good info. so if I listen to all types of music, what would you recommend? 2-12" shallow subs, 2-10" or 3-10"?
I listen to rock, rap, techno/eletronic...all of it
Two 10's won't give you the same surface area (the face of the speaker that actually pushes the air) as the other two, so they'll have a harder time hitting the low notes unless only having two gives you room in the budget for something with an absurdly long throw cone - which you would not want behind a truck seat anyway. I'd suggest three 10's or two 12's.
I personally like three 10's, but then, I'm a fiend for crisp clean sound. The extra sub will cost a bit more, as will the enclosure and you might need a more robust amp to run them... If your amp is 1 ohm stable though, you can bridge them down and get a surprising amount of sound out of a trio of good 10's.
Two things to consider:
1) See what's out there, what subs are available and what you can get the best deal on. If you find a ridiculous deal on two 12's that are of much higher quality than you could afford if you had to buy three 10's... it may still be worth it - what really matters is that you find something that you are happy with. This is partly why it's so hard to just say "get 10's" or "get 12's".
- Listen to as many different set ups as you can. Visit several shops if you have the time - especially if they have displays that let you switch between different set-ups while the same track is playing. Different subs have different personalities - some are smooth and mellow, some are sharp and harsh, some are built to hammer the lows... but glaze over the intricate parts. Amplifiers sometimes have personalities too. If you really want to get into it - you can look at graphs that show the amp or subs efficiency at various frequencies, etc etc... but in the end, it needs to sound good to you.
2) When you shop for subs - look at the specs. Most subs - even of the same brand and same size - are available with a different resistance. Some are intended to be run as a treo, some as a pair - and even then it depends on how you decide to bridge them and what your amplifier can handle.
I'm a little rusty on it tonight - but I'll try to get you the equation for determining the resistance of subs connected in paralell vs in series if it's not already in a tech thread on here. That's almost worth a thread of it's own, since it needs a little algebra.
Other general suggestions about matching up speakers and amplifiers:
- The PEAK POWER of an amp is not a measure of it's manliness, as much as advertising would have you believe otherwise. This is only the peak output that the amp is capable of for a split second. Translation: It won't make your music louder long enough for you to notice. Instead, this is the number that tells you if it is going to cook your speakers if you turn it up all the way.
- The RMS output of the amp IS a better measure of it's supposed manliness. It is also what you want to match up to your amplifier. This is the maximum average output at which a sub or amp is efficient, sounds the best and won't eat itself. (learned this one the hard way to the tune of "what's that burning smell???" Physics and electronic classes later on taught me why and how that burning smell came to be.) Generally speaking - if you can at least relatively match up the RMS output of your amp to the RMS output of your speakers... or vise versa... it'll sound pretty good.
While most of us would like to have something bigger, louder and more expensive than the guy in the truck next to us, you can actually make a budget system sound surprisingly clean just by matching up the numbers and not abusing it. It might never be the uber-expensive purple beast in the pictures farther up in this thread, but it'll sound great for what most of us do and will even sound better than poorly set up system that cost more... and will probably cook anyway.
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Didn't mean to take over the thread - but it's something I've spent a lot of time working with... and watched friends learn the hard way. ("Hey man, it's cool to spend a bunch of money on audio gear, cook it, and brag about how big a sub I blew because I'm not smart enough to set it up correctly.") I'm a huge fan of doing it once, doing it right... and not being the guy who's always searching for fuses or warranty information. :-) Hope this has been helpful.
If this was more than anyone wanted - let me know. :-) Sometimes i go overboard, but wanted to be thorough. If you'd like to know more... I'm happy to help.
Did some checking - and JL also makes a stealth box with one 10" that fits inside the center console. It still leaves a small amount of storage space in the console, raises it 1.5" (good for us tall folks) and uses a down firing sub that is completely hidden.
I haven't heard one yet - but if anyone has one... I'd love to get their opinion. I listen to a wide range of music as well, and just want clean sound in the cab with just enough bass that I can run my highs through a cross over. (sends all the bass to the sub - so that it does not cause distortion in your mids and highs - which means cleaner sound and longer speaker life)
that is some great info T8R! i have no understanding how the ohms and bridging and all that works. back in the day i just dropped my car off to have it all installed. this time around I plan to buy the stuff and do it myself.
looking around last night there are not many subs that will mount in one of the 3-10" pre made boxes w/ the right air space
Image Dynamics V.3
Kicker CVT10
then its on to the shallow mount subs by
Pioneer
JL Audio
Memphis
Ive seen pictures somewhere of diff subs in the back seat though such as Kicker L5s/L7s. not sure how they did that though.
Ohm's law isn't that hard. I remember it as serial killers add up a body count. So series, add the resistances. Then for parallel, it's divided across the number of resistances. There is more to it if you have different resistances, but as long as you keep the same value it's pretty easy.
Those speakers should have two different volumes listed, one for sealed and one for ported. Usually the sealed is smaller, then it's just a game of finding the space to make it long, deep and wide enough to account for the CF.
Ohm's law isn't that hard. I remember it as serial killers add up a body count. So series, add the resistances. Then for parallel, it's divided across the number of resistances. There is more to it if you have different resistances, but as long as you keep the same value it's pretty easy.
Those speakers should have two different volumes listed, one for sealed and one for ported. Usually the sealed is smaller, then it's just a game of finding the space to make it long, deep and wide enough to account for the CF.
yea the speakers I listed, WILL fit in the premade boxes from SCS and SPL2K.
Ya, I got it laid out pretty nice IMHO, paid some award winning designer to make a couple boxes for 12's. I use the space behind the seat for my Amps and Cap. Parametric EQ helps a lot to balance and control the sound frequencies.
Here is one box, built to fit and blend in, the other box is directly in front of it. He replaced the front seat with a sub box, but yet padded it and made it so that the drink trays/console and seat all still function fine.
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I'm a huge fan of doing it once, doing it right... and not being the guy who's always searching for fuses or warranty information. :-) Hope this has been helpful. 
for 98-04 and some 05's with center console
