My JL Audio 10W0 that I have been using for the last seven years finally bit the dust on Friday. The surround came unglued from the cone. It was rattling pretty bad, even at a moderate volume. I checked out Best Buy online, they had an Alpine SWE 1043 for $64.99. That is about what I had to spend on a new sub so I called them, they only had one left and put it on hold for me at the customer service desk till I could pick it up later that day. I got there and it was good to find out the sub was on clearance and the price was only $31.99.

I installed the new sub yesterday and it sounded terrible. In fact my whole system sounded bad. The sub enclosure I have is .75 cubic feet, Alpine says the optimal air space for the SWE 1043 is 1.0 cubic feet. I did not want to build another box and I do not want a bigger box than the one I already have so I stuffed my existing box about half full of Polyfill to trick the sub into thinking the box is bigger than it really is.

The system still sounded like total crap for some reason. It was very distorted and had nearly no bass response even with the gain on my amp maxed out and the sub level on my deck maxed out too. It was late yesterday when I got done installing the subwoofer so today I took out my JL Audio 300/4 amp and put in a Kicker KX350.4 that I bought about six years ago. It's a good amp, but back then I also had the JL amp and had used it instead. The Kicker amp does exactly that, it kicks my system pretty good. The sound is 110% better, crystal clear and that little Alpine 10" sub pounds pretty hard, the bass is deeper, tighter and more musical than it was with the 10W0. I guess my 300/4 has bit the dust too, but it was old and had seen some hard use I guess. I built a flush panel to trim out my Kicker amp, it looks good. If you need a sub and want to use a 10" that sounds good and has a good price, check out Best Buy and see if they have any SWE 1043's left. I got a hell of a good deal on that sub. The only thing I don't like is the grille they send with it. It doesn't really protect the sub. I will find an old school waffle grille and put that on some time soon. Alpine does provide a nice trim ring to hide the mounting screws though.

Here's a couple of pics:

With the flush panel on the amp:




Flush panel removed:



Alpine sub:



It all sounds pretty good for what it is. That is a great price on a good quality 10" sub if anyone here needs one. Or two.

Jimmy

 

Nice setup you got there!!!!

 

Looks like a cool setup.

 

Thanks. I took a drive after I got it all done and got my truck cleaned up. The system does sound good for what it is and I was very glad to not have to fork out more money on a different sub that is engineered for a .75 cubic foot enclosure, like another JL Audio, or Pioneer makes a 10" sub they sell at Walmart, it is spec'ed out for a .8 cubic foot enclosure. I have no idea if the Pioneer sub is any good though. And I really do not want a bigger box than the one I already have in my truck. I am glad I still had that Kicker amp in my closet too. I almost sold it on Ebay a couple of years ago.

Jimmy

 

I was still trying to find a way to put a sub(8 or 10) in my 04 CC but not sure itll happen. I need my back seat unlike u apparently lol. Nice setup though

 

Nice setup. DakCC4X4- here is what i did with my rear seat config to keep the larger split seat. I just removed the smaller of the two rear seats, took some measurements, and then built a box that housed my rockford P2 12" sub and then made a covered compartment on top with the plexi. I used these bolts to feed through the back of the box into the holes that were originally there to mount the seat bracket and car seat strap. I thought about slanting the top of the box so it didn't protrude from the back of the cab, but I actually wanted the top of it to be fairly wide for when I am pulling gear out I can use it as a shelf