Fosgate HE2, enough power?

[mrmagoo_83 10+ year member]

I was wondering what your opinions were as to wether or not the Fosgate 125.2 amplifier (440 Watts Mono @ 4ohms), would be big enough to push two Fosgate HE2s? They are dual 4 Ohm voice coils, so they would individually be wired in series to creat two 8 ohm speakers then parallel to knock it down to 4, but is 440W enough?

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[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

the 2000 and 2001 series of those subs handle 400 rms each, and the 2002 handles 500, so i would think u would be underpowering them, but they should still bump. i had 2 2000 series he2's running a 350 watt amp and it still pounded like hell. of course, i got me a 800.2 a few weeks later.

 

[mrmagoo_83 10+ year member]

They handle 500 RMS? I thought it was 200 per voice coil, and 400 max per voice coil, therefore 800 Max, but I do remember reading something about them handling a 1000 max. I was also told to under power a sub is much worse than to over power it. I dont have the cash to pay $400 for a new amp. I am hoping to sell my old XLCs and the box from my old truck to buy these woofers. I just need two 8 ohm subs, to get the amp down to the needed 4 ohms. And they must be fosgate, so I figured the HEs, or HE2s, but many have said the HE2s are much better; but I just dont have enough power. So I thought I would ask some people who really would know.

Thanks!!

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

to put it simple..would be good but not great..far from sad but could do a little better.....if an extra 3 db is needed go to a larger amp.....if not then be happy

 

[SuckMikeHawk23 10+ year member]

u dont need 2 dvc 8 ohm woofers to get a 4 ohm load. get 2 4 ohm dvcs and wire the subs in a series and parallel to the amp. zane would highly disagree with the underpowering thing, and so would i. he would be able to give u a more thorough explanation though. if u can, get a 800.2 on ebay for 345 shipped.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

power and the ability to produce what you need/want go hand in hand..simple LAW of how things work is you get a 3 db gain with doubling the power......you can "overpower" or "underpower" anything and get a negitive result......the later is more common but like i said if he doesnt want an extra 3 db by doubling the size of the amp...and also 3 db isnt that drastic..some people think its "twice as loud" that would be 10 db. but if you look at it in a competion set up 3 db is a butt kicking because its considered as a "doubling effect". i also "underpowered' some jl audio 12w4's back in '90....they never died in fact they have a happy home in the back end of my friends neon..still being underpowered........by a 100 watt audio art amp...that is not high current....... granted its modest but still sounds good. the he2's we sell are 800 watts max also....and a friend at work has one 12 being powered by a "500" watt jensen.....needless to say that jensen is nowhere near 500 watts and his system sounds good (great for what it is) and has never had a problem in 11 months with it.

 

[mrmagoo_83 10+ year member]

Here is what Fosgate's Tech Support told me.

The punch HE is speaker that replaced the XLC's. By going with the HE's you will have the newest version of the ones you have now, and that would be my suggestion with the amp that you have. The HE2 speakers need 200 watts RMS per speaker to get the optimum performance. You would not have enough power for HE2's and could risk hurting them. I would say go with the HE.

Thank you

So I guess I will look at getting a new amp, got any idea how much I can get for two 4 0hm XLCs in pretty good condition? And how much for a fosgate 150a2('99 version), puts like 149 Watts at 4ohms mono?

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

lehman's term is "people think with a smaller amp you will run up the gain or run the amp into clipping" which will hurt the sub. but if you set it up right you wouldnt have any problems...just because you have a 500 watt amp doesnt mean it puts out 500 watts all the time just less likely to clip at volume... just as long as the speaker doesnt see the dreaded clock signal youll be fine..........aka propperly set gains and dont listen to it distort when you have your cd player turned up to 27 when it only goes to 30=P you run a bigger amp you still have possibility to damage a woofer but it drops as far as the "clipping" goes

 

[mrmagoo_83 10+ year member]

Found a site with the HE2s (model RFP3210), that says the usual RMS values 100-400 watts (200 Watss per coil), Peak 800 Watts. Well if they can handle 100 watts RMS, how is that, thats now where near 200 watts? I dont want to take any chance on damaging these things for the price. I found out my amp pushes 250watts RMS mono @ 4 ohms. So divide that by two and that would be 125 watts per voice coil on all four voice coils (both subs).

Ok sorry the real question I am trying to ask, please forgive me for my ignorance in this field, if you were me (a somewhat cheap ass, who likes to not break stuff that is expensive if he owns it), what would you go with?

The dual 4 ohm HE2s?

The 8 ohm HEs?

3 12 ohm MTX 6000s?

Or a pistol with one bullet and one spin? (you better not choose this one).

Thanks for the help, hopefully no more questions.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

anyone would be "good" just depends what you want..the he's would be pushed more than the 2's if you are affraid of being a "volume master" but they both should get loud as for the mtx...would be a different woofer all together but would resemble the he more in performance.

 

[LuRp 10+ year member]

well... I have 2 HE's and im very happy with them... you have to ask yourself a question... which one do you think sounds best? The HE's are way cheaper than the HE2's and HX2's so do what you, would l ike best...

 

[Unregistered]

Where did you buy your HEs? Most places I have found with them for cheap, kill you on the shipping. And eBay seems to be no help unless you are looking for 12s.

 

[LuRp 10+ year member]

Well... actually the guy i but my stuff from doesnt have any 10" HE's for sale at the moment.. but he does have HX2's... he has great great prices.. everything he sells is new... (an ocational amp here and ther is refurbished.. but rarely) The HX2's are being sold for $117 each with about $15 in s+h. here is the site...

IKE's Car Audio Auctions on ebay... this is the HX2 auction, but u can look for other stuff.. he has tons if ****.. all good quality for the most part.

LuRp