Gain for lower RMS

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

I am about to buy an MRD-M500 500rms @ 2 ohm for an RL-i 10" The sub is 150-400 watts 350rms. Does turning the gain reduce the watts that the amp it putting out? Would it be safe to run this amp on this sub?

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[soulstace 10+ year member]

Yes, you could run that sub on that amp just fine. Just be careful. If it's a dual 4 ohm sub, and you connect the voice coils in parallel, it will be running at 2 ohms and the amp would allow 500rms to be pushed to it. The good news is you will get clean bass with little to no distortion. If you turn it up too loud the voice coil will most likely bottom out and you'll hear a loud clipping sound (I heard this sound before, when I hooked up my two 300 Watt rms 10w3 to the 1200W+ RMS amplifier in my avatar. It didn't actually damage the speakers). Just keep the gain below the threshold. If you start to hear clipping from the speaker turn it down fast!

I think having too little power for the sub is worse than having more power than it was meant to handle! Too little power will lead into much more distortion when you crank it up louder. And in my experience distortion leads to more blown subs than anything else.

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

good god!

distortion WON'T kill subs!

 

[iamamp3pimp 5,000+ posts]

I think having too little power for the sub is worse than having more power than it was meant to handle! Too little power will lead into much more distortion when you crank it up louder. And in my experience distortion leads to more blown subs than anything else.

Stupid myth that has been disproved many times

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

I was really wanting to know if the gain inceases and decreases the wattage the amp is putting out? I know a gain is so that a amp will work with different volts of pre-amp inputs but if the gain is all the way down will this amp still be pushing 500watts

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

it will if it recieves a high-volt input @ that setting.

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

Ok well say that the gain wasnt able to be turned low enough do they make devices so that the gain can be turned even lower and do you think this will even be a problem? The only reason I am set on this amp is that it matches my MRV-T420(comp. amp) and The only other one Alpine makes in this style doesnt put out enough watts.

 

[thch 10+ year member]

lower gain will reduce the power the amp puts out, but does nothing to limit the power the amp could put out. so don't expect to lower the gains and then be able to magically turn up the bass boost and volume on the HU.

the amount of power the amp puts out is based upon the music -- which is why headlights will dim on bass notes. if the amp always "put out" the same amount of power the dimming wouldn't be noticable because the lights would be perpetually dimmed...

 

[Trey803 5,000+ posts]

Who said anything about turning the bass boost and volume up??? I'm all sq and I do understand distortion and prolly not as noob as you think. Basically would this amp kill the RL-i? I could run the amp at 4 ohm but then it only puts out 250.

 

[soulstace 10+ year member]

Stupid myth that has been disproved many times

By who?

I killed more subs with 150W rms than I did with 1200W rms.

Basically would this amp kill the RL-i?

It could, yes. If you turn it up loud enough.

Watts = Volts x Amps

What actually drives the speaker is voltage and amps. The higher the gain, the higher the voltage etc.

Also take into consideration what others have said. And that is the voltage of the input signal. Obviously higher voltage of input signal will end up as higher voltage of the output given the same amount of gain.

 

[Fast1one 10+ year member]

I think having too little power for the sub is worse than having more power than it was meant to handle! Too little power will lead into much more distortion when you crank it up louder. And in my experience distortion leads to more blown subs than anything else.

Wrong....the sub has to reach its thermal limits before distortion can finish the job....

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

By who?

The laws of physics.

Distortion DOES NOT damage speakers or subwoofers. The only, yes, the only, possible way to damage a speaker or subwoofer is from exceeding the speaker's/subwoofer's thermal or mechanical limitations. And exceeding those would be the result of too much power, and too much power alone.

You may have blown a subwoofer with a highly distorted (clipped) signal, but the distortion/clipping is not what damaged the subwoofer. It was the increased level of power that damaged it. And no, it's not a matter of semantics. You can send a highly distorted signal to a driver, and the driver will not be damaged as long as the level of the signal does not exceed the drivers mechanical or thermal limitations. Because the determining factor is power, not the level of distortion in the signal.

Yes, a highly clipped signals contain more power than a pure sine wave. And, again, the power is the damaging factor in that equation. You can apply that same highly clipped signal to a speaker capable of handling the applied power, and no damage will be sustained.

 

[wilzyx 5,000+ posts]

Who said anything about turning the bass boost and volume up??? I'm all sq and I do understand distortion and prolly not as noob as you think. Basically would this amp kill the RL-i? I could run the amp at 4 ohm but then it only puts out 250.

hot carl gave his rli 8 800 watts off of his 2500d, i think you would be just fine with 500 watts.