Kevin Greeley

Thinking about getting one but I'm very confused.

Is Active or Passive with an amp best?

How do you wire them up? Do you use the phono outputs on the head unit?

Do these outputs vary with the volume control or is the sub woofer always running at the same level?

Do you need something to filter out the higher frequencies?

Is it really worth the bother?

Thanks

Kevin.

chiark

Hi Kevin, good to hear from you again

There's two main types, as you say.

"all in one" is a sub, box and amp all in one that you feed with power (+12v from the battery, ground), turn on wire (from your head unit), and speaker level inputs or RCA inputs.

The other "component" route means buying a sub, a separate amp and either buying or making a box, cabling it all up, ...

What's "best" is really up for debate. For ease, the all-in-one approach may suit you. I think there's a kicker powered sub in Scoobyshop that might be worth looking at, as kicker make good stuff generally. For ultimate response, you might want to consider a separate sub, box and amp but this could soon get expensive...

Depends on what you're looking for, how much space you want to lose, and how much you want to spend...

Back to the other questions

Phono outputs do vary with the volume (unlike home stuff).

You do need something to filter the high frequencies out (called, imaginatively enough, a low pass filter). Most amps have a built in filter, and all the "all-in-one" type have a filter built in. Some head units have a filter built into them too, so you shouldn't need to buy anything extra on this front any more.

Is it worth the bother? Yes

Cheers,

Nick.

Kevin Greeley

Thanks Nick, a great help (as always).

What do you think of this?

MCS BASS PACKAGE 1
Sony 12" Black Xplod 800w subwoofer + 12" MDF fully carpeted pre built box + Amp wiring kit + Kicker KIX702 2x70w RMS amplifier
Price: £169.00 from www.mcs-direct.co.uk

How do you wire the stereo output from the amp to one speaker?