Opinions on Free Air Subs

[Bryan]

Trying to get some varying view points on the sound quality and loudness of free air subs.. My boat has one in the wall under the dash and I am not at all satisfied with how it sounds.. I'm sure it's the factory unit and has the white grill, and is horrible. I've stuck my sub in a box under there for the time being, but it's bulky and in the way.. So, I know a bunch of you guys are probly running some of the new free air units and I need to know how you feel about them.. I'm assuming the wet sounds free air 10 is probably the best as it seems to have the highest power rating of the couple I've looked at... I realize that I'm not going to win any SPL contests with a free air, but I want it to sound good at a high volume and actually be able to hear good bass accompanying my rev 8's.. Also, excuse my ignorance, but every car audio sub I've ever bought has been a dual voice coil that could be wired into a 1 or 2 ohm load to get the most from an amp. All these free air subs seem to be single voice 4 ohm subs. This would mean there's no chance of them being near as loud right?

[Vicseek]

I installed two 10" free air Wetsounds subs (XS-10FA S2) and they pump the base like no other. Although I'm sure I could have went with a larger 12 with a sealed/ported box and it would have perhaps hit harder but in my book this shakes the boat enough for me. These 2ohm subs aren't in the wetsounds brochure for some reason, but the S2 indicates 2ohm, they initially sent me the 4ohm version so I had to call and they shipped out the correct ones, it's a single voice coil 2ohm Sub. They are wired in series so it's a four ohm load "bridged" to my Sinister 6 amp (saved me from running another set of speaker wire to/from sub/amp. They're getting about 290 watts RMS each.
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[chpthril]

Lets start with exactly what brand and model sub it is. There can be a significant difference in performance and sound quality between a true IB woofer and woofer that installed without a proper enclosure. In that era of boats, i think it would have been a clarion marine woofer. I dont recall it being a true IB woofer, but digging into the T/S specs will tell us. Next thing is wattage. It takes a higher power handling woofer in an open boat, than what it does in the closed cab of a car or truck. Beyond that, it comes down to tuning the sub so it performs to its potential.