Highest sound quality car subwoofers

[Mark_IDT]

I'm helping a friend buy a subwoofer for her new car a mitsubishi lancer 04. I'm not to familiar with car audio only home and I'm looking for opinions on what the absolute best in sound quality subwoofers are. I'm thinking of 1 10" she dosen't want a huge box and only listens to rock. She's keeping the factory speakers and just adding a sub for now. I look down at most car audio stuff compared to high end home audio most dosen't compare. Cost isn't much of an issue she can afford almost $1000 for everything needed to add a sub. I know theres a car section here but I value the opinions of home audio enthusiasts more cause were all about sound quality and not how much air we can pressurize in our trunks.
Thanks -Mark

[This Guy]

I'd ask the guys at carreview.com , the forums are just like this. But I'm telling you right now there's no need to waste a grand on a subwoofer that will be complemented by just the factory setup.

[Lafferman]

the infinity kappa perfects are nice i used to have alpine type r's and they were very tight and they don't have a huge price. don't go kicker if your wanting it to be musical. that's about all i can comment right now cuz i gots to go.

[topspeed]

Definitely ask this question on the carreview.com site.

FWIW, stay away from Rockford Fosgate, I blew mine up and they just aren't what they used to be. I replaced it with JL Audio and the difference was amazing. JL has a great rep in car audio and their new long-throw series is just crazy (crazy expensive too, so watch out).

If your friend is just trying to add some balance to her stock system, like I did, a single 10" or 12" with a decent 250-500 watt amp will be fine (Precision power is always good, Zapco too). The sub, amp, and custom box can be easily built and installed for less than $600. BTW, if she leases, she should consider Circuit City as they will remove any system they install for free.

[Mr Peabody]

If the car is a hatchback the Bazooka tubes are great for an upgrade to factory systems. Go with the higher end line for best results. I personally would yank the factory speakers before getting a sub. If it's a sedan or she really wants to rock I second the Infinity Perfect 10. I had a single 10 in a 1 cubic foot sealed enclosure driven by a 50x2 PPI amp bridged and it hit like Mike. This was in a Malibu. If set up properly the bass is extremely tight and hits hard. This one sub gave plenty of bass and I had a 4x50 Infinity amp on satelites. What i mean by set up properly is correctly set the gain. Don't do like these meathead kids who turn the gain all the way up on a trunk full of 15's and the sound don't even resemble music. I have never used JL Audio but they do have the reputation of being one of the best sounding car audio subs. I used a Bazooka tube with an 8 in my VW Golf factory system for a long time. It worked great built in amp an easy install. It sounds good inside the car but you won't be able to hear it a block away. I buy my car audio from Crutchfield, they have no problems with warranty exchanges and I didn't even have to buy an extended warranty. In fact, I had one month left on a 3 year warranty when my daughter blew my Perfect 10, I had a new one in my car in about a week. The amazing thing is I called Crutchfield and they told ME I had warranty left. The woofer just quit, it didn't act like a typical blown woofer so i just called for some advice, the guy said, "let me check" and came back on the line to tell me I had warranty left. That system in my Malibu was my all out attempt at an audiophile car system. I still wasn't satisfied so I don't think I will go that extravagant again. I used a Sony ES top of the line head unit and Infinity Kappa component speakers. I think i needed someone to tweak it who had an analyzer and knew how to use it. I set mine up by ear because in a city the size of St. Louis I couldn't find a single store that knew what they were doing. I guess they got used to making big boom for the kids and forgot how to make sound quality.

[eisforelectronic]

Bazookas Nos bottle design for maximum bling. Nothing short of Dynaudio to replace the stock speakers.