Powering a sub with head unit

Will I be okay to power 1 10" Elemental Designs sub with my stock NAV head unit? What kind of sound can I expect? Will it be deeper bass or sound close to the same as stock? Should I get an amp or a cross over? Help me out.

Thanks guys!

Will I be okay to power 1 10" Elemental Designs sub with my stock NAV head unit? What kind of sound can I expect? Will it be deeper bass or sound close to the same as stock? Should I get an amp or a cross over? Help me out.

Thanks guys!

You'll probably get very little out of it. The head unit doesn't have enough power to drive anything larger than the very light 8" factory sub.

It's like putting 4 volts into a 12 volt bulb... pretty dim.

you need a amplifier to get any bump out of a sub

it will sound worst then old speakers, get a amp

You'll probably get very little out of it. The head unit doesn't have enough power to drive anything larger than the very light 8" factory sub.

It's like putting 4 volts into a 12 volt bulb... pretty dim.

This statement has very little foundation to it. Size of a woofer has NOTHING to do with how much power is required for a given amount of sound.

Some of the most powerful, yet efficient woofers around are 12 or even 15 inches in diameter.

A JL Audio 8 inch 8W3v3 woofer has just 83 db sensitivity. I'm willing to bet this driver has less sensitivity than the factory sub.

The Elemental Designs 10 inch SQ10 has a 86.7 db sensitivity. In their product line every 12 inch woofer has higher sensitivity than their 10 subs.

The Dayton 10 inch sub in my Ridgeline has a 87 db sensitivity.

We don't know what the sensitivity of the factory sub is. I can only guess it is higher.

So I actually agree with Csimo that the factory headunit probably is inadequate for the Elemental Designs sub - not because of driver size. It just happens to be THAT driver.

Okay, thanks for the input guys.

I guess I'm going to order 2 10's and an amp.

This statement has very little foundation to it. Size of a woofer has NOTHING to do with how much power is required for a given amount of sound.

Some of the most powerful, yet efficient woofers around are 12 or even 15 inches in diameter.

A JL Audio 8 inch 8W3v3 woofer has just 83 db sensitivity. I'm willing to bet this driver has less sensitivity than the factory sub.

The Elemental Designs 10 inch SQ10 has a 86.7 db sensitivity. In their product line every 12 inch woofer has higher sensitivity than their 10 subs.

The Dayton 10 inch sub in my Ridgeline has a 87 db sensitivity.

We don't know what the sensitivity of the factory sub is. I can only guess it is higher.

So I actually agree with Csimo that the factory headunit probably is inadequate for the Elemental Designs sub - not because of driver size. It just happens to be THAT driver.

Forgive my sound ignorance, but what exactly does the sensitivity indicate? Should I look for higher or lower numbers? I've been trying to determine what to replace my speakers with and wasn't sure what this number tells me. BTW, I believe the Ridge sub's sensitivty is 89.5

The sensitivity just tells you how much sound (volume) you'll get for a given input (watts). Thus, the higher the sensitivity the louder it will be for a given wattage applied.

However, I don't think it has anything to do with sound quality. Best thing to do is go hear some good subs w/good amps pushing them and pick what you think sounds best. Plus the amount and quality of power you give them and the enclosure you put the sub in can make a big difference as well.

Speakers/subs are a very subjective thing.

Good luck and have fun!

This statement has very little foundation to it. Size of a woofer has NOTHING to do with how much power is required for a given amount of sound.

Some of the most powerful, yet efficient woofers around are 12 or even 15 inches in diameter.

A JL Audio 8 inch 8W3v3 woofer has just 83 db sensitivity. I'm willing to bet this driver has less sensitivity than the factory sub.

The Elemental Designs 10 inch SQ10 has a 86.7 db sensitivity. In their product line every 12 inch woofer has higher sensitivity than their 10 subs.

The Dayton 10 inch sub in my Ridgeline has a 87 db sensitivity.

We don't know what the sensitivity of the factory sub is. I can only guess it is higher.

So I actually agree with Csimo that the factory headunit probably is inadequate for the Elemental Designs sub - not because of driver size. It just happens to be THAT driver.

Yes, I fully understand what you're saying, but I was also one of the first people to actually remove the sub enclosure and hold the driver in my hands. I was the first to post pics here on ROC as well.

The factory "sub" would not qualify as a subwoofer to most people. It's a lightweight 8" speaker. I know of no aftermarket sub of any kind that would make much of a peep when driven with the power from the head unit.

Sensitivity really equates to efficiency.

It is usually measured as the the sound level in decibels from a distance of 1 meter with 1 watt of input. The measurement is usually "free air" - not like the interior of a car.

Remember that 3db represents a doubling of electrical power. So sensitivity has a big impact on the required amplifier power. A JL Audio woofer with 83 db sensitivity needs four times as much power to play at any loudness level as a woofer rated with 89 db sensitivity.

I agree it does not really relate to sound quality one way or the other. Good sounding subs are available with both high and low sensitivity. High end car subs often have low sensitivity. I think that is because they have heavy, strong cones and voicecoils to withstand very high excursion. Heavy moving parts require a strong motor (magnet+voicecoil fed by signal) to move them.

Joe - I agree the factory headunit will probably not do justice to most aftermarket subs. But a good 10-12 moderately efficient sub in a properly designed vented box will play plenty loud with 30-40 watts inside a vehicle.

Joe - I agree the factory headunit will probably not do justice to most aftermarket subs. But a good 10-12 moderately efficient sub in a properly designed vented box will play plenty loud with 30-40 watts inside a vehicle.

We were able to get the advertised 60 watts peak out of the headunit to the sub a couple of times. When we measured RMS at volume 40 we were only getting about 7.5 watts, but it was difficult to get much of any reading at times.