Hey guys, well, I thought I had completed my little stereo upgrade but I'm having some issues. I installed a AVIC-D3 and a Rockford 400-2 amp and was running my old Infinity Kappa 12" sub in a small q-logic hatch box while I was waiting on my ZEnclosure and Infinity Perfect 10" sub to arrive.

Here's my issue: The old 12" Kappa @ 100 watts in a box pressed up against the hatch sounded much better and hit a lot harder than the new Perfect 10" at 400 watts in the ZEnclosure box. Its weak, it doesn't "pound", and it distorts easily.

While I know I'm losing out with a smaller sub, I honestly thought the Perfect 10" at 400 watts would at LEAST be as good as the old Kappa 12" from 1996 running on only 100 watts.

What all should I look for? I've checked the wires a million times. Any way I can tell if I have a major air leak in the box? I just really expected more from the new setup...

 

Any air leaks around the sub's mounting surface?

 

I would check and see if the sub is in "phase",, check the amp settings to see if there is a LP/HP that might be set wrong. I would check the gains, (obvious),,,I would check your headunit settings,,,see if there is an "sub out" control option that might be set low,,,check the eq of your headunit as well. Thats about all I can think of now,,,I am sure StreetOC, Paul350Z, VO7848 and others will chime in and see if we cant get you "bumping"..I hope this helps.

 

+1 on checking the phase and filter settings. I'm imagining the OP has not changed any HU settings, only amp settings though.

Is the new sub a DVC? If so, how is it configed? The OP may be dropping the wrong load and is unware of it....

 

OK, so the Infinity Perfect 10.1 wants a sealed enclosure of ~0.3-1.0 cu. ft. The mounting depth is 6.5"

The Zenclosures single 10" under strut box is .75 cu.ft (before displacement) and has a max mounting depth of 7".

So you are well within spec. The only two things I can think of is an air leak or incorrectly wired. My money is on an air leak.

How did you mount the sub to the box?

 

+1

 

Hey guys, thanks for the replies so far! I went with a single VC so I have the amp bridged (400watts x1, 4ohm) and the wiring hookup is pretty straight-forward. I have made a few headunit changes since I was running the old 12" originally. I've created 2 custom EQ curves for different types of music, and I've increased the subwoofer output by 2. Originally it was 4 for the old Kappa, but I moved it back to 2 this morning for the new Perfect because distortion is such a problem.

I'm going to check the screws around the sub when I get home from work and make sure it's sealed off as well as I think it is. I'll also check the gain and the HP/LP settings...

Is there any special way to test for air leaks other than "wow this sounds really bad"? haha

 

Bump your system and use the back of your hand to feel air pressure. Sometimes you can hear it too.

Good luck and keep us posted...

 

Well I checked the sub mounting, and did some extra tightening of the screws which resulted in better sound. Sure enough, there was one screw about 1/4" of the way out (oops). The sub hits harder now and actually feels like it's moving air. However, something still isn't right. The bass is still sloppy and very uncontrolled when turned up, so there's lots of distortion.

These subs have the Variable Q inserts, so I may play around with those, and also try different amounts of poly-fill to see if that helps. I'm shooting in the dark because I'm not sure what's wrong at this point.

 

It's good to hear you got half of the problem fixed. You might want to switch to a T-nut fastener instead of using wood screws. You can torque those down unbelievably hard.

Keep us updated on the results. It sounds like you have some tweeking to do now. The other day I couldn't figure out why my mids/highs sounded distorted. It turned out I had hit an EQ option on my HU by mistake. After I turned it off, then retuned, it sounds terrific....

 

Hmm, I like the idea about the t-nut fastener, I'll look into those.

Things are certainly a lot better this morning. I added some poly-fill along the insides of the box, and I switched to the largest insert that came with the subwoofer which adds more mass, and from what I understand, allows the motor to drive harder - but also requires more power to drive. The sub sounds like it has more control now and is handling the power better. I finally started noticing rattles, which is a good and bad thing I think a good day of installing dynamat or something similar this weekend will really get things cleaned up. I can't believe how much the panel behind the driver seat rattles (where the factory sub would go).

 

t-nuts for years over here

 

So while checking out the system yesterday, I realized the sub is actually driving itself out of the box. The same screws that were loose last week were loose again yesterday...now there are about 3 or 4 of them now that keep backing out. Looks like this is gonna get worse before it gets better

Any tips on the installation of those t-nuts?

 

get a good amp.

 

I tried T-Nuts once........... once. I'll never do that again. It's too hard (for me) to get them to stay in place and then they are too easily cross-threaded.

Rotate the sub and use new holes with nice drywall screws.

 

Specifically what is wrong with the Rockford amp?

 

Humm. I have JL 5/500 with the ZEnclosure S-Type and JL 10W3 V2. I have 250watts to the sub. It will rattle the fillings out of your teeth. Mine sounds great. Now if I could just get all the rattles out of the car. LOL

 

Unless there is something electronically wrong with the amplifier the OP has, this will fix nothing.

 

i suggest you get a refund from your dentist for your fillings

 

lol.