will the stock elec. system support 1kw?

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2010 Subaru Legacy GT
will my stock electrical system be able to support a 1kw amplifier driving a 12" woofer? i'm worried that i'm gonna kill stuff. 1st, i could really use your knowledge here. i'm not fond of the idea of a 200amp alternator, specially when mine is still good. i don't mind changing the battery so much, but would i be fine until i can get the money for that.

i'm plannin on getting a hifonics brutus bx1000d. if the electrical system can't support this, i'll endup with a hifonics nemesis. both are class d amps, so they are pretty efficient i guess. i can't afford better amps. i was gonna get a soundstream tarantula, a us amps something, xtant x series, or an avionixx but those are too much money.

oh yeah, the sub is an re hc.
 
1720 watt daily:D on a smaller alt than you;) proper wiring and a good battery is required, though. for comps i'll run about 2900 watts, too:p
 
thanks for the link. i would have search all through that last night cept my routing problem with this site was whorrible last night. i could barely get into this section of the forums.
 
Yeah, you can run 1kW, especially if it's just a sub. It's not gonna be using 1kW full time that way. And what's wrong w/ Hifonics? The soundstreams have poopy track records lately, and USX is *the* cheap-o brand. As for xtant...yeah, they're expensive. You can check mitek's factory outlet, though...get there through the MTX site. And also, I didn't realize that Avionixx is that much more than Hifonics...most hifonics stuff that I've seen is *more* expensive. Weird...

BTW- lostprophets are great. saw them at ozzfest a few years ago...I think they have a new album out, too...there's a new song by them in NFS: Underground.
 
actually, i can get the brutus for 237 shipped to my door. the avionixx is like 380 shipped plus tax. usx is us acoustics isn't it? i'm talking us amps. high end crap. 600 for an amp kinda thing.

i'm not saying there's anything wrong with hifonics. i just wanted a better amp. hifonics is better, but i wanted best.


yeah, lostprophets are awesome. i can't stop listening to last train home.:D

the reason i'm asking is because even stock, i get dimmage. if i use 2 power windows at the same time, my interior lights get dim. if the fan turns on, the headlights dim for a second. that's why i'm worried.
 
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got wake?

Do your headlights dim when your bass hits?

If they don't I would really like to know what I need to do to fix that problem.

I have a 12" Adire Shiva powered by an Alpine Class D amp that puts out 200 RMS. I have cheap 4awg wire from the battery back.
I dont have any components yet, but plan on getting a set of CDT's some time. I have a Pioneer HU along with Polk coxials in the doors.

If you could help me out that would be great.

(Sorry to jack your thread.)
 
running 1400w daily here, Obviously I don't pound it constantly, and really I don't know if it's physically possible to withstand that. But I do crank it alot, and suck lots of power in the process. I've yet to encounter ANY problems whatsoever running an entirely stock electrical system (with the exception of 2g amp wiring) I haven't even done the grounding thing yet. Yes, of course I get dimming, but just that. I'd imagine My battery will be goingout soon as I've done them in before on my previous car which ran only about 600w. Perhaps I've got something nasty on the way, but all of gotwake's amps sucking away at his car with no real problems help to calm me.
 
Re: got wake?

smithers_0990 said:
Do your headlights dim when your bass hits?

If they don't I would really like to know what I need to do to fix that problem.

I have a 12" Adire Shiva powered by an Alpine Class D amp that puts out 200 RMS. I have cheap 4awg wire from the battery back.
I dont have any components yet, but plan on getting a set of CDT's some time. I have a Pioneer HU along with Polk coxials in the doors.

If you could help me out that would be great.

(Sorry to jack your thread.)


yeah the lights dim, but not as bad as other cars i've seen that have less power than me. 200 watts should not be enough to cause dimming. your amp probably sucks down about 20 amps at full power. mine will suck down 150 amps. what guage wire do you have for your ground? where is it grounded to? did you sand away the paint under the grounding point? did you add an additional ground from the battery to the chassis?
 
HUGE difference if you sand down the paint under your ground. Basically that paint is getting in the way. You ABSOLUTELY NEED to get down to bare metal for your grounding point. It's vital that your grounding is better than your power wire at least. Infact it's almost dangerous to have that poor of a ground, you're risking damage to your amp and even possibly your electrical system.
 
Poseur said:
HUGE difference if you sand down the paint under your ground. Basically that paint is getting in the way. You ABSOLUTELY NEED to get down to bare metal for your grounding point. It's vital that your grounding is better than your power wire at least. Infact it's almost dangerous to have that poor of a ground, you're risking damage to your amp and even possibly your electrical system.


yeah, sanding down the paint is pretty much a requirment. the bolt by itself probably isn't a very good conductor. sanding away the paint and securing the ground to bare metal should help. as for up the ground to the chassis, think of it like this: your stock wiring was designed to supply the stock equipment with power. you had to add 4 guage so supply the amp, as well as to ground it to the chassis. now when everything returns back to the battery you are forcing more power through the stock wiring with only the 10 guage as an addition. you increased the out flow by a lot, but the inflow was not increased as much. being that it's such a short run you don't *need* 4 guage wire, but i'd go with 8 as a minimum. if you plan on getting an amp for your mids and highs, go ahead and upgrade to 4 guage.
 
Poseur said:
HUGE difference if you sand down the paint under your ground. Basically that paint is getting in the way. You ABSOLUTELY NEED to get down to bare metal for your grounding point. It's vital that your grounding is better than your power wire at least. Infact it's almost dangerous to have that poor of a ground, you're risking damage to your amp and even possibly your electrical system.

And by "HUGE difference" what do you mean? When I first put my amps in my car I just used the seat bolts and the bracket and never sanded anything. I was at Tweeter one day talking to the guys up there(like I do once a week/every 2 weeks) and we decided to put a sound level meter(db) in the car. With my Kappa 10" sub I ended up with ~132db. I went back and tested this in 70deg weather and 90deg...just in case. It was always 131-133db. I went and sanded down my grounding points and then we got 131db. So...how is this making a difference?

Also, there is no way in hell I'm going to take any paint off in my engine bay. Thats just ASKING for rust.
 
N1XRR said:
And by "HUGE difference" what do you mean? When I first put my amps in my car I just used the seat bolts and the bracket and never sanded anything. I was at Tweeter one day talking to the guys up there(like I do once a week/every 2 weeks) and we decided to put a sound level meter(db) in the car. With my Kappa 10" sub I ended up with ~132db. I went back and tested this in 70deg weather and 90deg...just in case. It was always 131-133db. I went and sanded down my grounding points and then we got 131db. So...how is this making a difference?

Also, there is no way in hell I'm going to take any paint off in my engine bay. Thats just ASKING for rust.


what does the temp and dB's you get have to do with the electrical current flow?:confused: having a good ground is for overall efficiency of the system. think of it as bottle necking the power if you don't have a good ground. you want as little resistance for the ground as possible.

and just an FYI, i'm assuming you were using an audio control meter or some other meter other than the new term lab USB meter. unless you have a freshly calibrated mic for each test, you can get upwards of 3-4 dB's difference between readings. some of the extreme competitors i was talking to told me that sometimes they'd get 4-5 dB difference from day to day, since when the mic is used, especially at high dB levels, it will need to be recalibrated for the most accurate and consistant readings. the new term lab is much more accurate and consistant, though. at world finals there was at most a .4 dB difference between competitors personal meters and the ones used for the comp. the difference between audio controls is upwards of 7-8 dB's sometimes.
 
The difference has nothing to do with volume, it's all about preserving your expensive electronics. Running an iffy ground is just BEGGING for problems. If your ground is that iffy, you might as well just run 16g wire for your ground, because essentially that's what you're restricting your flow to. As far as rust goes, you could always sand it, ground it, then clearcoat over it all, but it's quite important that you not run shady grounding. A buddy of mine actually fried his old pioneer amp lately, he'd found that his grounding bolt had loosened on him, went to tighten it back up, and the amp was still toast. Granted this is not exactly the same, but you're still compromising your flow in a similar mannar.

In the end, it's your amp, and your car, so do as you wish, but don't say you weren't warned.
 
got wake? said:
what does the temp and dB's you get have to do with the electrical current flow?:confused: having a good ground is for overall efficiency of the system. think of it as bottle necking the power if you don't have a good ground. you want as little resistance for the ground as possible.

and just an FYI, i'm assuming you were using an audio control meter or some other meter other than the new term lab USB meter. unless you have a freshly calibrated mic for each test, you can get upwards of 3-4 dB's difference between readings. some of the extreme competitors i was talking to told me that sometimes they'd get 4-5 dB difference from day to day, since when the mic is used, especially at high dB levels, it will need to be recalibrated for the most accurate and consistant readings. the new term lab is much more accurate and consistant, though. at world finals there was at most a .4 dB difference between competitors personal meters and the ones used for the comp. the difference between audio controls is upwards of 7-8 dB's sometimes.

somehow, i knew someone was gonna bring up the new term lab mic after reading N1XRR's post.
 
AFaceInTheCrowd said:
somehow, i knew someone was gonna bring up the new term lab mic after reading N1XRR's post.



lol, after i spent $600 on my own i think i earned the right to bring it up as much as possible:D and i must say that it is great, especially the price and how acccurate and consistant it is. it's even better now that more competition organizations are switching over to it;)
 
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