Making It Go Boom
Car audio, one of my favorite hobbies. Some people go for sound quality and some go for loudness, or SPL (sound pressure level). I started out about two years ago with my first set of 12″ subs from Infinity, then moved up to a pair of 12″ Alpine Type-Rs. The amplifier I used was a Better Audio 1600M1 rated at 1600wrms (watts rms) @ 1ohm. The Type-Rs held up my SPL addiction pretty well until I started to compete in MECA, a somewhat local car audio competition league. It was there I learned that my Type-Rs had nothing on the big boy companies: Digital Designs , Resonant Engineering, American Bass, and TC Sounds just to name a few. These guys were pumping out scores in the 150 dB (decibel) range while I measured in at a measly 145.1 in the kick. I wanted something that was louder, lower, and capable of handling power. Not only that, but I didn’t want to spend over $400 in new subs.
The solution was Audioque. Not wanting to go into too much detail, I eventually ended up with a single 15″ Audioque HD3. Now the question is power. I started with a Treo SSX1500.1, but it blew up less than a month later which was because I was running the amp at .75ohms and didn’t have a good electrical system in place. Low voltage (10v!) + low loads (.75ohms) = fried amp. I then went with a modded MA HK4000D which puts around 3200-3500 watts @ 1ohm running on 12 volts. A higher voltage, say 14v, 16, or even 18v would make the amp put out even more power, but my weak Honda alternator and 2 batteries cannot maintain 14v for very long. Then comes the enclosure, which was a 4.5 ft3 tuned at 40hz with 4 4″ “aeroports”
The most recent score I have is 147.2 dB @ 40hz taken at the headrest during the Carl Casper Autoshow last year. During the earlier year prior, I was able to finish 2nd and 3rd in two different classes at the MECA world finals. I ended up finishing 1st and 3rd in two different classes at Carl Casper. Lastly, here’s a video of what I’m working with.
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