I do love my Kicker CVR. What size do you think I should use, 10" or 12"? And should I put them in a vented or sealed box? I listen to rap and alternative/rock.

I will definitely check out that amp. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I would go for the 12" if you listen to rap and rock. I've heard a 12" CVR in a sealed box playing metal, sounded pretty good. Depending on what kind of bass you want, will depict if you want a sealed or vented. Sealed will require more power, but will give you a louder high bass. High bass is drums, bass guitar, ect. You will lose some low end bass with a sealed, but with a vented you will still have good highs and great lows. Lows are basically tones, I don't think there is an instrument which produces low deep tones. Rap is mostly low bass tones, and rock is mostly high bass instrumentals. If you listen to more rock then go for more power and a sealed box, if you listen to rap go with either the same power, or even lower in a vented box. Hope this helps.

 

That does help actually. Im thinking of going with two 12" in a vented box. It should still hit pretty good on my rock, and my speakers should hopefully give me some bass too, so I ought to be alright.

What is your opinion on how much wattage you should give a sub in relation to its RMS rating? I know giving it too much will kill it, but I think that giving it too little will kill it as well, wont it? My sub now is rated for 400 watts, and Im using a 360 watt amp. Do you think its okay to run, say, a 450 watt amp with a sub rated for 400 RMS? I know that just because its rated at 450 doesnt mean it actually puts 450 to the sub, there are losses down the line.

 

You need to see the actual RMS rating of each, depending on the ohms and how you set it up. You wont lose to much power from the wiring itself. Running under the RMS is fine. If you run an amp w/ 450 watt peak power to a sub that is 400 watts rms you should be fine. If you are still worried, then turn the bass level down on the amp about an 1/8. Whats the peak power of it anyways? If its peak power is quite a bit higher it will be fine. It can take the wattage to w/e the peak is for very short times every once n awhile.
My subs are 500 watt rms, and im giving them 300ish watts each.

But also, don't forget your wiring and box can make a world of a difference. I have a no name sealed box and AudioPipe wiring. The wiring cost me 30some bucks off eBay and with the combination I am perfectly fine with it. Another thing is Dynomat. I dont have any experience w/ it but it will make your bass louder, reduce road noise, and help reduce the rattling of your trunk. Plus w/ that stuff you can put layers and layers on top of each other which will help like crazy. It is surprisingly expensive but Scosche has their own version of it for quite a bit cheaper.

 

Yeah, guess I should have clarified. The amp I have now is 360 watts RMS. I dont recall what the peak power is. Im wondering if its alright to have a 450 watt RMS amp running a sub that is max rated at 400 RMS.

When I get this done, Im going to have it rewired with a bigger gauge wire. And Im definitely getting Dynamat, my trunk rattles enough already. Its ridiculous. It did help a lot though when I taped the license plate down with 3M double side tape lol.

 

Well that sounds like a plan! Are you sure the amp will put out that much power? Double check to make sure the ohms and everything match up. If they are different then the rms power the amp puts out can be less.
If its what you said, then you will be fine as long as it had a bass control dial. Does it? If so, you will need to turn the bass down or insert some sort of high handling resistor.
Now this is just my thinking, but if I were you I would be wondering if running the amp at its max capacity would shorten its life? Because on my amp I have the bass boost on, but my actual bass dial isnt all the way up. And I wouldnt buy an amp that does not have a fan built into it. Ecspecially on super hot summer days, itll help. But thats just me. Maybe I am just to precautionary.

Biger gauge wire and dynomat sounds good. What size? I think mine is a zero gauge. And dynomat wise, check around. I am sure you could save TONS of money if you check out eBay. At an audio shop ive been to they were charging $80 for the dynomat trunk kit. yikes.

 

If your amp is going to be putting out 50 watts more then rated for RMS, and your getting a dual coil sub you can do this. You can wire the coils in series increasing the resistance, and lowering the output from the amp. If you get a dual coil 4ohm sub when you wire it in parallel it will be 8ohms, if you wire it in series you would get 2ohms. At what resistance is the amp rated at 350watts? My guess would be 4ohms as thats the most common. Or if your going to get a single coil 4 ohm or a dual coil 2ohm(wired in series making it 4ohms), the 50 extra watts won't hurt it right away, but if your going to be playing it at constant high levels for an hour at a time, like me lol, you will prolly burn out the coil with time.