<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by incubus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">To the OP, if $400 is you budget for amp, subs, box, wiring, and installation it isnt realistic. $700-800 is more realistic.
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well the reason i said 400 is because i can get all the wires for free...i can make the box....and install the system myself.......

 

You need to decide what kind of system you want, and how you plan to run it. You can just get an amp to run the subs, and run the "highs"(front and rear speaks) off the headunit. Or you could step it up and get some good passive crossovers and run the whole system off the single amp. Or....my favorite....get an amp for each set of speakers(tweets, mids, and subs), and run an active crossover. A common active setup is a four channel for mids and tweets(they replace the fullrange front speaks), and a two channel for the subs. Ditch the rear speaks.....thats not where the soundstage is anyway.....

Youre probably not gonna be able to do that for $400 with new stuff, but used should be no problem. And like I said, I prefer the older stuff anyway. Ebay is alright, but its basically "gambling" on the actual condtion of the equipment you get.

 

I have 2 subs.
One sub is 1000Watts
2nd sub is 300 Watts
I'm running them both from a 600W Crunch Amp.
It works great. Sometimes the amp goes into protection mode because with some songs, there is too much bass so it shuts off from getting blown..
If your amp is too powerful, you'll blow your subs. Pay attention to the Max Power(Peak) of the subs and the RMS power. If you want stronger and more clear subs at high volumes, make sure the RMS is higher. Yea this is my suggestion and my experience with my subs. Good Luck man. Ask any questions you might have.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Though mixing subs will work, its not the ideal setup. If you run them stereo, there can be VERY audible differences. If you run mono, then the lower wattage sub effectively limits the higher power sub to the lower rating.

The amp goes into protection because there is too much DC on the output probably(what kills speakers), or you are running it at too low an impedance.

I would pay closer attention to your ears, than to the wattage ratings. If it sounds clean, it probably is. If you dont know what "clean" is, start hanging around people that do, and learn from them(even if you have to hang out with the dorks, myself included, at the custom shop...lol). A trained ear is an invaluable asset.

 

not to mention the two different subs at some point in thier travel will cancel each other out.

 

ok my friend recomended this amp for me...i am running 1 sony sub..1300w peak at 380rms....i am going 20% above the rms with this amp...although it isnt labled what the amp maxes out at...can i get a hand here?

http://www.caraudioimage.com/i...D=368

 

Well, I've never been a fan of class d, but thats just me....I'm old. I know that Infinity used to make some REALLY good stuff, not too sure about the new stuff though. It does have two 30 amp fuses, that's usually indicative of a decent amount of power. You should be able to go to a store or shop and hear the amp and compare to others, though its not quite the same as having it in your car.

Are you running the one sub now? What happened to the two subs?

Need to know the impedance of the sub(s) you want to use.

The wattage is somewhat subjective. Those measurements are usually done with test equipment, signal generators, and NOT music. So unless your rockin out with a 500hz tone, those numbers are kinda useless. They give a good baseline, but all you really need to do is *keep the signal and the amp from clipping*. Setup the gains right and use some common sense, if it sounds distorted(bad) then it probably is.

epinions.com might be a good resource, though don't believe *everything* you read....

 

yes due to limited wallet and trunk space i have resorted to 1 sub.....here is the sub..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

and the amp:

http://www.caraudioimage.com/i...D=368


as far as i can see it will work

 

Do you already have the sub?

There are MUCH better alternatives, especially if your gonna "ebay" it......

 

no i dont have either the sub or the amp?....i wasnt planning on buying the subs off ebay....that is just the most quick and easy website i found them on.....why?...what else could i do?

 

That will work just fine, make sure you have a properly constructed box, with the right net volume for the sub.

If the amp will fit under the pass. front seat, mount it there, [it is a better spot then the trunk/hatch for a few reasons] run 4ga power wire and use a 4ga ground, ground using seat or seat belt bolt, clean surface down to bare metal.

Install a 150A ANL fuse/and holder as close to the batt. as possible, drill a hole in the firewall if you need to, on the batt. side of car and use a grommet.

You should also "beef up" the batt. to chassis ground, you can just add a 4g from batt. neg.(-) to one of the shock tower bolts/stud and nut.

Hint.. solder all the terminals to the 4ga, a year from now you will know why.
Hint.. before you drill holes through the floor pan of your car, it is better to isolate the amps chassis from the cars chassis, so mount amp to a piece of wood, mount the wood to the floor pan with sub floor adhesive, it will isolate, turn an uneven surface to a flat surface, your car will not start rusting where you did not drill holes. 94

 

I am very hesitant to suggest specific sellers, or even brands, when bought off ebay. I really know very little about the "new" stuff, but what I do know is that the good stuff is EXPENSIVE, well beyond your $400.

as for that sub....

First of all, speakers are round for a reason. Theyre stronger that way, and have much more linear responses(oval speakers like 6x9's suck). Second.....Sony pretty much sucks now. I used to sell and install sony mobile es......nowadays......well they dont call it "xplode" for nothing. I wouldnt get anything from sony new.

Image Dynamics makes some good inexpensive subs.

If youre a little more daring, Peerless is a favorite of mine(though not cheap).

 

would it hurt anything to have an amp that is 456w RMS...with a sub that is 400w RMS?

 

Wont hurt a thing, as long as you dont send the amp in to clipping.

 

Actually it will not hurt the sub, as long as you do not clip the amp continuously or use all the 456W RMS into it continuously.
Under-powering a speaker does not hurt it, it's driving the underpowered amp into constant clipping that hurts the speaker, but you will burn the VC just as badly if you overpower the speaker constantly
Here's the rub... it is very easy to drive an underpowered amp into constant clipping, and it can be hard to hear, on the other hand when you overpower a speaker you will know right away, trust me, even if you have never heard it you will know, the other thing is you will seldom if ever produce all 456W RMS, and if you do it will only be for short "burp", hence the phrase "it is better to be overpowered then underpowered" either way you can damage the speaker, however it is far more likely to happen if underpowered.

I have replaced literally 100s of speakers damage because they were underpowered, or I should say, [to be clear] by over-driven underpowered amps, and in 30+ years of installing, probably less the 20 from overpowered systems, and in most of those cases it's because they where way overpowered.

 

camusmuse you are completely correct about sony, so sad the ES line was great, xplode some terrible ****.

I had a customer bring in that same amp to my work and we installed it, I was really disappointed in it. Infinity isnt the best out there but IMO it sounded like dookie.

 

thanks.....yeah, it is sooo sad, I'm holding on to my old ES stash like there is no tomorrow. same with my amp "collection". I havent been impressed by anything new, though I havent made it to a show in over a decade either. I'm sure those hand built amps like ARC and TRU are great, and they should be for the price.

I'm really disappointed in where car audio in general has gone...but thats another thread....

I was afraid that Infinity had gone down the same road as the rest, just cant buy quality anymore, with out breaking the bank, or breakin out the moth *****(my case).

 

ok i got the sub...now for an amp....the sub rms is 400 watts....would getting a 500w rms amp be pushing it too far over the rms...i was told that you can go alittle over....but is 100w pushing it too far?

 

Which sub and which amp did you settle on?

 

i got a Infinity Kappa 12 inch 1600w peak, 400w rms

 

Yeah, I'd stay away from that 1600w max....lol. That has to be the point where the cone flies outta the basket and the voice coil embeds into your forehead...jk. You should be fine with a 500 watt amp. You do run the risk of overheating the voice coil without a clipped signal, but its a minute risk. Again, set your gains right, and LISTEN!!! If its distorted, then your doing bad things....to both the speaker and the amp.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tegraracer90 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i got a Infinity Kappa 12 inch 1600w peak, 400w rms</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds like a better choice than the sony. how much do you have left for your budget?

What amp are you looking at. Also keep in mind that a lot of the less expensive amp brands tend to be overrated so they dont always put out the power they claim.

 

i spent 180 on the sub, i found an amp at best buy for 210$$...its also infinity brand i am not sure of the model # though..but its got the bass controler and everything like i want....i am going to be picking that up next week after july 4th (my birthday) wen i will have the money, on sunday i picked up the 4 gauge wire kit for 3$ at a yard sale...it was brand new fuse and everything...i got away on a deal on that....and then i just need to pick up the sub box and i am done...

 

Be wary of really inexpensive wire kits, although one from a garage sale doesn't sound too bad if its a name brand. I bought a 4-gauge power kit made by PYLE (PLAM40), its a 'pile' of crap. The insulation comes out to 4-ga, but the wire itself is actually 6 or 8 gauge. Luckily I only paid $9/ea for them.

I just bought a 1/0 kit from http://www.Knukonceptz.com b/c i'm going to be using about 200A/peak in the very near future; about 60A-80A for my front stage and 120A-130A for the sub-bass, I was going to go 4-ga on this, but 4ga maxes out at about 130A.

But goodluck on your install, let us know how it all sounds when it comes together.

 

another question i am going to need answered is about the sub is....what gauge wire do i need coming out the amp to the sub box?...and it should be the same for the wire in the sub box to the sub itself right?

500 rms

1600peak