why Does My Car Subwoofer Sound WEAK? Biggest Car Audio Fail!

Here's a BIG mistake I see people make when buying a new car subwoofer and amplifier. It totally defeats the purpose of spending the money to add some bump your trunk ... and can easily be avoided by doing one simple thing!

[soldjahboy]

The biggest mistake is spending $700 on JL equipment.

[inco-gneito]

Not enough electrical to run everything, voltage dropping.

[jacob]

It’s not about the price point it’s about the quality and output

[chrisjones]

Lol, blame the amplifier 😂. Big D Wiz shaking his head RN

[johnnygeorgopoulos]

Straight lies.... I can name a legit handful of _good_ amps for $200± that would be more than enough to power four of those turd little W6's to their mechanical limits well before they thinking about clip 🙄

Now that thing you pointed out? Who knows what that thing is, you're the one selling it, how you going to trash talk something you yourself are selling, even worse, displaying on the floor right next to what _you_ consider your "premium" offering 🤣🙄

[houseoffire]

Im an old car audio guy from the late 80s into the early 2000s. As mentioned I'm an old car audio guy that also did custom one off hifi speaker builds as well ran pro sound so what im about to say may piss some people off...

Biggest fails are...

Back in the day we figured everything out with a pen, paper, tape measure, volt/ohm meter & calculater vs today its all online calculators etc. Which is great but a certain level of knowledge is lost that way.

2nd is people think sub bass starts off around 80hz. This is not true. Sub bass is defined as non-directional low end, in short... Meaning you cant tell where the subs are located. That happens around 50hz @24db x-over point.

3rd is that SQ & SPL cant go together which is absolutely false..! I acheived in a friends 91 Camaro 138db in the 1000w class he competed in back in 94. He took 3rd in SPL & SQ & that was with an old school Kicker 15, class A/B amps. Not crazy ass loud like todays SPL one note wonders but still loud. I was basicly able to use the rear hatch area as a folded horn persey without building a folded horn enclouser... Any old school installers should be able to relate what all that took within the install...

I could go on & on but dont see the need...

In my humble 360 sqft - 3240 cubic ft shop im running two GRS 8SW-4HE subs with 100w input. One left & one right in stereo... Yes I said stereo NOT mono. The reason is in some recordings the low end is panned left/right or right/left etc. When its summed into a mono signal much of the "music" is lost...

I used free software called WinISD to design my enclousers. Its the only software I use to check my old school ways. Pen & paper first then software... Long story short my 8" shop subs play 105db flat down to 25hz with an f3 & 22hz all with 100watt input per sub. Pretty damn good given the actual volume, they pressurize my shop fairly well..! Currently working on a design to run 4 of them in my wifes Toyota. So far it looks like I can acheive 120db+ with 450watts of input. Time will tell tho... I know other brands can play louder etc but thats not the point here..!

Pre-fab enclousers are designed to play loud from about 30hz on up because thats what sells..!

You can acheive SPL & SQ if you take the time to understand a drivers TS parimeters, enclouser design, F3 values etc...

One of my favorite subs was the JL10W6. Such a clean warm sounding driver & will prolly always remain in my top 5. But then again they were in custom enclousers built for my truck at the time.

My goal here is to get people to think of what could be, NOT what is. If you love music the end goal is SQ then comes SQ with SPL if that makes sense..?

If you wanna really test your system for both SQ & SPL quit listening to generated test tones from 30hz on up.

Wanna test your system..? Check out Time Warp by Erich Kenzel, No Absolute Time by Lean Luc Ponty & Welcome To The Machine by Pink Floyd, Sarrow is another one as well other Floyd songs...

Ive demo'ed my own systems using the above songs & albums along with other types & formats of music thats not engineered well, then had them listen to theirs with the same songs... 99% of the time they realized their one note wondered loud ass systems sounded like fart echoed in a toilet. Yes it was loud but sounded crappy...

[rr]

Price point in correlation to amp matching; is a way to mislead people into the shop eh?

[milesbachelor]

People like to start with the sub instead of the power supply. Clean power starts under the hood, but audio shops don’t sell auto parts.

[jayboogie]

JL audio ultimate mistakes are all of their prices.

I shouldn't have to decide between paying my house note and one of their W7s in a enclosure.

[enlightenCA]

Stereotypical salesman trying to get people to spend more money. That kicker warzone amp is a really good amp.

[redbaronrefining]

The biggest mistake is shopping by name instead of actual specs. I know this first hand as an ex woofer and amplifier designer/builder.

You can have the most ridiculous and well built amp or sub, but people don’t know what they’re looking at, and once they don’t hear a name brand, they don’t care much anymore. It’s a bunch of idiots shopping in the audio word that aren’t into SQL or SPL “and just want bass”

[ncg_gusto]

#1 fail, is letting a shop like you do the work. 😂 that $35k jl video is hilarious

[MrDeLeon]

$130 Precision Power Atom 1800.1 can push that W6 or W7 No Problem !!! do yourself and your customers a favor by getting quality amps at ANY price point

[RobertleeHutchison]

The number one mistake in car audio is listening to shop owners. Tell you to buy a. JL sub for $700.

[GalacticalAmbassador]

I got Rockville 2 15's and a Rockville amp. Didn't break the bank and hits 150db

[rondemeio]

There's an amp by power acoustik it's the BAMF 5500. It would burn them subs they only cost around $150 for that amp

[scamchan]

This guy is a walking commercial for his shop. Just remember that.

[RyanBassForLife]

Wrong it's not the price of an amp or subwoofer it's the quality of the product.

[prairiefarmer]

$200 amps don’t always mean they’re bad. As long as it’s outputting what they claim, there’s no reason it shouldn’t move that JL sub as much as a $1000 amp. The Hifonics Brutus amp I bought it high school has lasted well over a decade. Granted I was pushing two Rockford P2’s, so it was running about 70% of what it was rated for.

[robertdenaro]

Watts is watts my brother, there’s low price class D amps pushing some good wattage these days