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?

I know about Omages, and wireing it correctly. Right now its a 2 channel amp, powering a left and right side at 4oams. that how it came.

I need to wire them in paralle, and put amp in MONO and see what happend. but have not messed with it yet. just know the subs pop will start jumping pretty good and pop easy.. so figured the speakers where the weaker link at this point.

i have 2 of these 12's in the front of my htm ss24 mounted on a verticle wall. behind it is the front empty space of the front of boat. tech specs say these are ok to use as free airs. here is a link and this was also the cheapest place i found to buy them. i think they sound awsome but they do require so power to push them and be sure they are wired correctly. they have switches on speakers for running 2 or 4 ohms.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...pa-120.9W.html

That is not going to work with most amps. two for 4 ohm speakers wired parallel is a 2 ohm load, when you bridge an amp it sees half of what ever load you give it, You are effectively now at 1 ohm. most amps will pitch a fit at that load. You need either 2 x 2 ohm speakers wired series to give you 4 ohms and then you can bridge the amp (or just run each channel at 2 ohms) or 2 x 8 ohms speakers wired parallel to get to 4ohms then bridge the amp. Or 4 ohm dvc speakes can do either etc. or you can just add 2 more of the same speakers and wire a combo of series parallel to get to the desired ohm load if the amp is big enough. Lots of ways to skin the cat.

they look cool too, i would send a pic but cant get it to load.

your thinking is 1/2 right

2 X 4ohm speakers in Parrallel is a 2 ohm load. (not 1 ohm)

the amp is a 2 channel amp, 2 channels @ 4oohm each or a MONO channel stable @ 2 ohm's

Right now, its wired 2 channels, at 4ohms each.

I need to try them in parallel, and the amp Mono/Bridged mode. for a 2 ohm load.

We sell all the brands mentioned except Wet Sounds and can say, handsdown, the JL M10IB5 is the sub you want to go with...in the right space. None of these subs will sound worth a dang if they're not located in the right spot and have the right power going to it. The Rockford is going to be my next pick but I really like the Rockford sealed subs....they are amazing pushed by a JL amp...not a big fan of Rockford's marine amps. The Jl sub will run very loud and clean off of low power and is our choice for marine installs. The Rockford just sounds awesome in a sealed enclosure and even better than the JL sealed sub. Let me know if I can be of any further help. The alpine sub just doesn't even rank in this comparision...same with the Memphis and we sell both.

See my buddy just told me the Alpine is better then the JL.. and he is a HUGE Jl supporter, but the alpine does a damn good job, and is 1/2 the price.

when an amp is bridged is only stable at half its rated stereo load, 2 ohm stable stereo is only stable to 4ohm bridged. that is cause the amp sees half the load, The amp is actually running its channels parallel when bridged. On old amps you would actually run off of the + on one channel and the - of the other channel to bridge, most newer am just use a switch and handle this internal. So yes technically the speakers are wired up to present a 2 ohm load but the amp will effectively run half of what ever load it sees when bridged.
This is why a stereo amp can put 4 times its single channel stereo power. 2 channels become 1 (this doubles the power) and the effective load become 1/2 (again doubling the power) for an amp to be 2 ohm stable in bridged operation it must 1 ohm stable in stereo operation. Most are not.

(Note not all amps double the power this will depend on how well regulated the power supply is)

http://www.jlaudio.com/jx360-2-car-a...plifiers-99399 Click on the specifications.

Here is an example of how power will change and how what ohm loads an amp will typically handle change as the amp is bridged or presented with different loads. notice the amp will take either a 2 or 4 ohm load in stereo but only 4 ohm bridged.

MOST big car amps when I used to do stereos, where stable to 2 ohms bridged. this is what I was assuming.

if the amp is stable at 2 omh bridged, and I run 2 4ohm subs in parallel thats the correct load.

I have 2 JL's in mine. Pushing then with a 600/1 JL amp it sounds awesome! With that amp they will pound all day long on a marine battery. Like stated above they do sound way better when enclosed. Just closing the back seat were mine are located its not sealed tight & still makes a big diff.

Yeah if its 2 ohm mono stable then by all means have at it, but like I said most are not and normally is the 2 ohm mono stable they will 1 ohm stereo stable, Many amps directed at comp stereo systems will be stable at low ohm loads. but normally they are the lessor know brands, the mainstream stuff normally is not. What Amp is it?

This why JL used to do 3 ohm and 6 ohm, They could sneak a little extra power out of amps.

Yes I remember when they where doing this.

I will be in the boat tomorrow and doing some more research on the amp and models to see my options. its probably going to disappoint me, as this stereo came in the boat.

4 channel on the 4 6.5 components in cockpit, 2 channel sub amp on 2 subs, and the 2 6.5 in cabin where off the deck.

Good luck hopefully it works out to your advantage. But if not stereo stuff is way cheaper than it used to be. and a good d class amp, is way more efficient for your subs anyway, almost all of them love a mono 2ohm load.

Whatever the latest 10" JL free-air is, that's I have in place of the factory Clarion. Although Waves & Wheels suggested against it as opposed to a sub in a sealed box, its what I wanted and I think it sounds great for being a 10" free-air.