# Is SPL dead?



## Jonnyswboy (Jul 25, 2018)

Trying to find an SPL community and the majority of people are on Facebook. Some on caraudio.com but not many. This section is a ghost town, why?


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## Thomasluke7899 (Jan 4, 2020)

This is a do it your self sound quality oriented forum. 
While it may have an spl subforum....being that this is not a spl oriented forum this subforum doesn't get much traffic if any at all.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Steve mead forums are spl


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## Grinder (Dec 18, 2016)

Lots of car audio folks were into SPL before getting into SQ. There are many here with a great deal of knowledge and first-hand experience in SPL. If you have any specific questions and/or ideas, post 'em up. You might be surprised.

But yeah, this is very much an SQ-oriented forum.


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## Jonnyswboy (Jul 25, 2018)

Grinder said:


> Lots of car audio folks were into SPL before getting into SQ. There are many here with a great deal of knowledge and first-hand experience in SPL. If you have any specific questions and/or ideas, post 'em up. You might be surprised.
> 
> But yeah, this is very much an SQ-oriented forum.


I do wonder if I will ever outgrow SPL, but I've been enjoying it for ~4-5 years (more seriously in the last 2) and am more into it than ever. Thanks I won't hesitate to ask any questions!


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## Thomasluke7899 (Jan 4, 2020)

Jonnyswboy said:


> I do wonder if I will ever outgrow SPL, but I've been enjoying it for ~4-5 years (more seriously in the last 2) and am more into it than ever. Thanks I won't hesitate to ask any questions!


Well we have info....and some of us have been around since before spl was known terminology. 
So we have answers. Just not much discussion.


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## cman (Aug 24, 2020)

Get out of here with your loud music!!! Grrr you young kids and your loud music grrr!!

Jk LOL (I’m not even that old) but yeah most people here are more into SQ - don’t get me wrong I like to jam out with some loud music and the subs hitting hard. I just don’t care about having four 18” sundown ZVX in a 5 cube box tuned to 40hz

I will take a single or dual 12” sub sealed and it gets plenty loud while still being accurate.

also a lot of SPL gear is honesty just pure trash.. I like electronics as a hobby so I am not fond of the Taramps cheap **** amps or the generic Chinese $hit that is so prevalent in the SPL scene.


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## cman (Aug 24, 2020)

Steve mead forum is all about that stuff


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## Jonnyswboy (Jul 25, 2018)

cman said:


> also a lot of SPL gear is honesty just pure trash.


Honestly Taramps is usually acceptable for the average normie looking for some dBs. We are not the average person though lol. At least they are hitting rated power around or under 1% THD. Boss and other brands are on a different level of terrible lol.


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## Anu2g (Nov 4, 2020)

cman said:


> Get out of here with your loud music!!! Grrr you young kids and your loud music grrr!!
> 
> Jk LOL (I’m not even that old) but yeah most people here are more into SQ - don’t get me wrong I like to jam out with some loud music and the subs hitting hard. I just don’t care about having four 18” sundown ZVX in a 5 cube box tuned to 40hz
> 
> ...


@daloudin may have something to say about Taramps lol


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## JohnnyOhh (Feb 19, 2015)

you got any details on that comment? maybe post link or something?
i was actually considering purchasing a tara amps 3k amp ..... no good?
amp catch on fire or something?


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## Anu2g (Nov 4, 2020)

JohnnyOhh said:


> you got any details on that comment? maybe post link or something?
> i was actually considering purchasing a tara amps 3k amp ..... no good?
> amp catch on fire or something?


No no...he likes them; he's been running a 3k Taramps against one Stereo Integrity SQL.


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## JohnnyOhh (Feb 19, 2015)

ohhh ok. thx! good to know.


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## Dafaseles (Dec 16, 2020)

As a member of the car audio forum, SMD forum and this one, people posting about pure SPL topics are few and far between. 
Car audio forum has mostly normal setup type discussions, though sometimes they can get interesting because there are quite a few people on there that have been around the block over and over again. A couple SPL people as well, but mostly installers that have been doing it for a long while. 
The SMD forum, well..... we haven't been getting much traffic over there lately. Good, supportive people over there, but yeah, sometimes it seems like only 3 people posting every so often. Kind of sucks, but it is what it is. 
This is by far the busiest as far as posts and answers. As a lover of all things car audio, this forum has a lot of interesting tidbits all throughout. In top of that, it seems like the vast majority of people are respectful no matter the size or what kind of build your doing. 
My build I'm getting into now on my truck would probably be considered by most to be SPL, but in my mind, it's not crazy amounts of power, and I'm being VERY careful it doesn't sound like dog crap. I've learned a lot from all 3 forums.


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## JohnnyOhh (Feb 19, 2015)

i used to read a lot of SMD (and other people's) build logs, it was great stuff. but that forum changed under hood formats a few times, and to me at least, .... it never seemed to run that well on my laptop. it was always tough to read the forum posts & my machine bogged down. it was really odd. too many ads maybe, maybe i just had a crappy laptop at the time.

there was some really nice deep knowledge on SMD SPL forums back in the day. But there is here too, some ex-competitors and such.


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## cman (Aug 24, 2020)

I hate the lame rules on SMD forum… they have so many sponsors it ruins the experience for everyone with their rules. No “versus” forums like this versus this.. obviously to protect their sponsors from a versus thread stating they are worse than another product…

Anyways about taramps… they are cheaply built and not super stable. Taramps would be my #3 choice if I had to choose a Brazilian full bridge amplifier…

soundigital being #2, NVX being #1 but NVX only makes up to I think 1700watts!? Good enough for me but not for a lot of bass heads… Regardless the NVX amps are full bridge but they are a more stable and higher quality design…

soundigital is decent but extremely overpriced and still not even that high of quality…

sundown SFB a taramps copy literally catch fire - read the Amazon reviews I don’t even have to post a link just search “Sundown SFB” on Amazon you will find reviews of people saying “I had this professionally installed and it caught on fire“

all the rest of sundown‘s amps are good quality (for their respective price range) but the SFB I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.

taramps if you look at the internals they are just really really low quality. Yes they work but if you even touch the speaker terminals together or run them at too low impedance there is a good chance they will blow instead of going into protect…not always but more often than others. They are getting better but they are still cheap. They also have high distortion, bad enough to where you can almost see it on an oscilloscope. Will you be able to tell with subwoofer frequencies? The average consumer probably will not…

just look at the gut shots of them they are not reassuring looking inside.. but if it works for you and it’s putting out the power you need for the price you needed then that’s all that matters - I hope it last many years for you


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## daloudin (Nov 2, 2020)

Anu2g said:


> @daloudin may have something to say about Taramps lol


Taramps ARE cheap and when compared against other brands of similar topology and construction they can be found to be lacking in the areas of noise floor, connector quality and many other aspects of construction. Mine is dead silent except for the fans (which is a no go for a lot of folks but mine is in the spare tire well under a false floor) and produces competent bass from the SQL12 even on par with other Class D sub setups I've had in the past. No complaints but I'm not expecting it to keep up with one of those surfboard ½ bridge monsters.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


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## JohnnyOhh (Feb 19, 2015)

Thanks guys! @daloudin Any experience or thoughts on the Taramps HD3000 (non-smart version)?


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## JohnnyOhh (Feb 19, 2015)

and apologies, off topic 

forgiveness please (Simpsons)


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## clange2485 (Dec 10, 2020)

FS: NIB Taramps HD 3000 - 2 ohm


Sells for 249 shipped on ebay. See attached numbers for actual 40hz certified BigDWiz numbers. I am in Canada. Brand New. 220USD shipped. No trades.




www.diymobileaudio.com





This guy is super cheap if it makes actual power and doesn’t burn you down. I’d give it a shot not much risk at that price.


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## JohnnyOhh (Feb 19, 2015)

yea, i was just chatting with him. 👍 👍


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## daloudin (Nov 2, 2020)

JohnnyOhh said:


> Thanks guys! @daloudin Any experience or thoughts on the Taramps HD3000 (non-smart version)?


The HD and Bass versions are the same internals without the fancy pseudo regulated power supply. Pretty much any Taramps will do fine if you feed it good voltage and stay within the rated impedance. 

Just don't expect it to have the sonic characteristics of a high end amp and ur fine. 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


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