Serous DB's

L

<LOUD>

How many DB's will this produce? I have four 1000watt MTX amps pushing four 12" Eclipse subs in two seperate inclosures. It took a LONG time to fix the rattles and I still do not have it tuned well enough but DAM it hits hard!!

I turned it up in the parking garage this morning and set some alarms off. I think I might have overdone it a bit. I wanted to make sure I did it all correctly and used the right stuff but I SOO underestimated the power of these subs. They did NOT sound like this in the store.

I will be going to a sound off this weekend and I will let you know.
 
What model numbers are your amps and subs?? Also to be on the safe side on your low pass filter (LP) make sure it is no higher than 80hz. :eek:
 
LOUD - I hope you have a different alternator!
Even the high performance alternators for RVs and Limos only make like 130 amps at idle and 200 max amps. If you have 4 1000 watt amps thats 4000 watts peak. So at 13.8 volts you amps at peak would draw 290 amps!! Which anyone that knows about electricity is completely insane.

Plan accordingly.

Tim
 
Maybe that is why my car will not start and the battery is dead. I was tuning last night and had the car running and I smelled something burning so I thought it was my system but after reading your message I went down and smelled the alternator and that is what was smoking.

I presume if I get another alt of the same kind it will do it again? Should I just run 2 amps and two subs? I am a novice at car audio and never thought of the alt situation. Thanks for the heads up.

The should tell you when you buy this much stuff that you will need a bigger alt. Or was that common sense? Any way I listened to two of these subs being pushed the same way and they sounded good but I wanted more so I doubled up so I could get the power I wanted. Man, I unhooked 2 of the amps and just listened to two of the subs and they are incredible. They sound SO much better in the car than they do in the sound room.
 
dude one question?
what the hell were you thinking when you bought this damn is all i have to say. I mean its sounds nice but you said your a novice i dont know but good luck with your alt. YOU NEED A CAPACITOR TOO PROBABLY LIKE 4. well anyways good luck .
Nick
#803
 
will someone who knows anythign about electronics explain to me what the hell a capacitor does to help alternator drain? capacitors do not produce energy out of thin air nor can they provide sustained current to the amplifier. if you're playing a song with heavy bass the average draw from your alternator will be the same, with 500 capacitors or no capacitor!
 
Ok gang...enry is right here.....all the cap does is attempts to store energy for a hard hit of bass....it helps to prepare for big drains, but not with all you got goin....a bigger alternater is a must....you might want to invest in a seperate battery also, if yer really wantin to get big into sound offs....you want a cap...buy the Alumapro 15 farat cap...anything else won't do much for a big ass system....(I'm not a guru, but i have worked installing stereos for couple a years, and owned bunches of em)..hope i could help... :)
 
Here is the low down. I went back to the audio store and spoke with the salesman and he acted surprised that I did not have a aftermarket alt. He indicated to me that there was no way I could run that on a stock system. I was pissed as hell because the fucker never mentioned that to me when I bought all this stuff. I asked for the mgr and he was rude to me and indicated to me that my ignorance is not his fault. I honestly could have kicked his ass on the spot but I did not want to go to jail.

The next day I tracked down the owner of the store and explained to him my problem. I told him that I informed the sales person that I knew little about car audio and I was depending on him to lead the way to what I needed. When I told the owner what I bought he about s***. His tone with me completely changed. We talked for a long time about my options and finally settled on one. I am going to buy a new alt and give him my old one to send off and be upgraded. He told me to only run two amps and two subs and to return the others for a refund. I had also bought 4 caps and returned two of those as well. The look on the salespersons face when I asked for the owner by name was awesome. He was about to crap in his pants.

Anyway thanks for the help guys. I put on the new alt this weekend and rewired the system last night. I am going to go this afternoon and have them install MB Quart’s throughout and tune system for me. I will also get a DB test done by them as well tonight.
 
Wow thats still a hell of a system.
And about the capacitor. It does help When I had my to 12" solo-barics in my jeep at first My lights would blink when the bass hit and I thought that looked so bad. Anyway I bought A rockford fosgate 1 farad capacitor and had no more problems with the lights. Also before I could watch my gauge for the charge on the battery and it would drop when the bass hit. But after I got the cap I was alot more steady

[ 10-30-2001: Message edited by: Adam3482P ]
 
As a former avid sound-off competitor I can tell you from experience there are tons of really stupid arrogant assholes in these stereo shops. Many times they won't speak to you unless you're spending thousands of dollars (which it sounds like you might have). Sometimes it's just talking to the right guy. It's weird how the level of service you get can differ a ton from person to person. You were smart to talk to the shop's owner. Most of these guys are small businessmen and can't really afford the bad word-of-mouth advertising. The places you have to look out for are the one's that have a bunch of high dollar customers that are buying new systems every month. They tend to get really snobby, but they're usually not the only game in town. So shop around untill you find someone who treats you right and knows their stuff (not just prices) whether you're buying a deck and two or four 1000watt amps. Honestly, you don't have to spend a boatload of money to get really good sound either and many shops will make you think that. The only time you need to spend that kind of money is if you are going to compete on a national level or if you've got some super custom install stuff for car shows. I used to regularly beat guys with $10,000 systems with my little $2500 set up. It wasn't super flashy but it sounded spectacular.
My advice on any system:
1) Buy the best sounding speakers you can afford.
2) If you don't know how to install, don't.
3) Don't just buy power, buy clean power(even if it's less power)
4) EQ's are used to fix a bad system and can easily damage a good system. Use your crossover to tune the system first.
5) use a crossover(s).
 
Carson Black, I have a question.

I'm running 800 watts RMS clean into 3 10" high quality subs, and only using the crossovers in my HU. I have a Pioneer DEH-P930, a very good(and $$)HU. Is this ok? Do I need to get some separate crossovers or is this ok?
Also, Right now I have the HPF at 125Hz and the LPF at 125Hz, that way there is nothing lost in between. I read that the LPF should be at 80Hz instead. On average, what is the typical setting for the filters.
 
You need to set your SUBWOOFER LPF at 80hz or lower(80 is average). But if it is the LPF for the interior speakers you need set it about 125 or so. The HPF for the interior should be set at like 10khz not 125, 125 is to low. As far as for the subs you dont want to set it up any higher than 80 hz. I just want to make sure you get clean sound and also no blown subs. :D
 
you guys should hear my 79 rx7. it's real small in volume wise and with 2 pioneer 10's, 2 pioneer 6x9's and 3.5 in the kick panel. the first time i played it i nearly s*** myself. no joke, i think it shook my scull.very crisp. and very hard hitting bass.
if i did it by myself i would of sounded like s***.
so anyone who thinks this stuff is easy it's not. sure anyone can hook up wires but to get the best sound out of what you got you realy need to know what the deal is with ever piece that you put in it and how they work togher.
word to the wise: go to a few different shops before you do anything.
once bitten twice shy kinda deal
later :p
 
Go with the motorsport alternator. Its good at idle and it puts out 200 amps, It what I had installed.
 
Sorry, I just realized today that Shawn asked me a question and I never answered. With that much power running I would be cautious about trusting the onboard crossover on your head unit. I would seek out a high qulaity crossover and a reputable shop that can help you set it up properly so you don't destroy your speakers with distortion(it can be hard to hear sometimes). The tolerances and the cutoff curves on integrated crossovers are usually a lot less steep than purpose built outboard units. There are some high quality amps that have built in crossovers that are pretty good though. For smaller, non-competition systems like what comes with the MP3 an integrated crossover should be fine.
 
I'd love to see the install on that thing with the 1000watt amps! I'm guessing you had to remove your back seat to get all that in there? I'm sure there's not adequate space in the trunk. I would go for the alternator upgrade on that as well. A cap is not going to be enough, but you should get a couple of those too!
 
caps don't really work. for any technical solutions, you'll need to run about 3-4 dry-cycle batteries to handle that. why do you have that much bass? if you're going for comp. only i understand, but damn..... :rolleyes:
 
that was if you still wanted to run the 4amps and subs. you SHOULD look into getting an optima dry cycle for the subs though. it'll ease the strain on the new alt.
 
Ok, I have more questions, some may seem really beginner-like but I want to make sure I have my thinking correct.

Ok, I curently use my HU crossovers and there are three to choose from. The subwoofer has a LPF. So if I set this to 80 this means that only soundat or bolow 80Hz will be played in the subs, correct? Then the interior speakers are divided into two, rear and front(FHPF, RHPF) I set both of these at 125Hz(I think it says Hz) My speakers are not upgraded yet so I don't have components. Does this mean that all sound abouve 125Hz will be played on these speakers?
Ok, So currently I have an amplifier for my three subs. Here is a link to the stats of my amplifier MY AMP It looks like it has some sort of crossover already built-in. Should I set this to 80Hz and then just leave my HU crossover at 80Hz even though it doesn't really matter what the HU says?
Once I get better speakers I will buy a 4-channel amp to run them. I will buy the same brand as before but an A/B-class instead of a D-class of course. The 4-channel also says it has a crossover from 50-250Hz but will that be a low pass crossover or high pass? Will I need an external crossover for my future amplifier? Could the crossovers in the HU do the job or is it a little risky?
 
Hey Carson,

I just built a custom box for three MA audio 10" 1000 watt subs. I bought the 1500 watt synergy series MA audio amp. I have the amp and all subs wired at 1 ohm, so I can acheive the full 1500 watts. My question is with this setup, where should I have the gain set and frequencies on the amp? Do I need a cap? Am I going to fry my alternator.
the box looks cool as hell. I fiberglassed it, then did not have time or place to paint it yet, so I carpeted it for now. The cool thing about the box is I cut out a mazda symbol in the middle!
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Conrad 16.5
Off Topic Columbia House
Replies
0
Views
339
Conrad 16.5
Conrad 16.5
M
Ideal amount of time to drive my car
2
Replies
22
Views
1K
7eregrine
7eregrine
GTXT23
    • Like
Turbo "Truths / Myths" dispelled
Replies
15
Views
2K
Odrapnew
O

Latest posts

Back