# Alpine Type-S 15 review



## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

I got fed up with hearing system after system at g2g's running 15's doing things my 10's (and even most of my sealed 12" setups) couldn't do. I've been missing out on the full bodied sound down low a good 15 has. So the plan was to rearfire a 15 between the front seats of my Ram in a center console box. The design I came up with and got most of the way built would have looked really good between my seats with the correct factory matched fabric. While waiting for life to slow down so I could get the details worked out with the install I started wondering if I wouldn't like it after going through all that work. Securing a box rigid between my front seats isn't the easiest thing to do and gets harder and harder the heavier the enclosure gets. And I guarantee that 15 woulda caused more tactile feedback than I could have tolerated. 

Anyway, enough about what pushed me over the edge and into the dark side. I had to decide between the gto15 and Type-S 15. The Alpine was more expensive but has gotten good reviews from the people who have used it. The Alpine won the coin toss and off to egay I go to buy. After sitting in my bedroom for several weeks I finally decide to build a rearfiring box that's easily removable if needed that fits snugly behind the passenger seat and center console. The box is at the minimum recommended realestate of 1.25 net. The way the edge of my back seat sits on top of the box it's angled quite a bit but I'm fine with that. No one ever rides back there anyway. 

Build quality is great. Fairly stiff cone, solid construction, accordion surround looks durable. I'm running it with a PPI PC1000.1 at 2 ohms and to be honest I'm not sure what it does at that load. The manual says it does 1000rms at 2 ohms but I think I remember someone saying it did closer to 700ish at 2 ohms and needed a 1 ohm load to do full power. That's why I chose to run this 500rms sub at 2 ohms. I'm no stranger to running at least double rms to my fronts so may as well do the same to the sub. 

Even in minimum recommended sealed airspace this sub is quite nice. Blends great dialed down but will shake things up really nice turned up. Kick drum is a lot more realistic. When the note stops the sub stops instantly as well. Decay is instantaneous. VERY clean sounding to my ears. This sub is straight up SQ in a sealed box. Still sounds great with rap/hip hop and electronic but I'd honestly choose something else if you want to drone your way down the street. I tend to hang on to gear for a long time if I like it and the Type-S 15 fits perfectly with my Arians and x2's. In other words my sub is no longer the weak link in my system. Almost forgot to mention, I have it crossed at 63 24db slope. I took it up higher to see how it sounded. Did OK. The Arians play fine down into the 60's at high volumes so may as well let them do it.


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## Midwestrider (Aug 10, 2007)

Nice review of Type-S 15. Any pics of the box in its current state? If I recall you had a Fi SSD10 previously correct? Any reason you didn't look to a the 15" in the SSD or Q lineup? 

Being a truck owner I'm torn between doing a box in place of the middle seat up front vs small drivers under the rear seat.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

No pics of the box at the moment. It's bare mdf with a dark colored sheet over it to help it blend in better with the interior lol. I have a pair of Fi X series 10's that I've had in several different enclosures. Most recently I had one ported in a center console box. From experience you're best off either downfiring in a center console box or rearfiring behind the front seats towards the back seat and rear wall. Subs under the back seat is just plain terrible imo even though it's the easiest solution for most people. I didn't go back to Fi because I wanted to keep the price low and there are several good choices under $150. To be honest, I doubt anything from Fi could sound as good as this Type-S. Alpine really did a good job with the new design. Even the entry level Fi subs have the ability to get louder than the same size Type-S but blending with my fronts was top priority. I looked really hard at Fi so it was on the list. Just didn't win a spot in my truck this time around even though the x 10's treated me well the 3 years I ran them.


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## JoeHemi57 (Mar 28, 2006)

I'd like to hear it, putting together a system now I just ordered a JBL GT3ez amp to start.


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

Nice reivew. I personally wonder about the 10s and 12s though. 15 seems a bit too big for many vehicles.


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## ZAKOH (Nov 26, 2010)

Hillbilly SQ said:


> Build quality is great. Fairly stiff cone, solid construction, accordion surround looks durable. I'm running it with a PPI PC1000.1 at 2 ohms and to be honest I'm not sure what it does at that load. The manual says it does 1000rms at 2 ohms but I think I remember someone saying it did closer to 700ish at 2 ohms and needed a 1 ohm load to do full power. That's why I chose to run this 500rms sub at 2 ohms. I'm no stranger to running at least double rms to my fronts so may as well do the same to the sub.


Russian web site avtozvuk tested this amplifier. They got 253 watts at 4ohm and 444 watts RMS at 2ohm, both tests with 12.5 volts. Normally, you can expect maybe 20-25% more output power with 14.4 volts. I kind of wondered if this was an error considering that the sales literature says it's capable of 1000watts at 2ohm. I personally enjoy using PPI's P1000.1, which according to Grizz Archer was underrated.


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## Hillbilly SQ (Jan 26, 2007)

The 1000.1 is more than enough for what I'm using it for so it's all good.

Joey, if you wanna hear the system as a whole shoot me a pm and we'll try to meet up sometime. I'll demo the sub after you hear it blended in properly with the frontstage


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## djPerfectTrip (Aug 15, 2013)

ZAKOH said:


> Russian web site avtozvuk tested this amplifier. They got 253 watts at 4ohm and 444 watts RMS at 2ohm, both tests with 12.5 volts. Normally, you can expect maybe 20-25% more output power with 14.4 volts. I kind of wondered if this was an error considering that the sales literature says it's capable of 1000watts at 2ohm. I personally enjoy using PPI's P1000.1, which according to Grizz Archer was underrated.


maybe 1000 max at 2ohm?


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## jim walter (Apr 10, 2010)

Glad to hear you are enjoying it. It's a very unique 15, being its #1 design focus was on SQ and it just happens to be very affordable. 

It'll get loud enough relative to its price point, but what I enjoy most is how nice it sounds doing it. We were blown away the first time we compared it to the old R15. Night and day as far as perceived control and 'tightness'. 

The R15 can still pummel it in the lows and overall SPL given some more power and a bigger box ... but for a lot of installs with limited space and power, the S15 is usually a better choice. 

Jim


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## fFrank80 (May 26, 2009)

Great review. A single 15" sealed is AWESOME for a good mix of low, hard hitting clean SQ bass! I ran a Diamond Audio D6 15" for many years in my Jeep. It was a ground pounder when I wanted it to be, and sounded great with all the music I played. Good call.


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