Just so you know, its a Sosche kit. two things i gotta get, both for the remote turn on, is a thing to put on the stereo end to plug into pioneer plug deal, then on the other end, a prong thing to hook into amp..

 

superedge7:

If you really want a sub, no matter the size, to hit hard at low volume levels then buy one looking only at the efficiency rating.

For myself and a lot of people space is a big limitation. I'd have more than a single 12" in my truck if I was willing to give up some practicality with the folding rear seat bottom which I won't. Thankfully the days of huge 4cu.ft boxes are history.

SQ is important to me. That's why my sub is mounted in a sealed box v.s. ported. To my ears sealed boxes have always hit lower (extension) and cleaner.

The Infinity Kappa Perfect 10.1 has a MSRP of $329, not exactly a "standard" sub. Even the regular Kappa has an MSRP of $169. By "standard" I mean something around $100 bucks.

If you prefer small subwoofers then it's your opinion. If you really want some hard hitting volume then a larger good quality subwoofer is the way to go. I would personally like to see a single 10" sub play 500wrms with an oscilloscope to measure the rms voltage to verify the input power and a Bass Mekanik cd. Regular rock'n'roll isn't an adequate test of excursion. I bet you can smell the voicecoil getting hot pretty quick IF it can handle 500wrms.

As far as SQ and dB, many years ago when car audio first started to become popular I had four 15" cheapo subs in a 1967 VW Beetle with no back seat, one large flat parcel shelf with all 4 subs facing up. They only saw 200wrms and to this day I have many friends who remember the sound in that car. My brother attributes some hearing loss to that car.

It's all a matter of physics. Add up your total square inches cone area, for the Kappa 10.1 it's 53.4 sq.inches., for the Kappa 12.1 it's 81.94 sq.inches. Basically for the same dB output (all other things considered equal ie. efficiency,etc) the 10.1 sub will have to move linearly about 35% more than the 12.1 sub. This phenomenon becomes even worse with some of those fancy ultra-high excursion subs with 2inch surrounds. The actual cone area becomes so small that the sub has to move inordinant amounts of air and Xmax to deliver any dB volume. If the Xmax is available and your voicecoil stays in gap then it's not necessarily a bad thing. A JL 15w3 has 127.5sq.inches so you'll need more than two 10" subs to keep up or more than double the excursion of the 10 for the same output. Never mind puny 8" subs.

A single larger diameter subwoofer will sound better than two smaller diameter subwoofers at ANY volume level simply because of accurate imaging. Two or more drivers will never move exactly in unison. That's when you run into imaging problems.

Bottom line is subs should be rated differently. What we really need is a watts rms continuous rating at 40hz, 100hz, 150hz, etc. Then we can compare apples to lemons.

I also noticed that Infinity gives their efficiency rating at 2.83V and in-car. Should be 1w/1m and not in the car. Somewhat misleading specs.

If you have the space and can afford it, always buy the larger model. You won't be sorry.

Anyhow, that's what I've gathered from my experience.
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LLoverCrazyJay: your setup sounds fine, hopefully that's a DVC sub. Don't pay attention to 500w peak amplifier ratings. Any peak rating is simply BS.

 

Guys? He's done asking the question already,,,,98

 

Sorry guys, but I have to chime in. The above statement is NOT true. Take what I am about to say with a grain of salt as it is a generalized statement, but it holds true for pratically any woofer. A single sub will not be as loud as two smaller subs due to the amount of cone area involved and the amount of air that will be moved. A subs only job is to move air. That said, two twelves will move more air that a single fifteen (given the same power). As for imaging, how does that play when talking subs? Imaging refers to the placement of instruments in the musical reproduction. If a trumpet is to be heard stage left, then you should hear that trumpet playing from the right side of your system at what most feel should be dash height.

 

Yes, two 12's will sound louder than a single 15. But we were really talking about larger subs v.s. 10 or 8 inch models. I don't consider a 12inch sub small.

If you look at my example above, two 12's would have a total cone area of 163.88sq.inches where a single 15 has 127.5sq.inches. This is comparing the models listed. Others will vary.

The two twelves will move just over 28% more air assuming same excursion distance.

Sorry, perhaps "imaging" is the wrong word. Call it phase accuracy if you will. Two mechanical systems will never have exactly the same electrical and physical parameters... unless you're EXTREMELY lucky!

Anyhow, it's all food for thought.

 

p_ferlow, can I stir the pot just a little more

I'd still wager that two 10's move more air than a single 12. If anyone has access to a few speakers, give it a try.

 

If you look at the square inches of cone area, that is entirely correct.

Yes, two 10's will be louder than a single 12.

 

Well boys, i got it in and does it sound awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thumps great! Thank you all for your help! EVERYBODY!!!!!

 

Great.

 

About 6 years ago I had a soundstream amp.It worked great pushing my 2 eclipse 10s at a 2 ohm rating.Then one day it blew the fuse.I thought no big deal I will just replace it.I put the new fuse in there and it actually melted the metal prongs that plug into the amp.Needless to say, the shop I purchased it from did a whole bunch of tests on my system and then said the would give me the price of my amp towards a new amp made by a different company.I ended up getting an eclipse amp (it completed the system as being all eclipse) and never looked back.

 

I don't understand how you can say "If you really want a sub, no matter the size, to hit hard at low volume levels then buy one looking only at the efficiency rating." So you are saying that a 10" sub that is rated at 90 db sensitivity and a 12 that is rated at 90 db sensitivity are going to hit the same?!! That is purely wrong logic. It takes more power to move more surface area. So you will have to feed the 12 more power to hit as hard and loud as the ten at the same volume levels.
And two tens are going to hit harder that one 12, simply because of more surface area of the two tens, the fact that they may or may not be moving "exactly in unison" would be so small that it would have no audible effect.
There would be no imaging problem using two subs Imaging is only a real problem when working with midbass and above, but for almost all car audio applications sub imaging is basically unheard of. The reason being that the lower the bass notes the more non-directional that notes become, basically meaning that the lower the notes the harder it is for the human ear to tell exactly where it is coming from.
The real problem to try and work around is cancellation problems when placing the two subs in your vehicle.