Questions about subs for a car?

Question

first question is should i get 2 or 3 subs. theyre gunna be 12 inches each.

im kinda a noob to this stuff. theyre in a sealed box. also i need to get an amplifier. how do i know what size amplifier to get? i also have a new stereo heres the link for it

http://electronics.pricegrabber.com/in-dash-cd-mp3-players/m/59514602/details/st=product_tab/

its in a box, so where should it be mounted? im assuming i cant just leave it in my trunk haha

Answer 1

depending on what kind of car you have 3 for a bigger car and 2 for a smaller if u kno the rms on the speakers then u can match it up wit the amp u buy but since your running maybe three u should get a 2/3 channel amp and make sure it a good one and the stereo is a nice stereo i had one myself that will do

Answer 2

You should get one twelve if you want to hear anything besides bass. I love bass, and lots of it, but I want to hear the rest of the song too. I want my music loud, not just muffled bass. The stereo you have wont put out nearly enough power to drive your speakers so that they can keep up with anything more than 2 moderately powered 12s. This exact same question comes up all the time.

If you want a killer loud system, buy a quality 4 channel amp and some good speakers for it to push. Then you can think about 2 or 3 12's. I got a customers jeep in at work the other day. Factory infinity system and and a similar pioneer HU, and 2 cvr 12's powered by an alpine 1000watt amp and it sounded like c**p. It was nothing but muffled bass, you couldnt actually listen to a song unless the volume was almost maxed out, It was a pioneer head unit in it, it looked similar to yours but im not sure of the model number.

Ive been in your shoes and trust me, 2 12's is going to be plenty of bass. For the record, wiring up 3 subs to a single amp is difficult. Best way to approach that is 3 individual monoblock amps. And I can assure you, put lots of power to a single high end 12 and it will sound better and just as loud as 3 really crappy, low excursion 12's. If you want really loud bass on a budget, check out kicker solobarric subs. Either L5's or L7's depending on your price range.

As far as your sealed box goes, the only reason to put in 3 subs is for lots of bass, but when comparing two properly sized boxes, a ported box is typically louder, so why you want to put them in a sealed box is beyond me...

For amp sizing, basically subs are rated at the wattage they can handle. THeres max and RMS at a certain impedence ( usually 2 or 4 ohms) for simplicities sake, match the RMS rating of the sub to the RMS rating of the amp. Within 10% in either direction is safe to do.

Have a professional install it. Ive seen lots of kids try and wire up their cars and its a miracle half the cars I get in at work have not burned up by now.