Truck Subs

[PHOENIX]

12's behind the seat will probly never have enough air space. Unless you buy speakers designed for small enclosures (there are many out there). Kenwood makes one that sound great in small enclosures its 700watts. I do notice that the 12's do not sound very "clean" when the sit is down, but when your driving and the seat is up they sound great. If your not after the hard bass I would go with the 10's.

[michael2617]

I have two MTX amps under the seat, two 6 1/1" in the doors and 4 5 1/4 in the cab corners and 1 twelve in a sealed box behind the seat.  I have no problems at all with clarity, loudness, deepness! I'm 6' 0" and have the seat all the way back and the sub touches the back of the seat a little but not enough to distort the sound.

My buddy has the same model truck and has two HE2 from Fosgate behind his seat (chamber box with ports).  So it all depends on what you like. But one twelve or two will definitely work.  

btw, my box is small enough to have three 12's behind the seat!  I have to measure it to give you the dimension but it about 1.25 cubic inches. 15" tall, 7 bottom depth, 5 top, and 14 width!

[ChevyGuy]

I have 2 orion subs that are 600 each and they have no problem lookin for air

[camel]

i don't really liek the sound of kenwoods, or fosgates thats just my personal preferance. i like to stick with jl, or phoenix gold and mmats. stuff that hits hard and goes low, and can take alot of power. jl 10w0's can handle around 400wrms, even thought they are rated at 125 wrms. i have just had the best experience with these products. and have heard and seen bad things about most other companies products.

[PHOENIX]

Camel, Always stick with the brands you trust. but one thing I have learned over the years about sterio equipment, is that the installation in a BIG parts of the performance. The reason why most good name brand sterio systems do not sound great is because of a poor install.

Not enough Power, Not a good ground, equipment is not 100% compatible, incorrect wire sizes, wire routing locations, etc.

You pretty much pay for what you get. Although some brands can produce some nice products for cheap. JVC for examples makes some pretty good amps. They have an amp out right now for around $200 that is rated at 560 watts max. 2 Ch (@ 2 ohms.) Now of course this is not $1 a watt, but this is a great amp. Also Jensen makes some pretty good little amps, which are great for running smaller speakers. You will hear alot of people talk bad about these amps. But from someone who paid $100 for a 300w 2ch, its one of the best amps I have ever bought. It has NEVER turned off on me, or got too hot. But the power it produces may not be as great as a better brand, you might not ever even notice the difference.

[camel]

one thing the cheapers amp companies do is overrate there products, and give there numbers at low ohmage so they look better then they really are. and most of them aren't even 2 ohm stable in mono. my phoenix gold xs 2200 puts out 200wrms at 4 ohms, but its actual reading is closer to 220wrms, where as your jensen or jvc won't be putting out what they say, and it won't be good clean power. distorsion isn't good on subwoofers, they don't like it at all. same with underpower, more times then not people blow woofers because there amps don't put out enought power, and they clip and burn the voice coils. crappy subs u might be able to get away with, but not cheap amps. i have owned a jensen amp, and it was alright. for the price i guess it was ok. but the big names will never ever let u down. its all about knowledge, visit an audio forum u wil learn alot more then i will ever be able to teach u. www.audioforum.freeservers.com/
this is where i go, these guys know tons and can do anything, one guy has his own sub out now. check it out, and ask any questions u want. u won't find more knowledgable guys anywhere i don't think.

[JaredM]

I have 2 MTX boxes (12" subs), and two pioneer 4way 6x9's I have three amps (all kenwood) and have 1 amp running the left and one running the right channel of the MTX's and the other amp running the 6x9'x, in the center of the MTX's I have a cd changer all controled by a pioneer 3 source head unit. Let me tell you, this thing rocks the house like you would not believe. I am not really into that thumbing base like you hear in some cars going down the street, but rather the entire range of lows mids and highs.
I built custom boxes for the 6x9's and have them mounted in the little side area behind the seat (the side between the rear of the cab and the side of the cab)
Everything fits behind the seat like it was made that way from the factory.......just enough space for everything. All the amps are located under the seat.

I think that i have a picture of it somewhere, I will scan it and upload it later when I have a chance.

[camel]

it sounds really awesome, and then i could make my box longer for say 3 10's, that would kick hard. still not a big fan of the 12's in a truck, they just sound sloppy and all the top of the line ones are way to big to put behind the seat. hmm i like this 3 subs behind the seat idea. maybe 3 10 w6's and a nice mmats d200hc. oh yea

[ChevyGuy]

i have 2 boss amps and my 600 we checked it one day its a 4 channel and with it bridged it was pushin about 1000watts and my 655 which i just purchased not to long ago we havent even checked it and its pushin more power than my 600

[PHOENIX]

Camel, most people here aren't looking to put together a competition system. So price is a big deal. I do agree with you if your going to spend the money buy the better name brands they wont let you down. But if your not looking to dump a small fortune in your sterio system, some of the other brands will not let you down. The quality may not be as great, but most poeple cant even tell the difference. As for Phoenix Gold they make a great product although I know a guy who spent a few grand on Phoenix Gold products for his truck. He wasnt very happy with what he got for what he paid. But it was great sounding system.

I do agree MOST of the cheaper amps will just be a waste of money. But from my expierence (& friends) with Jensen and JVC amps that we have owned, its not a bad product as long as you install it right and dont overload it. When I talk about the Jensen amps I would only use it for smaller speakers not SUBs.

[Tracy Focht]

Actually, 12's are really easy to put into these kind of trucks. And 12's can sound awesome if done correctly. But it will have several things to take into consideration. The quality of the woofer, amp,wire and overall install.

[MTCK]

Hey guys, I've messed with a lot of stuff and have a few ideas that might help people.  I know everyone has their budget, but if you spend your money in the right place you can do pretty good for not a whole lot of dough.  When you get a deck, just make sure that it has a decent level of pre-amp output.  I know back when I started messing with this stuff, I got a Pioneer deck with only 500mV output (1/2 a volt) which is too low.  Look for 2V and up and you'll be fine.  It's really hard to keep noise out of the system with less than that.  Next place to spend your money is on your AMP.  If you need to save money, use your amp as your baseline, spend as much as you can here, then get the speakers to match.  One way to find out how much power you're gunna get (if it doesn't come with a certified test sheet) is to look at the fuse rating on the amp.  I'm running an older MTX 2160 and have been nothing but happy with it.  It was pretty darn cheap (330 bucks) and rated at 75x2 RMS at 4 ohms, and 12.5 volts.  Test sheet on the amp put it at over 550 watts RMS bridged at 14.4 volts input.  This amp has 2x30 amp fuses, so 60 total, for a baseline.  I ran a set of Kicker 10" full range boxes (ported) for a couple years and liked them.  Another thing to think about is how you wire your system.  Now I have a pair of JL 10w3's in a custom made box, seperate chambers, sealed, with the voice coils on the sub wired in series, and the subs themself in parrallel.  This gives me just a little below 4 ohms for the box, mono I believe.  You run a lot more current through your amp when you bridge it or run it at 2 ohms.  Lower risistance = more current.  Ah, as far as the 10 v. 12 discussion, I'll just say that I couldn't be happier with my 10's.  A good sub with good power is most important, and these things are great, the go LOW hit hard, and are very tight no matter what I'm listening to.  BTW, I have a Kenwood 4 channel amp up front, bridged to a pair of JL VR-600 component's in the door (6") and an alpine head unit.  

So I guess to sum up all that rambling, get a deck with decent output voltage, a good amp, and go from there.

[ChromeHed]

I recently put a 12" Memphis Studio Series in a ported truck enclosure in my 1981 GMC Sierra Classic. In doing this, I learned that less is more. Powered by a Nakamichi PA-1004, this Memphis pounds like there is no tomorrow. Any more than this would be too much, in terms of distortion and all out discomfort

[jason]

i'm running a aiwa 35x4 cd player. i've got a orion cobalt 260 what amp. i bought two 10 inch orion cobalt subs. had a custom box made with a place to mount the amp be hind the drivers seat. its a lot eiser to get to. i'm runingn 10 gauge wire to the subs. and 10 guage for ground and power. in the custom box i took some old mtx mid ranges from some 10 inch full range boxes. i had the box maker hook up everything. my subs are running in 2ohm load. i have inline crossovers for the mid ranges so i dont get any lows from them. my tens are ported with 2 3inch by 9 inch port tubes. when turned up to 45 out of 80 so a little more than half way it will rumble my seat like nothing else.  they can reach the lows of a 12 but hit like some 8's.
my total price
cd  110
amp 250
subs 200  for 2
box 100
carpted  and excessoirs
60

total 720 american
not to bad
orion kicks ass

[old84gold]

i have a 10 inch kicker comp in a truck box. it and the amp, which is mouted to the back of the cab, fit behind my seat when i had a bench. i also have a set of 6x9 s back there. i could still move the seats all the way back. now that i have buckets, they still fit and sound great. optimum leg room, too. i am 6 foot 7 and i fit fine.