not loud enough
not loud enough
I was just wondering y my sub doesnt hit as hard as i expected. first off i have a 10" audiobahn aw1006T sub and a profile clarus 600w mono amp. I have the voice coils wired in parallel for a 2 ohm (even checked with a DVOM) setup and an 800 watt wire system. I was in my buddies car and he only has a 400 watt 2 channel amp and 2 lightnig audio subs. does 2 subs make that much of a difference. would it be worth buying another.
well there are a few reasons why your setup might not be as loud as your buddy's... first off, proper sized enclosures makes the biggest difference in the world, is your box built to the specs of the sub?
the gain on your amp might not be set very high, you can turn it up until you begin to hear distortion in the sub, and then back it down a little from that point...
general rule of thumb is double the cone area, or double the power to gain 3db... your buddy has two 12's with 400W... in order for you to be as loud as him you'd need to feed 800W into your one 12" sub to get the same loudness... although this is definately not an accurate way of measuring/increasing "loudness" (SPL)
if you were to buy another sub that would definately make your system louder than his, cept you gotta make sure you have enough space in your trunk to fit a properly built box to the specs of the subs, and you also gotta find out if those subs work better in a vented or sealed enclosure...
i'm sure some other dudes will offer you some advice, and some might correct me on stuff i just bs'd, but that's all i gotta say :pface
the gain on your amp might not be set very high, you can turn it up until you begin to hear distortion in the sub, and then back it down a little from that point...
general rule of thumb is double the cone area, or double the power to gain 3db... your buddy has two 12's with 400W... in order for you to be as loud as him you'd need to feed 800W into your one 12" sub to get the same loudness... although this is definately not an accurate way of measuring/increasing "loudness" (SPL)
if you were to buy another sub that would definately make your system louder than his, cept you gotta make sure you have enough space in your trunk to fit a properly built box to the specs of the subs, and you also gotta find out if those subs work better in a vented or sealed enclosure...
i'm sure some other dudes will offer you some advice, and some might correct me on stuff i just bs'd, but that's all i gotta say :pface
yes, i also figured quality in amps would matter a little, but more with distortion levels. he has an old school alpine fmv series i think. I have a Profile clarus 600m which is newer style but not as good of a name as alpine. It is in its recomended box size. i was also wondering if the preamp output voltage would have anything to do with it. i have about a 5 year old kenwood that puts out close to a volt i think. I know most new head units run around 4 volts.
pre-out voltage is a big thing as well, your amp has to work that much harder to put out that power. recommend gettin an audiocontrol overdrive, a line driver which puts out up to 7.5V RMS... i had one of those and it worked really well, the gain on my amp was next to nothing and it made my sub come to life...
hey rex is that one of orion's cheater amps? does like 200W at 4ohm and like 1800 at 1ohm?
hey rex is that one of orion's cheater amps? does like 200W at 4ohm and like 1800 at 1ohm?
kalescio the pre-amp output is the "other side" of the gain that ayjay was talking about. Basically you're amplifying a signal, and if it's starting out higher it can be effectively boosted easier/more.
The other part was (as ayjay put it) "cheater amps". If your buddies amp is underrated or rated at across the entire sound range 20hz to 20k hz, where some amps (cough profile cough) rate the poiwer output at 1k hz (much easier to achieve).
ayjay - yeah that's an Orion HCCA cheater amp it's about the same size as a Rockford Fosgate Power 1000. I just picked up a Phoenix Gold MS-275, they used to claim they were stable to ... a nail.
The other part was (as ayjay put it) "cheater amps". If your buddies amp is underrated or rated at across the entire sound range 20hz to 20k hz, where some amps (cough profile cough) rate the poiwer output at 1k hz (much easier to achieve).
ayjay - yeah that's an Orion HCCA cheater amp it's about the same size as a Rockford Fosgate Power 1000. I just picked up a Phoenix Gold MS-275, they used to claim they were stable to ... a nail.
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Looneybomber
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Hehe that question. "Dude my system is totally different than my friends. Different head unit, diff amp, diff sub and enclosure, plus a diff car. Why doesnt it hit as hard?"
Like rex said, your amp prob wont be pushing the wattage that it says it can. Im not a big fan profile, sony ect cuz theyre cheaply built and dont have very high dampning. They're "loose" and dont control the sub as well. Another thing, your cars voltage my be lower than your friends, also when the bass "hit" it draws a large amount of amperage from the system, if not enough is delivered to your amp it wont produce the wattage its supposed to during that musical peak. Something that could help is getting a 1farad capacitor to add to your system. It can deliver 80 amps like that *snaps fingers* no problem. U dont have to worry about not having enough power for the amp. Now having a higher preamp output will help reduce noise in your system and can help you increase your SPL, but it might also not be neccesary. For example, i had an old panasonic headunit that had a 1.8v max output. When plugged into my MTX2300x Id have my gain all the way up and really couldnt get anything out of it. Then i bought a new head unit with 5v preamp outs. It was like night and day, i went from no sound to "damn i need more subs to handle this power"In conclusion, be happy with what u have right now cuz the only guaranteed way to make your system better than his would be to start replacing a lot of stuff and that would expensive.
Like rex said, your amp prob wont be pushing the wattage that it says it can. Im not a big fan profile, sony ect cuz theyre cheaply built and dont have very high dampning. They're "loose" and dont control the sub as well. Another thing, your cars voltage my be lower than your friends, also when the bass "hit" it draws a large amount of amperage from the system, if not enough is delivered to your amp it wont produce the wattage its supposed to during that musical peak. Something that could help is getting a 1farad capacitor to add to your system. It can deliver 80 amps like that *snaps fingers* no problem. U dont have to worry about not having enough power for the amp. Now having a higher preamp output will help reduce noise in your system and can help you increase your SPL, but it might also not be neccesary. For example, i had an old panasonic headunit that had a 1.8v max output. When plugged into my MTX2300x Id have my gain all the way up and really couldnt get anything out of it. Then i bought a new head unit with 5v preamp outs. It was like night and day, i went from no sound to "damn i need more subs to handle this power"In conclusion, be happy with what u have right now cuz the only guaranteed way to make your system better than his would be to start replacing a lot of stuff and that would expensive.
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XCrunner19420
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audtatious
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audtatious wrote:You may not be pushing the power you expect either. The profile clarus 600w amp is only 4ohm stable in bridged mode. Sounds like you are running 2ohm bridged so the amp may be limiting the output to keep itself from blowing up.
ohhh good call man... might need new sub or two subs to get the full power outta that amp