Yea I also think the 18" is overkill

oh and you might invest in some tweeters if you don't have any already, they make the highs still audible when you have the bass up loud. What has worked well for me when having the bass up loud but still hearing the mids and highs clearly has been 6.5" speakers all the way around and some tweeters in the door panels. I used to have 5.25" in the front and 6.5" in the back (My car doesn't fit 6x9's), but when I switched to the 6.5" all the way around, the sound quality improved dramatically.

 

yeah 18 is dead lol but i will be getting some tweeters afteri get subs and box paid for

 

and trunk space i am not worried about lol i never have anything in there anyway just my speaker

 

just hope you never have to get that spare out of there. lol

i hope the same thing for myself, my subwoofer box is bracketed to my strut bar and removing the subs just to get my spare out will suck

 

o yeah lol i remember seeing the strut sub thing lol and yeah dam.... I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT :P dam

 

why dont you look into some 8 inch Digital Design 1508 subs.

I'm doing a full custom set up in my buddies 2000 Si using a 3 8inch DD subs, an earthquake D2 2000 watt mono block, kicker ks 6 inch components in the front, and kicker ks 6x9 3 ways in the rear powered by a kicker 350.4 4 channel.

Before we installed the 3 eight inch subs he had two kicker 12 inch L7 subs (same power as my CVX times 2)

We metered the L7s before pulling them out - hit 139.9db
Made no changes to the system other then removing the 2 L7s and installing the 3 8s and metered them at 144.3db

Still a little bit of trunk space in the vehicle as well.

O and my single 12 inch kicker CVX metered at 135.2

 

Did you expect any different of an outcome? After all, DD is a high end SPL sub that can be made to sound good. Kicker OTOH, I am sorry, but the L series doesn't sound all that great... I have tried the 12" L7 and L5 and found them both to be muddy and inaccurate with regards to reproduction of low frequencies.

 

If you're interested I'm parting out with my subs that I was just talking about. 2-12" +box +amp

 

the only thing I wasnt expecting was that big of a gain in db. I knew there would be a gain going to the DD's though.

I know DD and Kicker are on two different levels when it comes to SPL I however disagree with you about kicker when being used for just street beatin.

OTOH? please define

 

OTOH = on the other hand.

I think my problem is I don't listen to rap, and the Solo-baric L series shines in reproducing bass from nearly all of the rap/hip hop songs. I replaced my last 12" L5 with a Digital Designs dd1010 and couldn't have been happier with my decision! I tried a 12" L7 from my cousin, and didn't like it any better than my L5...

The thing I like is that my ported 10" DD plays all sub bass frequencies rather well, and sounds better than the ported L5 or L7 did in my 1997 Civic. If I had to explain the bass from the 12" L5/L7, I would best describe it as a one note wonder because it plays most of the rap bass rather well, but sounds like crap playing shifting bass notes from Drum and Bass tunes. I think I am going to try the L5 in my girlfriend's Mazda Tribute, and if she doesn't like it, I will put it to use as a Home Theater sub in a 3 cubic foot enclosure tuned to 32 Hz.