what subs to go with!

Systems

ok, here for awhile i have been tearing my hair out. i have blown 2 12" polk dx subs which ive got the ok to send back. I have been plotting many ideas for box's for my replacement subs and i just dont know what to do. I like a lot of bass, i dont have a lot of room, and i want it to look cool. ALSO i dont really know what i CAN get in exchange for my subwoofers. ive got a plan for 2 gnx 12's, 12 DX 12's, and one momo (cuz i doubt they'd give me two, but id settle for one ). Im all about sound quality and dynamic sound. so let me know what i should do, and also what i can get for my woofers. Im open to new ideas, just let me know! and if the box is cool enough i will slap it on the internet for everyone to see!!!!!


The wattage i have to deal with : 100 watts x 2 rms @ 13.8V, 400 watts x 1 rms @ 13.8V, 200 x 2 rms @ 2ohms @ 13.8V

PoweredByDodge

with only 400 watts into 4 ohms to work with, i would go with one momo 10 or one momo 12.

if you really are a bass lover -- you haven't got much choice -- the gnx will NOT do a heavy bass load -- they may give good sound quality / sound shaping / imaging / whatever at 150 watts - 175 watts each, but they will not take the heavy power to give you any real bump.

i'll still bet you 10 bucks polk corp. has a couple dx 12's left in warranty repair overstock.

anyway --- with your power that you've got i dont think 2 dx's would be the way to go anyway -- i really think your best sound will be to dump all 400 watts into one momo 10 or 12.

if you take the 1 momo in exchange for two dx's -- try to get something else out of them as well -- two dx's are like 169.99 + 169.99 = 340 bucks... 1 momo is only 220.00 at most authorized retailers (circuit / crutchfield / etc). unless you do the momo that is already in the custom see through polk audio box (which looks pretty darn cool i must say -- its a nice lookin box), because that "pre made" setup is like 350 for the sub and box -- honestly, if i were you, i'd push for that. don't let a company intimidate you. if they cannot provide a repair or replacement on a product, they should give you the next best item UPWARD in quality (momo)... not DOWNWARD (Gnx).

few months ago there were guys havin problems with momo's that were dying on them (the old style with the red center cap) and these guys said "well.. one of my two momo's died.. so i sent the one back to you and the replacement momo you sent me was the new style with the silver cone ... so my momo's dont match" -- to which polk replied (in these very forums) "send the other momo back (the one that was perfectly still good) and we'll send you another one of the new style so you've got two that match" [not direct quote but paraphrase]... so if they're willing to GIVE AWAY woofers for no reason other than cosmetics, i dont see why they cant give away woofers for Warranty Repair. Know what I'm sayin?

swapping the gnx for the dx is an absolute joke. I can get polk GNX subwoofers brand new for 30 dollars each on ebay -- and in stores like circuit city / crutchfield they're going "two for one" so you get two for like 120 bucks (60 each).

even when they were being discontinued, the DX never got any cheaper than 99 bucks each, and you'd be hard pressed to find them on the internet now for any cheaper than 100 bucks (new), believe me, i tried hard.

Thom

Once again you're confused- you must be thinking of GXR, not GNX. The GNX was the replacement for DX, and the GXR is our entry level sub that Circuit runs "BOGO."

The GNX subs in the gray Escape always surprise people- and they're GNX 128's, so they're only getting half the power the amp (Alpine MRV- T757) is capable of. We used 8 ohm drivers so that additional drivers can be added at shows without dropping the impedance too low for the amp. With just (2) GNX128's with only 100 or so watts each, it's quite impressive.

PoweredByDodge

um.. no -- the GXR is refuse. honestly, the surround give it an "extreme" 1/1000000000 th of an inch excursion and that composite cone just makes it the "most rigid" in the industry right? bleeding with sarcasm

you can seell the GXR to 15 and 16 yr old high schoolers who have 100 bucks in their pocket and walk in to circuit city saying "I want two subs, an amp, wire, and everything i need for 200 bucks". but you're not going to be able to sell it to anybody with a brain.

the GNX on the other hand is a respectable entry level subwoofer. for somebody that wants a non-wallet breaking system that sounds pretty darn good -- two gnx's will do that job.

However, don't mistake the fact that they are ok for saying they can replace the dx - you cannot put 300 - 400 rms on the GNX... you could safely put that much on the DX. you cannot give good bass extention and full bodied sound to a small 2 door coupe that will impress most people (not newbies, knowledgeable car audio listeners) with 2 GNX's and 350 watts, you can with two DX's and 800.

every specification yields the gnx to be a MARKED improvement in both sound quality and power handling over the old EXII's, but there is still a far cry between the GNX and the DX.

I hit over 145 db's with 1200 watts and 4 dx 12's -- and that was in a POORLY made box i bought off a friend (shoulda made my own). I've still got that box in my garage somewhere-- if you want to throw 4 GNX's into it and put whatever wattage you want up to 1200 onto them -- we'll see if it pegs even 135. if it by some miracle of god almight does 149, I'll give you my 2 ID-maxes, and hang myself in the basement with some 0-gauge.

fact is -- the 89 dollar JBL GT120's are better than the GNX in both sound quality and power handling. -- and I hate JBL to begin with.

nobody makes midlevel subs like they used to -- the market isn't big enough for them... now its drenched with entry level terd subs that anybody on welfare can afford, and sprinkled with just enough "upper mid level" stuff like the momo / kicker L7 / etc. you're "high end" DD9512's / IDmax / W7 (even tho I'd rather set it on fire than listen to it) / and Resonant Engineering stuff is beyond most people's price range. but that true "mid level" stuff just isn't there anymore -- the DB's, the DX's, the Kicker Comp VR's, Imagedynamics IDQv.2's were/are all good 150 - 175 dollar-ish sub's that take a nice 300 - 400 watts and do a good job... but the db/dx is already gone and kicker is phasing out the comp vr in a year or two in favor of pushing the L5 (mini L7). and noone is going to find Image Dynamics in a retail store -- hell I don't even think there's an ID retailer in my county let alone my city. closest one is like erie, pa, and that's a 90 minute drive.

the market has shifted en-mas toward its buying community... I should stop complaining and just accept it.

Thom

How many GNX woofers have you installed and spent some time listening to? You can't judge a woofer by the way it looks on paper.

As far as loud, one of our dealers hit more than 154 db. with (4) GNX 12"s. That's kinda loud.

Do you want us to send you some Monster 1/0?

PoweredByDodge

I dont need any monster 1/0 -- I've got two runs of Streetwires 0 gauge off of two Energizer 900 CCA batteries and a 175 amphere rewound alternator.

If your indicating I lack power -- 1200 watts isn't low power. and I do believe 1200 watts would just about fry 4 GNX's. Their paper is 175 -- their reality is about 200 - 220 depending on type of music and how much u alter the EQ curve.

If you want to send me some streetwire 0 gauge, go ahead, I'll throw it on the spare parts pile and use it whenever... but i've never been a fan of monster -- their wire doesnt' conform to american wire gauge standards... and so monster 0/1 gauge cannot be trusted to be truly 0/1 gauge -- it may be 2 gauge for all you know or bordering on double0. you'd have to compare it to standard sized wire to known. Beyond that -- its overpriced. Fosgate and Mitek(streetwires) both put out quality wire at dirt low prices -- 3.50 a foot retail on the 0 gauge versus 5.00 a foot monster.

the speaker wire is allright but not the car stuff -- monster car speaker wire is piss poor but the monster HOME audio speaker wire (15 gauge translucent jacket XP line) is actually VERY VERY good stuff that I swear by.

154 is pretty remarkable for 4 GNX's -- if that's really true then I'm pretty shocked. although I'm curious as to whether that is sealed / BP / Ported / Vented or what. Off the top of my head I can see it happening with ported, but not sealed. Then again, there's the whole question of whether that was an spl Burp or whether it was playing a music track for several minutes.

As far as GXR's -- I've heard about 5 or 6 of them in store demo boxes (few sealed, few bandpassed which never sounds good with much anything anyway, few dual boxes)... and they're utterly aweful. I've heard two sets in cars after installs and they're also aweful -- its not the quality of sound.. they're as ok as any other low power sub in that effect, but its the low power that just kills it -- if you try to put two GXR's in a trunk, you dont even hear the darn things... you could do them in a deck, and they MIGHT be ok for somebody who had a stock system and was just adding two subs in a deck, but honestly... thats a LOT of work for virtually no gain.

Yet still we're back at square one - which we all keep dodging around the proverbial bullet -- having run both subs, on paper and IN REALY WORLD PRACTICALITY, the GNX is half the power handling and far less durable than the DX... not to mention its ugly as sin (but i thought i'd leave that for last). and you'll swap out perfectly working momo's based soley on the fact that they have a red dust cap -- so you'll GIVE AWAY momo's for cosmetic pruposes... but instead of giving a paying customer who has warranty the next model up from his discontinued speakers, ya guys offer him the next level DOWN -- whether the polk ego wants to admit it or not -- its down.

thank god the guys out in California aren't that harsh.

PoweredByDodge

whoa -- u weren't indicating i lacked power - lol -- i was sposed to hang myself ther - - man i'm frickin tired -- i haven't slept in 2 days.. eek!

Thom

Yes, that was the hint.

Not that wire was the topic, but a lot of the Streetwires stuff we've got here is pretty black now, after only a few years. The Goldquest stuff was even worse. When I was in retail Streetwires was as overpriced as anything else out there.

And I'm not the one who makes decisions as to who gets what out of warranty. I have no idea if anyone ever got a woofer swapped because of "cosmetic" issues. I was merely pointing out that the GNX was the closest thing to a dx that we've got. And they can handle plenty more than 200 watts as long as the person listening to them isn't a d.a.