Complete System Help

[97chameleonbird 10+ year member]

Hey guys. I have a 97 pontiac firebird and I plan on making a custom sub/amp enclosure to take up the entire hatch part of my car. this is the first time dealing with new audio equipment because i never had enough money to spend on good stuff, so i just stuck with basic.

What im looking at right now is getting 2 12 inch Cerwin-Vega Strokers. I was wanting to get two Stroker Pro's but they are just too much money and would take too long to get everything. The two Strokers are 2,000 watts RMS each.

I would like an amp that is close to the rms wattage and want each sub to get as close to 2,000 each as they can. But i know that could be a little overkill and am looking for suggestions on what type of amp to get. Im not too sure how ohms work either, im thinking that 4 ohms (with the lower rms wattage) is cleaner, and some reason i think ive read that somewhere. Also, i dont know if i should get one amp and bridge them, or get two monos and have them get thier own amp (probably more money with two). Im not on too much of a budget because i plan on spreading the buying process out over a period of time, so i can get higher quality equipment.

An amp im looking at right now is a Soundstream PCA3500D. It has 2500 watts rms at 4 ohms. First off, are the 2 cerwin strokers going to be able to be 4 ohms or whatever, and if i bridge them that would mean they would get about 1250 watts, correct? would this be sufficient or should i try to get something larger, or maybe a better brand (unless this is a really good brand).

Im probably upgrading to optima yellowtop, or something and i have a stock alternator. Would there be too much power being drawn for the alternator, or would it be fine? should i consider having a battery in the trunk? if so, how exactly is that done. should i get a cap (huge debate on these, yes, i know, lol) or would having the extra battery, or upgraded battery be enough. not sure if i want to do the big 3 because im not sure how long ill have this car so i dont feel like doing it if its not 100% neccissary.

I know i may sound like a noob but i have a general knowledge on what to do, its just the complicated stuff that gets me, or stuff that i have no idea how to do. all this is self taught, and havent done much research (or cant find anything on it).

So, if you stuck through and read all of this, thank you very much, it will be an extremely great help if someone could teach me what to do here, and help guide me to getting a nice system like ive always wanted. i will probably have more questions later on, and im sure this site can help me during my build/install also.

Thanks,

-Jeff

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[fatboyracing 10+ year member]

If you add that muchpower youwill need a high output alt

 

[fatboyracing 10+ year member]

your ohms just determan who much resistance there isto the amp the lower the resistance the higher the power as long as you electrical can handle it and you dont clip your amp

 

[fatboyracing 10+ year member]

**** I cant spell.

 

[97chameleonbird 10+ year member]

haha, thats ok, spelling is overrated anyway

yea, i kind of figured i would need a high output alt, but what size do you suggest getting?

as for the ohms. it doesnt matter what ohm you use? so i could hook it up to 1 ohm and get 3500watts instead at the same quality?

for some reason i cant understand these stupid ohms, lol //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/mad.gif.c18f003ab0ef8a0d9c27ca78d77a6392.gif

 

[RipDaJacka]

dude seriously

get 200amp (or higher) alt (300ish)

2 AQ hdc3's ($229ea) http://www.audioque.com/aq/HDCSeries.htm

1 MTX 92001 amp (births 3500+ at 1ohm) ($450 shipped) http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_9942_--+INSANE+SPECIAL-+--+MTX+Audio+TA92001+Thunder+92001.html

onlinecarstereo.com has it shipped for 450

and spend the extra cashflow on highs and watnot

get some Knu flex wire, a NIIICE enclosure (tune at 40hz) like u want, and some highs

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productMaster.cfm?category=Kolossus%20Fleks%20Kable

 

[Twilight 10+ year member]

Ohms are a unit of measurement that represent the amount of resistance in a circuit. If you want to learn all about electronics, check out http://www.bcae1.com and also wikipedia or some other sources. But for car audio purposes, just know this:

- Every speaker, sub, tweeter has an impedance (the resistance it has in a circuit). For car speakers, these are usually 4 ohms. Home audio, usually 8 ohms. But could be anything. Some speakers have more than one voice coil (shown as, for example, "dual 4 ohm").

- How you wire up your speakers will determine the load on your amplifier. You want to get an amplifier that is stable and produces the best power at the load your speakers are wired to. For example (this is very crude and simple) if you have a 2 ohm subwoofer, you need an amp that puts out the required power at 2 ohms. Amps make different power at different resistance levels; the higher the resistance, the less power it will produce. Some amps are 4 ohm, some are 2 ohm stable, and some will go down to 1 ohm and below.

- A dual voice coil sub can be wired in different ways to produce different impedance levels. A very simple way to think about this is for a DVC sub you can get either double or half of the impedance of the voice coils. For example, if a sub has dual 2 ohm voice coils, you can wire it up for either 1 (1/2 of 2) or 4 (2 x 2) ohms. A dual 4 ohm sub can be wired up to 2 or 8 ohms. A dual 1 ohm can be 0.5 or 2 ohms. And so on.

I highly recommend reading more, but if you simply want to know what amp you need to power certain subs, just post up the subs and the amp and we'll tell you if it will work.

 

[97chameleonbird 10+ year member]

alright, im starting to get this ohm thing, ill check out that website today and see if i can figure anything else until then so i dont have to ask more questions if they arent needed.

as far as that other equipment suggested, is there a reason why you suggested that, is it better quality, or this or that, or what.

thanks for all your quick replies

-Jeff