I wanna compete!!

[Bass101]

I wanna compete for SPL. How do I go about it? I ask people but nobody will give me a straight answer. I've never been metered before and I know I can hit at least 150 with music. But I'll never know for sure.

C'mon, Dave help me out here.

[car audio dave]

first youve gotta decide if you wanna compete for SPL (sound pressure level) or SQ (sound quality).

for SPL its all about loudest dBs, which is what it sounds like you wanan do. theres several leagues out there, dBdrag, IdBL, USAC, SLAP and more. check around on websites, try www.iasca.com or search SPL competitions and youll find some websites. they list locations and dates.

what do you have? some leagues calssify you by amount of subs, others rate you by power. beyond that, they look at mods done IE: how many batteries, upgraded alternator, so on. this prevents johnny nobody with a single xplode sub from going up against someone with 10 subs and 5 batteries.

[Pte Socks]

your certain you cant hit 150? jeeze youd have to have a pretty killer system to hit that.. id say about a 8-9000$ cdn setup man. that is.. if the mic is setup on the seat. i just recently went to a car show and guys who were running a 3500$ cdn setup ( that means sub, box and amp it does not include installs and decks )could only hit 137's and some 136's...

[Bass101]

Went to IASCA.com and got my form to register. Thanks, Dave. BTW, I want to compete for SPL, with three 12s and two 15s and about three thousand watts. Sealed boxes and one extra battery.

[car audio dave]

whats your system consist of? 3000 watts means absolutely nothing to me with all of those sony anps running around out there.

[Pte Socks]

hehehe i hear that dave.. check the rms rating on your amps and subs man

[Bass101]

Fosgate Punch Power 1500bd. 2 of them. 3 12's, 2 15's JL Audio. They are a couple years old. The 12s are w3, the 15s are w4. 12s are running at 2.67 ohms, 15s at 4 ohms. So I am only getting about 750 or so to the 15s. Thats okay, they would pop with any more power, they are maxed out.
Not the best setup, but its loud.

[matts]

Some of my friends at my local stereo shop recommended me to not mix different size subs. they said the subs would be fighting each other. im not sure what they meant by that but i didn't want to drop the money for 15's and 12's and it sound like crap. so i went with 2 12" square kicker solo baric. then i upgraded to the 18" for my girlfriends car. and i put one of the 12's in my truck

[jakebeez]

Yeah, I'm confused why your using 2 different size subs in your system, I'd say run either all 12"s or all 15"s, theres a thing called phasing and different size subs playing off different amounts of power on the same frequencys will cancel each other out and sound bad. I'd say with 2 12W3s and 1 of those bd1500 you could hit around 148 in a ported box, If your going for spl I'd really recommend using a ported box

You dont have to spend all that much money to compete, like caraudiodave said there are different classes. I have less than $750 dollars in my sub/amp combo (1 15" shocker 3 getting about 2200 watts from a lanzar d3000m) all day, in a 3.5 cubic foot ported box and I know I can hit over 145 db, a guy with my same set up is hitting 150.3, his box is a 4 cubic foot box however.

Go to www.termpro.com and look at the forums/message boards, theres all sorts of great people on there that will help you. You got some good equipment, compete, you'll have fun.

[Pte Socks]

hey jake.. i think your way off in your estimates man.. i have 2 12w6's and i can only hit 130.4 in my sealed box.. no way he can hit 148 with w3's man.. sorry but those estimates are way off. Ive heard killer systems and they only run at 145 or 150 db's and those systems have 4 or so 15" subs with 1000$+ installs

[jakebeez]

Hey, thanks for the honesty, but your the one thats off. I'll tell you why if you want to know. I've been around the scene for years so dont take it as an insult, take it as constructive criticism.
Step 1, if you take 1 sub and double it with the same amount of watts you gain 3 decibles(3 dbs), if you take the same sub, keep the same power, and throw it in a ported box instead of sealed...tuned to the right frequency, you gain 3 dbs. So take your w6s for example (the w6 have better SQ the w3 have better SPL). You said you hit 130.4 in sealed boxes, thats "decent". Take the same set up in ported boxes your at 136.4 db, (say your running 1 amp to both subs, double it and run 1 amp per sub, your hitting 142.4). There you go man..... just got you over the 140 db mark and you gained 12 dbs, by spending less than $300 bucks.

go to www.splenduro.com theres a lot of canadians on that page. Your running JL audio which is "good", but for the price, theres a lot better subs out there man. For what you paid for your subs alone, I can get 1 sub and an amp, and beat you at the spl game. I dont want to sound rude, I'm just here to help.

[car audio dave]

jake, im gonna disagree yet again. youre assuming too much in your numbers. you forgot to take into account vehicle size, speaker specs, and of course, real world experience. yes, mathimatically it would happen, but thats jsut mathematically.

also, JL might not be the loudest subs out there, but they are best combo (SQ, SPL) subs for the money, any class. the w6s can really pound if they were installed to and were powered right. my setup, if installed for SPL, would hit high 130s maybe 140. thats if it were set up for SPL, which its not.

[Pte Socks]

jake i have to disagree with you.. first off.. im running TWO subs.. not the one.. so that would bring me up to 133.4 if you put it in a ported box and you make the setup right. And yes i know if i add another amp so im running 1 amp per sub I would have louder but i also have other problems. First.. the w6 runs at 6 ohms.. wired up, they would be running at 3 ohms.. and my amp is a 2 ohm amp.. thus id lose power due to the high number of ohms. Second.. for 300 dollars id get shit all. Wanna know why? Simple.. a custom ported box would run me 100$ due to the fact that it is customised and that i still would want access to a large part of my trunk. Second.. for me to run another mrd-m500 it would cost me another 650$ to get another. These are all canadian prices but compard to your weak dollar.. its a lot closer than it used to be. Thus your explanation to get into the 140's with only 300$ has no bassis.. unless you do everything yourself and even then.. the amp runs more than 300$ us man.

[jakebeez]

Ofcourse your right on the first couple points caraudiodave, all that "gain of 3db by doing this, by doing that" is mathmatically, not always real world, theres too many factors, and a big one like you said is type of car, hatchbacks and SUVS have proven to be the best, most pure competition cars are CRX's.
The JL part about them being the best sq/spl mix for the money, pure bs, and I say this because with all the subs out there, it all comes down to opinion, and the "for the money part" well jl subs are way overpriced in my opinion, and the opinion of a lot of people, OPINION. The new w7 I will give you is one of the best SQ/SPL woofers, but it also costs around $700 bucks per sub, for $350 bucks, you can get an Image Dynamics IDMAX which gets pretty damn close to just as loud, and sounds just as good if not better....

Now for the #'s thing, there are a lot of different mics out there, I've heard people hitting 147 on a termlab, and with the same setup on the same day hitting only 145 on an audiocontrol. I can give you emails from numerous people that spent less than $700 US dollars on there setups, many running 1 sub, that have hit over 145dbs. Ofcourse they all buy there equipment online, hence the cheaper prices, it'd probably be around $1000-1200 if bought in car audio shops.

[jakebeez]

I'd highly recommend (if you dont or didnt already) you check out www.elitecaraudio.com and www.termpro.com

termpro for if you want to compete, elite car audio if you want help (although you'll get a lot of help at termpro as well)

[jakebeez]

Hey Unrealoaded I was just looking through some posts and saw yours about your day at the db drag comp. We really misunderstood each other. Your #s are pretty close, the 140.4 you probably would of gotten if your mic was placed on the dash sounds appropriate. All but 1 league I believe puts the mics on the dash, although I think a few were debating on changing to the seat. I was gonna say 130 on the dash with those subs and amp sounded ridiculous. I guess I see what you mean now. If you really want to get serious, I'd say build your own ported box, I'm sure with both of those subs ported you would probably hit a couple decibles higher....so 148 for the 2 12w3s ported properly is definitely a possibility.

[Pte Socks]

Well yes Jake, that could be very true.. The position of the mic allows for much different ratings and what you hit and such. But once again.. id have to disagree with JL subs and how in your opinion they are over priced. I know even for a simple setup with w0's a system can still move pretty good and those subs are quite cheap.. hehe like you said.. its all a matter of opinion.

[jakebeez]

Hey, well actually my second set-up was 2 12W0s in my silverado getting 150 watts a piece, I got them for $150 shipped (for the pair) and honestly they sounded very good, they didnt get as loud as I wanted, but looking back on it now I really like the tone that they played on, they hit deep for sealed box subs and they were a good value. I'm just saying JL when bought from an authorized dealer is way overpriced in my opinion, if you can get them online for a reasonable price then they are very well worth it, but around where I live, the shops sell them for ridiculous amounts of money, and the only thing they tell me is instead of a 2 year online warranty, I get 3 years, which doesnt help me considering I've changed my setup every year.

[car audio dave]

jake,
1) JL changed warranty now. no warranty for online buys and 1 year if bought from authorized dealer.

2) i disagree about the w7. thats the only JL sub i dont think is worth its weight in crap. i really dont like it, especially for the price. i find every other sub in their line up to be a better value than others. example: MTX subs compared, JL subs same price are better. putting the Eclipse aluminums against the new w6, w6 is cleaner sounding and more efficient on power. w7 vs titanium from eclipse, i dunno, i dont really like either of them. IDmax is best IMO.

and yes it is all about opinion.

[jakebeez]

Yeah JLs really starting to go down hill. I dont think they ever offered a warranty online, but a lot of websites say they'll cover the subs for 1 or 2 years for defects and such. Damn 1 year from authorized dealer? thats not a good way to promote your product.

Yeah my favorite woofers (not in particular order)

IDMAX, RE XXX, Shocker, Beyond audio inhuman
thats all I can think of right now, ofcourse those are all alittle pricey but there the best out right now, then theres

alpine type r, jl w3/w6, RE HC, and others that are all the best subs for the least amount of money.

Rockford fosgate, mtx, jensen and those goodguys brands rarely impress me, besides there amps (that still discludes jensen ofcourse, hehe)

[car audio dave]

huh??? goodguys brands. what do you mean?

and JL is NOT going down hill in my opinion. they are doing the exact opposite.

[jakebeez]

Hey, let me rephrase just for you caraudiodave, hehe

"JL audio in my opinion is not going anywhere"
same with fosgate and mtx and all those other good guys brands.

what I mean by that is the commerically availible stuff they all sell that you see whever you got, MTX, Rockford Fosgate, JL, Alpine, JBL, you know

JL is one now they didnt used to be, same with Eclipse at some places.

[Bass101]

Okay, guys. Been gone for about a week...
Let me clear a couple things up. I know that using different size woofers equals cancellations. I just found a couple good deals on some woofers and bought em. I throw em in my car, now I can't even see what kind of car is driving in front of me.
I talked to one guy that clocked in at 158db. He showed me what his system could do. Loud. I think my system is even louder. Even with the sealed boxes. How about some support? All I can see are arguments.

[sound_xtreme]

hey jake, shocker is the shit. I met the guy that started it. I think he is from Defiance Ohio.(about 10 minutes from me). Anyways, I have heard nothing but good things about shocker and I myself owned one. I have never really cared for JL, most stores are overpriced(unless you search around online), and there are just a lot of other subs out there that are better and the same price IMO.

[priebe871]

ur guys systems suck i am running one 12 inch orion sub and one memphis amp about a total of 600 watts i am competed and hit 143.3

[tommymcc]

on which mic?

ps, don't be such an ass

[tommymcc]

also, which competition? db drag, isaci, usac? what class? was the engine running? what kinda box?

also, your saying our stuff sucks, your running memphis, that stuff is worse than audiobahn, i saw a guy with 10 memphis subs and amps get wooped by one rockford power 15

[matts]

:rofl: what a turd. i'll put my one lil' ole' sub against yours when you get ready. and my amp is only pushing 400 watts at 4 ohm :D

[priebe871]

i am not being an ass i am just telling u somthing is wrong with ur systems andmemphis is better than audiobahn. audiobahn sucks they charge outrageous prices for there shit because the put flames on them. trust me man i work at an car audio place(not like best buy)i work at darrlys car audio which is all systems alarms etc.and we dont even carry autobahn because they suck

[tommymcc]

i used to work at an audio place before i joined the AF and the memphis rep came down and his stuff was total crap

[priebe871]

well it is not crap any more they are becoming to be a very good

[tommymcc]

what is the THD and SNR?

[saltystix]

Well to see if what I have sucks...

Do Polk Momo 12's Suck? The ones in the custom fiberglass boxes.

And I have a MA Audio Amp...

I dont care if you say it sucks, just wondering.

[car audio dave]

it doesnt suck, but spoeaking of overpriced...polk momos are way up there for the quality.

and to say that someones system SUCKs is retarded. its all relative. mine sucks to some because its not ground shaking conidering what i spent...but im not into loud, im into clean. IMO, people who have a bunch of subs and stock speakers have shitty systems, but at the competitions they win, so according to them their system rocks.

ITS ALL RELATIVE!!!!

[DowmaceWH99]

yep, my system probably sucks to alot of people because of the way it's tuned, I'm using a bandpass system, and Type R 6x9"s and 4x6"s.
It sounds very very clear, and you can feel the music but it doesn't shatter windows, if I wanted it to, I could make the single audiobahn bleed eardrums but I don't, because then it sounds like crap just hearing bass

[Pte Socks]

Wow, this thread was revived from the dead hehehe! I see my old name in here even. Ok, I cant even remember what this thread started out as. If I remember correctly, the guy asking questions has 3 JL 15's and 2 12's? Or something like that. Probably the best bet I can give for advice in winning an SPL comp is first, get a ported box. A proper one, especially for JL's tend to add quite a bit more bass and really hit the meters well. That and make sure you have a really good ground or maybe even several grounds. This is just the basics but that, coupled with proper tuning of yoru amp, can make quite a difference in sound level.