As a fellow JL owner and fan, congrats!!!

To answer your sub and amp questions:

1. What amp do I need?

A. This depends on make and model, but if you take a look at your JL 12W7 owner's manual (also available online at JL website), there is a sliding guide to match the various JL subs with recommended amps. The JL 1000/1 is listed as the perfect match for the 12W7 to meet the nominal and maximum power loads. Since most manufacturers tend to pair and test their sub/amp lines together, you can be sure that a JL to JL pairing would provide the best results.


2. How much power?

A. This is often misunderstood as "Too much power will blow my speakers!" In reality the opposite happens. Not enough power will blow your speakers!!! To understand this, you will need to see it happen for yourself, but higher rated amps are rated as such because they are able to handle the heat and response loads put on them to deliver power at their maximum rating. If for example, you put in a 500 watt amp that will be asked to deliver 750 watts of clean power to a 1,000 watt rated sub, the sub will eventually blow because the amp will be operating over its intended limits and will produce dirty signals that will electrically and mechanically damage the amp and sub together. Overpowering subs with higher rated amps, you get a much higher watermark for that scenario ever happening and there is less stress on the system. However, this has to be balanced with cost as purchasing a 8,000 watt amp to power a 500 watt sub doesn't make financial sense.


Good Luck!

 

As an additional word on the use of capacitors:

Goto several mobile audio forums and you will notice two distinct camps. One will champion the use of caps, the other will shun them.

Pro caps groups say that only capacitors will be able to minimize signal delay when producing high x-max bass notes since the caps can deliver the needed power faster than the battery.

The anti caps groups say that caps are band-aids and the real fix is to either upgrade the alternator to meet the current demands of the amp or exclusively use deep cycle batteries installed in the trunk and forgo power from a running engine. In the car audio competitor's mind, this actually makes sense. Why spend tens of thousands tweaking your SQ to only ruin it with a running motor and alternator causing all sorts of acoustical distortion? The placement of the batteries in the trunk also shorten physical wire distances, thus increasing signal response and electrical efficiency. I'm not certain whether this provides the same benefits as caps, but the direction of improvement is the same.

I'm leaning towards the anti cap group for the following reasons. As a physics argument, the pro cap argument holds true, but this assumes that there is an inexhaustible supply of current coming from the battery source. Eventually, the caps will reveal the next weakest link which will be the inability of the alternator to produce the needed power to supply the caps. The extended use of caps will eventually tax the battery and alternator and can cause undue wear and tear on the entire car electrical system. The use of deep cycle batteries provide a concrete limit on time, but can provide needed power quickly and provide less stress on the alternator and car battery.

For a 12W7 application, I would highly recommend upgrading your alternator if you are not into car audio, or look into deep cycle battery applications if you plan on competing.

BTW, you will also need a custom box that meets JL's air volume requirements and this will most likely lead to losing your spare tire. I would recommend a sealed box to minimize needed air volume and simplify tuning. Avoid bandpass or ported box designs as they are very expensive for custom and very difficult to tune.

 

wow thanks i just took a class in audio 101 reading your response, much needed too. so can a capacitor hurt the setup? or is it just one of those things you can get but don't necessarily need. of the two camps which would be the best for the wallet and which best for the sound? what would i be lookin to spend alternator wise

 

Try this and see how your mileage may vary:

-Install 1000/1 and 12W7 via custom sealed box.

-Tune the amp properly. Tune your gain to the highest hypothetical volume setting that you will use. This should give you a high watermark and some assurance against distortion.

-At night, turn up the volume to the highest setting set in the previous step and turn on all of your electronics. Have your headlights pointed at a wall and see if you notice any electrical anomalies, e.g. blinking, fading, etc. Do this while idle for a set amount of time.

-If you notice eventual fading or blinking, it may be a sign that you are drawing more current than the alternator can supply. This means that you should look at upgrading the alternator.

-If you see no issues, play on!!!


FYI, you should not forget these other steps:

Sound Deadening: With a 12W7 you will need plenty of dynamat!

Component Speakers: Most likely the 12W7 will drown out your stock Blose comps, coax, and the 6x9s in the rear. I removed the 6x9s and the rear coaxials and installed a nice set of components to match the subs.

HU: Eventually you will realize that the OEM HU will be the weakest link after you upgrade all of your speakers and amps. There are a wide field of choices so have fun and good luck!

 

Unless you plan on on switching your subs out alot or running the car both on and off, RIPS is a gimmick. What is does is keeps the power output the same whether you are at 12.5v(car off) or ~14v(car on) and for different wiring configurations(1.5-4 etc ohms). If you purchase the correct sub in the first place that can be wired down to 1 ohm, and its the only sub/amp combination you are going to use, then the nine.1 will put out MORE power than the JL1000/1. Also its rated at 1200w@1ohm when the car is off(12.5v) and will make more power when the car is on. More power is almost always better, and you can't set the amount of wattage travelling to the sub per se, but what you can do is adjust your gain input so that the effective power being sent to the sub is less at a given volume level.

 

I would prolly get a channel, 500watt and bridge it....prolly MTX or JL

 

why so? over a single channel goin straight to the sub?

 

per the sub its a 3ohm, not sure what that means, but why wire it down to 1ohm? this audio info is heavy haha

 

Don't worry about it. Stick with the JLs, but agree with Prelude regarding the RIPS. It's nice, but its played out more than it is worth by JL salesmen. The thing about resistances is that if you can match an amp and sub with the lowest common resistance possible, it can greatly increase the amount of watts delivered to the sub while maintaining peak electrical efficiency as less resistance = less heat generated by all attached components.

I have personally not seen 1 ohm subs and any amp being advertised at their max power at 1 ohm is misleading their customers IMO as most subs operate at 2-4 ohms. For example, the JL 1000/1 amp is rated at 1,000 watts between 2-4 ohms with the RIPS feature. A Sony Xplod amp rated at 1,000 watts may be rated at 1,000 watts at 1 ohm. If the sub in question is 2 ohms, the max output of the Xplod amp would be 1,000/2 = 500 watts. If the sub has a resistance of 4 ohms, the max output of the Xplod amp would be 250 watts. This is why people get fooled by Pep Boy hack jobs with mislabeled crap equipment that advertise big numbers, but deliver very little.

 

okay i think im sold on the jl 1000/1, so i got the 12w7 and a 1000/1 to go with it, a sealed w7 specific box w/ gold connectors, add a cap? what else do you recommend?

do i really need the dynamat, cuz i really wasn't planning it, i figure ill let it rattle till things start fallin off aha

 

Less body panel vibration = less sound wave cancellation = louder bass.

 

i ran mine on PPI 800w i swear it coulda taken more had it running bass tracks and wot not

JL are ok. 1000/ would prob be the best match for you (the impendance regulator does make it pricey though if money aint a thing then get it)
RF Kicker Sony stay away
MTX Alpine higher end sure

audison us amps zapco cadence old orions old ppi (i have 2 art series) old hifonics old a/d/s
idk been a while since i been in the scene but those will do the trick

EL OH EL not enough power will blow a sub if this were the case then everyone would be listening to their music at full blast all the time

dirty watts come from low input and abuse of equipment

nine.1 1200w @ 1 ohm = 400w @ 3 ohm so thats a no go

MAX output is funny to me

rms @ 1 ohm are not advertising gimmicks they are the lowest you can go and still have optimal performance and stability so look for RMS

a coupe is AKA a bandpass (just thought i'd note that dont know why)

a cap is up to you

its not possible to wire a single 3 down to 1 unless you throw in a couple 3ohm resistors but this would defeat the purpose since each resistor would share the 1200w still leading to 400w being drawn by the W7 and each resistor. thats a mighty big resistor.

dynamat if you want i would def dynamat your plate. i hate that noise!

 

found a decent price on a 500.1, im pretty sure this will not be enough to power the entire thing, so assuming i have the 500.1 and 12w7 what amp would i need to complete the cycle? thanks

 

^^
What you really need is the 1000/1 IMO. I have a JL 500/1 to power my 10W7 which is its match. The 500/1 will work, but you'll never be able to turn up the bass and experience the 12W7's full potential.

As an analogy, the sub is a car chassis and the amp would be the engine. If you are going to pair an H2 chassis with a V4 engine, the H2 will move, but don't expect to run 10 sec. quarter miles.

 

I'm surprised no one has asked, "How much do you look to spend?"