12,000 lumens of HID projection -
1900 watts of Scanspeak/Stereo Integrity sound - lots of PTM
Ported 12 would have similar output but with a much less-smooth frequency response. Your ported 12 would be limited on the bottom by the tuning frequency while the sealed 15 needs no filter down low, so plenty of output down in the 20Hz region assuming you have enough airspace.
The ported 12 would probably play bass tracks louder... I would go with a sealed 15. It'll play cleaner at low volumes than a single 12. With cabin gain you should get a fairly flat extension depending on what qtc you end up with.
I have to putmy input in. On my last truck 06' ford singlecab i had 2 jl w3 12s ported on a jl 600.1 xd amp w focal vb components on a 400.4 jl amp and i have yet to hear any system sound that loud and put out that much bass without distortion. Needless to say i bought a new 2011 fx4 4dr and did not want to mess with the integrity of the truck so we put the same system in my new truck with a downfired sealed box its loud but i really hate sealed boxes i really miss that really low bass that shakes your hat off your head. so what im trying to say depending on what setup you have go ported all the way.
I have to putmy input in. On my last truck 06' ford singlecab i had 2 jl w3 12s ported on a jl 600.1 xd amp w focal vb components on a 400.4 jl amp and i have yet to hear any system sound that loud and put out that much bass without distortion. Needless to say i bought a new 2011 fx4 4dr and did not want to mess with the integrity of the truck so we put the same system in my new truck with a downfired sealed box its loud but i really hate sealed boxes i really miss that really low bass that shakes your hat off your head. so what im trying to say depending on what setup you have go ported all the way.
That's true for some subs^. Some excel ported, some excel sealed, some are good both ways depending on the type of music you listen too. The Dcon is a good all around sub so it'll perform well both sealed and ported.
Also I'm not sure how well that sub is going to like playing below about 25hz anyway, I see it starting to distort right around there and anything below that. The dcon is a daily driver/starter kind of sub, it's not built to be a low end monster. But if your looking for real low end, I'd step up to the icon if you wanna stay with ssa stuff, it'll be built to handle the low end abuse better. I had a icon 10 that played better all around than a kicker 15 (both ported) but then again I was also throwing about 1100rms to it.
The dcon will however most likely be able to handle the full rms your amp put's out because iirc they're cea compliant at 13.8v so it would only see that much power at full charging levels anyways. But the ssa stuff is generally underated.
But what kind of music do you generally listen too? If you stick to mainly rap or music with heavy bass I'd probably go ported, if you listen to a variety sealed would probably be better.
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