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so im sick of my trunk setup... and i think i decided on a new one... just wanna get you guys ideas...
ok, glassed spare tire well gets me +/- 3 cubic feet, and then an exterior area... 3 shiva's one facing directly out the trunk, the other 2 angled 30 degrees or so inwards.... then an amp rack with plexi and the whole works that can be seen when you drop the seats down, although im still not sure about the plexi because i tweak settings too often...

so yeah.... 3 shiva's, 6 cubic feet sealed without counting displacement and bracing
amp still under investigation... either jbl 1200, or a BEtter Audio 1600 (its a brand owned by someone i know, theyre willing to give it to me for 300, and it seems to be underrated and extremely efficient) with an audiocontrol 2xs crossover

also i think i wanna get rid of the spare under my car, it keeps whacking speed bumps... im thinking if i can find some room in my trunk i might find a way to hide it in therelike under an amp rack or something

 
Rep Power: 346

That sounds like a cool idea dude. After owning Shivas for over a month now, I dunno how much i would recommend them...I had to send one back because it was not glued properly... and last night at the South Cali meet one of my Shivas was rattling like heck at high volume. It sounded like tinsel lead slap because I took the sub out and it wasn't blown. Honestly, i would never play my radio as loud as I did last night, and when i have all four back in I should not get the slap anymore because i will have less watts going to it and with a fourth sub it will get just as loud with the volume lower [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] They are great sounding subs, but they seem to be somewhat cheap in build quality, but you get what you pay for, i guess.

 
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hate to jump on you but do you realize that noone will ever buy shivas now because of what you posted up there? effectively blacklisted shivas now.

but what is the real cause? is it really build quality? or is it maybe user error? you said yourself they are in 1.4 sealed each....thats too small.

could it be you were playing frequencies too low too loud?

lead slap... thats correctable. thats not even technically a problem.

the fact is, $125 CANT buy a better subwoofer than a shiva, and i dare you to find one. if your having problems, i suggest you check your install before you blacklist the shivca on a forum.

 
Rep Power: 346

Actually, I really like how the Shiva sounds, but it has started to make a really loud rattling noise. Only one of them makes the noise. The first two that I received play perfectly, but I have had some problems with the second two that I have received.

And to address the issue of the 1.4 cubic feet sealed, I wrote to adire and that is the EXACT size that they recommeded...if you don't beleive me I can forward you the e-mail or you could e-mail them yourself. Why would they recommend that size if it is too small??? Also, the said that around 300 watts is the most that you should run to the subs, and since I have 3 subs instead of 4 right now, I am probably running atleast 400 watts to each...which I can't do anything about it right now. But if I were to have a bigger box that would mean that I would need to run even less power to the subs to reach maximum excursion.

And I did check the install at the LA meet yesterday, I pulled out the sub so that people who have experience with installation could see that everything looked ok. If anyone one was to come away with a bad impression of the sub it would have been from what they saw at the meet...and I can't change that.

One thing that I can say is that ampmanaudio.com (where I bought the subs) have been MORE then helpful!
They have made sure that everything works out cool with Adire, and I appreciate that. Also, Adire has been reponsive as well. So if you do get a bad sub I am sure that ALL will be corected, because they have helped me. Adire and Ampman's policies are refreshing because they are so willing to help...so all problems get solved.

I am not trying to blacklist Shivas on this forum at all, who am I to do that. I am just saying that I think I got a bad batch, and Adire seemed to agree with me because they told me to send both of them back (when I describe the problem they seemed to agree that the sub had a problem)...but I only sent one, because I thought only one had a problem. Shivas have gotten SO MANY good reviews from users that I don't think that my comments about two Shivas should hurt how anyone feels. I was just giving my honest assesment of the subs, just like every one else who has praised them.

To address the issue of build quality, they are very cheaply made subs (I know that one of your favorite quotes is "you get what you pay for"...which is true). When I say cheaply made I don't completely mean completely devoid of quality...I mean mostly that it seems that cheaper materials were used to pass the saving on to the customer. They sound great for the price and that I beleive is what Adire was after with these subs. I agree that NO SUB IS BETTER for the price.

I will say this just to clear everything up, I think the secound set of Shivas I received were not of the same quality as the first two that I recieved. The first two are amazing sounding and I am glad that I bought them. I am upset about the second ones, and that is why I posted MY OWN personal opinion. If I were to give an assesment of the Shivas after I heard the first 2 subs I would have said for sure...maybe I just got a defective second set...and all companies have defects...none are perfect...maybe i was a lil harsh, but just keep in mind my recent problems with them, and it is all fresh in my head.

 
Rep Power: 337

im glad you followed yoru first post up with this one, reading the first alone would scare many many people away here from this quality woofer. ill throw in my own little experience as well with ampman and adire when i contacted tham about my tempest.

they are absolutely right to say 300 rms is a good amount of power to give them. ive always reccommended 500 to my friends for headroom, but teh shiva is so damn efficient...... shrug

as to adire reccommending 1.4, they have reccommended 1.25 in teh past, what of it? the smaller the box you have the higher the power handling, theoretically. more power you need to achieve full excursion. but this has nothing to do with the woofers actual performance, this is just achieving full excursion.

did you have to tell them what power you were running? because if you put yoru shiva in a 1 cube box and give it 600 rms, im sur eit would achieve full excursion, too, but i can tell you from personal experience that its not gonna be impressive at all.

when i put a shiva in a single cab s-10, the guy had everything done but the box, and was using a 1 cube temp box he had lying around before i built his 1.8. he was very unhappy and dissapointed in me for reccommending this woofer to him, he didnt like it at all. once we put it in its proper box in teh exact same install otherwise, he took back everything he had said.

companies have made all sorts of reccommendations, and i agree that 1.4 a shiva can do. but as to its ideal performance (not just achieving full excursion) i would think that 1.4 is a bit small. i would personally have put in a bit more air, the diference would be night and day!

i dont know where im going with this now, but again, thanks for putting teh second post up to clarify. i highly reccommend a single shiva as the ultimate daily driver system for our civics. and the salesman tactic is to use teh word inexpensive rather than cheap [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG]

 
Rep Power: 346

I don't think anyone will not buy Shivas because i have had a bad experience with one set...but I guess it is not really a bad experience if the problem gets corrected [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] You know well more about car audio then I will ever know so i am sure that the people on this forum hold your opinion of the Shiva in a high regard. There a few things that I would consider myself an expert at...and car audio is not one of them...atleast not yet [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

I had searched the net before to see what Dan Wiggins had recommended to people before I actually wrote to Adire. On almost every reply he wrote 1.4 cubes as his recomended size for a good combination of SPL and SQ, and that is what I was looking for. More then 1.4 cubes would be ideal for sound quality, but I like how it sounds for me. Plus i have a good amount of Poly in my boxes...check my pics below.

The Shiva is a great sub, but I dunno if one shiva would be loud enough for anyone that wants a lil bump in there ride. Our back seats are so thick that it would be hard for one Shiva to provide enough bass to get to the front dash. I think two Shivas would be better for a daily driver. I have three in my car right now, and I can see the roof of my car from the outside denting when i play it loud...and with 4, it is crazy!!

I have to admit that judging from my first two Shivas it is a great frekin sub.