Show, Shine, and Tunes! Great talk on keeping your car looking the very best, discussing appearance items, and audio

Wiring Subwoofers

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
  #1  
Old 01-06-2007, 11:27 PM
FalloutGod's Avatar
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 74
Question Wiring Subwoofers

At the moment this is what I have.

2 Kicker CompVR CVR102 subwoofers

* 300W RMS
* 600W Peak power handling
* Dual 2-ohm

1 Kicker ZX750.1 subwoofer amplifier (Birth certificate was 922)

* 750W x 1 @ 2-ohms
* 24 dB/octave crossover

A friend and I did the install and everything went fine. We wired the subs at 2ohms. To my understanding that means each sub is getting about 460 watts. Now 460 is > 300 so this could cause stuff to get hot very quickly if you turned it too loud correct? If I were to change the wiring to an 8 ohm load would this allow me to safely turn the volume up without frying things? I can't seem to find a definite answer on how many watts would be delivered to each sub at 8 ohms. I feel these things have a lot more to give but right now It seems like I'm bumping around town with some very "sub par" subs. Am I expecting too much out of these particular subwoofers?
 
  #2  
Old 01-07-2007, 05:52 AM
MattJ's Avatar
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 10,237
Default

what kind of deck do you have and what the pre-out voltage? youll want to match your preout voltage to the gain on your amp. the range should probably be .2 to about 8. youll want to keep an eye on em at first and I wouldnt get too crazy or youll have thermal or mechanical failure. youll probably smell the coils burning off the exess glue at first and thatll be normal.
 
  #3  
Old 01-07-2007, 09:58 AM
FalloutGod's Avatar
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 74
Default

Well heres the manual for my deck.

http://www.blaupunkt.com/us/download/SanJose_MP41.pdf

It says 4v Pre Out on the very last page. So I guess set my gain to 4? I also read this Output Impedance: 4-8 ohm speakers. Is this going to cause any problems for me?
 
  #4  
Old 01-09-2007, 07:42 PM
OXFORD03GT's Avatar
LET THE MODDING BEGIN...
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: FLORIDA
Posts: 170
Exclamation Speakers.

SOUNDS IFFY I WOULD CALL CRUTCHFIELD...


 
  #5  
Old 01-09-2007, 08:20 PM
MattJ's Avatar
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 10,237
Default

Originally Posted by FalloutGod
Well heres the manual for my deck.

http://www.blaupunkt.com/us/download/SanJose_MP41.pdf

It says 4v Pre Out on the very last page. So I guess set my gain to 4? I also read this Output Impedance: 4-8 ohm speakers. Is this going to cause any problems for me?
blaupunkt over-rates their stuff a little bit. I would give them a solid 3v on a lucky day so match the gain on your amp to alittle less than half way. your deck should power your speakers fine.
 
  #7  
Old 01-09-2007, 09:22 PM
MattJ's Avatar
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 10,237
Default

Originally Posted by Jack The Ripper
should be fine with the power.
more speakers are destroyed by underpowered amps than overpowered amps.

Mattj correct me if im wrong here. im a bit rusty on this.

Think of it like this.

Say you have 300 handling on the subs.

you have 300peak / 150rms watts to power going to subs

After that 150w yer going to start experiencing some clipping. That is basically where the amplitude cuts off the top and bottom of the sine wave creating a very unnatural accoustical phenomenom which the speakers arent going to like. This is FAR FAR more damaging to the drivers than overpowering them.

im sure it happens more in car audio, but i have NEVER seen somebody destroy a speaker in home audio because of too much power, it is always cause the amps are under powered.

However, i would be willing to bet a LOT of speakers that are blown in car audio is because the amplification isnt up to par and they push the amps to where they are constantly clipping which will **** yer speakers up fast.

Rule of thumb in high end home audio is always overpower your speakers, preferrably by around 50%. Its not that yer going to USE that extra power, however, ALL the power you WILL use out of the amps will be clean undistorted power.
If hes clipping the sub, its going to be because hes sending a clipping signal from the amp from incorrect settings. low power is fine if you have an efficient ported box. i know guys hitting 140+db with 300w, but im sure hes far far far from that. lol im sure his setup will be a small, sealed, inefficient box.

blown speakers are common from too much power. youll have thermal failure from too much heat, or mechanical failure. Ive ruined some subs in my day, and by throwing 150w on them, its not going to damage anything but its going to be pretty quiet and not worth even doing. I agree that id overpower before underpower.

i dont know why he has two dual 2 ohm subs and that kicker amp. honestly, id sell them both and get a dual 4 ohm sub that can handle 700w rms. 8 ohm has high resistance and resistance is heat. your amp has to go, or your subs do. youll need an amp capable of an 1 ohm load, or a dual 4 ohm (or single 2 ohm) sub. you are only limiting yourself with that setup you have.
 
  #8  
Old 01-10-2007, 12:08 PM
FalloutGod's Avatar
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 74
Default

I may be limiting my self but not because I want to. I only have a few friends that have subs as well and they just know how to wire stuff. Anything beyond that is going in uncharted territory. This is why I asked you to write some kind of tutorial for the community matt. Although the internet is a great source for information if you can't speak to someone directly about a subject you get a lot of conflicting information. I saw the package on cardomain and from what I've read it seemed like a decent system for a daily driver.
 
  #9  
Old 01-10-2007, 04:39 PM
MattJ's Avatar
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 10,237
Default

Originally Posted by FalloutGod
I may be limiting my self but not because I want to. I only have a few friends that have subs as well and they just know how to wire stuff. Anything beyond that is going in uncharted territory. This is why I asked you to write some kind of tutorial for the community matt. Although the internet is a great source for information if you can't speak to someone directly about a subject you get a lot of conflicting information. I saw the package on cardomain and from what I've read it seemed like a decent system for a daily driver.
send it back and buy something else.

read this too. pretty much anything you need to know is here.
http://www.bcae1.com/
 
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Jacob
V6 Tech Forums
2
05-10-2010 05:00 PM
M_Stang
Show, Shine, and Tunes!
1
05-31-2009 11:02 PM
PzeroGT14
The Lounge
1
04-20-2007 01:42 PM
Teal_Beast
General Tech Forum
0
08-10-2006 10:25 AM
my2001GT
Modular 4.6L Tech
15
01-31-2005 09:36 PM



Quick Reply: Wiring Subwoofers



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 11:49 PM.