I've had them for a couple months. Sound great and the bandpass box they came in looks great also. I was pushing them with a Rockford 800.2 but because the subs are 4 ohms I could only get 400RMS out of it. These subs blew on me like a week ago. All the sudden no bass and when i looked in the trunk there was smoke pouring out of the box. The thing that doesn't make sense is this was only after 2 months and I was only giving them 200 RMS each (half their RMS). Since they're blown I would think they'd still make some noise...rattling, ect. But they don't move I think the amp is turning off for protection. Now I am looking at getting two 12" alpine type R's in a sealed box. It's $540 for DVC's at a local store. Then I can run them 2ohms-400 RMS to each sub. I have a friend who has one and it sounds great, two will be even better!

Cliff Notes: If you want audiobahn subs buy the higher end ones, they are better quality.

PJ

 

The guy at the shop said since i have my amp running at 4 ohms each channel w/gains all the way up...the amp is working harder then it would at 2 ohms each channel/4ohm bridged with the gain down a little. He said thats why the subs blew fast. Truth behind this??

PJ

 

WEll you can get 2 R12 on the net alot cheaper brand new on ebay, jsut look under alpine R12's and get a JBL amp why you are at it

 

The subs don't care how they get the power, whether the amp has to work hard or not. Although if your gains were too high, you could have been clipping the signal, which could have been the reason your subs blew.

 

Well $540 for 2 12's with the box isn't that bad...and if I buy them on ebay I won't get a warantty and be screwed when they blow.

 

yea, thats what the guy at the shop said happened. I had the gain all the way since I was only putting out half the subs RMS-never got distortion, just caught on fire one day, lol.

PJ

 

since you had a bandpass box.....you cannot hear distortion...that's one downfall of that design..you'll get a TON of bass..but you will not hear the distortion, the box will cancel it out.

 

But I know they were not distorting I listened to them carefully outside the car many a times from the trunk...And, at half the RMS they should have had no overpower issues.

PJ

 

hahah...no no..its like this..a bandpass box...you CANNOT hear ANY distortion from it..because it cancels it out. your subs will distort..but you will not hear it..inside or out. Thats because its a Bandpass box.

 

Maybe it muffles it a little bit but to say it cuts out ALL distortion is just bull. If I turn the subs up past the limit I can DEFINITLEY hear when they don't sound good. It's a bandpass box-not a soundproof box.


PJ

 

yes you can hear when the subs sound bad when you push the limit..thats cuz they are maxing out or bottoming out. But you can have distoriton at 10 watts but the accoustics of a bandpass box will cancel out the audible distorion. Thats an actual fact...you can hear it sound like **** because your subs are near their limit..but distortion is a byproduct of an amplifer or signal. once again a bandpass box will cancel out audible distortion...and if you have a distorted signal at any wattage..it will self-distruct the sub.