Audio setup for the Porsche (please help)

[HighwayProwlerz]

Okay, I am going to have to sell off my JL 12w3v2 in favor of two 8" subs for my Porsche because the 12" sub just will not fit.

I have a Kicker 650.4 amp with DB5250 Polk component speakers. I need recommendations on what subs would be a good addition to my set-up and all that stuff. I don't want to spend a huge amount of money on these but I don't want garbage either.

Thank you.

[HighwayProwlerz]

What do you all think about these and would they work for my setup?

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-KICKER-C8-8-COMP-SUB-WOOFERS-SUBS-pair-400W-NEW_W0QQitemZ170063450173QQihZ007QQcategoryZ18802Q QrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

[MantaGreen97]

As a general rule, I would go up from the Kicker Comp to the CompVR in any given scenario. The CompVR is just that much better and isn't much more than the Comp.

In fact, you can get CompVRs on eBay at even less money that that, LOL. I didn't search for any Comps but searching for CompVRs I'm seeing lower prices, with similar ship rates...

You may want to try something a little more specialised particularly if you're trying to reproduce the sound you were getting with that JL sub... Perhaps something like these?
http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/product_info.php?cPath=1_21&products_id=29
[Link editied as I originally had the 7kv.2s by accident, link should now point to the 9kv.2]

Though they are a bit more pricey, of course. However these work very well, even in extremely small enclosures (sealed enclosures can be as small as .35cuft!).

Another thing is 8" are pretty small. I'm not at all saying you can't get good sound (or even lots of SPL) using one or more 8" drivers (you can given advanced drivers and installs); but typically, for the average/"normal" install, 8" subs might not sound as nice as you hoped. Can you fit 10" drivers in there? Or would that still be too large/take up more space than you'd like?

But at minimum, I'd probably go with the CompVRs--again seemingly cheaper than those Comps, and a good bit better :)

[Mr03SC/T]

check out the pioneer shallow mount subs...they sound amazing.

[SilverBane]

If you are looking for good 8's I recommend ED 9kv.2's. Awesome subs and last time I checked they were 55$ with discount.

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by SilverBane
If you are looking for good 8's I recommend ED 9kv.2's. Awesome subs and last time I checked they were 55$ with discount.
Oh shoot, it's the 9kv.2s that are the 8"? I posted the wrong link, above then...

I'll have to edit. Stupid eD and their 7, 9, 11, 13 nonsense, lol.

[kicker187]

if u don't have boxes already i recommend these for 8" http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-07-KICKER-S8L5-SOLOBARIC-8-4-OHM-DVC-SUBWOOFER_W0QQitemZ290126928874QQihZ019QQcategoryZ 3291QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[SilverBane]

The 9Kv's are still on sale.

Gotot he ed website and under search, type 'forum'. They will pop up.

[HighwayProwlerz]

In the 944 there are side cargo areas in the rear deck that will fit a 8" sub perfectly, one on each side. There is no room for anything bigger unfortunately without a lot of customization, which I don't want to go through.

Thank you all for your recommendations.

I have the depth to mount these I found on eBay, would you recommend these for my setup? I like the price of these also.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170063450173&sspagename=ADME:B:AAQ:US:1

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by HighwayProwlerz
I have the depth to mount these I found on eBay, would you recommend these for my setup? I like the price of these also.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170063450173&sspagename=ADME:B:AAQ:US:1
How much depth do you have? Because as mentioned the CompVRs are appearing cheaper on eBay and they are 4.25" depth (.25" more). And the CompVRs are way better than the Comp as I mentioned.

Here's one link to the CompVRs, for less than those Comps...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300119797582

If you have the extra .25" depth available why buy the lower model line for more money?

$79.99 + $38 shipping = 117.99 for two Comp 8"
$72.99 + $32.50 shipping = 105.49 for two CompVR 8", which makes it $12.50 less for drivers that are way better.

Originally posted by SilverBane
The 9Kv's are still on sale.

Gotot he ed website and under search, type 'forum'. They will pop up.
Oh wow, cool. Good call on that one SilverBane ;)

At $55/each, these are a great idea as well. The 9kv.2s are just a tiny bit deeper than the CompVRs at 4.375", it looks like.

Discounted link is here:
http://www.edesignaudio.com/edv2/product_info.php?products_id=334

If you need to be a forum member for that discount, Kaitlyn, just register at ICIX.com and you should be good (though you might not even have to do that).

Personally I would pick the 9Kv.2s--you can even pick between the .2s and the .3s (silver or black cone) for the same price, it seems...

One final note--make sure you get the correct impedance drivers for the way you're going to use your amp. Are you only going to be using two channels of the amp to drive the subs (with the other two channels driving the component set)? If that's the case you'll want two subs that each have a total impedance of 2 ohms, for maximum power output.

I.e. You're after two, dual voice coil subs with 4-ohm coils; or,
two, single voice coil subs with 2-ohm coils.

[HighwayProwlerz]

Okay, sounds great. I have a Kicker 650.4 amp that is currently powering DB5250's in the front (one channel each) and a JL 12w3v2 sub in the rear (2 channel bridged).

I do have the extra depth for those other subs, no problem.

I will be hooking up two subs on two channels and the other two channels will be powering the components.

I like the price of those CompVRs... would those work the way I want to hook them up to my amp?

You're most helpful!!

[HighwayProwlerz]

Here is the details on my amp:

http://shopper.cnet.com/car-amplifiers/kicker-kx-650-4/4014-6726_9-30785840.html

[DSMMAN]

Originally posted by Mr03SC/T
check out the pioneer shallow mount subs...they sound amazing.

As do the new Kicker Shallow Subs

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by HighwayProwlerz
Okay, sounds great. I have a Kicker 650.4 amp that is currently powering DB5250's in the front (one channel each) and a JL 12w3v2 sub in the rear (2 channel bridged).
Heh, yeah I remember ;) I was just wondering if you had changed anything about this (I see this stuff is coming out of the GA you're selling, so I wasn't sure if you were planning on using another amp for the speakers or if you were just keeping the one amp...) :)

Originally posted by HighwayProwlerz
I do have the extra depth for those other subs, no problem.

I will be hooking up two subs on two channels and the other two channels will be powering the components.

I like the price of those CompVRs... would those work the way I want to hook them up to my amp?

You're most helpful!!
Yeah, the CompVRs will work for you, you'll just need to make sure you're buying two of the 4-ohm DVC version. They come in both 4-ohm DVC and 2-Ohm DVC (I believe) and you'll want the former type because of the way you'll be wiring the subs to the amp.

As for wiring the subs to the amp you actually have two options that will net you basically the same power (there are slight differences in reactive and resistive loads but I won't get into that)...

What you want to do is either of the following:
1. Wire each sub's two coils in parallel with themselves to give you a 2-ohm total load on each sub. Then wire each sub from there, to each channle of the amp. (This will represent a 2-ohm stereo load to the amp.)

2. Wire each sub's two coils in series with themselves giving you an 8-ohm total load on each sub. Then wire both subs from there in parallel and connect those speaker leads to the 2-channels where it indicates "bridge" on the amp. (This will represent a 4-ohm bridged mono load to the amp.)

Either of those methods will extract the maximum power out of your amp given two 4-ohm DVC drivers. ;)

I would check on what the total will run you for the two elemental designs drivers as well. At $55/each it's a great deal. $110 would be the total but you should check on what shipping would be. Overall it might not be much more than the Kickers, and they would likely sound better as well.

Edit: Keep in mind eD products are covered by 5 year warranty (used be 3 looks like they upped it!) so that's something to consider as well.

One last question, will these subs end up going into enclosures or do you mean the subs are going to fit into the Porsche without using a box? Meaning the drivers would be running IB (Infinite Baffle) or what is often referred to as "free-air".

[HighwayProwlerz]

First of all, thank you for the help with the setup. I will consider the other ones. $110 for a pair is a good deal.

Now, to answer your question about mounting. In the rear hatch area of the 944 there are cargo areas on either side of the spare tire well in the rear. The cargo carpet covers the cargo area and flaps on either side fold up to allow access to the cargo areas. On the flaps there is hard fiberboard that could be cut with a jigsaw and you can just drop the subs in there. The space is about 18" deep x 10" wide x 12" long and is odd shaped, almost like saddlebags I guess you could call them. I know other 944 guys that mounted 8" subs in there with no problems. I currently have a Pioneer 10 disc CD changer on one side right now, but that's coming out.

[MantaGreen97]

Originally posted by HighwayProwlerz
The cargo carpet covers the cargo area and flaps on either side fold up to allow access to the cargo areas. On the flaps there is hard fiberboard that could be cut with a jigsaw and you can just drop the subs in there. The space is about 18" deep x 10" wide x 12" long and is odd shaped, almost like saddlebags I guess you could call them. I know other 944 guys that mounted 8" subs in there with no problems. I currently have a Pioneer 10 disc CD changer on one side right now, but that's coming out.
Oh okay I get it. So those "cargo areas" are enclosed then eh? So they essentially make a sealed box for each driver like that it sounds like.

You're looking at (by my calculations) 1.25 cu.ft., gross. per enclosure if that's the case. If you have that much volume per "enclosure"/cargo area, you might want to stick with the Kicker CompVRs. The eD 9Kv.2 are really optimised for small enclosures and looking at their website they recommend a maximum sealed enclosure of 0.5 cu.ft. (I'm assuming that's net). The driver displacement is only about 0.05 cu.ft., meaning even with driver displacement you'd still be at over 2x the maximum recommended volume.

I was thinking with limited driver size you also had a really limited enclosure size, but that seems not the case.

I'm not sure how the 9Kv.2s would sound in that big an enclosure (would have to put the parameters through WinISD), and eD does not recommend going lager than .5 as mentioned. The CompVR's maximum rec. enclosure size, on the other hand, is showing as 1.8 cu.ft. gross (with reduced power handling). So those seem like they would work out fine with the cargo areas.

Kicker and eD do have different ideas of what constitutes sq for a maximum enclosure size, but given the large difference in recommended maximum, it looks like the Kicker drivers will perform better (and for that matter I don't think the 9Kv.2s will sound good in that large a sealed enclosure).

One other thing I'm worried about is what are the cargo area "walls" made from? Are they just sheet metal? Or are the walls constructed of some other material?

[HighwayProwlerz]

The cargo areas are pretty much sealed yes. It is just sheet metal but I could line them with something if that would help.

So you are recommending the CompVRs for my space...

What should I use inside along the sheet metal?

[MantaGreen97]

Hmm I noticed you might be selling this stuff now... Ashame :(

But if you do end up keeping it, yeah the CompVRs look like they will be better for sure.

As for what to put along the metal, I was going to say maybe make a box of MDF within the cargo spaces, but since you mentioned it was irregularly shaped I think, that might not be possible. In that case, several layers of sound damping mat like Raamat or Dynamat, etc., will be your best bet I think. Just trying to avoid resonances by doing that really. You will also want to fill the airspace with polyfill enough to take up around 50% of the volume in there.

You said other people have done that in their same-model Porsche? Did any of them complain and/or modify/dampen the cargo spaces to compensate?

[HighwayProwlerz]

I have not asked other 944 owners about modifying the cargo spaces to compensate.

I am just selling the sub. I had been going back and forth on selling the stuff and no one seems interested in it, I am not sure why.

So I am going to put the amp and the components in the Porsche and replace the JL 12w3 with the two 8's you suggested.

[HighwayProwlerz]

And yes, it is irregularly shaped for the most part.

[JeremiahCoffel]

If you could fit them, I would go with a single RL-i 8" sub, or the Kicker L5 8".

[HighwayProwlerz]

Thanks for the suggestions!!!