Bought 2 RE audio 18 SX's....... and....

[snfsh79077 10+ year member]

knowledgestick, I cant remember who said it, but You would have better results from reconing your subs as 15's and then making a larger port and adding some bracing to the box and refacing the box for 15" subs. You could also sell the sx's and get some different subs in 15's . Just a possiblilty, maybe something like treo ssx or Audioque hdc3

x2

you could possibly trade for some 15s as well

 

[knowledgestick 10+ year member]

Thats a lot of pkg peanuts, but it is the only way to be 100% positive of the Exact volume. yeah I had that same amp and it just has 2 outputs that are really one internally.
Knowledge stick just unhook one side from one speaker wire from amp, and prove this by reading 2 ohms on any + or - speaker terminals

here is the video prooving exactly what you stated bassman. 1ohm when all subwoofers are connected, and when one wire is unhooked it reads at 2ohm.

http://blip.tv/file/1989602/ ( could still be converting to their flash player )

i dont know what this is to proove, but i have d4 subwoofers, it is what i ordered and had built from RE audio. If thease are indeed D2's that would be quite odd as that is NOT what i ordered.

and if the port area is not big enough how much bigger does it need to be ? 25 inches in length instead of 20 ?

-andrew

 

[knowledgestick 10+ year member]

x2
you could possibly trade for some 15s as well

yeah, i would like to use this as a last option as i like the uniqueness of 18''s.

that was the origonal point of me having 18''s in the first place lol, so if anything i will likely have to switch them out for a differant pair of 18''s but if i can get rid of the exesssive thermal build-up because of the clipping, by adding my new battery in and giving the amplifier the power it needs and thus turn down gain, i would rather stick with what i have.

If i exaust all options, then atleast i have my electrical system completely ready for my new set of 15''s but lets hope it doesnt get to that point, because the vocal point of this install is supose to be the dual 18'' setup.

here is the video prooving exactly what you stated bassman. 1ohm when all subwoofers are connected, and when one wire is unhooked it reads at 2ohm.

http://blip.tv/file/1989602/ ( could still be converting to their flash player )

i dont know what this is to proove, but i have d4 subwoofers, it is what i ordered and had built from RE audio. If thease are indeed D2's that would be quite odd as that is NOT what i ordered.

and if the port area is not big enough how much bigger does it need to be ? 25 inches in length instead of 20 ?

-andrew

 

[JBLCAMRY 10+ year member]

the port is to small. the box is to small.

these are the same subs, with a ~15.5 cubes after all displacements. with 210sq inches of port (35x6)

 

[snfsh79077 10+ year member]

the port is to small. the box is to small.
these are the same subs, with a ~15.5 cubes after all displacements. with 210sq inches of port (35x6)

maybe he'll believe you...

 

[mcsoul 10+ year member]

the port is to small. the box is to small.
these are the same subs, with a ~15.5 cubes after all displacements. with 210sq inches of port (35x6)

That's nice! What's running those?

 

[murderedtahoe 10+ year member]

i dont get what u guys are saying about the subs in too small of an box with too small vent area. i had 2 of these subs dual 4 ohm. in an 22 cube box tuned to 26hz with 108 sqin.i had an autotek MM 4000.1 running @ 1 ohm bridged. so half ohm each channel and ive never had any problems what so ever with my subs. only time i did have problems was when i cranked on them for a While but hey i was running over twice the rms of the subs. im thinking his problems is far more than just his box

 

[knowledgestick 10+ year member]

its not that i dont belive you guys, u all know alot more than me.

but that setup is oviously with optimum settings, it looks to be an SUV or a van with a wall. Of coarse i wish i could fit them in a big gigantic wall like that but i cant, and i want to do my best to make them work in the space that i have.

I have a feeling adding the new battery, will allow me to reduce the amount of gain put into the amplifier, thus reducing the thermal build-up caused by clipping.

It might not be the perfect box, but atleast i will be able to listen to my system without them burning out.

I realise im probably not going to be able to get the optimum maximum size of enclosure/port for thease subwoofers but i dont think they should be getting so hot so fast and i do belive that this has somthing to do with the electrical system, I.E the capacitor being to little power to give enough juice to the amplifier to turn out the RMS it is supose to, so then i have to crank up the gain and then the clipping starts and it causes the over-heating.

When i have the gain turned down and set to 12'oclock they do not heat up at all, i have tested it with the trunk closed, the reason they where getting warm was because of the sun b4 (trunk open durh) but this is just when we where testing the gain at 12'oclock and thats why we thought they where STILL getting warm, but indeed they do not when the gain is adjusted to 12'aclock.

i played it for a good while, a few songs with heavy bass and they where nice and cool no over-heating issues, i even put some bass EQ into it from the amplifier, and the head-unit and still, no over-heating. They sounded nice, but not nearly as loud as they should be for 2600 RMS, Witch is likely because of the stupid capacitor limiting the amplifier because it cannot feed it enough power.

So maybe when i get this battery installed and the amplifier has the propper voltage to power it and doesnt have the capacitor choking it, then it will sound like it should at the 12'oclock spot at 1ohm, because right now it is way to quiet and hardly moves for how much RMS is supose to be comming out of it.

This makes me belive the Capacitor is limiting the amplifier greatly, and that i have to turn the gain up to compensate for this, and then the clipping starts and the over-heating begins.

will work on eliminating thease factors, then re-assess my position from there.

you guys have been great, thanks alot i truely appreciate it.

i guess everybody has to learn someway or another, And im sorry for annoying those of you who cannot stand newbs, because i know there are many out there //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I think my #1 goal right now needs to be to figure out why my amplifier is so quiet unless the gain is cranked, witch is likely electrical. So lets go from there, and see if we are still over-heating.

-andrew

 

[JBLCAMRY 10+ year member]

its not that i dont belive you guys, u all know alot more than me.
but that setup is oviously with optimum settings, it looks to be an SUV or a van with a wall. Of coarse i wish i could fit them in a big gigantic wall like that but i cant, and i want to do my best to make them work in the space that i have.

I have a feeling adding the new battery, will allow me to reduce the amount of gain put into the amplifier, thus reducing the thermal build-up caused by clipping.

It might not be the perfect box, but atleast i will be able to listen to my system without them burning out.

I realise im probably not going to be able to get the optimum maximum size of enclosure/port for thease subwoofers but i dont think they should be getting so hot so fast and i do belive that this has somthing to do with the electrical system, I.E the capacitor being to little power to give enough juice to the amplifier to turn out the RMS it is supose to, so then i have to crank up the gain and then the clipping starts and it causes the over-heating.

When i have the gain turned down and set to 12'oclock they do not heat up at all, i have tested it with the trunk closed, the reason they where getting warm was because of the sun b4 (trunk open durh) but this is just when we where testing the gain at 12'oclock and thats why we thought they where STILL getting warm, but indeed they do not when the gain is adjusted to 12'aclock.

i played it for a good while, a few songs with heavy bass and they where nice and cool no over-heating issues, i even put some bass EQ into it from the amplifier, and the head-unit and still, no over-heating. They sounded nice, but not nearly as loud as they should be for 2600 RMS, Witch is likely because of the stupid capacitor limiting the amplifier because it cannot feed it enough power.

So maybe when i get this battery installed and the amplifier has the propper voltage to power it and doesnt have the capacitor choking it, then it will sound like it should at the 12'oclock spot at 1ohm, because right now it is way to quiet and hardly moves for how much RMS is supose to be comming out of it.

This makes me belive the Capacitor is limiting the amplifier greatly, and that i have to turn the gain up to compensate for this, and then the clipping starts and the over-heating begins.

will work on eliminating thease factors, then re-assess my position from there.

you guys have been great, thanks alot i truely appreciate it.

i guess everybody has to learn someway or another.

-andrew

its a Geo metro.

not that big of a car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

I think they are call Suzuki Swifts up in your parts.

But still,

if you do not have room for any sub in the correct enclosure, then go with a smaller/different sub.

 

[Bassman999 10+ year member]

i dont get what u guys are saying about the subs in too small of an box with too small vent area. i had 2 of these subs dual 4 ohm. in an 22 cube box tuned to 26hz with 108 sqin.i had an autotek MM 4000.1 running @ 1 ohm bridged. so half ohm each channel and ive never had any problems what so ever with my subs. only time i did have problems was when i cranked on them for a While but hey i was running over twice the rms of the subs. im thinking his problems is far more than just his box

d4 subs on an mm4000.1 means 2 ohm stereo equal to 4 ohm mono. You could have bridged the amp to see 1 ohm mono.You didnt have any port noise with that setup?

 

[Bassman999 10+ year member]

its not that i dont belive you guys, u all know alot more than me.
but that setup is oviously with optimum settings, it looks to be an SUV or a van with a wall. Of coarse i wish i could fit them in a big gigantic wall like that but i cant, and i want to do my best to make them work in the space that i have.

I have a feeling adding the new battery, will allow me to reduce the amount of gain put into the amplifier, thus reducing the thermal build-up caused by clipping.

It might not be the perfect box, but atleast i will be able to listen to my system without them burning out.

I realise im probably not going to be able to get the optimum maximum size of enclosure/port for thease subwoofers but i dont think they should be getting so hot so fast and i do belive that this has somthing to do with the electrical system, I.E the capacitor being to little power to give enough juice to the amplifier to turn out the RMS it is supose to, so then i have to crank up the gain and then the clipping starts and it causes the over-heating.

When i have the gain turned down and set to 12'oclock they do not heat up at all, i have tested it with the trunk closed, the reason they where getting warm was because of the sun b4 (trunk open durh) but this is just when we where testing the gain at 12'oclock and thats why we thought they where STILL getting warm, but indeed they do not when the gain is adjusted to 12'aclock.

i played it for a good while, a few songs with heavy bass and they where nice and cool no over-heating issues, i even put some bass EQ into it from the amplifier, and the head-unit and still, no over-heating. They sounded nice, but not nearly as loud as they should be for 2600 RMS, Witch is likely because of the stupid capacitor limiting the amplifier because it cannot feed it enough power.

So maybe when i get this battery installed and the amplifier has the propper voltage to power it and doesnt have the capacitor choking it, then it will sound like it should at the 12'oclock spot at 1ohm, because right now it is way to quiet and hardly moves for how much RMS is supose to be comming out of it.

This makes me belive the Capacitor is limiting the amplifier greatly, and that i have to turn the gain up to compensate for this, and then the clipping starts and the over-heating begins.

will work on eliminating thease factors, then re-assess my position from there.

you guys have been great, thanks alot i truely appreciate it.

i guess everybody has to learn someway or another, And im sorry for annoying those of you who cannot stand newbs, because i know there are many out there //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I think my #1 goal right now needs to be to figure out why my amplifier is so quiet unless the gain is cranked, witch is likely electrical. So lets go from there, and see if we are still over-heating.

-andrew

if the cap is limiting power, you can test with volt meter to see voltage at amp while playing the subs at a medium to loud level. check voltage with car on volume on radio all the way down, then turn up to your listening volume. look to see how low the voltage drops. it shouldnt really even drop below 12.5v in yer particular setup.

 

[knowledgestick 10+ year member]

if the cap is limiting power, you can test with volt meter to see voltage at amp while playing the subs at a medium to loud level. check voltage with car on volume on radio all the way down, then turn up to your listening volume. look to see how low the voltage drops. it shouldnt really even drop below 12.5v in yer particular setup.

** sorry for the long post **

watching the capacitor read-out before, it used to go down as far as 11 sometimes 10v at high volume, witch is where the exessive thermal heat is being caused, i can cruise around all day with them at medium volume and listen to them perfectly clear they sound great and all with no over-heating issues.

As soon as it gets loud, the volume goes up then the capacitor starts to drop voltage pretty bad and i think this is when the subwoofers start to over-heat.

What i mean though, is that because the capacitor is directly hooked up to the amplifier instead of my battery, could this be not enough power to make the amplifier turn out all of its RMS that it is supose to at 1ohm ?

then i have to go ahead and crank up the gain-settings to compensate ? i have always thought this because the middle of the amplifier neons never are fully lit, and the amp has always had to have the gain cranked to be loud. I have read in other forums that your amplifier will only turn out as much RMS as your electrical system will allow, maybe that is true with this case and in-turn causing me to over-compensate with the gain setting.

Hopefully spending the 120 $ to get the battery installed will be worth it, and clear up the issues. I have been wondering ever since i got the amplifier why it has been so quiet unless the gain is cranked up all the way. I also have to agree with the poster who said there must be somthing else going on more critical than the box. Sure it may not be exactly to spec, but its still good enough so that they should not be over-heating this bad.

4 FI btl's in a SUV that has to be what, 5.5 cubic feet per sub? ive seen vids of the vehicle and the thing still has its back seats, so its not like that wall of SX's in the picture above, so oviously you dont need to have that gigantic of a box just for 2 18''s. I am positive that there is somthing else going on here, eletrical related causing the amplifier to not turn out its true power, and thus causing me to turn the gain up to much and clip the subwoofers and cause the over-heating.

It is a re-assuring feeling to know that i can drive around and listen to them now on moderate volume without any over-heating issues, but i still want to be able to let thease things bang.

The amplifier issue has been a problem from the very start since i got the amp installed. I just never thought anything of it because my MA audio's held up against the abuse then gave way, then when i dropped thease subwoofers in i never thought anything of it until now, and now i am positive or atleast more than i was before as to what was causing the problem that it is likely a lack of propper power for the amplifier.

But yeah, i remember reading articles stating that your amplifier can only put out as much RMS as your electrical system will allow, so that right there if true could be the key factor in why my **** amp sounds so quiet unless gain is cranked.

With a kinetik hc 1800 upfront linked with the HC2000 i am going to put in the back, that is more than enough battery power and i have a 140 amp alternator

( saw the poster who forgot what size i had )

If this doesnt resolve it, then i supose it is the box its self, but i highly doubt that as i have said i can run them with the gain turned down to 12'oclock for along time with no over-heating issues, they just sound alot quieter then they should and they hardly move you can tell the amplifier isnt putting out much power, Until the gain is turned all the way on.

I am sure this is the problem, and when it is taken care of i HOPE to god thease things function propperly. If they do i will probably move onto FI BTL's anyways as those things kick total *** and we just got a nice *** tax return !

So i will use thease to trouble-shoot the issues, and hopefully resolve them and use them as a in-between woofer until i get my BTL's, Witch are alot more durable, handle more RMS, have cooling options, and overall are an upgrade in subwoofer witch would help alot in my situation, also they require .5cubic feet less space than the SX's per sub witch is nice //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

-andrew

 

[snfsh79077 10+ year member]

$120?? You don't need to spend that much money to have that battery installed. Search around and install it yourself. It is very easy and all you should need is a way to secure the battery, at least 1-2 runs of 0 gauge from your front battery to your back battery, then enough 0 gauge to get from your battery to your amp. Completely take out the cap and forget it exists.

 

[knowledgestick 10+ year member]

I am asking you many great members who have taken it apon themselves to help me and aid in this quest to figure out what is causing these exessive overheating issues, to turn your attention towards a different angle. Lets look at why would my amplifier sound so quiet unless the gain is turned up all the way ?

Maybe if we work from that point, and try to resolve that issue the rest will clear itself up as i have said, the system sounds/preforms great when gain is at half with no over-heating issues, but the woofers have no thump at all and are very quiet.

Lets take the same energy we have in diagnosing the box, into diagnosing why my amplifier is doing this/whats causing it and fix that. Because i belive this is the core of the issue, because if i can leave my gain settings where they are at now, and drop the battery in and the system gets louder without the gain having to be turned up so loud it begins to clip the woofers constantly at high-volume, then the subwoofers wouldnt be over-heating to this degree. (they would probably function normal) I am almost 100% sure that it is somthing electrical, but i do not know where abouts mistakes could have been made durring future shop installing my amplifier so please guys, go ahead and try and pick this one apart.

Important note, is that future shop has never dealt with internally fused amplifiers, so they could have messed up something to do with the fuse for one, that is my initial guess, and only one other than the capacitor limiting the amount of power the amp is receiving thus reducing the RMS it is functionally able to put out. I hope i am at least making a bit of sense...

thanks for so much help everybody, We'll get to the bottom of this //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif I have to admit having you all here, to help and provide instant feedback via my videos and seing how many people are willing to help, and be nice about it is very re-assuring and for somebody like me with epilepsy and bad nerves who gets depressed easily its nice to have a good group of people trying to help you it really makes the situation a lot less stressful for me, and i want to thank you all for that. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

- Andrew

 

[knowledgestick 10+ year member]

$120?? You don't need to spend that much money to have that battery installed. Search around and install it yourself. It is very easy and all you should need is a way to secure the battery, at least 1-2 runs of 0 gauge from your front battery to your back battery, then enough 0 gauge to get from your battery to your amp. Completely take out the cap and forget it exists.

Sweet man, thanks for giving me that little boost of confidence to look into it, maybe i can pull it off. But i am very limited for tools, and i have no experiance hiding wire through a car.

But it seems, you guys are very nice (alot nicer than i expected ) and are willing to help, and guide me through this so maybe its worth giving a shot //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Could you give me maybe, a quick run-down of what tools would be needed to pull off such a job, and the complexety level of it for somebody who has done no installing before ?

Do you need special terminals for your battery to be able to hold another 0 gauge wire comming to the positive/negative with the connection points on it ? sorry i am having a hard time visualizing it in my head...

thanks man.