I have upgraded my mid range speakers to kicker KS600's and now i'm looking to install my subs but I don't know what brand I want to go with. I have had a single 10 Alpine type S sub, i've had dual P3's in a ported box, and now i want to really do it nice. I want something that hits harder then hell but doesn't require me installing an additional battery. Any recommendations?
I've used JL Audio for years, currently have a 10W3v2 in my Integra and a 12W6v2 in my Civic.
For more quality, accurate bass you should use a sealed box. Sealed boxes aern't quite as loud as a ported box, given equal wattage, but it's better sounding bass. Quality over quantity.
It'll be the amp that decides if you need a better battery, not the sub itself, but unless you get a
really powerful one, your battery will be fine for a long time as long as you don't abuse it.
I have Yellow tops in both my cars and haven't had any problems with them. Had one in a 1990 Celica years ago too and it was fine for me. I got one for the Civic because the size of the stereo system actually needs it (3 amps), but I got one for the Teg just because I don't drive it in the winter, and I need something that can handle being unused for extended periods of time and not suffer the bad effects. Optima's can go dead over and over again, get jumpstarted, and be totally fine. A regular battery can't do that more than a couple times.
But anyway's, I wouldn't worry about needing an aftermarket battery if your only running a single, average size amp. But they are a good investment for the long term.
Here's a past schpiel I gave on capacitors:
Capacitors were born from the popularity of SPL contests back in the early 90's because that is exactly what their good for....supplying just a brief shot of power to the amps while their doing their "burp" at the contest. Keep in mind a burp is just a bass tone, not actual music, not a "real world" situation were these caps created for. Of course, the people who created them realized this would be a great item to market to the masses, so they did, and the advertisers did what they do best, marketing them to teens and young adults with wild claims as a cure-all fix to the lack of power supplied by a stock car's electrical system. And most of us believed it, yeah me too, it made sense right?
But caps need to be recharged, just like the battery. A charged cap is depleted within just a few seconds when a system is banging away at high volume, then the alternator is charging the battery, the capacitor, and still being asked to power the amps. For sustained power output for continuous listening, a cap isn't the solution and can actually make the problem worse. And can hasten the demise of your alternator faster than powering a high output amp would do on it's own.