suprstar's Full Review: Jl Audio 12W3 Car Subwoofer
This review is for the 12w3v2, which is just the newer model of the standard 12w3. The 12w3v2 is a dual voice coil sub that comes with dual 2 ohm coils or dual 4 ohms. Depending on which one you have and how you wire them, you can get a 1,2,4, or 8 ohm load. This gives you a lot of options when designing your system.
I have a pair of these in my trunk. I have 70rms going to my four corners and 300 going to each sub, and the mix inside the car is just about perfect. You can't really get inside speakers too much louder than that. I figure a pair of these is about as much as you'd want for a standard 4-corner 2-sub system, typical of what you'd put into a daily driver/commuter car. More sub would drown out the mids/highs and turn your car into a boomy ghetto blaster. If you get more sub AND more inside speakers to keep the mix even, then you'll probably need more power, ie, hi-capacity alternator, extra battery, capacitor, etc.
These subs boom if you're listening to rap, but they are tight and clean when you're rocking. I had a 12w7 for a while, and a pair of 12w3's are as loud, but tighter in my opinion. You dont need a ridiculous amp to push these subs either. Well, ridiculous my MY standards, not my wife's :) There's a lot of good amps out there that match up perfectly with these subs power-wise.
Bottom line, they're a good buy, they're in that sweet spot on the $/performance curve, right before prices shoot up astronomically to get a little bit better sound. I haven't had a single problem with these subs in over a year. I've tried other subs since I got the 12w3v2s, and nothing has lasted more than a week before I put the 12w3v2 box back in.
The 12W3 offers a great balance between reasonable enclosure volume and massive output capabilities. Very long excursion capability and highly linear ...More at eBay
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