Free Air Subs.....opionions???
 

Ok we all know a box will be better. this thread is not for that argument. this is just compairing the free airs out there.

JL audio (JL Audio M10IB5-CG-WH)
Alpine (SWR-M100)
Rockford Fosgate (M210S4)
Wet Sounds (XS-10FA)

Now I know personally the Wet sounds is proabaly out of my price range.

So what are some of your experiences.

I have the JL. Not installed yet but it looks good sitting in spare bedroom! Lol.

My stereo guys that sell all 4, say the Rockford was the most impressive so far. but not alot of people have tried it. most say the JL, but its been aroudn for a few years at least so lots of people have tried it.

I have a pair of the alpine 10'' under my back seat. IMO, they sound good. I had a smaller amp on them, and went to a bigger amp pushing quite a bit more power, and they thumped much better. Not going to rattle windows, but sounds good. I haven't compared them to the others.

I really like my Rockford! Not sure how it would do free air.....
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z...op/Nordic4.jpg

My problem now is I start to get any kind of base out of the stock clarion 10s, and then they start clipping... so i want something that i can turn them up on.

Im running an alpine PDX1.600 class D with 2 Infiniti 12's in a custom built sealed box at the front of my cabin and they hit extremely hard. I dont have much experience with the free air speakers, so I stayed away from them.

If you are clipping that is your amp not your subs. Are you running your subs in parallel where your amp is not stable? I bought an eclipse sub amp that was supposedly 2ohm stable and it would clip like a bitc#. I put my speakers in series and ran them @ 8ohms and they pound now. Now I need to get dual voice coil or 8ohm subs and get it back to 4ohms paralleled and run it there with more power.

I have the JL's. I like them and they sound good but they do sound a lot better with some type of enclosure or airspace behind them. If at all possible use some sort of enclosure, I did not because of space, but use the seat bottom as a quasi enclosure and it works well. When you buy speakers, look up the technical specs and try to meet their recommendations. Even "free air" subs have a listed airspace, it's just bigger than a sub made for a sealed enclosure.

Clipping is more likely caused by improper setup, gains too high, settings on receiver not right etc. What amp are you running, how is it wired?