Interested in competing for the first year, all help comments are appreciated!
 

(sorry guys, I am a newbie, try not to flame me too bad, haha)

Good evening folks,

I wasn't quite sure where I should fire this post off, but I hope this works out anyway. I dont mean to bore you all with my story, but here goes...

I love music in general, but the addition of any subwoofers and amplifiers to make it sound even better is incredible! back a few years ago I had some friends give me some equipment to do a show they were running and I have been hooked since but have been too proud to ever ask for any help.

The first time I went out for a competition we ran 0 gauge for the power wire and ground and had a ground block with a few small fuses in it attached to the amp, stock battery, alternator speakers etc. I ran a 15 inch old school cerwin vega stroker with an mmats amp. with their guidance of letting the car run before my test run and not running the subs i ended up coming out with a 145.8. ( the car was a 98 civic hatchback) The box was already built by my friend that gave me the equipment to use.

That was fine and dandy, I was hooked. Another friend was selling his system. It was a 12" old school cerwin vega stroker and a us amps 2000x amp, with a custom fiberglass box. I managed a 146.1 at the competition I went to. A few months past after the show, i turned the gain up on the amp and drove around blasting it all the over the place and cooked the sub. ( i didnt know about reconing them then). I sold everything and just went to the big box stores for my next system and its been the same way since.

Now present day, I would love to compete again, it is really fun to see everyone out in a friendly environment. However, I would love to do everything on my own now from picking equipment to building boxes etc etc, this is why I came on this forum was for some advice from anyone that is willing to help.

Everything ive been reading for the last little while now, ive come to the conclusion that doing well in competitions breaks down to not really what you have in all cases but how you use it. If your box is built correctly and you have power in the right places the amp and driver will do their job. Ive read up on doing the "big three", if i was smarter before that wouldve been one of the first things I did.

I would like to get back into that scene this year. My car is 96 Acura Integra. My questions to all of you experts would be.. where do I start with a driver for instance, I know it comes down to cone area and the space you have to work with. I figure ideally I would use 2 10" subs, or a single 12. What do you guys think.

Amplifier would be after the driver is picked but im assuming id match the rms of the woofer. As far as power goes, running 0 gauge and doing the big three would be efficient enough for power i'm hoping.

Brands of drivers and amplifiers out there for my scenario would be greatly appreciated. Any idiot can go out and spend tons of money, I want to be smart in creating my first system.

Any input or information from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

First decide on how much power you will want to run, with all things in life you must have a goal. Now with the power you intend on running think about how much electrical you will need to sustain that amperage, a good rule of thumb is watts divided by voltage equals amperage. Your stock alternator is probably around 90 amps and won't cut it with anything over 1000watts rms.

buddy of mine did 149 off 2 12s and 1800 watts clamped in a integra , do a crx style box between 3 and 4 cubes ports to the rear subs firing forward , go with 2 6 inch aeros

hey guys, thanks everyone for their input so far.

I recently purchased a sub and amplifier so now I have equipment I can work with. The sub is a 15 inch DD 2515, and the amplifier is a crossfire vr2000d. I think this should keep me up to par in the divison I plan on competing in. I assume im going to land in the 'rookie' division, the organization is Team Northeast SPL.

In reply to you gramser, some rules for this class keep me at a maximum of 2000w rms for amplifiers and stock alternator. Im planning on doing the big 3 upgrade under the hood with 0 gauge wire. My main power from the battery I plan on running is 0 gauge from the battery inside the car to a distribution block. From the block to the amplifier i've been told 4 awg is all i will need. For ground I will be using 0 gauge from wherever I decided to ground from in the hatch to a ground block. From the block to the amplifier I will use 4 awg as well. I am allowed to use another 'stock sized' battery as well, would that be another route I should plan on going to give everything maximum power.

In reply to Luke, that sounds like a great idea. Maximum box specs for a 15 in this class is up to 4 cubes. However I can have a single rounded 4 inch port, or any size slotted port but they calculate that in the volume of the box. Your buddys score is quite impressive, i will hope to be up there someday.

Oh, I'm also planning on taking the interior panels and carpet out and putting down a layer of sound deadener. Is there much of a gain in doing this or should I not waste time.

single port for the 15 would work great , resin the inside of the box !

Should I go with a slotted port, or a single 4 inch port, or should I look into getting an aeroport. I havent seen anything in the rules about aeroports, so I am unsure. Box with sub firing forward and port to the back, do I keep the port as close as I can to the hatch or give it some room to breathe.

run an aero port out the back of the box , your best bet is to build a slot port box and a aero port box and test them box , with the aero port box you will have to tune the port this requires a termlab to tune it for max spl

find a friend with a termlab.... cut a bunch of cardboard sonotube (home depot) for tuning. make sure the battery voltage is consistant, and allow subs to cool between burps, and burp for just 5 seconds to get your readings. graph on tl will help get box peak and resonant fequency of your car.

oh yeah, 6 inch aeroports...

yep exactly what rob said , it takes time but thats how your going to tune the box , once you max that box out make a box slightly smaller continue this process until you stop gaining spl