Can someone teach me a bit about car audio without me having to read 15 pages of a write up about how electricity works. For instance, if i have 2, 500 RMS watt subs and i have a 800 watt amp how do you set it up correctly? does it share the 500 watts into each or can you only put 400 watts into each sub?

basically i am wanting to buy some stuff but i have no clue how any of this works; also if someone could please explain ohms and voice coils regarding subs, that would be great as well....

Please give me and example of a set up so i can make sense of this as well.... thanks.

 

Hope this helps a little bit.

Let's use Type-R's as examples since everyone knows them. Lets say you buy a Dual 4 ohm Type-R. You would need an amp that does 500rms @ 2 ohms since a dual 4 ohm sub wires to 2 ohms.
Lets say you buy 2 dual 4 ohm type-r's. You would then need an amp that does 1000rms @ 1 ohm since 2 dual 4 ohm subs can be wired to 1 ohm or 4 ohm (finding an amp that does 1k at 4 ohms would hurt the pockets a little bit....unless it has a regulated power supply i. e.; phoenix gold xenon series or jl slash series)

This link should help you determine wiring options for the subs.
http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/wo...igurations.asp

If you have an amp that does 1000rms and 2 subs hooked up to it, it will split the power 50/50 each getting 500rms.

You need to set the gain appropriately:
http://www.bcae1.com/
Go to chapter 63 and read about the gain. While your there, reading that site will give you TONS of info.

Also, in your example, two 500rms subs and an 800rms amp. I don't know if you know this but under powering a sub will never harm the sub so don't worry about that.

Also, never look at MAX ratings. Always look at RMS ratings.

 

bcae1.com

great place to start

 

x 2 billion!

 

or pick up a copy of the car audio cookbook, they cover the basics, good place for starters

 

ok so im beginning to understand....

lets take type r's for example again, if it needs to run off 500watts to run to its full potential and you only give it 400 then it wont hit the hard bass notes well because its underpowered, right?

 

it depends on if 500 is peak, or RMS

 

i am looking into getting the 10" Type R's, what would be a good amp to buy for 2 of those? i am looking to keep the amp under $200 if it all possible... maybe this will help a bit if i piece it all together.

 

You don't hurt subs by underpowering them, you hurt them and possibly your amp if you send a clipped (or unnatural audio signal) to your subs. Every sub has an impedance or resistance to the flow of electrons measured in ohms. If you were to wire 2 subs together that have the same impedance rating, they will split the power in half. I don't know what the RMS rating on the Type-R subs are but you can buy a b-stock Elemental Designs Nine.1, a 1200 watt @ 1 ohm amp for $250. B-stock means it may have minor cosmetic defects but the internals work just fine. If you were to purchase 2 dual 4 ohm Type-R subs, you can wire the two coils on each sub down to 2 ohm, and then wire the subs together down to 1 ohm and from there you can adjust the amp's gain **** to put out 1200 watts at 1 ohm. It all depends on how you run the wires from one polarity terminal to the other that will determine the subs' final load.

 

o k im starting to get it. at what operating range do you want to run a sub at; do you want to run a sub at 100% of the RMS wattage or less or what. For instance, the 500w sub do you want to run the full 500 or lower to be safe? and if you run only 500 watts to it, how does it ever hit the max wattage of 1500 watts? Iknow max wattage doesnt matter but why would it be included in the specs if it doesnt matter.

 

the reason they iclude it into the specs is that it just looks better on paper cuz they know thats what your gunna look at first. ive seen subs that have a 500w max but only 250w RMS then theres subs that have a 400w max that have a 275 RMS. RMS is what matters...usually my opinion is not to run it at full potential to allow for a lil bit of breather room for the sub and amp..but again just my opinion. a lil bit of advise runnin an amp at 1ohm is not realy recommended cuz its can be unstable

 

A little head room is fine on a sub. Of course there are limits though.
For $200, you might be able to find a Hifonics 1206d for the type-rs. The amp is solid enough. It'll do around 1k. I have one and I haven't had any problems with it

 

id go wit alpine mono block amp my set-up is one 12" type R sub with a alpine mono amp 600w RMS it hits hard son! I love it!and the amp was only like 375 i think..

 

RMS is what thermally the subwoofer can handle without it overheating. Some subs are made to handle abuse, some will tear themselves apart in the wrong sized box or if too much power is sent to them. As long as you don't max out the volume, the amplifier gain, bass boost and the loud setting, you won't be hurting your equipment. If you take the time to tune it right, you'll be protecting your equipment and hearing. Don't try to make apple juice with lemons because all you're going to get is lemonade.

 

well said!

 

so would it be better to put a single 500 watt mono amp on each sub or to just buy a 1000watt amp to run both of them? I can get both for the same price but i need to know if there is anything that i need to know or any issues that may occur if i put one amp on each....

 

Keep it simple and just get a 1000rms amp for them. No need for 2 amps when 1 will suffice. What amp are you looking at for them?

 

Change your thinking, because it doesn't work that way.

Same scenario, but let's just give each of them 200 watts. They'll be playing VERY loud with that power, and it might be all you ever need. Now let's double the power, by giving each of them 400 watts. Must be twice as loud, eh? No, in fact it would only add 3 to 6 dB more volume, enough to notice a difference, but not that much louder. Now you might not even get that much, because most subs start to suffer from power compression after a few hundred watts (even many rated for >1k watts), such that their output isn't linear with the input, as it is at lower power levels.

As for 400w vs 500w on a sub rated at 500w, it'll hit the "hard bass notes" (whatever you meant by that...what's a "hard bass note"?) just as well with 400w as with 500w. The only difference would be that with 500w it would be almost 1dB louder (likely wouldn't notice at such power levels), provided the output remained linear.

HTH

 

k i get it....

is it better to get a 4ohm dvc sub and have it to a 2ohm amp or 2ohm dvc wired to a 4ohm amp?

reason being i want to run a single 500w amp to each is because i was told that running 1000w (2-500w subs) on a 1ohm amp is unstable; if this is not true then i will try and run it to 1 amp instead of 2....?

 

not necessarily true. there are plenty of 1ohm stable amps. take a look at the alpine pdx amps. they run the same at 2ohms and 4ohms so if u cant make ur sub combo a 2 or 4 ohm load u have some problem.