Hey guys, Im sort of new to Audio setups and how they work together... Well my current setup is all hooked up by a buddy of mine. Heres what the setup consists of: 2 10'' MTX Jackhammer subs, in a Zenclosure 2 10'' Sealed enclosure, a 600 Watt Sony Xplod Amp, and a cheap walmart farad (upgrading to a rockford). Everything works perfect by the way...

Thing is... the subs will barely hit!!! lol. Is it because the amp isnt big enough to support the 2 10'' subs? If thats the case, Ill of course just get a new amp... but what Wattage amp? at LEAST a 1000 watts? thats where my delema is... i dont want to waste my money again on something I dont need...

PS: how much do you think I can sell the 600watt sony explod amp for? $50, $60 bucks?

 

A quality 600 watts ought to be loud enough. Going from 600 to 1000 watts you'll very likely not even notice the difference. To get a 3 dB difference you'll need to double the size of that amplifier to 1200 watts. 3 dB is just enough to hear the difference.

Some stupid simple troubleshooting stuff first - are the two subwoofers phased correctly? If they were out of phase they'd cancel each others efforts. Does the source material have quality lower base in it - MP3 disks are poor substitutes for audio CDs with .WAV files.

And some more difficult stuff - what's the gauge of the cable feeding the amplifier. If you're using speaker cable for the power you'll starve the amp for current.

Don't know the MTX subs sound but I do enjoy the transient response of a smaller cone in the 8" size vice the 10" size for impact. Base transient response shows up in kick drums and most of the middle range of a base guitar and keyboards. Depending on where your crossovers are set the "sub" woofer is still doing lots of woofer work. A true subwoofer would be crossed over at 60 hz or below (give or take) and work only with the lowest frequencies where there isn't much "hit" but lots of deep tones - like a base pedal or some synths.

Where's that darn frequency to musical instrument octave chart ...

 

OP: A few things you failed to mention in your post that are pretty important if you want to get a helpful armchair diagnosis.

1. Is your headunit factory or aftermarket?
2. Where are your amplifier inputs tapped into (headunit? speaker wires? if speaker wires, which speakers? factory or aftermarket? etc.)
3. What is your gain set at?
4. Is your amplifier input level set to high or low?
5. What is the Ohm rating of your subwoofers?
6. What Ohm rating is is your amplifier stable to?

You'll get a better solution if you give us answers to all of these questions.

 

Your missing a lot of info and there are a lot of factors involved your not considering. Please get rid of the cap its totally unnecessary. I suggest you get on a car audio forum and start reading

 

Thanks! and Like I said guys... im pretty new to audio terms, so bare with me. lol. I appreciate the help tho! thanks alot!

my buddy did the hookup... but i believe we used speaker cable, so what should i used? what size gauge cable if thats the case?

heres a couple links of my setup:

subwoofer that I have: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1

amplifier that I have:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...26tbs%3Disch:1

 

A 600 watt amplifier is going to draw 50 amps which wants 6 gauge cable - 4 is more commonly available in "amp kits" and is even bigger/better.

 

thanks man, i appreciate the feedback. so basically all i need is a bigger gauge wire... seems simple enough. ill give it a try. also, its bridged if that means anything...

so just to clear the air... 1.) the farad is crap, and just get rid of it? 2.) this 600 watt amp (link above) should be good enough for these 2 10'' subs? just enough to bump, not shake the whole car. lol

 

1. Probably. lol
2. That amp should give you some good sound, assuming it's 600 watts RMS.

And yes, ABSOLUTELY get some 4 gauge power cable and run it to the battery. Also, use the same 4 gauge wire to ground the amp. Be sure to splice in a fuse block with a 50 amp fuse within 12 inches or less to where it hooks up to the battery. Finally, try to limit the length of your ground cable to about a foot or 18 inches at the most and make sure you connect it to a nice ground point where it makes direct contact with metal. Use a little dielectric grease at the connection point if you're afraid of rust.

 

ok guys, thread bump!

I got some 4 gauge cable, and conected it from (where it was) the speaker cable from the fuse block to the amp, and replaced that cable with 4 gauge cable and not the old speaker cable...

Still didnt make a difference... its starting to get frustrating, I dont want to go out and buy another amp if I dont need to, are you guys sure this amp (like above) is good enough??? After i turn it up not even half way, the amp overheats and turns off...

I can see/feel it bump, BARELY, and as I slowly turn it up... it craps out on me... any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

Are the channels being bridged?

That amp does NOT put out 600 watts RMS which is most important. It's "rated" for 260 watts RMS which isn't all that much. After reading the specs, the power wire is definitely not the issue.

 

You need to run the 4 gauge wire from the battery, not from the fuse block. Also, did you ground your amp with 4 gauge wire or did you keep the ground that it had?

If you look on here you will find a very good guide on running the power wire through the firewall. It only takes a few minutes to do.

 

thats what we did, its wired from the battery with 4 gauge wire to the fuse block, to the amp. I think thats what it is... is the amp if thats what everyone is saying is the issue. Because Ive just heard that Sony amps are crap... if thats the case, do you guys think I should just get a new amp?

if so, what wattage amp should i get? I was looking at a 1000watt crunch amp for about $100 or so... This is getting crazy because ive already spent WAY more on this setup than i intended to... my last setup for everything was only $100 lol and it BUMPED

 

What do you guys think of this amp? found it on a local forum im on... Rockford fosgate 300/2 amp, will it be good enough? Was thinking of offering $30-40 for it...

http://www.azawd.org/forums/viewtopi...=18206&start=0

 

http://www.woofersetc.com/p6839/DSC4...-Amplifier.htm

Bridge it and you'll have 200 watts x 2. I believe the RMS wattage recommended for the subs is 200.

 

Well, the Sony amp is pretty much crap if you're trying to power 2 subwoofers. The amp you have might be good for a 4 channel application of low power consuming speakers, like it was meant for.

But, before you buy another amp, make sure this one is connected correctly:

Make sure the subwoofers are bridged. Bridging of a 4 channel amp should usually look like this:



Even though Sony doesn't make the best amp money can buy, with everything working 100% perfectly with the subs bridged on both channels, you're going to be getting 130W RMS to each sub... which should be enough for those subs since when I looked over the fact sheet on the website you linked up it recommends 100-200W RMS power for these.

Then again I'm no expert myself... just my thoughts.