Rockford T212D2 too much for 370z?
 

Currently I have two Kicker L7's being slightly underpowered in my Nissan Sentra Ser Spec V. I have bought a 370z and am pretty sure the two kickers will not fit, unless i put alot of work into a custom box, and remove my spare....which i'm hesitant to do. Also, I think it'll be too much power for the car. I was thinking of getting a Rockford T1500-1bd to try out the kickers, but ultimately I was thinking of just getting a T212d2 or possibly the T215d2. Do you guys think the T2 will hit as hard in the 370z as the kicker's did in my sentra since the car is smaller. Also, do you think there is anyway i can install either of these set ups with out taking the spare out.....I am thinking not.

On a side note, I have read that with good quality components rear speakers would actually make the system sound worse. Is there anyone that has put in the rear speakers and tried without and disagree? All comments are appreciated. Thanks

I'm not sure about the subs, although I do think it's worth bailing on the spare for a can of fix-a-flat (that's what I'm doing anyway).

The whole rear component thing is somewhat philosophical. Having front speakers only will provide better imaging - a more detailed sense of the instruments being in the right place - if you have the right speakers. If lean toward that line of thinking, rear speakers will just muck up the image.

However, if you want to fill the car with sound, rear speakers can help. You just need to make sure they're correctly delayed with respect to the fronts, and of course you need more money. Generally, you're better off putting more money into the fronts, but there's an area of diminishing returns, so if you've got lots of money, it can be worth doing the rears.

To some extent it depends on the music you listen to. If it's classical or jazz, I'd stay away from rears. If it's hip hop or techno, I'd go with rears if you've got the cash for good amps, etc.... Rock or country - I'd say it depends...

I dunno - anyone else want to correct the above?

Thank you I appreciate the reply... I am still open to alot of suggestions. I have bought the JL C5-650 components, if this makes any difference in your suggestion. I am still not sure of the amp now that I'm thinking of getting just front speakers. In any regard I will definitely power the speakers by an amp. At first I was thinking the Rockford t400-4, but recently I thought about going all JL which would put me at the 300/4v2. Do you consider those good amps that would allow for rear speakers. Also, I'd like to point out that these amps power about 60-75 watts rms, which is perfect for the components i bought but for the rears not so much since the most they'll handle is about 30watts rms since the speakers back there are 4". The other option I thought about was to ditch the 4" speakers and go with some 6.5" in the trunk with the sub. What are your thoughts? Thanks

When not using the car at the track, I have one of these that I cut in half, so I'm only using one 12" sub...
Rockford Fosgate P2L-212 Punch Stage 2 dual 12" ported enclosed subwoofer at Crutchfield.com

The bass is RIDICULOUS and reasonably tight... too much for me to be honest

The back of my car is completely striped in the back for track purposes, so it sits on the same level as where the spare tire sits... it has about 2-3 inches of clearance above it, below the hatch... would not fit if i hadn't striped the back

Sorry - I'm not that up on modern components - it's something I'll be wading into myself in a few months - so I'm not the best person to answer those questions. I'll leave them to someone who's more current on JL's stuff.

Someone did say something about JL amps burning out, which did surprise me - they're pretty much the high end of consumer-grade audio. I was planning on going with Alpine amps and a JL sub, with either JL or Focal components, but I was going to wait on the back until I hear the front + sub. I could see that a 6x9 in the back could be useful for filling in midbass, but again, I'm not the best person for this.

Any current car stereo installers want to chime in?

That's good to know - I think I'm going to stick with one 13" sub in the back. 2 12s just sounds like overkill (no pun intended).

Well, to start this out, I am no expert so to speak. I have been installing car audio and doing custom fiberglass for about 5 years though. You can basically do what you want as long as you know how to offset your co-axial speakers. i.e. delay, mixing, fading etc. I have yet to tear into a 370 but I have done some similar sized cars and smaller. Your best bet would be to ditch the spare, build a custom enclosure to the spare tire well and mount the amp separately from the sub (as to not mess with the interior components from high decibels. Also because there isn't much room, mount the additional amp across from the other.

When you install the co-axials do all of your adjustments from the head unit to the way you want to hear your system. You would probably want more of a delay to the rear speakers and make sure you can set the mixing on your head unit. Probably like a 60% (front) 40%(rear) set up. Then turn up your head unit to about 75% of it's volume, then adjust the gain on your amp until the sound coming from the speakers starts to distort. When you can hear a little bit of distortion, back the gain down a little bit til it's clear again. This is your max volume and gain that your system will be able to obtain. Do the same with the sub, and you're done.

You can use basically any set-up you want. These are just rules of thumb to adjusting the system. Don't worry about glass or anything shattering from too much of anything. It's going to take way more than that 13 to do any harm to the car.

I hope this helped. If you need any more info or have any more questions just let me know.

Thanks alot.... I appreciate your input and it makes alot of sense. I just bought some 3 way components. For now, I'm going to run them with a 4 channel amp i had in my old car. The 3 ways say 150 watts rms and my amp can do 200w bridged so that will just have to work for now. I'm getting a kenwood ddx814 which has very good tuning capabilities so if I do decide to get rear speakers that should help.

As far as the subs go, at first i was thinking of eventually getting the 13w7 from JL and calling it a day. My other option was to get a t1500-1bd from rockford which is 1500watts @ 1 ohm and 1000w@2ohm. and was then going to get a T212d4 which handles 1000watts at a single 2 ohm load.... if this wasn't enough... which i'm sure it will satisfy but if i wanted to go overboard, i could add another and use the same amp, and just under power the two subs a little. Usually Rockfords have more power than they are rated at... from what i've seen these amps have at least 1700-1800 instead of the rated 1500. Do you think the two T2's could possible shatter any glass. I have read that people with two of the 15" T2's have reached about 134db.

Let's see, I think if I do the math, you probably have about 81 ft of cubic airspace inside the car. The airspace in the car isn't all that relevent but if you think about it in terms of the car being so small on the interior, it kind of works like it's own enclosure. Any more than 12's and you won't break glass directly from over all decibel output but you put a lot of pressure near the seals. If you hit around 150dB, you may be in some sh*t if those seals ever loosen up from sound or vibration. I have 2 MTX TR7510-22's with MTX 3 ways all around and I am hitting 127dB in my Mazda 6s. That's just 10's in a fiberglass enclosure. If you get the right sub/co-axial/amp(s) combo, you don't need all that much. So in all, you'll never come close to hitting that high of decibels!

Oh FYI for those of you that are wondering or doubting, I use a Scoshe Comp level dB meter and I have to wear earplugs to test everything from inside the car. I am using an MTX 1000W Thunder X1000D amp for my subs inside a custom (by me) fiberglass enclosure and an MTX Thunder X704 400W/4-ch for my co-axials.