Im not very car audio inclined so maybe someone can help. Im looking at getting 1 - 10'' Solo Baric and the special enclosure or whatever they make for them. And ive hear that the rockford amps are really great...so i was wondering which rockford amp should I get? i think the 10'' solo can handle well over 450W.
Also Ill be installing a new HU and component front speakers.

 

Nate,

The solobaric enclosure that we used on my little brother's car was a 4th order bandpass configuration.. Check this website below for more info..

4th Order Bandpass Website

I'll try to find more info and post later!

 

It depends on the impedence of the sub. IMO, Fosgate amps aren't very good at all. Pretty much everyone who doesn't know much about car audio runs their amps, they VERY hot VERY quickly, and their are plenty of other amps that are cheaper and better built. If you're just looking for an amp for the sub, I would say go with a class D amp like the JBL 600.1. I have a feeling that the sub will be 4 ohms, though, and off the top of my head, there are no class D subs optimized for 4 ohm subs (though any class D will work, you won't be getting full potential). You'll probably need a class a/b amp, of which 99% are optimized for 4 ohm mono loads. They aren't as efficient as class D amps, but if you're sending <500watts to your sub, it won't really matter unless you decide to send a lot of power to your speakers. I would look into Phoenix Gold, US AMPS, Arc, PPI, Orion, Brax, Planet Audio and a/d/s, just to name a few quality brands covering a wide pricerange.

 

How can you say Fosgate amps are bad?? Fosgate is a very reputable name with a STRONG track record!! I know TONS of people that run them and have NO PROBLEMS.... Also, the new SPL record is now held by Fosgate using Fosgate Amps and speakers...

It all depends on what kinda setup you are looking for... If you are looking for SQ, then a Fosgate amp might not be a good idea... Something like a McIntosh would do the trick!! ;-) (percy)

But if you're look for SPL then Fosgate, Kicker, MMaats... they are all on TOP of the game!!

Now... as far as your 10" L7 goes you should run either a

Fosgate Power BD500.1
http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=rocbd15001
OR
Fosgate Power 800.2
http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=roch18002

The L7's are BIG, HEAVY woofers... You need a lot of amp power to push them right.... For my setup, I'm going with 2 12" L7s and putting a Fosgate BD1000.1 to each of um!!

 

As long as it isn't Soundstream. Lots of production failures and that company has been in and out of chapter 11/13 so many times I've lost count.

From Steve Eddy on the rec.audio.car newsgroups. It's an old message but it still applies.

"
Ok, Peter, here's the poop on those primoridal Soundstream amps:

First, a correction on the failure rate. I'm told it was 90%, not 80%
(again, that was the failure rate off the assembly line).

The primary reasons are:

First, while typically you'll see a large, single, horizontally
mounted circuit board used on most amps, Nelson thought it would be
cheaper to use two narrow (about 1" wide) boards mounted vertically
along each side which necessitated a lot of complicated point-to-point
wiring to connect the two halves.

Second, compounding the problem of all the point-to-point wiring,
Soundstream opted to do it all with a single color wire in order to
keep costs down (I guess they figured it was cheaper to buy one big
spool of the same color versus half a dozen or so smaller spools of
different colors).

Last, but not least, the folks who were doing the actual assembly
didn't possess very good soldering technique (and apparently weren't
terribly skilled at assembly either) so there were many cold and
intermittent solder joints. This was also largely responsible for
their failure in the field and compounding that was the fact that the
circuit boards were all single-sided (again to shave costs) so the
pads tended to start peeling up when things got hot, etc.

So there you have it. The actual electronic design was sound (no pun
intended). It was Nelson's and Soundstream's penny-pinching that made
it such a disaster.

se"

Percy

 

I believe the solobaric's come in dual 2 ohm and dual 4 ohm configs. The BD500.1 won't run down to 1 ohm with any stability, so you'll want to buy the dual 4 ohm. Right now, I'm running the bd500.1 on my 2 12w3 subs, and I have had no problems with it running hot at all. It stays cooler than the JL 300/4 running my comps in fact.

 

Ok, cool, thanks alot guys for the replies, what im looking for is depth to the music? do you know what I mean, im not looking to blow people away by how loud it is..its purely to compliment the music. I like it when the bass is precise. So do you guys think the Fosgate Power BD500.1 will be good?

Thanks alot, Nate

 

Are you going to be running your new comps off the hu's power? If so, the 500.1 will probably be more boom than you're wanting. The 500.1 will be pushing in the neighborhood of 700 watts at 2 ohms. The DEI 600d will give you around 400 watts, and it will play down to 1 ohm if you ever feel like adding a second sub.

 

Nate,

Once when you start looking for "depth" of music then you really need to look beyond RF amps. Or PPI or the mid range amps. Usually the higher the channel seperation, the better and also the S/N ratio. Look up back issues of Car Stereo Review for Ken C. Pohlman/Hammer labs test reports. He's probably THE most accurate reviewer that has a good ear AND the numbers to back it up.

How loud do you listen to music?

Percy

 

Well, the thing is im operating on a budget...so I cant go super high quality or anything, basically i just want to upgrade my stock system to sound a bit better, im not trying to make the best sounding system out there, you know what i mean? How loud do i listen to my music?? it totally depends on what kind of music it is...or what mood im in, I just want to hear tha bass...when i know theres bass. And i know that the solo barics can make some"noise" ive heard them in a couple cars.

Would the rockford 500.1 run the sub loud, and be able to run the front components? They are Infinity Reference (i know they arent the best speakers, bear with me i have a budget and ive already bought them ) Would the amp push them too much?

Nate

 

Ok, what do you guys think i found an auction on ebay, its a box similar to the one that Ken (2savvy) posted in this thread and it has 1 - 10'' Solobaric, and i know those types of boxes really produce. and the auction ended and he didnt sell it...he said he would sell it to me for $200, i think that sounds very reasonable considering the woofer new is more than that. Ive asked him how long he has had it and all of that....he said he has had it for about 4 months and it sounds great. He is selling it b/c he needs work done to his car.

What do you think? I told him i was very interested.

 

What are you talking about? There's no such thing as SQ or SPL amps (unless you want to count class D's). Unless you start clipping the amps significantly, you won't be able to tell the difference between 500 Pyramid watts and 500 McIntosh amps.

As for your most recent question, ES, no the 500.1 would not be able to run both your sub as well as your front speakers. It is a class D amp, and class D's aren't able to amplify frequencies over 250hz or so. They also have only one channel, meaning that you wouldn't get stereo reproduction from speakers (otherwise, you would probably see competitors using class D's for midbass).

If you are on a tight budget and need to run your whole system, I would recommend going with the Phoenix Gold 600.4 (I don't remember the exact model number, but it's their new Tantrum line, which is replacing the very underrated XS series). I still don't know the resistance of your sub, but the amp will put out 300 watts mono at either 2 or 4 ohms, so you will be able to use two channels bridged to power the sub and the other two channels to send 75 watts to each of your front speakers. Now if you feel like getting more power to the sub in the future, you can purchase a second amp and still be able to use the 600.4 on your front speakers alone by bridging one speaker to each side and turning the gains WAY down.

 

Model S10L7
Size (IN.) 10
Impedance (OHMS) 2 DVC, 4 DVC
Max Amplifier Power (WATTS) 600
Sensitivity (dB 1W/1M) 88
Frequency Response (HZ) 24-100

Maybe that info will help?

 

Nate,

That price for the Solo sounds good you should jump on that.. I know that a 12" Solo up here runs for about $500 - 600 retail CDN funds.. Just as long as he hasn't cracked the cone which is pretty hard to do but it can still be done with the Kicker then its a good deal.. I'm not a big fan of buying things without seeing it but if he sounds trustworthy then by all means get the woofer..

As for OHM value on that Solo it is most likely 4 ohm but you should be sure to ask the seller as it might be 8 ohm which means you would need more power to run that bad boy.. Like BabaBooey said a good 4 channel amp (Minimum 50 watts RMS per channel but 75 watts or more would be great) would be perfect for you since the rear channels would run the sub and the front speakers would work well off the front 2 channels.. Use some 4 to 8 gauge power wire and you should have a much better sounding car..

If you need help picking an amp just drop me an email or PM and i'll be happy to help you choose something inexpensive yet good quality.. Also Percy knows his stuff inside and out he would be able to recommend something good without breaking your wallet.. So pretty much get a price range you want to keep the amp at and that would be most helpful.. As for the 4th order box for that Solo just know it isn't a super tight bass it tends to get a bit sloppy unless you run an electronic crossover (Some amps have built in crossovers) or a very good passive crossover (This would be a cheaper solution)

Take care,

Ken

 

That info doesn't help at all as it gives the impedences that are available for the sub, but not the impedence of the individual sub that you're buying (it says 2 ohm DVC and 4 ohm DVC, we need to know which is the impedence of the sub that the man selling). However, the 600.4 amplifier that I mentioned would power either configuration. But regardless of which impedence the sub is, make sure that you ask us about how to wire it before you do it! Either a 4 ohm DVC or 2 ohm DVC configuration can toast an amp if wired improperly.

If you want my opinion on which setup to go with, I would get the 600.4 and one of the following:

1)Adire Audio Shiva- $113, they don't make 10" subs (http://www.adireaudio.com/Merchant2/...ory_Code=30.10)

2)a/d/s 31Xrs.2- $140 for 10", $170 for 12"
(http://www.carmedia1.com/adswoofers.html)

3)Image Dynamics IDQ- $109 for 10", $130 for 12"
(http://www.carmedia1.com/imagedynamicsidqwoofers.html)

The Shiva is probably the best choice overall, but it will require the largest enclosure of the three. It will definitely be the loudest, and SQ is about the same as the IDQ. As for the other two, they'll get equally loud, with the a/d/s beating out the IDQ in terms of SQ.