rkanallakan
CarAudio.com Newbie
Hey guys,
New to the forum, but had a question that I’m sure someone on here could answer. I’ve got a sea-doo spark that I just recently installed a set of JL M6 7.7 speakers in. It had a set of kicker 6.5’s before and they just couldn’t put out enough clear sound to keep up at speed on the water. So I upgraded to the 7.7’s. These things are LOUD. I’m pushing them through a Tinysine 100w amp. I’ll post a link below to the amp. I build speakers out of ammo cans, and have had great results with the Tinysine amplifier boards. They’re a compact class D amp that really packs a punch at a low price-point. I use their 50 watt amp to push a pair of 4” kicker speakers in all of my smaller builds and I have yet to find an amp that produces a cleaner, louder sound. Being that this amp only puts out 100w rms at the highest setting, I was prepared to buy another amp because these speakers are rated at 100w rms, but I figured I’d try this one first to save a few hundred $$$’s on a new JL amp. Well, I got everything hooked up, and the speakers flat out rock. I was able to get about 99 DB’s of CLEAN sound out of my old kicker 6.5’s, and these put out 105 DB’s of sound from the get-go. (Measured from my decibel meter 6 feet away) I’m sure the higher efficiency helps that out a lot. This Tinysine amp has 4 settings (1-quiet, 4-loud). I figured with these speakers being the high wattage speakers that they are, I turned the amp all the way to 4 when I first started. What I found was that the speakers would distort around 2/3 of the way up with the amp at its highest setting. If I put this amp on the medium setting (number 2), I can crank it all the way up and get the slightest amount of distortion at full volume, and the click below that, it gets the 105DB’s or clean volume I was talking about. This amp is also made to run at 24 volts instead of 12, but it is safe to run at 12 like it is now, it’s just advertised to be quieter. I have a 12-24 volt converter ready to throw on if I need it, but suprisingly, it seems to be overpowering the speakers at just 12 volts. Overall, the speakers sound great, I’m just wondering if they should be louder. One of my main questions regards the wiring I’m using:
I’m using 16 gauge wire for everything. I bought some 14 and 12 gauge because I initially thought I would need it with the amp being turned up higher. There’s only about 6 feet total of wiring to the amp. I read a lot online that with this setup, you should be able to safely push 12ish amps through 16 gauge wire at 12 volts if it’s less than 10ft long. My thought was, put a 5A fuse at the beginning of the wire run next to the battery, and if it pops it, it’s drawing more than 5 amps, then move up to 10, 12, 15 amp fuses until it didn’t blow one. Suprisingly, I cranked it for 5 minutes, and the 5 amp fuse never blew. Replaced it with another one, and it didn’t blow either. This tells me it’s drawing no where near 12 amps, so the 16 gauge wiring should be fine, or should I go to a higher gauge? Also, will I need higher or lower gauge wiring with the 12-24 volt step up? I’ve always been confused on this. I know after it converts 12 volts into 24, it’ll decrease the amps because you’re doubling the voltage to get the same wattage, but what about before the converter? Will it draw more amps than before at just 12 volts? Tinysine rates their amps in RMS wattage, not peak like most companies, so this 100W rms amp is probably similar to most 400W “peak” amps that are out there. I’m just wondering how loud these speakers should be before distortion. Either these amps are putting out way more than their advertised power, or these JL’s aren’t really capable of the 100W rms that they claim. (I would hope not for a $650 set of speakers). I’m gonna try putting the 24 volt converter on it tomorrow and maybe some higher gauge wire just to see what it does, but I thought I’d post this first to get some ideas. Any thoughts?
New to the forum, but had a question that I’m sure someone on here could answer. I’ve got a sea-doo spark that I just recently installed a set of JL M6 7.7 speakers in. It had a set of kicker 6.5’s before and they just couldn’t put out enough clear sound to keep up at speed on the water. So I upgraded to the 7.7’s. These things are LOUD. I’m pushing them through a Tinysine 100w amp. I’ll post a link below to the amp. I build speakers out of ammo cans, and have had great results with the Tinysine amplifier boards. They’re a compact class D amp that really packs a punch at a low price-point. I use their 50 watt amp to push a pair of 4” kicker speakers in all of my smaller builds and I have yet to find an amp that produces a cleaner, louder sound. Being that this amp only puts out 100w rms at the highest setting, I was prepared to buy another amp because these speakers are rated at 100w rms, but I figured I’d try this one first to save a few hundred $$$’s on a new JL amp. Well, I got everything hooked up, and the speakers flat out rock. I was able to get about 99 DB’s of CLEAN sound out of my old kicker 6.5’s, and these put out 105 DB’s of sound from the get-go. (Measured from my decibel meter 6 feet away) I’m sure the higher efficiency helps that out a lot. This Tinysine amp has 4 settings (1-quiet, 4-loud). I figured with these speakers being the high wattage speakers that they are, I turned the amp all the way to 4 when I first started. What I found was that the speakers would distort around 2/3 of the way up with the amp at its highest setting. If I put this amp on the medium setting (number 2), I can crank it all the way up and get the slightest amount of distortion at full volume, and the click below that, it gets the 105DB’s or clean volume I was talking about. This amp is also made to run at 24 volts instead of 12, but it is safe to run at 12 like it is now, it’s just advertised to be quieter. I have a 12-24 volt converter ready to throw on if I need it, but suprisingly, it seems to be overpowering the speakers at just 12 volts. Overall, the speakers sound great, I’m just wondering if they should be louder. One of my main questions regards the wiring I’m using:
I’m using 16 gauge wire for everything. I bought some 14 and 12 gauge because I initially thought I would need it with the amp being turned up higher. There’s only about 6 feet total of wiring to the amp. I read a lot online that with this setup, you should be able to safely push 12ish amps through 16 gauge wire at 12 volts if it’s less than 10ft long. My thought was, put a 5A fuse at the beginning of the wire run next to the battery, and if it pops it, it’s drawing more than 5 amps, then move up to 10, 12, 15 amp fuses until it didn’t blow one. Suprisingly, I cranked it for 5 minutes, and the 5 amp fuse never blew. Replaced it with another one, and it didn’t blow either. This tells me it’s drawing no where near 12 amps, so the 16 gauge wiring should be fine, or should I go to a higher gauge? Also, will I need higher or lower gauge wiring with the 12-24 volt step up? I’ve always been confused on this. I know after it converts 12 volts into 24, it’ll decrease the amps because you’re doubling the voltage to get the same wattage, but what about before the converter? Will it draw more amps than before at just 12 volts? Tinysine rates their amps in RMS wattage, not peak like most companies, so this 100W rms amp is probably similar to most 400W “peak” amps that are out there. I’m just wondering how loud these speakers should be before distortion. Either these amps are putting out way more than their advertised power, or these JL’s aren’t really capable of the 100W rms that they claim. (I would hope not for a $650 set of speakers). I’m gonna try putting the 24 volt converter on it tomorrow and maybe some higher gauge wire just to see what it does, but I thought I’d post this first to get some ideas. Any thoughts?
