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there are a few factors that determine the 'tightness' of a sub
- Quality of the sub
- Design of the sub enclosure
- Damping factor of the amp
- Crossover points (Low pass filter)
- Front Stage Splits
- The car itself
The quality of the sub is quite self explanatory, garbage in, garbage out.
You want a decent sub looking at simple specs such as the voice coil diameter, magnet weight, material used, motor structure etc...but when you get to the Thiele-Small (TS) specs (xmax, fs etc) that determines how good your sub is and what the sub is ideal for in what enclosure (eg ported, sealed, isobaric etc)
The design of the sub enclosure is the most important thing to maximise the potential of your sub. Looking at the TS specs determines the optimal enclosure size for your sub along with it being ported/sealed. The box being to small can cause the sub to have a lack of bass extension, a box too big can cause the sub to sound sloppy.
The ideal thing is to minimise group delay. Group delay is a factor that determines what is perceived for a system to sound sloppy or tight.
An amp with a high damping factor allows it to control the movement of the speaker.
A sub with the low pass filter set too high will in effect cause the imaging to detract pulling the soundstage back (if your subs are at the back), losing focus and the tightness of a system will be lost.
The front stage is the most crucial part of good quality system especially if you want a tight sound. The tightness of a system is not factored by the sub but the front speakers. The tight sound of a bass kick lies in the 75hz to 160hz area. Subs 'generally' are only good for up to 80hz.
The actual car will determine a system's tightness, looking at the cabin space, design such as hatchback, sedan and wagon.
With these factors taken into account the system in my car along with the crossover points of the sub of lpf at 54hz with a 12db slope and the front stage hpf of 73hz with a 12db slope and trust me, it sounds really tight (minimal group delay) and still quite reasonable with low end extension considering i'm using a sealed enclosure.
My system
Deck: Clarion 836MP (upgrade to a Pioneer P90 combo soon)
Splits: Rainbow Profi Kicks with custom passive crossovers
Splits Amp: ARC Audio XXK 2100 (possible upgrade to a Tru Technolgy Copper Series Tube Amp)
Sub: Rainbow Profi Vanadium 12
Sub Amp: ARC Audio XXK 2500
Sound Deadening: Dynamat Extreme
Interconnects and Wires: Audison Connection
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Down under is great, oh so is Australia
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