RE: bass cutting out
Ray your missing my point. I know what JL rates their subs for, and I know what they mean. But when I look to get a sub, I want to know what it's limits are. Take the Brahma for example. It's "rated" at 1600 watts. However, people give it 3000 watts as a daily driver set-up, and it still has tremendous sound quality. That's nearly twice the "RMS Rating" adire gives it. However give the W7 twice it's "RMS rating" and it doens't sound good at all. Remember, RMS ratings really don't mean anything in the real world. How much power a sub can handle is largly based on many other factors, such as box size, and how well is dissipates heat. The W7 just can't keep up like a $700 sub should be able to.
And the people I mentioned who told me they don't trust the W7's are not people who buy the junk amps from best buy and set their gains to max and wonder why it sounds aweful. I'm talking about people who compete in IASCA and other comps who actually know what they are doing.
I am not trying to say that the W7 is a bad sub. I know that some people will swear by it till the end, and that by saying the Brahma or IDMAX is better I am stepping on some toes. I'm just saying that if I were to buy a top of the line SQL sub, I would want to make sure it can live it to the hype. I mean no disresepct to JL or those who use them.
Paul, I just talked to a guy yesterday about putting the IDMAX on a shelf like you mentioned. He does it, and he is one of two that he knows of (that competes on a regualar basis) that have IDMAX's in an infinate baffle set-up. He says he has not heard a sub that sounded better in IB that the IDMAX. However, sunlight is a big issue. You don't want to rot the cones!
Remember 2 ohm mono is 1 ohm stereo, and your amp can't handle that. Your amp was having a hard enough time handling the 4 ohm mono with the L7 (hence going into protect all the time)