Okay, this is what I'm looking at: One 18" AudioQue HDC3 in a 7 ft^3 box (after port and woofer displacement) tuned at 33Hz running off of a AudioQue AQ2200D amplifier. Electrical upgrades have already been made such as 200 amp alt., and big 3. My question is, should I tune the box lower than 33Hz? Right now I've got one 15" Alphasonik 800 Series in a 3.6ft^3 box tuned at 38Hz and I'm happy with the output but, with a lower tuning frequency would I gain more and or better SPL tones than I'm receiving now. I'm more into SPL so I'm trying to get the most out of what I got and I want to do it right. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
are you going to compete with the set up? if so i would tune higher, the hdc is an spl sub, and will most likely do well in a box tuned in the 40's im guessing. if you mean just for daily driving and you want to be loud 33 is perfect, maybe even 35 hz with lowering the tuning just expect to have better lows, and worse highs. im sure there's songs where the alphasonik sounds like its bottoming out on the bass, and really sounds quite bad, well if you lower the tuning expect the aq to cover those notes and get crazy loud on them, but not hit the higher notes as well. just saying if its for daily driving
I just got my two HDC3's bumping. They are tuned to 35 hz and honestly i couldn't ask for more. When really bumping i think i can do a small hair trick. Its hard to drive a full tilt because the whole car feels like its moving and my nose closes in when i try to breath.
This will be a daily driving application and yes cwruck there are a few times when the Alphasonik sounds like it bottoms out but, most of the time it plays very well. I was actually very impressed with the Alphasonik 800 but, I'm confident that the HDC3 will out perform it hands down. Plus, I've had that 800 for about 2 years now so it's time to finally upgrade and get something different. Thanks for your input.
Also, thank you Joe, reading that makes me pretty excited to see what this will do!
I looked up the 18" Hdc3's on the AQ site and I can't believe how affordable those things are. For what you're getting those subs are priced really good.
Sean, is there any reasoning behind you saying to stay at 35 Hz as opposed to 33 Hz? Just wondering, it's always nice to have an explanation behind ones' statement. I don't mean to sound like a jack a55 here so please don't take it that way!
If you really want to get a true theoretical answer for yourself, graph the parameters of your sub into a program. There you will see how your sub will preform at different Hz and also see the group delay in reference to the sound quality performance.
Check out the freeware winISD- http://www.linearteam.dk/default.aspx?pageid=winisd
Plug in these parameters from AQ- http://www.audioque.com/aq/?page_id=24
Keep in mind, it would only be theoretical and may not reflect all real world variables but if it should give you a good enough foundation on your decision.
Or you could go with the hear say of what others think. Up to you. Don't stress, either way (33Hz vs 35Hz) you should be happy with the results.
It should be somewhat self explanatory however not everyone knows what they are looking at once they graph the parameters.
Just start a new project, make sure you check mark the box that says show driver parameters, and plug them in. Make sure they are in the right measurements, it can get tricky. Click on the measurement symbols to change to another. One everything is in correctly you can put the amount of power that your amp produces in watts into the 'spl power' slot under the 'plot' tab. Then you can go to the 'SPL' graph and start messing with the different frequencies of the box.
If you feel like its over your head, like I said don't stress it.