FasterThanU90 Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 my bud kinda pretty much my brother had a bad ass custom box that had the subs pointing to the floor backseat of his Frontier it sounds so clean from outside phukin LOUD and a capacitor screwed on the top right between the seats look like sum futuristic sound system with blue L.E.D`s nice party truck till it got jacked mother fkers stole his Alpine deck with screen and capacitor but dumbasses didnt take the comp to it so its usless bastards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNBRAD Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 So did you end up using a speaker wire line converter? They sound ok but you won't believe the difference a direct connect to a good head unit will make. If you just plan on adding subs to the system then I'd stick with that. If you plan on adding some aftermarket mids/highs and amp for them, then definitly go with an aftermarket head unit. A good 2 way component set like focal or mb-quart q's with a nice amp will sound better than any number of factory or aftermarket speakers hooked to the stock stereo. To run your high end, fosgate makes some really decent sounding amps at affordable prices. For no compromised sound check out mcintosh's line of amps, for future reference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawarriorman Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 (edited) underpowering ur subs is just as bad as overpowering them im not sure what the rms is on them and those are older speakers right because i think they are Discontinued correct 452487[/snapback] Uhhh, no. Underpowering them will only result in them not being as loud as possible. Overpowering them can blow the speakers. Hell, my current system right now in my truck is a bass tube running off the right rear channel of my cd player. 22 watts of pounding bass . Edited December 28, 2005 by dawarriorman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatme Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 Uhhh, no. Underpowering them will only result in them not being as loud as possible. Overpowering them can blow the speakers. Hell, my current system right now in my truck is a bass tube running off the right rear channel of my cd player. 22 watts of pounding bass . 452634[/snapback] Underpowering them could definately blow them. By underpowering them you are forced to turn the gain on the amp all the way up(usually a cheap amp) and this will cause the amp to clip. Clipping will destroy the voice coil in no time, which is blowing the speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 underpowering is not good at all, my HCCA 225 thats on my subs is bridged down to a 1/2 ohm. 1100 watts RMS under rated power. Peak its around 2000 . If your amp is capable of going lower then 4ohms you will notice a increase in wattage as you drop ohms. say 100 watss @ 4ohms would be 200 @ 2ohms, 400 @ 1ohm, 800 @ 1/2 ohm. Most of the newer amps i have looked at only go to 2ohm. Get a competion amp and drop that baby down to 1/2 ohm and notice the difference. Fosgate makes good amps. You just cant drop the ohms too low. I blew a punch amp dropping it to 2 ohms. Your system is alot like your banshee. put a little money into it and get quality parts/components and it will last a while and perform good for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawarriorman Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 (edited) Underpowering them could definately blow them. By underpowering them you are forced to turn the gain on the amp all the way up(usually a cheap amp) and this will cause the amp to clip. Clipping will destroy the voice coil in no time, which is blowing the speakers. 452639[/snapback] It doesn't force you to turn up the gain, thats something you do on your own. If you turn up the gain too much, and blow the sub, thats your fault that it blew, not the fact that you underpowered it. The same thing would happen if you used an amp that matched the woofer perfectly, if you turned up the gain too much. Hell, for awhile I was running a JL 12W6v2 in my truck with a 150 watts going to it from a cheap ass amp. Lasted fine, and never blew. It wasn't that loud, and the woofer couldn't perform to 1/8 of its capability, but it worked fine until the day I sold it. What do you think is happening when you aren't playing it at full volume? Most of the time, the sub is not seeing full power from the amp anyways. Edited December 28, 2005 by dawarriorman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatme Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 It doesn't force you to turn up the gain, thats something you do on your own. If you turn up the gain too much, and blow the sub, thats your fault that it blew, not the fact that you underpowered it. The same thing would happen if you used an amp that matched the woofer perfectly, if you turned up the gain too much. Hell, for awhile I was running a JL 12W6v2 in my truck with a 150 watts going to it from a cheap ass amp. Lasted fine, and never blew. It wasn't that loud, and the woofer couldn't perform to 1/8 of its capability, but it worked fine until the day I sold it. What do you think is happening when you aren't playing it at full volume? Most of the time, the sub is not seeing full power from the amp anyways. 452747[/snapback] I'm not gonna get into this argument with ya, but just know that underpowering a speaker is not good for it. I wouldnt expect you to understand though, because you have a bass tube in your ride. Anybody with the slightest bit of knowledge knows that you will get a much much better sounding system out of a cheap/mediocre speaker and a good amp then the best speaker and a cheap amp. One of the loudest systems I put together was a 12w6 in a sealed box in a pickup truck and I only ran it off a 250watt amp. Thing to remember is that that Rockford power 250.1 actually put out a tested 980watts at 2ohm load at only 13.4 volts. It's all in the amp if you ask me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Limit Powersports Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 Just as another option I think clarion or jl makes a hidden head unit that will take the inputs from the factory radio and clean it up and put it out of a set of 4v pre outs. There made for some people who dont want to lose the look of factory or maybe have a navigation system integrated into there radio that there not willing to lose. But just as a side note I still bought a aftermarket alpine head unit for my 02 harley pickup, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawarriorman Posted December 28, 2005 Report Share Posted December 28, 2005 I'm not gonna get into this argument with ya, but just know that underpowering a speaker is not good for it. I wouldnt expect you to understand though, because you have a bass tube in your ride. Anybody with the slightest bit of knowledge knows that you will get a much much better sounding system out of a cheap/mediocre speaker and a good amp then the best speaker and a cheap amp. One of the loudest systems I put together was a 12w6 in a sealed box in a pickup truck and I only ran it off a 250watt amp. Thing to remember is that that Rockford power 250.1 actually put out a tested 980watts at 2ohm load at only 13.4 volts. It's all in the amp if you ask me 452754[/snapback] Har har har, I have a bass tube. The only reason I don't have anything bigger is because I don't have money. But let me ask you, have you ever designed and built a double tuned bandpass box? Have you spent the time to measure the acoustic response of the vehicle you were putting it in before you designed it? Have you built a box that achieved a flat response curve IN THE VEHICLE from 26 hz up? I have. I used to build custom boxes for the audio store here in town. People that were into competition audio used boxes I designed and built. I know what Im talking about. You want to try and insult me go ahead. Im not going to aruge, but the fact is, using an amp that puts out less wattage than the RMS rating for the speaker your using will not in itself hurt it. Whether or not it will make it more likely for someone to blow the speaker on their own is something else. Amps don't make as much difference for subs as they do full range speakers, but yes its hard to beat a nice amp. The box is what makes a subwoofer though. And yeah, Rockford amps are hard to beat for the price. Most of them are underrated, and last I saw, a lot of them are 1 ohm capable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNBRAD Posted December 29, 2005 Report Share Posted December 29, 2005 dawarriorman is correct!! A given wattage doesn't kill a sub, distortion does. Two ways this can happen. A high power amp can run a woofer beyond it's intended excursion and distort it or a low powered amp can be pushed beyond it's limits allowing it's output power to greatly increase in distortion. Both ways will destroy a sub. Otherwise you can run whatever amount of power you want to a sub but you must listen to the output of the sub and not drive it or your amps beyond their intended limits. This is the same with any type or size of speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandman121383 Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 cool man i gotta put a system in a friend dodge intrepid n he has the stock head unit. should be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemonShee Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 Been professionaly doing systems since 1992. The best way to find the correct amp for the sub is to try and closely match the RMS power ratings of both the amp and the subs. this would be in the configuration that your are running them. If your going to load your amp down to .5 ohm then you need to match your speakers RMS rating to the RMS rating of your amp rating at .5 ohm. Thats simple enough...BUT WAIT....there's more: The configuration of your box effects the RMS rating of your subs. If you have a box....lets say Kicker Comp 15's In a box desighned with a -3db down point of 30HZ. Can you say power handling down the toilet???? I did this exact box, fricking huge, with huge ports. Sounded wicked as hell down low. Power to the 15's? 50w RMS each. We built this box to be paired with a set of Solo 10's that were tuned in the mid-sub bass region. Then we had a set of the MB quart 6's, 4's and tweets. With having the five sizes we achieved a amazingly flat line and scored very high. I also did the other end of the spectrum for my brother. He had 4 12" JL w3's in a bed box. We ran them off of 2 Kicker 500SI amps. They had small sealed back chambers they threw into a single compression chamber that flowwed through the port into the cab. We hit 152.7 db in Jackson WY at the USAC event off of the glass and 166.2 db in the portwars. When desighning a box, you eneter the subs Thiele small perimiters into your calculator. The calculator will then tell you at what goals you want, what should be close to your speakers new RMS power handling. Remember, the Max power rating is only required to hold for a max of 3 seconds. There is alot more to an amps gain than meets the eye as well. What is the output voltage of your HU or sound processor? If it is a high output, like lets say 6v or higher then you would use deffinatly less gain. Less the gain the lower your THD is. The lower the THD the higher your speakers power handling is due to less heat from irregular voice coil movement. Next to take into consideration is your crossover points as well. A tuned box has some of the crossover desighned in BUT it does this by cancelling out the sounds before exiting the enclosure. The Sub is still trying to produce these sounds. You should use a good crossover with a subsonic filter. this too helps in your speakers power handling abilities. Then take into account rather the crossover is at slopes of 6,12,18, 24 db . The higher the slope the more precise the cutoff is. The lower the more overlap there is between your different component speaker levels. So it sounds likea 24 db should be best....not exactly. First you will a unatural sound and wont be as smooth in your car. The next negative is it has a full 180 degrees of phase shift. If you cannot correct your phase shift from the crossover, you lower your subs powerhandling. a 18 db has a 90 deg. phase shift that isnt as bad if you cant compensate for it and wont compromise power handling. I prefer a 12 to 18 db slope. Dont even get me started on propper power supply and amplifiers internal power coils. I will be here all night. So to kepp you all from getting a major headache over this stuff, just follow the general rule I posted above. Use box deminsions recommended by the manufacturer. You will never have a problem. go beyond that, you better get to know your pro installer really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3ban5shee0 Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 Uhhh, no. Underpowering them will only result in them not being as loud as possible. Overpowering them can blow the speakers. Hell, my current system right now in my truck is a bass tube running off the right rear channel of my cd player. 22 watts of pounding bass . 452634[/snapback] dude whatever i no they will cuz ive been there and done that so im not going to argue with you think what you want and at 22 watts the sub wouldnt do shit exept make ur shit sound like shit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RNBRAD Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 So some of you guys worry about your subs when you turn down the volume of your head unit? 10 watt's will kick out around 100db, better turn it up before you ruin your subs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawarriorman Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 dude whatever i no they will cuz ive been there and done that so im not going to argue with you think what you want and at 22 watts the sub wouldnt do shit exept make ur shit sound like shit 453890[/snapback] Oh, god, that stings. What am I going to do now? My life is ruined, you think my stereo sounds like shit. Heres an idea, grow up, and come back when you realize that Im right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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