I have an alpine stereo head unit.

Question

which brand name is better as far as 10" subs go.

Which is better out of high grade subs?

Solar Baric, Infinity, Boston Acoustic, Q Power

Which is better out of mid-high grade?

Alpine, Kicker, Clarion, Pioneer, JL Audio, JVC, Powerbass, Blaupunkt

Answer 1

JL and kicker don't deserve to be put in the "mid grade" category.

Also, You can strike Infinity, and Q power from the "high grade" category. And Solo Baric is a kicker sub.

In my opinion, JL and Kicker are the best two that you have listed.

Some better ones would be, Resonant Engineering, Fi, and Digital Designs.

Answer 2

As far as mid-high grade, I've had experience with JL Audio subs (10W6) that performed better than the previous similarly priced subs - Kicker, Kenwood, Infinity, Nakamichi. This was a few years back and I am using the same one. At this point, I think they are all comparable and unless you are a hardcore audiophile, you will not know the difference

Answer 3

www.crutchfield.com

Answer 4

High Grade: Infinity

Mid-high: Alpine or Pioneer

Answer 5

The thing is, all these companies make varying degrees of speakers.  For instance, pioneers economy line is horrible stuff, but their premier series is pretty good.

If you are looking for a good 10" sub on the cheap, the Infinity Refrence 10" is a good bet. It actually has a fairly high x-max, and while it might not have as much low-end extension as other subs, it's very clean.

If you are looking to spend a little more, nothing can beat a JL W7 10 in a ported enclosure.  It has the best of both worlds.  Clean, tight bass, with a fairly decent low end range.

If you are looking for a 10" to produce a lot of bass, you will probably be drawn to the solo baric line, but please not, the only think that makes a L7 solo sound louder, is that it has a larger surface area, to the point where it is actually almost a 12".  Which isn't necesarily a bad thing, but the issue you run into is that the corners of the subs tend to bind, and over time, these become weak spots, causing linearity issues down the road, and eventually being the speakers downfall.  The moral of this story being, don't play into advertising gemics that don't work.  Stay away from any subwoofer that isn't completely round.