A guideline on car subwoofers.
Mar 07 '01
The Bottom Line Price, Quality, do you want Sound Quality, or Loud Bass? Size isn't everything in terms of magnet size. Compare brands, research before you buy.
Hopefully my guideline will help you make a good purchase of your next subwoofer for your car. If you are looking to buy a sub, you should probably have the other required components so you can listen to the subwoofer, which are a CD player/Head Unit with pre-amp outputs, an amplifier, and the proper wiring to hook it all up, usually 4 gauge power and ground cables, and RCA jacks that go from the CD players pre-amp outputs to the amplifier, then finally from the speaker wire from the amplifier to the subwoofer. If you don't have all that, don't worry, you'll just have to wait until you get all that before you can start enjoying your subwoofer.
Also, compare brands, and research as much as you can about the products reputation and reliability.
Price. Number one thing for me here. Got to have a budget, and don't spend more than you have too. Generally for me, I would consider $400 dollars a maximum amount of money, but prices get to be 800, 900, and 1,000 dollars and more, but that's for serious competitors and elite audiophiles.
Quality. Try and get good brand name products, generally, the Rockford Fosgate, MTX, Polk, JBL, Cerwin-Vega are all fine brands at your local Circuit City or Best Buy, and I would recommend at least that level of quality, to start out with if your new, other than that, you can head over to you local car stereo shop, brands like Kicker, JL Audio, Boston Acoustics, Focal, Xtant, Eclipse, are the higher-end products, but that's only the tip of the iceberg, there are many more brands out there. So what I'm saying is, it's worth the extra money now, to have a nice sounding, reliable subwoofer that you won't have to worry about.
Materials used. Many different materials are used in the construction of a subwoofer nowadays, and if you stick with the name brands, you really don't have to worry alot. But the surround of the subwoofer, are usually made with butyl rubber, JL Audio is noted for using foam surrounds, and other companies use their own proprietary technology, and use a hybrid of products. Mainly, rubber is supposedly better on resistance to water, and effects of being out in the sunlight, and less likely to rip if you are screwing down the sub to it's box, and slip with the screwdriver, which happened to me, and luckily, the rubber surround didn't rip. But foam does have the tendency to rip easier, from what I hear, also most companies use a special UV coating, so rubber or foam, listen to the subwoofer before you buy, I don't see any special benefit over foam or rubber.
Cone material. Used to be, all cones were created equal. Mostly with pressed pulp paper, now we have aluminum cones, which is pretty popular for a sound quality sub, paper is still used alot, mostly for SPL (sound pressure level) woofers, but Polypropylene is common also, I think that's just a paper cone woofer with a coating of polypropylene on it to make is stronger and able to handle more power.
(Note: this definition was taken from http://www.voicecoil.com.tw/voice.htm)
Voice Coil is the active element in loudspeakers whose basic components:
1. Bobbin
2. Self-bonding magnet wire
3. Varnish (adhesive)
It has not changed since the turn of the century. Suspended in a strong, permanent magnetic field, the voice coil moves when an electronic signal passes through it. The movement of the voice coil vibrates the cone, which radiates sound into the air.
Main thing here is that voice coils are usually measured in inches, like my Infinity sub has a 2 inch voice coil. (Correct me if I'm wrong) a larger voice coil is better, and usually equates into more power handling, and more excursion. Just keep that in mind when you look for a sub.
Basket construction. Come in either cast or stamped form, usually made from steel. Cast is better quality, stamped is lesser, but still not a bad thing. That's the main points of that.
Magnet size and strength. You want a stronger magnet, rather than larger. The magnet comes in different materials also. They are: Ferrite, (i think), Strontium, and Neodymium, with Ferrite as the weakest, Neodymium as the strongest. These are the 3 that I know, I believe there are hybrids of magnet material also. But magnet size doesn't affect the quality or how the sub sounds or anything. Just because one sub has a 300 oz magnet, and one has a 100 oz, it all depends on the materials used, and what the sub is designed for. Lots of companies used to use magnet size as a gimmick factor, many people including me thought that magnet size was all-important, and I would pick the 300 oz subwoofer over the 100 oz. But main thing is magnet strength, a 50 oz neodymium is stronger than a 75 oz ferrite, so keep that in mind when you purchase a sub.
That's pretty much all the technical aspects I can think of, hope you didn't get confused by all that. Now we move on to the subwoofer boxes.
Subwoofer boxes (enclosures) come in 3 basic designs. Sealed, Vented (ported), and Bandpass. They usually go into the trunk of your car, or in the back of a SUV or van. But if your crafty, you can make a box to fit anywhere.
Sealed is usually best for sound quality, and takes us less space than the other 2 types. Air spaces is a huge factor in how your sub sounds. Look at the manufacturers recommended box requirements.
My Infinity is a recommended 1.0 cubic feet of airspace. In a sealed box, the air inside acts as a spring, when the sub moves, the air pushes on the back of the subwoofer's cone, this results in less chance of over-excursion, and better response, (tighter, cleaner sounding).
I bought a pre-made QLogic box, .88 cubic feet of airspace. This is a little small, but won't hurt anything. Mainly, if the box is too small, it won't get the lower bass notes as well, if the box is too big, it will get the lower bass notes, but sound sloppy, and have a better chance of over-excursion, which is bad.
Excursion is when the subwoofer moves up and down, say like 1 inch of travel is allowed for each way. If you exceed this amount, say when you have 500 watts on a sub capable of only 300 watts, chances are it will go to like 2 inches of excursion, there for ripping the surround, tearing or burning the voice-coil, and ruining your sub. Over-excursion.
If you build your box, use MDF, medium density fiberboard, or HDF, high density fiberboard. Particle board is a serious bad move, as particle board is more pourous, so air can leak out, plus it's easier to break and chip, and harder to cut, just don't use it. To seal the seams and edges of the box, use a good silicone sealant, like Liquid Nails. www.jlaudio.com has great tutorials on box building and what to use.
Vented boxes are used for big SPL subs usually, and are generally bigger in size. It's just like a sealed box, but with a vent, or port in it, to let air go out. These boxes you have to tune at a certain frequency, like 80 hertz, so the sub will only play 80hrtz and below. (I think, I've never used or built a ported box, so I could be wrong.)
Bandpass are usually the largest of the 3, and are meant for SPL subs also. go to www.jlaudio.com in the tutorials section, for a explanation on how bandpasses are made. They are also ported, which you have to tune. Here is a link to JL Audio's website about bandpass. http://www.jlaudio.com/tutorials/magic/bandpass.html
This ends my guide of how to buy a subwoofer, hopefully it will help you out. If it was too technical for you, don't worry, just try and remember the main points, as when your actually comparing brand A to brand B, it will make more sense if your new to car audio, if not, I hope you learned something new, or can tell me what I messed up on. Thanks for your time.
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Member: Doug Pohlman
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