amp settings on jl 2 10w3's
 

hey guys,just got this setup and had a few questions for you since i know alot of people with Z's run these two subs with this amp..

1. should i wire in parallel or series?

2. what should my gain settings be?

3. are there any other important settings i should mess with?

thanks,

p.s. i have a pioneer 3100 head unit,stock speakers

edit- amp is jl 500.1, and the w3's are the 4 ohm version

is the amp JL too?

Need more info about which impedance W3s you have in mind and the amp. There are several impedance versions of W3 subwoofers: 2ohm, 4ohm and 8ohm.

Assuming a 4ohm sub (simply because most shops stock 4ohm) and a 300 watt RMS at 4ohm mono sub amp

1 sub is a 4ohm load and will work on most any amp.

2 subs in series will create an 8ohm load which will most likely cut the 300 watts in half, giving you 150 watts to share between 2 subs (75W per sub.)

2 subs in parallel will create a 2 ohm load and may or may not be compatible with the mono amp. Assuming it is a quality mono amp (mtx, jlaudio, kicker for examples) the rms power should double to 600w rms to share between the 2 subs (300w per sub.)

This is all a very generic explanation. If you can provide more info about your end goal, I or someone on here will surely try to help.

thanks for the reply,sorry i left out some crucial info,
the amp is a jl 500.1, and the w3's are the 10w3v3 4 ohm version

bump anyone?

Definitely wire in parallel. As for gain settings, I've never used anything other than my ear. I was taught to turn the gain on the amp and the volume control on the head unit to minimum settings. Then work the Head unit volume up until you start to hear distortion in the door speakers. Then back the volume off until the distortion goes away. This will be your max volume setting on the head unit. Then slowly turn up the gain to bring in as much bass as you want. The subs will probably go louder than the head unit, but do not quote me on it. if you hear distortion in the subs, back off the gain until it goes away.

There's probably a more scientific way, but I've never used it.

Have fun.

thanks for the reply tom,much appreciated.

parallel it is ; )

i know this is a popular setup in the z world,i was hoping someone with this setup could share there settings with me so i could have a general idea of what to do, jus wanna make sure im getting the most out of it

I would also like to know how some of you guys do your tuning...I did mine based on ear, but would like to know some more techniques...

Question: What made you get the 2 10w3's instead of 1 10w7?

sorry for the late reply, no major reason other than i got a really awesome deal for them..and i already had a box built for 2 10's

i would use this as a start

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_a...php?page_id=30

The only way to truly tune is with a real time analyzer (RTA). These things use to be thousands of dollars, now the run in software on a laptop. You do need a calibrated lab microphone, a fast enough laptop, and software. I made a test CD with pink noise to run though the CD player so that I swept the entire system from source to speaker.

Here's a capture of my 350Z running the RTA prior to much tweaking. The base has some peaks and dips between 25 and 50 hertz that need help and there's a slight slope from 100 Hz up to 20 Khz.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...24thOctave.gif

This is using the 1/3 octave setting of my RTA vice the 1/10th so the peaks are a bit easier to see. I do not have a 1/3 band octave equalizer in the car so I have to use the parametric to try to smooth out the worst of these peaks. Peaking the base with a tight Q at 60 Hz, raising the gain slightly with the mid-range set to a broad Q around 1000 Khz and lowering the gain of the highs with a broad Q set around 10K helped.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...-6thOctave.gif

Here's my set up - the mickey mouse ears are to protect my ears from the amplitude of the pink noise. The black box to the right of my lap top is the microphone pre-amp. On top of it is the calibrated lab mic. The calibration comes on a disk and is entered into the RTA software to counter the slight bias the mic was built with. The Avila disk has test tones, I've since burned my own.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21.../Equipment.jpg

And while I was playing I put the mic outside and measured the "noise" of the engine. At the driver's position the engine is actually louder than at this measurement point as shown in the picture below. About the only place that the car was more noisy was behind the car where the exhaust tones started over coming the engine ones. Nissan engineered the exhaust and engine noises to be loudest inside the car!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...phoneStand.jpg
"Ladies and Gentlemen, now stepping up to the mic to accept the sports car of the year award ... "

nice paul,i will have to give that a try,where did u get the software from?