Help with system

[cramn4903]

Alright so It's winter in WI and I have my camaro parked and I really want a system in my DD. I know nothing about this sort of thing so I was hoping some of you gurus could help me out. I have a 2001 honda civic and I want a decent system.. I'm thinking I just want a single 10" sub and was leaning towards a JL Audio 3v3-2.. link here..

10W3v3-2 - Car Audio - Subwoofer Drivers - W3v3 - JL Audio

So I know it shows the specs there but I still don't know what to get... Ported or sealed box? I want it to be loud but crisp sound quality is most important.. My car is wired with 8 gauge setup.. I imagine i'm going to have to go lower? Also I would have no idea what amp to run with it.. The continues power handling RMS on the sub is 500w with a recommendation of 150-500w. I no nothing about amps as far as mono/2channel/4 channel? Any info would really help guys!

[35th-ANV-SS]

I haven't worked with car audio in about 10 years now, but I remember a few things. Most likely in a car like a Honda Civic you will want a ported sub box. Does the back seat come down? I've seen some people build a box where the subs are facing forward towards the driver once the back seat was dropped and it sounded amazing. In previous cars with trunks, I had a large, sealed box with (2) 12" subs and it rattled my teeth

You want to get an amp rated for the RMS power of your sub. A high-quality amp is just as important as the sub itself. Mono is preferred if you are just going to run a single sub. I was running 3 amps in my previous Camaro - (1) for each 12" sub and (1) for the front/rear speakers. Sounded pretty awesome. Nice and crisp. The subs were only pushing 250W each (bridged) and the other amp for the front/backs was only a (4) channel 400W amp.

[tatertot91]

What kind of music do you listen to? I run a w3 and it really is a nice sub but like jon said the amp is equally as important. How much are you looking to spend? Depending on the amp if you don't push it you should be fine with 8 guage write.

[cramn4903]

Thanks for the replies guys... Yeah the back seats do fold down in my car. I also wouldn't be opposed to running two subs because sometimes I do like it loud. I imagine if I went with one and had the right amp I could still get quite a bit of sound out of it though too. Alex, I like all kinds of music honestly. I prefer country but I also listen to rap, rock, classic rock and dubstep believe it or not!! I guess I would be willing to spend around $600 give or take. I would think for that price I could get a decent setup?

[35th-ANV-SS]

Honestly, I have no idea what car audio is priced like these days.

If I recall correctly, my sealed box for my (2) 12" subs was around $200 just for the box. The speakers were around $150 each. That's $500 there and I was running two Autotek amplifiers (one for each sub) which I picked up for $150 each. So, I had $800 into the system for my subs.

I was also running Polk components up front and 6.5" polk in the sail panels. I bought a higher-end MTX amplifier which ran around $500 just for the amp to run those speakers. Probably had around $1000 in that.

Mind you, I bought my system around 10-12 years ago.

If you shop around I'm sure there are deals out there to be had. You could save by trying to build your own enclosure, although this takes some know-how. Maybe you could pick up a used box and save there too.

If your back seat comes down, and you want to always have it down, I would think a decent sub/amp combo would sound pretty good.

My (2) 12" MTX subs hit ridiculously hard in my 1998 Pontiac Grand Am I had with the back seat down.

[tatertot91]

Only reason I ask about the music you listen to is because different music sounds better through different types of enclosures. I think a nice sealed box and a decent amp would get you what you're after.
The amp I was looking at for my 10w3 was the jx500/1d, it's plenty to power the sub. If I had to make a suggestion it would probably be that one. Plus if you shop around you could pick one up for under 200 bucks.

[KMdef9]

Good points above, especially with the quality of amp. It's takes the signal from the HU, cleans and amps it. Cheaper amps, will only amp and sometimes even add to distortion. The HU is the only thing I'd recommend starting alittle cheaper on, the amp and sub can make up for it for a starter sound system. With that said, a 4 channel is too expensive and will be very underutilized for a single sub. You can use a 2 channel amp, you just need to make sure it can bridged, and that bridged impedance matches the impedance of your sub. It appears that JL is a single voice coil, so it's 2 ohms. Find an amp near 500 watts, as mentioned, as close as you can. 400 watts won't be bad, but you'll under-utilizing the sub, but it'll be hard to damage it. You can go over, but don't get a 1kw and crank it like most punk trunk rattlers do. It WILL be distorted and you WILL shorten the life of the sub.

IMO, I would go with one sealed box, it's less directional than ported, cheaper and most importantly much easier to tune. I, personally, like ported setups for 2+ sub systems. Also, make sure you match the cubic volume required for your sub as close as possible to the volume of the enclosure! There's a difference between ported volume and sealed volume. Nothing will make your sub sound better than a custom enclosure, but that can get pricey.

If you know the 8 gauge is in good condition, you could use it. I'm using some left over 8 I had for my Jeep on my single sub system. But I am under-driving that sub, I just wanted alittle filler bass. If you plan of going more than a single voice coil sub @500 watts, I would consider running 4 gauge.

$600 might be tough. Do you already have an aftermarket headunit (HU)? Shop around, shop around and shop around. Newegg, amazon, etc. Only use JL's or bestbuy's sites for clearance items you can use a coupon on, otherwise, 99% of the time they're way too expensive. I checked for your sub on amazon, it's ~$210 shipped (the 4 ohm is $190 for me, I'm a prime member b/c Amazon is the best place for most online purchases.)


Simply matching all of your products to their requirements will produce quality sound.


8"-10" sub = rock, country, jazz, and other mellow stuff
12"-15" sub = rap, techno, dubstep
Actually, 2x(12"-15") if you want to feel every thought put into (most) dubstep songs.