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Subwoofers
10 big bass secrets
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<blockquote data-quote="dragon.breath" data-source="post: 8103430" data-attributes="member: 582656"><p><a href="http:////forums/usertag.php?do=list&amp;action=hash&amp;hash=8" target="_blank">#8</a> . SUSTAINED VOLTAGE</p><p></p><p>Amplifiers need Voltage. Good Voltage. Hopefully</p><p></p><p>better than 12.6 volts DC. 12.6 volts is a typical</p><p></p><p>automotive battery at rest. An automotive battery has</p><p></p><p>6 cells, each 2.1 volts, wired in a series. A charger with</p><p></p><p>higher voltage is needed to charge this battery. The</p><p></p><p>charger, in the form of an alternator, supplies the</p><p></p><p>charging power, at 14.4 volts, and also power to your</p><p></p><p>cars accessories when it is running. A typical alternator</p><p></p><p>will provide at 65+ amps of current at 14.4 volts. This</p><p></p><p>power is distributed to all of the power drawing</p><p></p><p>components of your car. Your dome light, your</p><p></p><p>computer, injectors, dash lights, headlights, power</p><p></p><p>seats, heater fan and more. Some of these are constant</p><p></p><p>and some are intermittent. Constant needs will reduce</p><p></p><p>the available power available to your aftermarket</p><p></p><p>stereo system. If your Alternator supplies 65 amps, and</p><p></p><p>your cars constant needs are 45 amps, you have 20</p><p></p><p>amps available to feed your system. If you use this 20+</p><p></p><p>amps, there will be no power to keep your battery</p><p></p><p>charged. If you use more than this available 20 amps,</p><p></p><p>you will be stealing power from your battery and</p><p></p><p>reducing your 14.4 volt running voltage to 12.6 volts</p><p></p><p>and even lower depending on demand. If this goes on</p><p></p><p>too long, your battery will deplete and may not start</p><p></p><p>your car next time.</p><p></p><p>Secret:</p><p></p><p>To keep your whole electrical system happy with a high</p><p></p><p>demand aftermarket stereo, you must upgrade your</p><p></p><p>electrical charging and storage system. Look for a</p><p></p><p>higher output alternator and battery with more</p><p></p><p>storage capacity.</p><p></p><p>Speaking of capacity, have you heard of a capacitor? It</p><p></p><p>is a common misconception, that a capacitor is a</p><p></p><p>magical device that creates and sustains voltage for</p><p></p><p>your amplifier. The truth is, this capacitor feeds off of</p><p></p><p>your supplied power and will affect your entire cars</p><p></p><p>electrical system. Every single electrical component in</p><p></p><p>your car will be affected by it. But what are the effects?</p><p></p><p>A capacitor is merely a battery with the ability to</p><p></p><p>charge and discharge at a rapid rate. This means, when</p><p></p><p>your cars accessories demand a great amount of</p><p></p><p>current in a hurry, your capacitor is there most willing</p><p></p><p>to give it up. In this scenario, this is an advantage</p><p></p><p>because, a capacitor will give up this power without</p><p></p><p>causing a big system voltage drop. The capacitor will</p><p></p><p>actually smooth the voltage of the system by charging</p><p></p><p>when voltage is high and discharging when voltage is</p><p></p><p>low. In the case of a high demand car stereo with</p><p></p><p>capacitor or capacitors, instead of a great variance in</p><p></p><p>system voltage caused by musical transients, the</p><p></p><p>overall system voltage will be reduced determined by</p><p></p><p>the capacity of the capacitors and the demands of the</p><p></p><p>stereo.</p><p></p><p>Wiring:</p><p></p><p>The voltage and current provided by your cars</p><p></p><p>electrical system need an efficient means of transport</p><p></p><p>to your amplifiers. Thick wiring is the way. Follow your</p><p></p><p>owners manual for recommendations. remember, the</p><p></p><p>longer your wires, the thicker they should be.</p><p></p><p>I've seen it a million times. A car stereo shop will install</p><p></p><p>a huge car stereo system. They will upgrade batteries,</p><p></p><p>capacitors, power wires and all. In the end, the</p><p></p><p>headlight dim to the beat. Why??? They ask</p><p></p><p>themselves. They implemented everything they could</p><p></p><p>to keep this from happening. The customer hates it. He</p><p></p><p>feels this is the sign of a ghetto system.</p><p></p><p>Another big secret.</p><p></p><p>Your vehicles electricity flows in a circle through your</p><p></p><p>car. All that power makes its way to your amps with</p><p></p><p>HUGE power wire but what about its return? It returns</p><p></p><p>to your batteries ground by way of the sheet metal.</p><p></p><p>This sheet metal is grounded to your negative terminal</p><p></p><p>by this tiny little wire connected to your fender. Oh no.</p><p></p><p>Our ground potential is limited by this little wire. Lets</p><p></p><p>fix it! There are two ways to fix this. Leave it alone. Let</p><p></p><p>your stock accessories use it for ground. Run ground</p><p></p><p>wires, similar to your power wires, from your amps</p><p></p><p>Negative terminal to your batteries Negative terminal.</p><p></p><p>Or, keep using your cars sheet metal and upgrade that</p><p></p><p>wire on your fender. I've</p><p></p><p>seen it done both ways. In the end, your headlights</p><p></p><p>and all of your cars stock accessories will be love you,</p><p></p><p>and your big system will now be getting the ground</p><p></p><p>potential it deserves.</p><p></p><p><a href="http:////forums/usertag.php?do=list&amp;action=hash&amp;hash=7" target="_blank">#7</a> . ACTUAL AMPLIFIER OUTPUT</p><p></p><p>Your woofers need to be getting all the power they</p><p></p><p>deserve!</p><p></p><p>I like to over power my subwoofers. Not to hurt them,</p><p></p><p>but to use them to their potential. If you have a lot of</p><p></p><p>power on hand, you can feed your subwoofers nice</p><p></p><p>clean power, and they love it.</p><p></p><p>A subwoofer is designed to reproduce a sine wave. A</p><p></p><p>sine wave is a beautiful power signal created by an</p><p></p><p>amplifier within its electrical capabilities. If you run an</p><p></p><p>amplifier too hard, outside of its capabilities, That</p><p></p><p>beautiful sine wave becomes clipped at its extremes,</p><p></p><p>resembling a square wave, even more as it is overdriven.</p><p></p><p>A square wave is easy to display on an</p><p></p><p>oscilloscope, but impossible to accurately reproduce</p><p></p><p>by a subwoofer. A subwoofer fed a square wave can</p><p></p><p>only attempt to track this challenging signal and where</p><p></p><p>it fails, heat is created. A square wave asks a subwoofer</p><p></p><p>to stop and start on a dime, and to reproduce</p><p></p><p>frequencies it wasn't designed for, all at the same time.</p><p></p><p>This can be good for a quick burst in an SPL</p><p></p><p>competition but bad for a listening session.</p><p></p><p>Peak power vs. RMS.</p><p></p><p>Here is a section I am excited to share.</p><p></p><p>Secret.</p><p></p><p>THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PEAK POWER!!!</p><p></p><p>Are you surprised? Like when you found out a woman</p><p></p><p>is not born with all the eggs she will ever have? Like</p><p></p><p>when you discovered there was no Santa Claus?</p><p></p><p>So, as it turns out, "PEAK POWER" is code for</p><p></p><p>"Exaggerated" and "Distorted". If you want your</p><p></p><p>subwoofer to see 200 watts RMS, and 400 watts peak,</p><p></p><p>you will need an amplifier that will put out 400 watts</p><p></p><p>RMS. This is because if you buy a 200 watt amp, you</p><p></p><p>will be feeding your subwoofer dirty, clipped power</p><p></p><p>beyond 200 watts. Every amplifier is clean up to a</p><p></p><p>point, at which distortion arrives. Clipped waves cause</p><p></p><p>this distortion. Current limits cause the clipping.</p><p></p><p>A quick (but non scientific) way of determining total</p><p></p><p>amplifier output is to add up the fuse values and add a</p><p></p><p>zero. This would tell me that if my amp has two 40 amp</p><p></p><p>fuses, I can expect maybe 800 watts from a</p><p></p><p>class D amp and maybe 30 percent less from a class AB</p><p></p><p>amp. Class D amps are more efficient.</p><p></p><p>Use this only when you can't test properly with a fully</p><p></p><p>regulated power supply, multimeter, oscilloscope and</p><p></p><p>tone generator. The power supply will ensure proper</p><p></p><p>voltage. The Oscilloscope will ensure your wave is not</p><p></p><p>clipped. The multimeter will measure output voltage</p><p></p><p>across the load. The tone generator will provide the</p><p></p><p>signal. It can be a device or a test tone CD. Play your</p><p></p><p>tones into a speaker or load with your Multimeter</p><p></p><p>across the output terminals. You can read the output</p><p></p><p>with the VAC setting. Convert the voltage into watts by</p><p></p><p>using the Ohm's formula, P=E^2/R. This means,</p><p></p><p>Voltage</p><p></p><p>X Voltage / resistance = watts. here is an example...</p><p></p><p>25 volts X 25 volts = 625</p><p></p><p>625(volts) / 2(ohms) = 312.5(watts)</p><p></p><p>Our Subwoofer system has a resistance of 2 ohms, so</p><p></p><p>625 divided by two equals 312.5 watts.</p><p></p><p>This is the perfect way to level match if you have one</p><p></p><p>amp per woofer or one amp per set of woofers.</p><p></p><p>Testing with dummy loads rather than subwoofers, is a</p><p></p><p>more accurate way of finding maximum amplifier</p><p></p><p>output. Subwoofers have a nominal (Varying)</p><p></p><p>impedance or resistance, so your results could vary.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dragon.breath, post: 8103430, member: 582656"] [URL="http:////forums/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=8"]#8[/URL] . SUSTAINED VOLTAGE Amplifiers need Voltage. Good Voltage. Hopefully better than 12.6 volts DC. 12.6 volts is a typical automotive battery at rest. An automotive battery has 6 cells, each 2.1 volts, wired in a series. A charger with higher voltage is needed to charge this battery. The charger, in the form of an alternator, supplies the charging power, at 14.4 volts, and also power to your cars accessories when it is running. A typical alternator will provide at 65+ amps of current at 14.4 volts. This power is distributed to all of the power drawing components of your car. Your dome light, your computer, injectors, dash lights, headlights, power seats, heater fan and more. Some of these are constant and some are intermittent. Constant needs will reduce the available power available to your aftermarket stereo system. If your Alternator supplies 65 amps, and your cars constant needs are 45 amps, you have 20 amps available to feed your system. If you use this 20+ amps, there will be no power to keep your battery charged. If you use more than this available 20 amps, you will be stealing power from your battery and reducing your 14.4 volt running voltage to 12.6 volts and even lower depending on demand. If this goes on too long, your battery will deplete and may not start your car next time. Secret: To keep your whole electrical system happy with a high demand aftermarket stereo, you must upgrade your electrical charging and storage system. Look for a higher output alternator and battery with more storage capacity. Speaking of capacity, have you heard of a capacitor? It is a common misconception, that a capacitor is a magical device that creates and sustains voltage for your amplifier. The truth is, this capacitor feeds off of your supplied power and will affect your entire cars electrical system. Every single electrical component in your car will be affected by it. But what are the effects? A capacitor is merely a battery with the ability to charge and discharge at a rapid rate. This means, when your cars accessories demand a great amount of current in a hurry, your capacitor is there most willing to give it up. In this scenario, this is an advantage because, a capacitor will give up this power without causing a big system voltage drop. The capacitor will actually smooth the voltage of the system by charging when voltage is high and discharging when voltage is low. In the case of a high demand car stereo with capacitor or capacitors, instead of a great variance in system voltage caused by musical transients, the overall system voltage will be reduced determined by the capacity of the capacitors and the demands of the stereo. Wiring: The voltage and current provided by your cars electrical system need an efficient means of transport to your amplifiers. Thick wiring is the way. Follow your owners manual for recommendations. remember, the longer your wires, the thicker they should be. I've seen it a million times. A car stereo shop will install a huge car stereo system. They will upgrade batteries, capacitors, power wires and all. In the end, the headlight dim to the beat. Why??? They ask themselves. They implemented everything they could to keep this from happening. The customer hates it. He feels this is the sign of a ghetto system. Another big secret. Your vehicles electricity flows in a circle through your car. All that power makes its way to your amps with HUGE power wire but what about its return? It returns to your batteries ground by way of the sheet metal. This sheet metal is grounded to your negative terminal by this tiny little wire connected to your fender. Oh no. Our ground potential is limited by this little wire. Lets fix it! There are two ways to fix this. Leave it alone. Let your stock accessories use it for ground. Run ground wires, similar to your power wires, from your amps Negative terminal to your batteries Negative terminal. Or, keep using your cars sheet metal and upgrade that wire on your fender. I've seen it done both ways. In the end, your headlights and all of your cars stock accessories will be love you, and your big system will now be getting the ground potential it deserves. [URL="http:////forums/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=7"]#7[/URL] . ACTUAL AMPLIFIER OUTPUT Your woofers need to be getting all the power they deserve! I like to over power my subwoofers. Not to hurt them, but to use them to their potential. If you have a lot of power on hand, you can feed your subwoofers nice clean power, and they love it. A subwoofer is designed to reproduce a sine wave. A sine wave is a beautiful power signal created by an amplifier within its electrical capabilities. If you run an amplifier too hard, outside of its capabilities, That beautiful sine wave becomes clipped at its extremes, resembling a square wave, even more as it is overdriven. A square wave is easy to display on an oscilloscope, but impossible to accurately reproduce by a subwoofer. A subwoofer fed a square wave can only attempt to track this challenging signal and where it fails, heat is created. A square wave asks a subwoofer to stop and start on a dime, and to reproduce frequencies it wasn't designed for, all at the same time. This can be good for a quick burst in an SPL competition but bad for a listening session. Peak power vs. RMS. Here is a section I am excited to share. Secret. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PEAK POWER!!! Are you surprised? Like when you found out a woman is not born with all the eggs she will ever have? Like when you discovered there was no Santa Claus? So, as it turns out, "PEAK POWER" is code for "Exaggerated" and "Distorted". If you want your subwoofer to see 200 watts RMS, and 400 watts peak, you will need an amplifier that will put out 400 watts RMS. This is because if you buy a 200 watt amp, you will be feeding your subwoofer dirty, clipped power beyond 200 watts. Every amplifier is clean up to a point, at which distortion arrives. Clipped waves cause this distortion. Current limits cause the clipping. A quick (but non scientific) way of determining total amplifier output is to add up the fuse values and add a zero. This would tell me that if my amp has two 40 amp fuses, I can expect maybe 800 watts from a class D amp and maybe 30 percent less from a class AB amp. Class D amps are more efficient. Use this only when you can't test properly with a fully regulated power supply, multimeter, oscilloscope and tone generator. The power supply will ensure proper voltage. The Oscilloscope will ensure your wave is not clipped. The multimeter will measure output voltage across the load. The tone generator will provide the signal. It can be a device or a test tone CD. Play your tones into a speaker or load with your Multimeter across the output terminals. You can read the output with the VAC setting. Convert the voltage into watts by using the Ohm's formula, P=E^2/R. This means, Voltage X Voltage / resistance = watts. here is an example... 25 volts X 25 volts = 625 625(volts) / 2(ohms) = 312.5(watts) Our Subwoofer system has a resistance of 2 ohms, so 625 divided by two equals 312.5 watts. This is the perfect way to level match if you have one amp per woofer or one amp per set of woofers. Testing with dummy loads rather than subwoofers, is a more accurate way of finding maximum amplifier output. Subwoofers have a nominal (Varying) impedance or resistance, so your results could vary. [/QUOTE]
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