# Is selling my GTI sub a mistake?



## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

I originally purchased a JBL GTI W12 for use in my vehicle. I don't see myself installing it because I need the cargo room and the stealthbox works fine. I would love to have the GTI in there, but its not practical anymore. Recently I've decided to build a better home theatre/stereo sub that does an excellent job with music. If I use the W12 GTI there's the dual 6 ohm voice coil that's leaves the options of 12 ohm or 3 ohm configurations, and a sizeable power requirement. and the sub is designed for in vehicle use. I'm thinking I'm better off ordering a Dayton sub and some plate amp that's designed for home use rather than trying to make a car sub work. On the other hand I would hate to sell it if there was a practical way to make the GTI sub work in the house. Perhaps the pro amps from Behringer or Crown would run a 3 ohm load just fine? I have my doubts and I've spent enough time researching. Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter would be great! Thanks.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

Keep the JBL, even if it's for later use in your car. 


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## dareo (Dec 17, 2010)

I run a w15gti for home theater. I wouldn't worry about the ohms. I've had no issues at 3 ohms. Build a huge ported box and enjoy, mine's 12'. Can't say enough about the quality and quantity of bass, even in a large room.


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

What are you using for an amp?


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

I would keep it. The more I look at those subs the more I want one for several reasons. It's truly unique in its motor design and it's pretty efficient, low inductance, grest power handling, and you can't damage it from over excursion. I hear that it may be the lowest distortion car audio sub out there. 

I can't imagine they're going to be around forever, they've been out for a long time. Even though I have nothing to put them in I'm going to order a pair of 15s as soon as the money is available before they're gone.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

^^^That


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## dareo (Dec 17, 2010)

They have similar motors in their pro woofers, hold a patent on it, and the next woofer down is the MS series. I dont think they are going anywhere. Best all around sub imo. If they discd it, it would be for a better version.


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

Nope.


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

I'm reading up on this one now. 2 ohm stable bridged, and DSP. Its about the right amount of power and the price is reasonable. I'm not familiar with Peavey quality and reliability though .http://www.parts-express.com/peavey-ipr-1600-dsp-power-amplifier--248-7990


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## mmiller (Mar 7, 2008)

The Dayton isn't isn't in the same league.... Not even close!


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

I agree! but Dayton makes good stuff at a good price and has a lot of respect in the diy community. I can pair a 15 inch Dayton reference sub with Dayton or Bash 500 watt amp for around 400 or 500 dollars and have a better sub than you can get at a big box store or even the smaller local shops in most cases. I'm looking at 400 to 500 dollars at least just for an amp to run the GTI. Its something I needed to consider.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

MLS said:


> I agree! but Dayton makes good stuff at a good price and has a lot of respect in the diy community. I can pair a 15 inch Dayton reference sub with Dayton or Bash 500 what amp for around 400 or 500 dollars and have a better sub than you can get at a big box store or even the smaller local shops in most cases. *I'm looking at 400 to 500 at least just for an amp to run the GTI. Its something I needed to consider.*


Says who?


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

Says me. but I've been wrong plenty. That's why I started this thread.


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## BuickGN (May 29, 2009)

High power handling has nothing to do with efficiency. 100w would get one of these subs moving well. I think they're 90 or 91db efficient at 1w/1m. That's more efficient than the majority of car audio subs. I don't know how I missed this sub for so many years. Maybe it was the chrome dustcap lol. It shouldn't cost a whole lot for an amp to push these subs.


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

Ok. I will take your advice and go with a Bash 500 plate amp. should've ordered one when they were $200 a couple of weeks back. DSP would be nice, but its not needed right now.


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## quality_sound (Dec 25, 2005)

I ran mine with 300-ish and it was fantastic.


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## mmiller (Mar 7, 2008)

I've never owned a Bash amp, but it mat even run it at 3 ohms, or it may get to hot and go into protection mode.

But even at 6 Ohms you're going to have 300-350 watts like quality sound mentioned anyways. They're efficient subs, in a proper enclosure you'll have plenty of output.


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## dareo (Dec 17, 2010)

If you use a Pro Amp, you will need a stronger signal to feed it properly. I have a QSC GX3 rated 500 watts single channel at 4 ohms. With regular RCA level inputs it will not be fully utilized, art clean box pro will amp the signal up to XLR levels that are needed for these type of amps. 

it easily clips at high volumes but never gets hot or cares that i run it 3 ohms single channel. Can the sub handle a lot more? Sure. Do i NEED a bigger amp? No. It shakes the house sufficiently and rarely gets turned up to the point the clipping light is on. I got a deal on this amp but a bigger one would be nice.

Most plate amps won't like a 2 ohm load (50% less resistance) but 3 ohms is only 25% off . So if you run it at like 8/10ths and keep it cool it should be fine.


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## its_bacon12 (Aug 16, 2007)

The premade 12" powered Dayton sub is more than enough for reasonable home theater / family room setup.


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## fast4door (Aug 2, 2012)

I have a W10GTI and am selling it and going with a FI BL 12 or 10


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## PsyCLown (May 17, 2013)

So whats has happened with this?

If you are not stuck on getting a plate amp perhaps look at something like the Behringer EP2500 or EP4000. They are often sold dirt cheap here in South Africa and provide tons of power, really great units and are loved by the DIY community for big, mean subwoofer builds.


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## sierrarider (Jul 28, 2010)

I second the idea of running a pro amp, ideally the Behringer EP4000 is the best bang for the buck. I have been researching a lot as to what I should drive my Audiomobile MASS 2012 (dual 3 ohm coils) with and it has been tested to give a ton of clean power. Probably better than many of the lighter Crown amps (that interested me). If you need a higher signal input than your receiver can manage, you can run a minidsp and get some processing as well.

The BASH amp would be my top affordable plate amp choice. However, if you run a sealed enclosure, the extra power from the pro amp will come in handy. I can clip my mono 500 watt Emotiva XPA-1 amp rather easily with my sub in a one cu. ft. box. at appx. 6 ohms. It does better with more power. It really likes two of the mono amps running 1000 watts or so to each of the voice coils at 3 ohms each. However, $2000 worth of amplifiers for a subwoofer is crazy expensive and class AB isn't necessary.

Here is a very good article about a test of several pro amps as well as some plate amps: Measuring Amplifiers
I hope it's ok to post the link here.


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

This got put on the back burner since My snowblower broke down. and I've lost several hours of work recently. no big issue but I better not spend money I don't need to for awhile in case something else happens. There was a Crown XTI 1000 on my local craigslist and I ended up on that link you posted while I was researching it. I'm not sure if they just got a bad amp or if that was common problem with the XTI 1000s. It would likely be fine if I run it at a 12 ohm load, but if I buy a proaudio amp I would want it to do everything well in case I use it for something else in the future. Can the GTI 12 be run at 6 ohm? I thought there was only the option of 3 and 12.


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## sierrarider (Jul 28, 2010)

It can be run at 6 ohm stereo or bridged at 12 ohms without any problems


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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

finally picked up an amp. Its an Oaudio bash 500 plate amp. a lot of you are suggesting I build a huge box, but I'm thinking with this much adjustability I could just build the box to JBL'S specification for a ported box. about 2.5 cubes. or am I still better off with a much larger box? I started entering information into WINISD, but it needed a little more info than JBL provided.(one spec missing) maybe the spec doesnt apply to this sub design? I see some people use other programs. should I try one those instead? assuming its a free program.


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## bottom3 (Jul 30, 2007)

Pair of JBL GTI 12 for HT Use - Home Theater Forum and Systems - HomeTheaterShack.com


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Go bigger and tune it lower. The JBL recommended box is for cars and tuned pretty high. HT will have more low low freq on average than typical music. 

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## MLS (Nov 13, 2008)

I would rather have this shine on the music side so I will just build it to JBL's ported specs. That's what got me thinking about doing this in the first place. I listen to music more at home now and I hear shortcomings in the bass compared to what I'm used to hearing cars. My current home theatre sub is fine for movies since there are other people usually present when watching movies. When the music is cranked usually there's no one else around.


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## cajunner (Apr 13, 2007)

car audio subs are usually built to play in a vehicle and use the cabin gain to increase efficiency in the middle bass region.

for home, you'd probably be better off letting a little bit lower vent tuning bring down that hump that gives a car it's matching response from cabin gain, and gives you a less boomy sound in the larger room.


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