Am I underpowering my w6's?

[obidon 10+ year member]

Right now in my current setup I have two JL Audio 12W6v2-D4's in a sealed (un-ported) enclosure. The amp I have it running off of right now is a Bazooka ELA500.1. I believe the w6's have an RMS of 600w while my amp has an RMS of 500w and I also feel like they are being underpowered. When I turn up my headunit too high I also think I hear some distortion in them.

I know it's good to leave headroom when matching the amplifier's RMS to the subs' for a clean amplified single, so I'm worried that they are underpowered and not bumping to their full potential. I'm thinking about getting a better amp for future upgrades, but in the meantime is it bad to power the JL's with this Bazooka amp?

Thanks for the replies

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[Spldecendant 10+ year member]

Get a jl1000/1 for those nd u will be set

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

What do you have them wired like? What size is your box?

 

[Weeznur32 10+ year member]

yes you are definitely underpowering them. I doubt you are sending the subs clean power with that bazooka 500W amp...but i guess you never know?

I would definitely suggest upgrading the amplifier though

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

I have a 800 watt infinty kappa one amp would power those good. And reason it's distorting is ur gain on the amp is too high

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

I have a 800 watt infinty kappa one amp would power those good. And reason it's distorting is ur gain on the amp is too high

Really?

 

[DoesDad 10+ year member]

I have a 800 watt infinty kappa one amp would power those good. And reason it's distorting is ur gain on the amp is too high

Sad. This place is really getting to be amateur hour.... So many bad comments and bad advice on so many threads. Fuqqin' noobs.

That being said, a custom box is probably in order and an amp that can do 1200 @ 1 ohm is a good start.

 

[obidon 10+ year member]

Ok thanks for the replies. I know I need to get a lot better amp and I will eventually, but my question is do you think it is bad to run them with this amp in the meantime until I buy the better one? Will it be bad for the w6 subs and cause them harm since they are being underpowered?

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

sorry i was drunk when i posted, lol but anyway yeah sounds like your gains were set incorrectly, I'd def get an amp in the 1200 watt rms range. 500 watts is nothing, i've gone through a few sub amps now and even 1200 watts is not enough, I finally just bought an M2a

 

[destined2race 10+ year member]

Get a jl1000/1 for those nd u will be set

this. its usually a great match for 2 w6's. I ran 2 12w6v2's ported on a 1000/1v1 for about 8 years. finally the surrounds on them just started deteriorating. they took a hella beating over those years tho. Otherwise just get a quality amp around the 1000w rms range. bazooka amps should be only used for firing real bazookas at for practice. just my opinion.

 

[( . )( . ) 10+ year member]

... is it bad to power the JL's with this Bazooka amp?

YES, IT"S BAD!!!

Sux you've gotten nothing but BS "answers" so far. Anyway, with two 4-ohm DVC subs, you're either wired to 1-ohm or 4. Either way, that amp isn't even close to what you need.

- It's not stable at 1-ohm and if wired that way, you'd end up frying it while send a terribly clipped signal to the subs, shortening their life for sure.

- If it's wired to a 4-ohm load, it's only rated at 300 watts rms, or 150 watts each sub.

- Those are some excellent subs you have there and they need 600 watts rms each. They won't even wake up on the 150 to 250 watts rms you're sending each.

- Budget sounds like it may be an issue and 1200 rms @ 4-ohms doesn't come cheap. 1200 rms @ 1-ohm is much more easily attainable.

- You're running sealed, so you need to feed the subs rms or more. As you said, headroom rules, so go a little bigger. This will work just fine (1500 rms @ 1-ohm $165 shipped new) MB Quart ONX1.1500D Class D Amplifiers at Onlinecarstereo.com

Sell that amp for $75 shipped before you kill it and use that $ toward the MBQ above, which would only cost you $90 out of pocket. Rewire to 1-ohm using the MBQ and you'd be powered correctly and have 300 watts rms headroom to spare.

If you have absolutely no $$ at all and none in the near future, sell the amp, 1 sub, and the sealed box to free up $250 or so. Use the $ to buy the MBQ and build or buy a quality ported box that's build to spec. NO PREFABS!!!! One of these subs in a quality ported box built to spec should only use about the same amount of space as the dual sealed, but would dig wayyy deeper and prolly be much louder, while still sounding fukkin excellent. With the MBQ, you'd still have headroom with a single sub wired at 2-ohms (1000 rms) and have available headroom when/if you added a second sub later.

Do it right or do it twice. There's no third direction. If you need any help with the wiring or a box design or build, PM me. GL

 

[Buck 5,000+ posts]

You should aim for 1000-1500 watts. I personally would do 1500 watts and keep the gain slightly down. If you want it to be louder, ported is the way to go.

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

get a proper enclosure designed and built, I suggest one that is built around your cabin. A million people will suggest 4ft tuned to 30-35hz with 48-65'' of port.

Don't pay for that, get one actually based around your car and equipment not a generic design pawned off as custom. Then get a better amplifier, I would suggest this for the 2

DD Audio: Mobile Audio | Amplifiers | M1c | DD Audio

 

[Radiospank 10+ year member]

Is one sub ported vs dual sealed running 1500 rms(dual) vs 1000 rms (single) sub really going to be louder? Does having a bigger box for one sub really get the sub to sound as loud as 2 subs?

 

[wenn_du_weinst 10+ year member]

a ported enclosure uses both the rear and front waves of the subwoofer, a sealed enclosures goal is to ''seal'' off the rear wave. So technically 1 ported sub should be the same amount of output as 2 sealed.