newb...... best subwoofer setup

[gatorlifted]

Anyone had a real good sounding underseat system installed in a nnbs ext cab. Last truck I spent a lot of money and it didn't beat down. That was 2 alpine in a thunderform and a 750.1

[dobey]

"Good sounding" is personal preference (and physiology) dependent. We can all tell you what we have, and prefer, but you could hate them all. It really depends on what type of music you listen to, what health condition your ears are in, etc… There's also a huge difference between building a system for SPL versus building one for quality.

I have two 8" Polk db subwoofers, and a set of Polk db speakers for the doors, waiting to go in my Avalanche. It will sound great once I get it in and tuned (and will be able to hit plenty low enough). The subs will be powered by a Punch 300-2 amp (150w x 2 @ 2ohm).

I spent about a week looking at different speakers, subs, and amps, trying to match up power requirements and outputs, to get the best system possible while trying to avoid spending too much (like for the Infinitys I bought for my previous truck, which didn't perform as well as I'd wanted). The Polk/RF Punch combo is what I ended up with, and will be throwing in the truck, as soon as I can find the time to tear the front seats and center console out.

[gatorlifted]

Sounds good.....I like to be able to hit low and still hit tight punchy bass for rock.... Between military and working on generators my ears probably suck. The alpine 10s I had would've hit right with a little bigger box. I need something that will hit in .95 cf and not be over 5 in deep. The shop down the road recommends cheap subs, so I won't be as unhappy with the money spent

[dobey]

Where is the .95 cf coming from? That's the volume of the thunderform enclosure? Is that total air space for both subs, or is that the volume for half the enclosure (one sub)?

[gatorlifted]

Thats per side, available in front firing 8s or 10s. Down firing 10s or 12s. The air space is roughly the same for all the boxes ive found. The soundshops around here dont even seem interested in building a custom box. I know I can always go with a jl stealth and it'll probably sound the best at 2 or 3 times the cost

[SurrealOne]

If you want it to sound good then IMHO there's no sense slapping subs into a truck until you've sound deadened the entire cab (all pillars, dash, center console, roof, floor, inside and outside skins of doors, rear wall, and firewall).

If you slap a big amp and subs into a tin can you can expect it to sound ... tinny ... and rattle like hell when enough power is applied. Your cab is just a big steel can ... which reflects the sound within it ... and has things inside it that are plastic and steel which will rattle like mad, themselves, if you don't do something about it to account for the vibrations produced at higher wattages.

I've heard some nice setups that sounded like crap because the basics were simply ignored...

As for the box -- build your own or buy a pre-fab JL.

[dobey]

Well, you don't need to use enough power to vibrate the entire frame, to get great sounding low frequency reproduction.

Sound deadening is a good idea regardless of whether you install subs or not. Road noise can cause interference and hide a lot of sound in whatever you're listening to. Stripping a vehicle down and coating everything with LizardSkin will certainly make listening to music that much more enjoyable, even with a factory stereo and speakers.

[SurrealOne]

Well, you don't need to use enough power to vibrate the entire frame, to get great sounding low frequency reproduction.

Well-put. However, due to use of the phrase 'and it didn't beat down,' I get the sense the OP wants to vibrate the rear view mirrors of nearby autos on the road.

[dobey]

Well-put. However, due to use of the phrase 'and it didn't beat down,' I get the sense the OP wants to vibrate the rear view mirrors of nearby autos on the road.

Hrmm. I read it as "didn't hit as low as I'd like." That could easily be caused by mismatching subs, enclosures, and amps. A great sub in an enclosure that's the wrong size (and/or a cube) will not sound as great. Polyfill will also make it harder for a sub to producer lower tones (as it takes up air space and is designed to give a boost to volume rather than quality). And of course, if the sub is getting too much, or not enough power, output will vary quite a bit. 4 ohm speakers hooked up to an amp with the expected power rating actually being for 2 ohms, will get you a fair bit less power output to the speakers. There's a good reason I grabbed the DVC version of the 8" Polk db subs and the Punch 300-2 to power them. The 2 ohm rated output of the amp is right in the optimal power range for the subs.

[zigger215]

Low equals=ported box, larger driver, tight punchy bass=sealed enclosure, smaller driver. You can't have both worlds, sorry, just not how the mobile audio world works, it's like saying "i want to compete in SQ and SPL" no one says that because its not a possibility. And if it were, it's certainly not achievable by cramming a box under your stock placement rear seat of a crew cab.....
Sound deadening is not designed to eliminate rattles, it's designed to make the cab quieter, the by product is a less "tinny" sound but on a nnbs truck, with subs designed to fit in a box under your seat, you will not get close enough to that kind of bass to expose the lameness of an unsound deadened cab.

If you want the biggest bang possible, go with a JL stealth box.