Bunch of questions, underpowering sub and clipping etc etc..

[westman995 10+ year member]

No im not asking if im wrecking my sub due to underpowering. I am wondering about both things tho. I dont believe just underpowering a sub can wreck it.

Anyways, i have two DD 1508 subs rated at 500 rms each, everyone says they can take considerably more tho. At the moment, i only have a rockford 250.2. Its rated at 125 rms @ 2 ohms per channel. So i am only doing 125 rms to each sub right now, and they seem to get fairly loud and am surprised they are this loud with that little power. They blow away my cvr 12s even with the same amp.

Anyways, im just wanting to make sure im not going to somehow damage the subs by pushing the amp hard to the subs and not being very powerful.

And, exactly what and how is clipping formed? I just want to make sure i dont ruin the subs i just got. I plan to upgrade the amp as soon as i can but at the moment i cant afford to.

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[treadburner 10+ year member]

you will not ruin your subs by under powering them

how ever clipping them will ruin them

clipping is basically a bad signal from your amp

 

[westman995 10+ year member]

How can i make sure that i am not getting a clipped signal?

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

It's not the clipping itself that destroys the speaker, it's the extra heat.

 

[westman995 10+ year member]

So, even an underpowered amp sending a clipped signal could fairly easily mess up my subs.. Correct? I know it wouldnt be the underpowering itself that would wreck it, but the clipping.

Is using a too small of an amp on the subs more likely to create a clipped signal or not?

Ill have to do some research on exactly what clipped signal is.

 

[westman995 10+ year member]

So, not getting enough power to the amp can cause clipping? I really need to look into that then, especially when i upgrade the amp. I need to replace my battery soon anyways.

Right now i am just running two runs of 8 gauge power wire from the battery to the rear. Its the wire i had around so i used it, ill upgrade wire when i upgrade the amp. But seeing as how this amp is smaller, the two runs of 8 gauge should be plenty for it. It goes to a dist. block and comes out as a single 8 gauge to the amp, and i have a 10 gauge going to a smaller 4 channel amp.

 

[treadburner 10+ year member]

your power wire is fine for that amp atm

your voltage also should not drop much if at all

i always set my gain by ear

find a song with alot of bass in it

turn your radio to the max volume u listen to it at

turn your gain up slowly till u start hearing distortion or does not sound as clean

but sometimes it does sound better clipped i do admit that lol

thats just my 2 cents others will probably disagree