Quality bass?

brussell

Whats everyone's opinion on box designs for quality bass. I'm not concerned about being loud. I want to be able to go low (classical music) but have clean, quality bass. My choice is Single 12 Kicker Solo-Baric in a sealed box, circa, 1998 or 2-12 JL Audio in a slot loaded box, circa 1999. My brother wants to trade the JL for the Kicker. The JL won't fit in his jeep but will in my landcruiser.

By the way, all my other speakers, including home are polks!


Thanks,

Brad

PoweredByDodge

I've got two great notions here...

1- Kicker Solo baric old school's were pretty tight (ones with the ying yang in the middle)... they were wonderful SQ subs.

2- JL audio subwoofers make great pretzel dishes at parties, candy dishes, nacho-dip holders.... all that stuff. you can even use them when you're out camping and cant find an out-house.

Do a tight sealed box with the Kicker Solo -- the spec for cubic feet is 0.88 on that one i do remember. But i'll be damned if i can remember if its a 300 or a 500 watt sub... i really dont know. but it'll sound a whole lot better than the JL's.

brussell

Thanks for the feedback. It is the older Solo in a factory box. The JL's are also in a factory box. Could you elaborate on why you don't like the JLs?

Thanks!

P.S. It is being powered by a Kicker zr240.

Jstas

JL is all hype. They have won competitions before but only for noise. They are overpriced and pretty poorly made, in my experience. I have also seen little difference between the JL lines and companies like JBL that use lamintaed pulp speaker cones. Granted, they don't sound bad at all but they aren't the sparkling gems of the audio world that the lemmings who believe the hype want you to think. I think I would prefer the JBL's over the JL's because they don't try to make me think they are something they aren't and they are priced nicely for what they are.

I mostly see the ricers with the booming systems running JL junk. They also seem to talk the most about it. Many of them are running stuff that they paid too much for anyway. I hear from them all the time how great JL stuff is and it's disgusting how many people have fallen into the trap. But go and check the numbers from JL. They don't add up to the hype. There are at least a dozen brands out there that will score consistiently higher than the JL stuff. The only thing going for JL is sound. People think they sound good because they can play loud. So loud that they can mask thier deficiencies. But, loud != quality.

What I don't get is how people can pontificate on JL Audio anything and be able to totally ignore all the science and research behind the truely high end stuff from other lesser known companies that will blow JL out of the water.



As far as box design goes, it depends on what sound you are looking for. A box design should be as symetrical as possible to reduce standing waves which cause your sound to be colored and can add to distortion levels at high power. Symmetriucal being that the box is assembled with each side/surface equidistant from each other. An odd shaped box that isn't centered will not have the sonic qualities that an evenly constructed box will. Look at any speaker manufacturer. Everything in the box design is designed for symmetrical designs and centered drivers.

The Kicker Solo-Baric will literally destroy the two 12 inch JL's. The Kicker is much more efficient and designed to thump. Kicker, unlike JL, has a good reputation for a reason. They have been very dominant in the audio industry and competitions for a long time.

As far as comparisons go, those two JL's might compare to the Kicker if you give them a bit of a power advantage. Actually, the only speaker I have heard that is anything like the Solo-Barics is the Polk dB speakers and that's mainly because the dB series was home theater reference stuff built for automotive applications.

As far as box design that would give you what you are looking for, the Solo-Baric in a small sealed encosure with give you the widest frequency range. If you want it loud, shove as much power through it as you can. The stronger the box material the better. MDF is sonically dead but it is not necessarily as strong as say a cabinet grade plywood (no voids = no resonance or vibration), solid wood or even something like cast aluminum . All have thier trade-offs but I have found that the stronger the box construction, the more controlled and powerful the bass can be. I'm also not a big fan of MDF for automotive applications because, if it get's wet, it's finished. Plywood or other woods can be easily treated and sealed so that it won't matter if they get wet. Cabinet grade plywood is very resistant to warping too. Unlike solid wood which can easily warp. Only problem is cost. But that is an issue with everything.

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Originally posted by Jstas
I mostly see the ricers with the booming systems running JL junk. They also seem to talk the most about it. Many of them are running stuff that they paid too much for anyway. I hear from them all the time how great JL stuff is and it's disgusting how many people have fallen into the trap.

I concur... JL sux moose**** ... you fill in the blank -- but here's a hint, it was my old AOL screen name... har de har har.

Foam surrounds, crap cones, and mock championships in ghetto class ricer port wars by installers named "Loc Dawg" doth not maketh a speaker dynasty. JL's got some of the best hype marketing in the business... and that's why you see them in a hell of a lot of shops... but marketing doesn't make a good system.

I agree with you on the JBL stuff as well... i've got a little JBL GT 10 in my grandfather's truck off of 200 watts and the sucker fills the cabin of an X cab pickup decently (rest of speakers are polk dx coaxials off of about 50 watts each --- nice distribution overall).

I dont know what that kicker amp puts out, but throw 400++ on that solo 12 and i'll bet ya it'll put out enough to make you "bass" happy as well as "soudn quality" happy.

brussell

Thanks for all the feedback. I picked up the JL box today to try out. You guys have pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Just plugging it in I imeddiately could tell a difference with the 2-12s over the one, but I haven't had the time to really listen to it or adjust it with my meter. I'm guessing it might be a bit more efficient and not in sync with the rest of my system. The kicker amp was bench tested at 386 RMS at 4 ohms. So I'd hope that is enough power for either box. On first glace I would agree about the build quality of the Kicker over the JLs. My taste in music leads more towards DMB, Lyle Lovett, Peter Gaberiel, etc., not the stuff you hear from a civic four blocks away. So I need something that will go low but have more than one note. My guess is that I'll listen to the JL for a couple of days and then get my kicker back. I had always thought that 2 12s would be much better thatn 1 but now I don't think the difference is not worth the lost space in the back of my cruiser.

Thanks again for confirming my first impressions!

Brad