Best budget or used amp for one kicker l7 15

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Ok. Ya it's facing right at the roof right now. Honestly I'd probably need a different box to change it. Still leaves me kinda confused why it hits ok with this old 729s in that spot but not with any other amp I've tried

Could be many reasons man.

#1 could be that your electrical system is too weak to properly feed bigger amps than your 2 channel kenwood

#2 could be that your pre-out signal is still too weak to get proper output out of those amps

#3 could be that you have massive box rise and your amps are seeing around 4-8 ohms of real power output with your current kenwood amp. (read up on box rise / impedance rise)

#4 Could be that your amps were faulty straight out of the box, aka some refurbished junk sold as new.

#5 The old kenwood might be better built and is getting strained with a low impedance load. You were bridging to 2 ohms right?

#6 could also be your wires are waaaaay too small and junky for the new amps to get any power.

 

[Rockchopper86]

That newer kenwood should be pushing that sub decently. At least as good as the older kenwood if not better. I say try the newer kenwood again and maybe just let your crossover go wide open. What was the gain on the older amp set to? Sorry may have missed it in the thread. In a straight swap you should at the very least be in the ballpark as the older amp...

Thats what I thaught too! Gain is set ruffle a little less then half way on the old amp which is actually backed down from where I hit distortion with a 60hz track. Head unit sub level is at 0 no negative or positive. I tried the new one with wide open crossover still no better and would have had to set the gain well into distortion to get the same output. Like I said same head unit settings same box same wiring.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Thats what I thaught too! Gain is set ruffle a little less then half way on the old amp which is actually backed down from where I hit distortion with a 60hz track. Head unit sub level is at 0 no negative or positive. I tried the new one with wide open crossover still no better and would have had to set the gain well into distortion to get the same output. Like I said same head unit settings same box same wiring.

Thats your reason, with pioneer, you need sub level max to achieve proper output, play normal music, crossover at 80hz for low pass. Turn the gain up until its stops getting loud. Thats distortion/clipping point so back it off a tiny bit.

 

[The_Quiet_One 10+ year member]

Could be many reasons man. #1 could be that your electrical system is too weak to properly feed bigger amps than your 2 channel kenwood

#2 could be that your pre-out signal is still too weak to get proper output out of those amps

#3 could be that you have massive box rise and your amps are seeing around 4-8 ohms of real power output with your current kenwood amp. (read up on box rise / impedance rise)

#4 Could be that your amps were faulty straight out of the box, aka some refurbished junk sold as new.

#5 The old kenwood might be better built and is getting strained with a low impedance load. You were bridging to 2 ohms right?

#6 could also be your wires are waaaaay too small and junky for the new amps to get any power.

#1 Doubtful. His electrical can at least support however much the older amp is putting out, so should be comparable at the very least. Especially if older amp is class AB.

#2 possible

#3 unless he is playing sine waves it shouldn't make that much difference in output since it's frequency dependant

#4 possible. bad luck, but may be the case

#5 possible

#6 Also again his current electrical supports however much the older kenwood is putting out...

 

[Rockchopper86]

Really? Max the sub output on the head unit it all times?

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

#1 Doubtful. His electrical can at least support however much the older amp is putting out, so should be comparable at the very least. Especially if older amp is class AB.#2 possible

#3 unless he is playing sine waves it shouldn't make that much difference in output since it's frequency dependant

#4 possible. bad luck, but may be the case

#5 possible

#6 Also again his current electrical supports however much the older kenwood is putting out...

My buddy's kenwood 9105 at 4 ohms was louder than a hifonics 2400.1 because of impeded flow of current, he had 4 gauge cca wire and stock electricals with a type R 12 in a custom ported.The kenwood was in EVERY aspect louder than the hifonics and the hifonics was wired to 1 ohm. In my vehicle the hifonics pushed A LOT more than the kenwood did and i have proper electricals to power it

 

---------- Post added at 12:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 AM ----------

 

Really? Max the sub output on the head unit it all times?

yes you have to or else the head unit is barely sending ANY signal to the sub amp. Again, follow the rule of if it stops getting louder, you need to back off. Play music, dont play tones, music when setting gains is recorded at a much lower DB level than a sine wave at 0 db.

 

[The_Quiet_One 10+ year member]

It's not unheard of...I had a Fosgate HU that was same way. Swapped sub rca with full rcas and was night and day difference. To get proper output I had to set subwoofer volume to max. Still doesn't really explain why older kenwood is kicking newer ones *** with the same settings. *shrug* Good luck with it though. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

It's not unheard of...I had a Fosgate HU that was same way. Swapped sub rca with full rcas and was night and day difference. To get proper output I had to set subwoofer volume to max. Still doesn't really explain why older kenwood is kicking newer ones *** with the same settings. *shrug* Good luck with it though. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

More sensitive pentiometer on the older ones. Gains might as well be past clipping at that point, distortion is percieved as loudness. Most people cant distinguish between the two when it comes to bass.

 

[The_Quiet_One 10+ year member]

Was the hifonics ran at 4 ohms or one? Still that's a bit more power than OP is running and I'm fairly certain he mentioned he had 0 gauge somewhere? Maybe I imagined it cause too **** sleepy. Oh well good night all. OP I hope you figure it out.

Also true about pots...that's why I like Oscopes instead of ears. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

Was the hifonics ran at 4 ohms or one? I have a hard time believing something else wasn't the issue especially if this was noticeable when playing music. Oh well good night all. OP I hope you figure it out.

Added more to the post, it was 1 ohm. Yes an amp starved of current can perform worse than a more efficient amp with proper current.

 

[Rockchopper86]

Just to re post it sense we are 5 pages in now. Electric is big 3 upgrade alternator from stock 95 amp upgraded to 135 amp and 0 gauge cca wire feeding the amp.

 

[The_Quiet_One 10+ year member]

Yeah one ohm that's starving for current. His voltage was undoubtably dropping and increasing current demand, but OP isn't running nearly as much and it sounds like his electrical shouldn't be failing this miserably unless he has a faulty alt that's not holding voltage well...Also in his case going from what I'm assuming is an AB amp (running at one ohm per channel it sounds like) to a mono class d at 2 ohms...with at least upgraded wire it shouldn't cause the disparity he is seeing. I would be willing to bet current demands on the newer kenwood aren't that much greater.

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

this is more likely an issue with gain/head unit settings along with subwoofer port positioning, if you havent already seen where i'm going with my posts.

 

[Rockchopper86]

So are newer class d amps more sensitive to the pre out power then the older class ab amps?

 

[Jeffdachef 5,000+ posts]

So are newer class d amps more sensitive to the pre out power then the older class ab amps?

sensitivity will vary with any amp model doesnt matter old school or not, some amp's gain knobs are more sensitive than others. Just flip your box and re-set your gain settings properly and it should be hitting a lot harder.