So, I finally had time to take the truck back down and had the installer fill the box with polyfill and "tune" it. (Per his suggestion)

I swear the bass is alot quieter and does not hit near as hard at similar volumes. Is this usual from Polyfilled boxes?

My set-up is 2 RF P3S 10" subs in an under seat box powered by the Alpine 1000.1 PDX amp. Nothing special, but it used to sound 3X as good as it does now.

Thanx for any help.

 

real simple, take out the polyfill....
if you like the sound better, who gives a crap what your local audio guy says

 

I actually think that poly fill made my box sound better but to each is own. Is your box ported or sealed? It's probably sealed but I have to ask the question

 

Most likely sealed otherwise it would shoot polyfill out on the first note..........

 

Its sealed. It just sounds less aggressive.......Before, I had the gain at under 1/2 and the sub output at + 3 for the CD's and + 5 for the radio w/ all other HU adjustments at 0 and it sounded great. Now the gain is over 1/2 with the Sub output at + 7 for the radio and it is not even close to how it was. I just do not know if it is better for the subs to have it in there.

If it does not matter I am pulling that crap out of there.

 

they might have messed with the wiring to the subs

 

Well, he didnt re-wire anything that I saw while he did it. I watched him as he was doing it. Pulled each sub out and stuffed a few handfuklls in each side of the box and screwed em back in.
I will double check em when I pull that stuff out on my day off. Thx.

 

Well 2 things could've happened:

1) He put too much. The general consensus is about 1lb per ft^3

2) When boxes are too small they have a boomy sound and a peaky response, it could be that you're box now has a much flatter response, is more accurate and less boomy, thus giving you the perception it isn't as loud. Especially if you were playing music right in the frequency range where the non-filled box was peaky

 

But polyfill wasn't the only thing done. They also "tuned" it... which means, they could have adjusted the gains on the amp to even out the sound a bit... maybe they thought the subs were clipping at the current gain level?

 

So when someone says "tune the box" their just adjusting settings on the amp?

 

It could mean any number of things. I'm just guessing that maybe they adjusted the gain on the amps as well?

 

They turned the Gains down a little to just under 1/2 but I have tried to put it back to one click over 1/2 and it still is not as loud w/o turning up the sub output on the HU. I guess let it play a little to see if it breaks in??

 

The polyfill makes the sub play like its a bigger box = flat response but quieter. If you just have two P3S 10s under your seat I'm guessing you have about .5-.6 cuft to each... That's pretty much RF specs, I'd just take the fill out.

It should have flattened your response curve though, are you hitting the low notes better now?

 

Really really low lows.....well above what he thought 10's would give. Not the booming lows, almost very deep long rumbling.

 

yeah that's what I kind of figured. I have one p3s 10 right now and was thinking about polyfilling but after what you're saying I doubt I will, its barely enough for me the way it is.

Hows the output for 2 of them? I'm thinking about buying another and running 800 watts