JL audio stealthbox

[ncx]

Originally Posted by buschy

ncx let me know what you think when you bypass, its actually pumping out some bass believe it or not, let us know what you find out, and when I hook the amp I will compare.

Ok I bypassed my amp and hooked the Stealthbox directly to the factory sub signal. Buschy, I hear what you are hearing now, and I think it's all relative. You were coming straight from the OEM subs/OEM amp to the Stealthbox/OEM amp. Yes, you are right it sounds much better than the OEM subs. The difference to you is greater than it is to me - I have been using a separate sub and sub amp for two years and have probably forgotten just how pathetic the OEM subs are. I am used to hard hitting tight bass when called for, so the Stealthbox on the OEM amp sounds good, but way underpowered. I can't get it to deliver big enough bass to really feel it.

That said, compared to what I remember of the OEM subs, the Stealthbox has much more bottom end, specially below 50-60hz. Even at lower volumes you can hear deep bass that did not exist with the OEM 'subs'. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that the amp is generating more power on the sub channel due to the lower impedance. When cranked up I was surprised to see that factory amp is generating enough power to get the sub to actually move some air (I think OEM is 35 watts per sub @ 8ohms). As Alpac noted, though, the amp was not designed for a 4ohm average load, and this could lead to premature amp failure if cranked a lot.

I'll leave it like this for the rest of the weekend and give it a longer listen. The Stealthbox sounds decent enough on the OEM amp to use until a good dedicated sub amp can be installed. For me, I am already missing my sub amp. It pushes the JL with so much more authority and doesn't have to be cranked to deliver very deep, tight, satisfying sub bass.

Interesting comparison and surprising to see the OEM amp hold it's own with the aftermarket sub.