2 Amps installed...Sub amp not pushing enough power!!!

[858SD]

Searched everywhere but it seems like no one has had this problem, I literally signed up just to see if anyone can help..Im no noob to car audio but i dont know everything. I pretty much upgraded from one amp to two amps. Honestly it could be alot to read.......

My Current Setup:

4 gauge power wires(150 fuse close to battery)

Distro block for ground

Fused Distro block for power(60A fuse)

(1)4 gauge in (2) 4 gauge out to amps

Kenwood KAC-9013D - Sub Amp

4 channel Soundstream EGA1000.4X Edge Series - Speaker amp

Alpine iDA-x100 - Headunit

Audiobahn 4 ch RCA - Speaker rcas

Uknown brand RCA - Sub RCAS

Front - 6.5 Boston acoustics component speakers(65w rms)

Rear - 6.5 Infinity reference 2 way(65w rms I believe)

Sub - 15 Inch Eclipse titanium(750w Rms,4 Ohm Sub)

Specs on Amps: I have a 4 ohm sub so im only puttin out specs with 4 ohm ratings:

Alpine Mrp-M500 : 300w Rms,500w MAX

Kenwood KAC-9103D : 500w Rms, 1800w MAX

Soundstream EGA1000.4X Edge Series : 2000w MAX

125 watts x 4 chan. RMS @ 4 ohms

250 watts x 4 chan. RMS @ 2 ohms

Bridged: 500 watts x 2 chan. RMS @ 4 ohms

To make it short I have 2 amps one for sub and one for speakers..Speakers get good power from amp and sounds amazing...Sub amp is putting weak *** power out. I went through two SUB amps and they both gave out about the same amount of power even though they were connected to the same power and grounds and one amp even stronger than the other.The amps are connected to 4 gauge power wire to distro block with 4 gauge out to amps..The 4 gauge is fused by battery with 150 fuse and distro block fused at 60A for power only. Remote wire is ran to amp1 and from amp1 another wire to amp2. Both amps turn on fine. Could 4 gauge not handle the power for both amps? Ive heard of people running just as much power as i got with 4 gauge..Why Would I not be getting enough power out of my sub amp but enough power in my speaker amp?

What Ive done(Failed)

-- switch sub rcas using the audiobahn rcas but using only 2 channels for sub

-- Instead of running 4 gauge from distro, ran 8 gauge

-- Hook up sub amp ONLY to just the regular 4 gauge power/ground with no distro blocks and only having the sub rca plug in on headunit/amp(sub was still not putting out enough power as it should)

-- Switch amps between Alpine mrp-500 and kenwood kac-9013d while it was hooked on the distro blocks with the speaker amp. Still gave about the same amount of power to my subs even tho the kenwood is stronger. They both sound like they were only giving my sub like 100-200 watts..not loud at all but there was bass.

-- Double checked just about everything from connection to amp,connection to distribution blocks, connection on the battery, settings on amp and headunit,making sure rcas were correct,making sure positve/negative was correct,settings and gain on amp were good

-- Did not turn the gain on sub amp past about 70%, I know not to turn the gain all the way. Even at 70% it was not giving enough power, my rear view mirror should be shaking

Thats all i can think of right now that ive done..maybe done a few more minor things..Its been a headache and i cant figure out why my sub isnt Bumping. I know nothings wrong with the wiring inside the sub box because i had it hooked up to the soundstream amp bridged which puts out 500w rms. It sounded amazing loud you could hear me from down the street. I just decided to power all my speakers with the soundstream and have a mono amp for the sub...

Click to read more...

 

[858SD]

i might have missed a few things, let me know, i tried to keep this simple and informative as possible

 

[CrossoverOre 10+ year member]

sounds like you need a bigger sub amp

 

[Milk Mayne 10+ year member]

-- Did not turn the gain on sub amp past about 70%, I know not to turn the gain all the way. Even at 70% it was not giving enough power, my rear view mirror should be shaking

Obviously you have no clue as to what the gain does. Maybe you should read the tutorial for setting gains properly.

 

[bbeljefe]

Your sub is a dual 4Ω if I'm not mistaken. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You said that the Soundstream was driving the sub fine and I would assume you had it bridged to two channels and were running one channel to each coil, which would have been a total of 1000 watts to the sub.

So what have you done with the mono block amps? Are the coils on the sub wired in parallel? Series? Are you only using one coil? Are you trying to use two different amplifiers on one sub simultaneously?

If you could clear that up, it would help.

 

[858SD]

Obviously you have no clue as to what the gain does. Maybe you should read the tutorial for setting gains properly.

Should i try setting gains by using a volt meter and test tone? Will it really help, ive always just used my ears for setting gains and never had no issue, turn up the headunit to how loud i normally listen and then set the gain.

 

[858SD]

Your sub is a dual 4Ω if I'm not mistaken. Correct me if I'm wrong.
You said that the Soundstream was driving the sub fine and I would assume you had it bridged to two channels and were running one channel to each coil, which would have been a total of 1000 watts to the sub.

So what have you done with the mono block amps? Are the coils on the sub wired in parallel? Series? Are you only using one coil? Are you trying to use two different amplifiers on one sub simultaneously?

If you could clear that up, it would help.

Im just tryna hook up one amp to that one sub. My sub is dual voice coil 4 Ohms at 750 RMS. When i had it hooked up to the soundstream i bridged two channels which gave it 1000 watts. What i did with the monoblocks was just simply hooked them up to my sub. I had the alpine which I heard of people using 2 10s or 2 12s and still bumping so i thought it would bump my single 15"..didnt give out enough power. It gives 300w at 4 ohms. So i borrowed that kenwood which gives out 500w at 4 ohms thinking i was going to get what i wanted. Both Amps gave out weak power to my subs It felt like i had a 200w sub even with the sub gain all the way up on deck and sub. Idk how the wires are wired inside the box but i assumed everything is good since it was bumping in my soundstream. I did nothing different to the sub or the box, the positive and negatives are correct on the sub amp too.

 

[bbeljefe]

Im just tryna hook up one amp to that one sub. My sub is dual voice coil 4 Ohms at 750 RMS. When i had it hooked up to the soundstream i bridged two channels which gave it 1000 watts. What i did with the monoblocks was just simply hooked them up to my sub. I had the alpine which I heard of people using 2 10s or 2 12s and still bumping so i thought it would bump my single 15"..didnt give out enough power. It gives 300w at 4 ohms. So i borrowed that kenwood which gives out 500w at 4 ohms thinking i was going to get what i wanted. Both Amps gave out weak power to my subs It felt like i had a 200w sub even with the sub gain all the way up on deck and sub. Idk how the wires are wired inside the box but i assumed everything is good since it was bumping in my soundstream. I did nothing different to the sub or the box, the positive and negatives are correct on the sub amp too.

I get all that but I asked how you had the voice coils connected to the Soundstream amp and how you had them connected to the monoblock amps. If you don't know, that's fine but I can't help you if I don't know what you did.

Your sub has two coils. Are they connected in series or parallel? Or are you only connecting one coil to the monoblock amps? If you're only connecting one coil to them, then it's obvious why they aren't as loud. The sub isn't getting as much power as it was before. And if they're connected in series, again... even less power s getting to them.

The only way you would be getting close to the same amount of power from the monoblocks as you were getting from the Soundstream amp is if you have both coils in the sub wired in parallel so that it presents the amp with a 2Ω load. And if that's the case, the Alpine should sound just about the same as the Soundstream did. As for the Kenwood, I highly doubt that it does rated power and even if it does, it's no where near as good an amp as the other two.

 

[BrownVanMan 10+ year member]

what deck are you running and as stated could be mis wiried coils

 

[858SD]

I get all that but I asked how you had the voice coils connected to the Soundstream amp and how you had them connected to the monoblock amps. If you don't know, that's fine but I can't help you if I don't know what you did.
Your sub has two coils. Are they connected in series or parallel? Or are you only connecting one coil to the monoblock amps? If you're only connecting one coil to them, then it's obvious why they aren't as loud. The sub isn't getting as much power as it was before. And if they're connected in series, again... even less power s getting to them.

The only way you would be getting close to the same amount of power from the monoblocks as you were getting from the Soundstream amp is if you have both coils in the sub wired in parallel so that it presents the amp with a 2Ω load. And if that's the case, the Alpine should sound just about the same as the Soundstream did. As for the Kenwood, I highly doubt that it does rated power and even if it does, it's no where near as good an amp as the other two.

However the voice coils are hooked up, its the same from when it was in the soundstream. I never opened up the box to see how its wired inside since i had the sub. I will do that when i get a chance. But as how i hooked it up to the amps each amp has 2 pos and neg terminals..I just connect the 1st pos to the 1st neg and the terminals are like (+)(+)(-)(-). But when bridged to the soundstream it was to the first pos and last neg,if that helps anything..Can you explain real fast whats the difference between series and parallel and whats the best for my sub?

On another note is the kenwood still not as good as the alpine and soundstream even tho it has more power than the alpine? or in general is kenwood just not a good amp

 

[858SD]

Alpine ida-x100 and i will check the wiring as soon as i can

 

[Side Show 10+ year member]

pics

 

[bbeljefe]

However the voice coils are hooked up, its the same from when it was in the soundstream. I never opened up the box to see how its wired inside since i had the sub. I will do that when i get a chance. But as how i hooked it up to the amps each amp has 2 pos and neg terminals..I just connect the 1st pos to the 1st neg and the terminals are like (+)(+)(-)(-). But when bridged to the soundstream it was to the first pos and last neg,if that helps anything..Can you explain real fast whats the difference between series and parallel and whats the best for my sub?
On another note is the kenwood still not as good as the alpine and soundstream even tho it has more power than the alpine? or in general is kenwood just not a good amp

Okay then now I'm becoming confused. You only have one speaker wire but you ran a 4 channel amp bridged? Then you only bridged it to two channels of the four, because you cannot bridge the bridged channels. And that means you were only getting 500 watts to the sub and it means the coils are wired in series, to an 8Ω load... otherwise the SS amp would have stayed in protect.

As for series and parallel, here is a page that explains the difference and why it makes a difference. I recommend reading it and if you have further questions, I'm happy to answer them. As for what's best for your sub, it doesn't matter to the sub, it matters to the amp. For the SS amp, a 4Ω load was as low as it could handle but since your sub is dual 4Ω, it can only be wired in series to 8Ω or parallel to 2Ω. The monoblock amps you have can both handle a 2Ω load and that's the way your sub has to be wired in order that they produce their 2Ω rated power. And if (I assume this to be the case) your sub's coils are wired in series, they're seeing an 8Ω load and in that case you can take the 4Ω power rating and cut it in half to find out what they were actually sending the sub.

Regarding the Kenwood amp, I don't know about that specific amp but I have never experienced a Kenwood amp that impressed me. Most of them have been lackluster at best and that's the basis for my comment. But I could be entirely incorrect.

 

[858SD]

Okay then now I'm becoming confused. You only have one speaker wire but you ran a 4 channel amp bridged? Then you only bridged it to two channels of the four, because you cannot bridge the bridged channels. And that means you were only getting 500 watts to the sub and it means the coils are wired in series, to an 8Ω load... otherwise the SS amp would have stayed in protect.
As for series and parallel, here is a page that explains the difference and why it makes a difference. I recommend reading it and if you have further questions, I'm happy to answer them. As for what's best for your sub, it doesn't matter to the sub, it matters to the amp. For the SS amp, a 4Ω load was as low as it could handle but since your sub is dual 4Ω, it can only be wired in series to 8Ω or parallel to 2Ω. The monoblock amps you have can both handle a 2Ω load and that's the way your sub has to be wired in order that they produce their 2Ω rated power. And if (I assume this to be the case) your sub's coils are wired in series, they're seeing an 8Ω load and in that case you can take the 4Ω power rating and cut it in half to find out what they were actually sending the sub.

Regarding the Kenwood amp, I don't know about that specific amp but I have never experienced a Kenwood amp that impressed me. Most of them have been lackluster at best and that's the basis for my comment. But I could be entirely incorrect.

sorry to confuse you. I did ran one speaker wire and bridged 2 channels of the 4 and inside the box it looked like this ...."http://m.seimg.net/product/img/subwoofer_wiring/1_sub_DVC_4_ohm_mono.jpg" ..... but instead there was a positive and negative coming from one set/side of terminals hooking on to the amp. In that diagram theres a negative coming from one side/set of terminals and positive coming from the other side/set. The positive hooking to positive and negative to negative was there. I couldnt find a picture/diagram or at least dont know the term for the setup that looked like mine so sorry if i just confused you thats the simplest i can put it..

I thought it would make a difference if i wired it exactly how that diagram is but it didnt. My sub is now wired at the diagram so it should be a 2ohm load now?? at 2 ohms that kenwood should put out 900wrms i believe. Its hooked up to the kenwood right now. I still have my soundstream hooking up my speakers , should i try to hook my sub bridged back on the soundstream to see if itll bump?

 

[858SD]

pics

What pics should i put up. the wiring inside my sub box or just the wire going to my sub amp or just my whole amp set up