I was planning on just running the single 12" Cerwin Vega A.I. series sub that I had from a previous system but have been talking to some friends about subs and now I have a couple different questions.

• Do any of the specs of the subs have anything to do with response time?
• In Metallica's "One" towards the end of the song there is the really fast drum beats that I think are designed for two subs, will it sound distorted if played on one sub?
• I know that bass is non directional but are there times when it is better to have (2) subs one for the left channel and one for the right?

Any other insight you guys have would be great appreciated.

 

1) For the best transient response from a sub you need to go with a sealed enclosure. CV has always specialized in vented woofer systems as far as I know. I've never seen a CV sub that was meant specifically for a sealed enclosure.

2) No

3) Not really. Since sub bass is nondirectional you won't be able to hear stereo sub bass. Especially in the confined area of a car's interior. Thats why almost every car you see uses a mono subwoofer setup.

 

Here is the link for the CV sub. There is a PDF file on this page that has all the specs of the sub and details different box configurations including sealed boxes. The sub I have is rated for 250W RMS and with the amps the I currently have I was planning on running 150W RMS to a set of Focal components (either Polykevlars or Utopias) in the front and 110W to the subwoofer. Will this work okay or should I find a bigger amp to power the subwoofer?

Thanks, your answers cleared up my questions.

 

110W for the sub is pretty weak. I'd go with at least 300W. And don't worry about the sub being rated at 250W. My Alpine Type-S is rated at 200W but my MTX 6500D pumps out 600W into it with no problems at all.

 

What do you think about a MTX Thunder6152 bridged mono for the sub, that should be about 325W at 14.4V?

 

That would be MUCH better than that measly 110W.

 

Is there a way to test an amplifier to verify that it works properly?

There is a MTX Thunder6500D on ebay now and the seller is not sure that it is functional.

 

In order to test it out you would need a service manual with the amp's schematics and some test equipment. If you can pick up the amp at a decent price you might be able to send it to MTX for repairs. Some companies will do repairs at a flat rate unless there is something seriously wrong with it. That might be more of a pain than it's worth though.

 

There's no spec for response time, because it's not a legitimate issue. If a sub is capable of moving fast enough to reproduce a 200hz signal, you can rest assured that it will have absolutely no difficulty dealing with 100hz stuff.

As for 2 subs... that's not necessary. 99.99% of all recordings have a mono bass track, including anything from Metallica. Since you can not distinguish the location of low frequencies, this is a non-issue. It's the higher frequency harmonics associated with that bass drum that help you to localize "bass" signals. These will be handled by your mids & highs, so the sub does not matter.

 

Thanks Jim.

Is there an ideal setting for the low pass filter to the sub?

 

80Hz is a good starting point.

 

I agree that 80hz is a good starting point, but there's no magic number. How your sub interracts with your other equipment and the acoustical surroundings will dictate what frequency is best.