Hey all,

It has been a while since I have been in the A&V forum; the Z is a sleep for the winter, so I have some time to make some changes to the sound system. I am currently running a Diamond Audio 10" D610D4 in my under strut enclosure. It sounds pretty good with my 300W amp, but I may want to try something else out, and am looking at the Polk SR104 10" sub. Does anyone have/had this sub, and can give me some feedback as to how it performs? Like I said, I am powering the sub with 300watts from my Alpine PDX amp.

If not, can any of the audio gurus give me a side by side with my current Diamond sub based on the specs? Here is what I pulled from woofersetc:

Diamond:

* Power Handling NOM/MAX: 1000 watts MAX, 500 watts RMS
* Sensitivity (2.83V/1m): 84 dB SPL
* Freq. Response: 23-250
* Type: Dual voice coil
* Size: 10 in.
* Mounting Depth/Diameter: 5.6 in. / 9.2 in.
* Alloy Driver and Ferrite Magnet

Polk:

# 10" Dual 4 Ohms Signature Reference Series Subwoofer
# Impedance: Dual 4 ohms
# Butyl rubber surround
# Massive die-cast aluminum basket
# Dual progressive roll spiders
# Hex-key terminals
# Specially designed curved vanes
# Vented pole piece and basket
# Sensitivity: 87 dB
# Voice Coil(s) Dual: (2 voice coils)
# Peak Power Handling: 1400 watts
# RMS Power Handling: 700 watts
# Frequency Response: 25 - 200 Hz
# Top Mount Depth: 7"
# Cutout Diameter: 9"

Lastly, a few members on here have recommended the Image Dynamics equipment. Here is another sub I may consider:

Image Dynamics IDQ10V3.D4:

# Impedance: Dual 4 ohms
# Power Range:50 - 500 Watts RMS
# Mounting Depth: 5.75"
# Mounting Diameter: 9.60"
# Sealed Enclosure Range: .55cu.ft. - 1.1cu.ft
# Ported Enclosure Range: 1.0cu.ft. - 1.5cu.ft.

# Re- DC Reistance: 3.35/ 6.7 Ohms
# Fs- Resonant Frequency: 22.23 Hz
# Qes- Electrical "Q": .490
# Qms- Mechanical "Q": 1.831
# Qts- Total "Q": .387
# Vas- Equivalent volume: 3.10cuft (88 liters)
# Xmax- One way linear: 19.0mm
# Sd- Cone Area: 399.1 cm2
# Splo- Sensitivity: 85dB


So, any insights?

 

out of those, i have heard all three, remember, specs mean didly squat, espeically when it comes to speakers and subs.

out of those, the SR polk is an excellent sounding sub, all around good SQ, decent output, good impact and precision, the IDQ is one of my favorites, it may not be quite as dry sounding as the polk, but its IMO got slightly better output, and equal terms on the rest. both are very good in terms of transients if in the correct enclsoures and given the right amount of power.

but, retail for retail, the polk is almost 50 percent more than the IDQ, so...given the cost, i would prolly take the IDQ, the polk may be slightly better sounding to my ears, but not worth nearly 50 percent more, for just a bit more than the polk, i can get an idmax, and htat IMO relaly is much more output, low freq and just as nice sounding the idmax is prolly my favorite all around sub.

the diamond, its not a bad sub either, all around decent sub. but nothing stands out really. and I personally would take the idq or hte SR over it. in additoin, i also
but in the end, oyu dont hae a bad sub already, so...not sure if you are expecting a dramatic change with the other two, as you know, pure SQ changes may be up to the listner's preference.

i think you if you are looking for a pretty dramatic change in sound, you should do one of two things...

go with a much more pure SQ subwoofer, such as the DLS RW series, whcih suffers in overall output, but is very transparent, fast, and good impact. in whcih case you may notice it on songs that require these type of finess out of a sub (but suffer when you listen to say heavy hiphop), or you go up in power by quite a bit and step up to somethig akin to the idmax, then you would get a boatload more output, low freq and prolly sound a little better to me.

to me, when someone seeks to spend moeny upgrading subs, i usually try to ask them to think about it and instead spoend money on upgrading the front stage, both interms of better speakres, and better locations, or more power

cheers,

b

 

The Polk SR is a fantastic sub but you need to remember a couple of things:

1) It'll need more than 300 watts in a sealed enclosure for best results. More like 500+ watts
2) Never invert mount this sub! I learned this the hard way - it just won't work.
3) Try to have the enclosure as close to spec as possible. An oversized enclosure whether sealed or ported may make that poor sub bottom out or 'fart' which is never a good thing.

 

I really like my SR, I even have it inverted and it sounds perfect to me. It is much more musical than most of the subs I demo'd. It pounds when it has to, but never over powers the heart of the music. I have 800 watts going to my 12in. SR and it is a good combo. I have had as little as 500, and it also sounded good.

 

Well, I can get the Polk SR at cost, but it won't make much of a difference if I don't upgrade my amp solution. I don't have the funds to purchase the amp I would want to provide the recommended power to the Polk sub, so in the interim, this is what I can do: I have an extra Alpine amp laying around which provides 300 watts when Ch. 3 & 4 are bridged. If I add that to the existing 300 watts, making 600 total, that should give me a decent boost in sound. Thoughts?

Eventually I want to buy kicks, Bing, after I pay down the card haha. I currently am running the Polk SR6500 components with an Alpine PDX 4.150 amp, which sounds really nice. I took your advice from a thread long ago, and placed the tweeter in the "comp-axial" set up. My front stage is very crisp and smooth, but my system's bass isn't where I want it to be, so my intent here is to give more power to the sub and up the lows. Hopefully this will bring my bass level up to where I want it.

One last question: if the area of my enclosure is .81 cubic feet, and the recommended volume for the Diamond sub is .625 cubic feet, wouldn't that mean that the sound might be a bit flat? What do I need to do to optimize the area to provide the best "hitting" of the sub?

 

Bump

 

I would recommend picking up the sub at cost if you can and then saving up for the amp and doing the install then. It would be a shame to blow such a nice sub by ruining a low wattage amp or trying your solution. Memphis makes a decent 500 watt amp that you can pick up fairly cheap. Check out www.woofersetc.com and check out Memphis, they sometimes have sweet deals on Audison, USAmps, or pick up the Polk 500.1 at cost if you can too. I went with the DLS A6, which Bing can hook you up with, should you decide to invest more money.

 

Thanks for the reply I discovered that the Polk Sub won't fit in my understrut enclosure, so that's a no go now I could still get it, and then sell it though I think I may go with the Polk Amp though; I agree it would be better to add a stronger mono-amp versus going with a weaker bridged amp.


EDIT: Help me out here with this sub stuff... my Diamond Audio is a Dual Voice Coil 2 Ohm sub, wired up parallel to 4 Ohms. Is this the most efficient way to run this sub? Wouldn't running it at 2 Ohms make it less of an impedance to the amp, and therefore the amp will have better output to the sub?
Also, my Alpine PDX amp is driving the sub at 300 watts regardless of it being 2 or 4 ohm... if I were to install this Polk amp, it states that at 2 Ohm the output would be 800 watts, but at 4 Ohm it's only 400 watts. Would it be worth the hassle to install a new amp just to gain 100 watts? Also, if I were to wire the sub to 2 Ohm, the Polk amp would output at 800 watts... on paper more wattage = better, so what should I do???