Fat Cash Stack

I just bought a 12w3v2 sub off craigslist and now have to wire it to the box and then to the amp... Firstly i am wondering what wire i should use for this? Next i am wondering if i need a jumper wire and what exactly a jumper wire is... Will my boss gt480 amp even supply enough power or too much power to the sub? And lastly why did stuff in the back of my car rattle when i used my last sub which really sounded bad. If you can answer any of these questions i will be very appreciative.

Sub: http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...ms-12W3v2.html
Amp:http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...oss-GT480.html

fcm

Wrong amp or wrong sub, the sub is a DVC 4 ohm, so it can be wired to 8 ohms, [VCs in series] or 2 ohms, [VCs in parallel], 8 ohms would cut the power, [RMS wattage] of the amp to 1x150W, 2 ohms is too low for the amp, [not stable below 4 ohms when bridged.

Find a better amp, and get a mono block sub amp, best would be one that makes 300+ Watts RMS into 8 ohms, so a 1x600W RMS into 4 ohms. 94

edzy

he's right

dont even think that amp can be bridged either

Fat Cash Stack

Would it be bad for the amp to run the sub in parallel at 2 ohm resistance?

fcm

Yes it would, the amp is not stable below 4 ohms when bridged.

The only way you can use that amp is either wire the VCs in series for an 8 ohm load, [amp will only make 150W RMS] and although SQ will be very good, [as good as it can be with a BOSS amp] it will not "pound", the only other way is to run the amp in 2ch mode, [stereo] and wire each channel to one of the VCs, [not recommended]. 94

Fat Cash Stack

I'm not looking for something that will rattle the car. I just want the sub to beat harder than my 6x9's It'll still beat with 150w won't it?

edzy

no genius

fcm

Yes it will, but my guess is you will want "more bass" and that's where the problem is, you or one of your buddies is going to turn it up and your going to damage the sub.

Powering a 300W sub with 150W RMS will not hurt anything, and my guess is 150W is more then 3 times the total RMS power of the rest of the system, [3:1 rule] so it would work just fine and as I said, at 8 ohms, sub bass SQ will be better.

I have been around a long time and I know people like to "turn it up" when favorite tunes are playing, don't get me wrong, if I am listening to music and Frank Zappa's Call Any Vegetable, [any version] or ***** The Pimp comes on, I will crank it up, any good rock and roll on the radio will also get me turning up the radio a little, the diff. is I know exactly what my speakers can handel so I would never turn up the volume to the point that I would drive the sub amp into constant clipping which in turn would damage the sub, [speaker VCs do not like DC current, not even a little] the amp itself would get very hot and damage will also happen to the amp, my guess is that BOSS amp probably will not take a lot of abuse. 94

Fat Cash Stack

My speakers are not wired to the amp... But you're saying that by turning it up it would cause the sub to clip and damage the sub..?

fcm

Not the sub, the amp will "clip" if over-driven, and the output of the clipping amp will damage the sub.

There is a rule, 3 to 1, you add up the total RMS wattage of the high-pass part of a system, in your case I assume you have the high-pass, [front and rear speakers] running off HU power, say it's 4x12W RMS, a total of 48W RMS times 3 is 144, under the 3 to 1 rule you should have 1x144W RMS running your low-pass, [sub bass] so you should be fine.

However, with today's music, [music listening] emphases is on sub bass, it's got to "pound" so you will turn up the volume so it will "pound" and in doing so, [unless you are carefull] you will drive your sub amp into constant clipping and that will damage the sub, if you can keep from cranking the system your sub should last forever.

The phrase "it's better to be overpowered then underpowered" has really nothing to do with wattage it has to do with it being a lot easier to drive an underpowered amp, [150W amp driving a 300W speaker] into clipping then it is to do so with an overpowered amp, [350W amp driving a 300W speaker]. 94

Fat Cash Stack

Thanks a lot :D i think ill try it with the amp at 8 ohms... I never worked my sub too hard because it vibrated every piece of plastic in the car... I think the 150w will be enough for my purposes... i never really go above 20 volume on my stereo anyway

just_bn_me83

little bit of wrong info posted here....

This amp is rated 2ohm stable stereo 4ohm stable bridged. You have two Dual Voice coil subs with 4ohm coils. There are only 3 outcomes as far as total resistance depending on how you wire the subs, 1, 4 , or 16 ohm...to a bridged amp...in which case because of the theory and math behind all of this, when you bridge 2 chanels the amp will "see" half of what is being input. This rule only applies to bridging a 2ch amp or multi channel amp. so apllying this rule, the amp when bridged will see either .5 ohms (not stable), 2 ohms (not stable), and 8 ohms (stable but 1/2 the available total/rms power). NOW, if you wire the subs in stereo you can parallel each subs and hook a sub up to each channel and run stable 2ohms. That is how I would hook it up....stereo/2 ohms. It will run efficiently and shouldn't give you problems as long as you have proper fuse (80amp should do) and proper power wire (4AWG) and good ground. The amp isn't going to push anything close to what the manufacturer says. Those subs are GREAT! had a set and they pound when you have the right amp hooked up to them. Think about investing a decent old school amp. Beefy mono block that can run 1ohm stable (tons of options).

just_bn_me83

article on what it means when you bridge a 2ch amp...this should help...

http://carstereochick.com/blog/2012/...ar-stereo-amp/

fcm

Your not reading the post, the OP has one (1) DVC 4 ohm sub. 94

fcm

It can't hurt to try. 94

just_bn_me83

My Bad! Good catch. It's what i get for posting while i'm "working" lol. Even so if you series the sub and bridge it on the amp, the amp will operate @ 4ohm.

wrx-killer-Sti-eater

iTrader: (1)

After a bad day... This made me chuckle. Op sell that sub or go buy a used amp that will work and follow the advice you have been given. I seen that amp and unfortantuly installed one. Its garbage.

Fat Cash Stack

haha yea it's pretty bad... uhm how much would you recomend spending on a used amp that can handle this bumping sub?

just_bn_me83

FCM's tag says it best "You get what you pay for".

If you spend some time looking and diggin' you can find a lot of decent used amps for 150-300. I picked up both my Old school Orion HCCA's for around $200. ( Origianlly my amp HCCA225G4 sold for $750+ back in 2000!)

Orion HCCA225...ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-School-O...item3373b30f79
Super clean amp and is 1ohm stable bridged, 1/2 ohm stable stereo. The amp's power is super under rated as compared to new amps that are over rated...reallistaclly it runs around 600-700 rms at 1ohm.

Old School Hifonics amp...USA made...ZED made!!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hifonics-Tho...item1c25579197

the old school stuff is the best stuff. USA made, quality parts, REAL wattage, most are seriously under rated.

I had (2) of the exact same JL's running on an old Autotek Stealth series "400" watt amp...sound was unreal! subs were getting "200" watts rms and it sounded like I had 15's running on a beefy mono block. The right amp and the right tune and you're good.

Fat Cash Stack

The HCA is rated at 100w rms... are you sure this can power my sub?

just_bn_me83

I have owned the amp for some time. This is as good as it gets when it comes to classic car audio. First thing to keep in mind, its a 2ch, so keep in mind when you bridge it it will see 1/2 of what is being input. you will parallel the sub making it 2ohms, when you hook it up bridged the amp will see 1/2 of 2ohms operating at 1ohm. The amp is rated 400watts rms @ 1 ohm AT 12volts. This is why these are called sleeper or cheater amps because they were rated @ 12volts where as new amps are rated @ 14.4volts! No car runs constant 14.4 volts, especially if you live in the colder climates. The normal car when running usually runs around 12.7 volts or higher. When you have a Capacitor installed it acts as a storage bank for voltage... this greatly increases the output of the amp. So yes the amp is rated at 400 continuous watts at 1ohm at 12volts. but your car will be running more than 12 volts, and if you buy a decent capacitor (2-4 farad is all you would need) you would be running around 13.6-14 volts...see where I'm going with this? Realistically the amp will put out around 500-600 watts CONTINUOUS power because your car operates at more than 12 volts when running. The needed rms wattage for that sub is only 300-400, a few hundred watts less than what the amp will run at. I had this Orion amp running 3 old school 10" 500 watt SVC Orion XTR's mono'd at .75 ohms! You could here the truck coming from blocks away. TRUST ME, the amp will pound the hell out of the sub...any sub. It's currently in my civic hatch running an XTR PRO 12" DVC 1000 watt sub, if you lived in CNY I would have you swing by and all your worries would melt away it one boomin' bass note. I have the bigger HCCA250R running the same sub in my girls kia. Do some research on it. It's tough when you don't know the industry and how far audio quality has strayed from what used to be the standard, I have been doing this a long time, professionally, and fr the price and quality nothing beats the old school stuff, especially Orion.

just_bn_me83

I happen to be a huge Orion fan but there are a number of other old school amps as well that operate the same, under rated. Try to look for amps made by ZED, Autotek (not new models!, if it ain't made in USA it aint worth it), PPI, Hifonics (not new models), Pheonix Gold, MMATS is another good amp.

Fat Cash Stack

Thanks to everyone who posted here with advice... i ended up selling the boss amp and got myself a jl audio e1400d monoblock 500w rms amp... works very nice with the sub