Im thinking of reworking my sub setup. I currently have a 10" 2ohmDVC kicker L5 in a ported box powered by a kicker 04SX650.1 and its plenty loud but Im not too thrilled with the sound quality. It's just too loose, I would prefer tighter, punchier base and am willing to lose some volume to do it.
My options are;
1)change the box in favor of a smaller sealed one and tweak it.
2)change the sub and replace with something like 2 JL 10w3v3s, run on the same amp
3)dump the sub and the amp, and rework it from the ground up

I dunno, is it possible to achieve any high level of sq with the hardware I already have? id like to spend as little as possible obviously.. ideas?

 

Change your sub, change the box. The amp will do fine.

 

^^ Agreed, change up your box first before dumping more money out. Go to sealed.

 

What are your other speakers? You might just be lacking midbase.

 

My speakers are stock vw monsoon. above average by stock standards, but nothing to write home about. They're the next step once I fix this up and get a 2din screen in favor of my current deck.

Thanks for input! That was my intuition but I wanted to hear it from someone who actually knew what they were talking about :P

 

So from what I see you have a stock (albeit fancy, it's still stock) stereo and a woofer with a dumpload of power.

Do what you like but until you upgrade the factory junk it will never sound good. For now, for starters, wherever your gain is at, halve it.

 

If the sub is hammering on 6x9s in a rear deck that might not be helping the clairity....

otherwise stock speakers/tweeters are probably ok... well, when compaired to aftermarkets in stock locations anyway....