General Lee

I'm looking for a mix of both but probably more bass

GATORB8

Question number one: what is your budget (dollar figure)? Cheap means different things to different people.

GATORB8

Couple other quick points to give you a better start:
1. Peak power means nothing, ignore it. RMS is all that matters.
2. Used and refurbs will save you cash, check ebay and the diyma.com classifieds
3. A ported setup will be louder, but limits power handling and uses more space.
4. Check and double check you sub mounting depth
5. I highly recommend upgrading mids and highs at the same time. Loud bass is fun on occasion, a system that gets loud and you can still tell what song it is will make for a better ride whether or not it's turned up.
6. Factor in the cost of wiring and any new tools you'll need. Knukonceptz.com is almost unbeatable for a combination of quality and value.
7. Consider investing in dampening (not expensive dynamat everywhere, check out sounddeadenershowdown.com)
8. No, or very little, rear fill (mids and highs)
9. Stay away from super cheap brands like Boss, Crunch, and the like
10. Listen to the setup in a shop (or even better, a buddy's truck) before you buy, if you can't, then look for objective reviews online.
11. That sensitivity number matters... a lot. Every 3dBs is like doubling the power.

A FORD RIDER

well said bro!

Loud F150

I agree with most of that. Deadner isn't really going to be needed for what he is looking for. One thing that is completely wrong is that using a ported box limits power handling. But most of that is very good advice.

GATORB8

Figure better to know the basics now, I wish I would have know about it back in high school when I had more of an SPL setup.

Good catch, never really had the room to mess with ported setups, looks like I fell into the old internet rumor on that one.

General Lee

ok thanks yall this helps me out alot and since I'm low on money and cant work right now because of school and football, 200-300$ is the most I want to spend. I don't know if thats enough for what I want but O well I might have to hold off until footballs over

helotaxi

Like most myths, there is a kernel of truth to it. Below the tuning freq of the enclosure, the enclosure no longer limits the movement of the cone and just below tuning actually works WITH the motor to move the cone farther than it would in free air. The result is that the mechanical power handling (which I've yet to see listed by anyone other than Kicker some years back) is really low below tuning. At or above tuning, the thermal power handling is usually the limit. Sealed setups usually are limited by mechanical limits at low freqs as well but the cone never unloads. The kinda cool part is that you can totally destroy a lot of subs by putting them in a ported enclosure and sending them a very low frequency signal at a fraction of their rated power handling. Many amps come with a subsonic filter to help you save your subs if you run a ported setup.

Ported setups are great and can sound fantastic if done correctly. If done wrong they will sound like utter trash and you can destroy the sub. They do take up a lot of space. The same sub will want a larger volume enclosure if ported and you have to account for the volume occupied by the port as well. This rules out going ported in a pickup unless you are 1) really creative with how you run the ports, 2) using very small subs that don't need large ports to get correct tuning without encountering severe port noise or 3) you are willing to give up the back seat.