A little bit of a read, but I would appreciate your time and input.

Bruizer
Bruizer Posts: 27
edited September 2008 in Car Subwoofer Talk
First - The System
(Car = 2004 2dr Blazer ZR2) My stereo system consists of an Alpine CDA-9886 with Polk MOMO 4x6s and 6x9s running directly from it, an MTX Thunder 342 amp powering my Polk MOMO 6.5" components, with a Kicker SX1250.1 (rated 1410 at 1ohm according to birth sheet) powering 2 SR124-DVCs wired in at 1ohm (In a box with 1.02cft per sub after displacement which I realize is small but I am a fan of the punchier type bass small enclosures offer). As far as my electrical goes I have a Stinger HO 220amp alt running 0awg to the positive to the battery and 0awg running to the negative where another piece of 0awg runs from to the side of the engine bay. However the ground to the block and frame are still stock (8awg I think). I then have 4awg running to the rear secondary battery, a Stinger SPV44, where 4awg runs to the Kicker amp.

Second - The Problem
I have had this in since Christmas '07 and my subs just don't seem that loud. Now I realize that these are SQ oriented subs, but I would still think I should get some good bump out of them for lack of a better word. The sub pre-out on the Alpine is turned up to max, 15. The volume on the HU will go up to 35, but by the time I get to 15-18, my MOMOs are already pretty loud. As far as the gains go on the amp (Kicker), I've got them set to a gain range of 1v and the gain set to 6.0, while the pre-out on the HU is 4v (previously had a CDA-9884 with 2v preout and thought going to 4v would help but it barely made a difference.) I would think having the gain range set at 1v for a 4v preout HU would have these things loud already at low volume, but they are not. Bass Boost is off and my filters are set at 20hz and 80hz with a slope of 24db. Is my box just too dang small, is what I assume 705watts to each sub just not good enough for these, is there a kink in my electrical system (aka grounds, because my amp reads 13.8v most of the time and not 14.4), or is it just that I am expecting too much. I just don't understand how my brothers 2 6yr old 12" Kicker CompVRs and Kicker XS50 amp are louder than my 2 12" SRs. I mean I know they are SQ subs, but with that kind of power I would think and even greater Xmax they would be at least as loud. I have to be missing something.

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG!!!
Post edited by Bruizer on

Comments

  • Bruizer
    Bruizer Posts: 27
    edited September 2008
    Well I've come to a possible conclusion. I did some more research and found where other people have had similar problems and they also have Alpine HUs. Apparently the problem is with the preouts being a bit on the weak side. So I guess a solution would be to pick up a line driver such as an Audiocontrol Overdrive.