10 or 12
 

I have decided that I'll be having a sub and an amp installed in my 14 GT next spring. I have ordered a JL Audio JX 500 1 D amp and Audio Control LC 2I line out converter. I am looking at getting a JL audio sub in either 10w3v3 or 12w3v3. Is the 10 inch sub enough
for our Mustang?

Like horsepower, it's never enough.

I know this wasn't one of your choices, but how about the JL Stealthbox with the 13w3v2?

But my logic has always been that if JL makes a Stealthbox for your car you'd need a compelling reason to choose something else. For example, cost, weight, space, or you are making an SPL car.

It's hard to go wrong with the JL Stealthbox. I would cram a custom glass insert with a MTX Comp sub in it. If it were me. I had one and was running 1000RMS through a 10". It was insane what that little guy would do.

Just too much money at this time. I had a Stealthbox in the car I traded in for my Mustang. It was a 2012 VW GTI. I also had Diamond Audio component speakers in that car and a 5 channel JL amp. That sounded very good to me.

Its not about diameter of the Sub. Its about its RMS and quality. It depends on the type of music you listen to, generally speaking. a 12 will do a little better with booming bass like rap and electronic. A 10 will do a little better with tighter bass, like Rock. A nice 10" or 12" with 4-500 RMS, in a correctly sized box, is PLENTY for our cars.

"You'll shoot your eardrum out!"

05PRMTX is right, generally speaking. But there are a few more details you might find of interest.

The diameter of the sub(s) only matters because the total surface area of the cone(s) determine the volume of air that you can move. So you can get roughly the same volume from 2 10s as 1 12, if all other quality factors are the same (they usually aren't). This is assuming that each 10 is also a little shallower than the 12 (so the math will work).

Regarding the music you listen to and the size of the driver you select, again this shouldn't matter but often does. This time it's dependent upon the shape and size of enclosure. In my world, the enclosure is tuned to be as flat sounding as possible. Any boominess desired should be added via an EQ. This allows the built subwoofer to be applicable to as wide a range of music as possible. It wouldn't surprise me, however, that off-the-shelf 12 enclosures are boomier than the 10 enclosures.

I listen mostly to jazz. For the enclosure, I will be getting this,

It looks like a 10w3v3 is a better choice?

Make sure the enclosure is big enough for the sub (volume), you can find that info on the sun's paperwork. Always best to match sub and enclosure
Sealed will be a nice choice for jazz, I was under get a 12 myself. A 10 cab work but will need a very good amp and enclosure to hit those lower frequencies. The 12 should get you there a little more easily, especially can nsidering the very full bass range you need with jazz.

Great info. When you talk about the shape of the enclosure, what kind of difference are we talking? I can understand with a ported enclosure, where the shape can make quite a difference. But, with sealed I always figured as long as you had the correct volume, the shape was fairly ambiguous.

Well, 05PRMTX, you might be right. I have to admit that we are sort of approaching the limits of my knowledge, so I am going to have to switch from fact to opinion.

When I mentioned shape, in particular I was thinking that regular shapes are preferred over irregular ones. I thought this would be because irregular shapes would cause chaotic reflections inside the box or have weird chambers that may have a different air pressure than other chambers. What I'm wondering now is, even if that's true, whether it matters.

Switching back to facts, here's a little anecdote. It was the late 80s and the stereo shop I was shopping in had this weird looking sub box lying around. It looked like a Bundt pan attached to a giant pizza box. I was all, "wtf lol?" (two terms that didn't exist back then by the way). The salesman explained to me that it was designed to go in the spare tire well of some fancy Porsche. I asked him, "does it work?" He told me "not very well," and proceeded to tell me how the weird shape was nowhere near optimum for the woofer. But perhaps what he meant was they couldn't precisely determine what the volume was without taking it apart and filling the Bundt part with water.

Anyway, rectangles and trapezoidal prisms are ok. Bundt pans are beyond my comprehension. Spheres and triangles should work in theory but I personally would be afraid to try it. Honestly I wish I knew more about acoustics, it's something I've wanted to study for a long time.

Yes, enclosure shape matters. No, it's not that big of a deal. It's unlikely many people would even be able to hear the difference. Of course, remember that there are TWO enclosures for every speaker, the box and the room it's in. With car audio the "room" is never ideal so don't worry about it.

Also, differences are present more in the higher frequencies then low.

Haha, I guess that's about the only place you could put a sub in a Porsche. We're at the limit of my knowledge as well, but that seems like a good assumption to me as far as the shapes go. I am trying to decide between a big box with amp rack to go behind the seats, or a corner box at the moment. It's going to be sealed so I figured, sound wise, its apples to oranges.

Right, I figured the difference would be basically negligible. The "room" is definitely not ideal haha. I'm going to deaden as much as possible, but of course its never going to be perfect. Thanks for the input