underpowered sub?

underpowered sub?

Ok, so I got my sub installed, and I can feel the bass a little more, but I'm still not impressed. My wife has a crappy 100watt amp driving a sub in her truck, and it really thumps, but it's also in the same cabin area (not blocked by a wall), plus she has seperate sub adjustment. My kenwood deck just has rear outputs, which means there is no subwoofer control. I'm running a 222W sony explode amp (100 watts per channel), and 2 - 10" rockford fosgate speakers (200watt average, 400w peak). Are they underpowered, or am I doing something wrong? I have the speakers pointed towards the interior (at an angle), crossover switched on. I'm sure more wattage couldn't hurt, but do I really need to upgrade my amp? I also have the amp turned to maximum and there isn't any distortion.

is that amp 100 watts rms or 100 watts peak per cannel cuz if its peak then you only have 50 watts per sub about...

sony's new lien isnt the best but it should still thump decently...

we need more info sealed or ported or banpass box?? did you buy or build the box... box size and amp specs.... or even model numbers

You are way under-powering those subs. So much so that you put your subs at risk since the amp will probably clip into distortion. That amp costs only $40. These are the specs:

#

Max power output: 100W x2 @ 4OHMS
#

Max power output: 222W x 1 @ 4OHMS
#

Rated Power Output 2ch: 35W x 2 RMS @ 4OHMS
#

Rated Power Output: 80w x 1 @ 4OHMS


Max power is irrelevant. If you have 4 ohm subs, then you have the L channel from the amp going to one sub and the R channel going to the other sub. That's only 35 watts to a sub that wants 200 watts. If each sub is 8 ohms and you have them in parallel, bridged to the amp, then each sub only gets 40 watts.

If you have 8 ohm subs, you should run them in parallel to get 4 ohms and drive them with an amp capable of atleast 200 watts RMS bridged mono into 4 ohms. Fosgate P2002, P3002, 201S.

If you have 4 ohm subs, you should run them in parallel to get 2 ohms and drive them with an amp capable of atleast 200 watts RMS bridged mono into 2 ohms. (This would likely be a dedicated monoblock subwoofer amp). Fosgate 200M, P3001.

You must get a good brand like Sony, Kenwood, Fosgate, JBL. If you get something like pyramid or profile, the RMS wattages will be over-rated and performance will be sub-par.

first step, get rid of the sucky explod. Those rockford subs are highly under rated. They need alot of power to make them sound good. You amp needs to be atleast 70% of the rated rms value of your subs.

need more information on your setup..

enclosure? how you have the subs wired up? etc etc

ok those subs take 200 rms (thats not average just dont look at peak its pointless almost..) if the specs are right and you giving them 35 watts rms... then that will prob sound liek sh*t...

if your going to buy best buy or circuit city etc.. id recomend the fosgate amps...

also are your subs wired for a 4 ohm load or 2 ohm load im assuming 4 ohm and if thats the case get an amp that does 150 - 250 x 2 @ 4 ohms rms the higher rms it puts out the more careful you have to be.. i dont know how much abuse those subs can take so personally i wouldnt pass 200 watts rms a piece and stay at 150 to be safe

well turning it around definetely helped.. it like turned my trunk into one big sub (I see a couple of members here that have the speaker pointed towards the rear instead of the interior), but yeah.. the amp is probably underpowered now that I look at it. Still sounds much better now, but I might pick up a better amp later. I got the sony for only $50 shipped on ebay.. Tried to pickup a fosgate amp, but couldn't touch a 100 watt for under $1/watt. They are wired at 4ohms.

You still put your subs at risk by under-driving them that much. You risk driving the tiny amp into clipping. Here's a new Fosgate 200 watt RMS into 4 ohms for $86 and 3 are available. Its a closeout model, but employee cost at Best Buy was around the price they're asking on Ebay so its a good deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...5717237976&rd=1

dam.. guess I got confused. didn't realize my amp wasn't RMS, but peak. I hate bastards like that, like those computer speakers that say 1,000 watts PPMO (which is even more useless). Ok, so I might actually buy that.. my only question is, how do you mount it? I don't see holes for putting screw in it?

theres nothing wrong with underpowering a sub....



toyotaboy if you need help just email me at XTRMEASURES72@YAHOO.COM
or if you have AIMs my screan name is xtrmeasures72

im not on here that much so if you need anwsers just holla at me, most likely ill be able to help you....





good luck
jamie

this is largely untrue and is a total misconception...

underpowering anything does not make an amp clip.. theres an important detail left out here.. simply put, your amp does not care what it powers or how much power it puts out, so long as the impedence does not drop too low for that particular amp

what does induce distortion/ clipping in reference to underpowering, is when people dont run enough power, then try to bump up the amp's gains too much to get more output.. and you will get more output, but once you go past a certain gain setting ( which is solely dependent of the preout strength of your head unit ) the amp WILL clip, and it WILL destroy your subs....

but, clipping has nothing to do with amp size or strength, it has to do with nothing more than properly setting your gain controls

well since I got the bass to bump up turning it around, I went ahead and turned the amp down a little bit (had it cranked) so it should be all good. I might go ahead and pickup that fosgate amp and sell my sony back to ebay.

u can always try useing a bigger box then what you have...
that would help the efficiency of the driver, so you can run less power to it...



by the way what size box you have the driver in.....





jamie

Or instead of a bigger box, use cotton batting to deaden the sound, it has the same effect

Umm.. I don't know the volume of the box. I bought the box off ebay from someguy that does nothing but boxes for a living (some nice acrylic ones too), so I'm assuming he knows what he's doing. He sealed all the corners with silicone, so it's pretty air tight (and I mounted the speakers with those plastic prongs).