A SUBWOOFER THAT REALLY "WOOFS"
Written: Oct 13 '01 (Updated Oct 13 '01)
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Pros: Good deep bass and meets up to JL's standards.
Cons: Big enclosure required.
The Bottom Line: The JL12W6 is for anyone who wants a sub that produces a great low end response. The sub is not for those who are limited for space in their car.
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| carman's Full Review: Jl Audio 12W6 Car Subwoofer |
I purchased the JL12W6 for my car because I wanted a good bass without spending a lot of money. Although, JL's W6 line is expensive compared to other brands I am very pleased with their subs. The process I went through in choosing a sub was looking at the specs, such as RMS, the max DB, and the frequency response on the speaker. I found that this sub was the best of all the ones I looked at and I also noticed that JL underrates their sub because in performance competitions this is crucial. (JL underrates some of their subs so in competitions the performance of the sub will be more impressive when it performs better then expected.) Although, the 12W6's numbers might be less than other subs in this range it performs a lot better than the numbers JL release.
My car is a 300ZXTT and space was a big issue for the sub. According to JL's specs it is recommended that you have .75-1.75 cubic feet for a sealed enclosure. I recommend a sealed enclosure because it takes up considerably less space than a ported enclosure. The biggest enclosure that was in my price range was only .70 cubic feet. Although, this is under JL's specs I found that if you use some fiberglass house insulation on the inside of the box you will make up for the lack of volume. The fiberglass insulation works in a way to "fool" the sub into thinking the box is bigger than it is. So, if you are short for space this is a good fix. But the best solution is to get a box which is the proper size and does not have any leaks, then you are guaranteed great bass.
My sub is powered by one bridged amp at 3 ohms and I am running it about 280W. Although I can run about 20W more the sub still sounds great. The 12" was a primary choice for me because I wanted to have a sub that had a very good low end response that mad the whole car "vibrate." The 12W6, definitely does this and if you want bass that is loud I would recommend going with 2 10W6's. The 12W6 will not be as loud as the 2 10's, but the low end response will be significantly better with the 12. To determine the low end response of a sub you can look at the frequency response of the sub, and the lower number (in hertz) gives you an idea what kind of low end bass you will get. The lower the frequency the better the low end and vice versa for high end (mid) bass.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200.00
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Epinions.com ID: carman
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Location: Tampa, FL USA
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 55 members
About Me: I own a 300ZX twin turbo, best car I have ever had.
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