Help: Am I Underpowering My Subs?

[Immortal 10+ year member]

I've recently been going back over my system looking for things to upgrade and it just hit me that I think I am underpowering my subs.

I have 2 Rockford Fosgate 12's, the P34D12 series in a enclosure wired like the third image down in this wiring diagram:

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.asp?cat_id=4&series_id=31&family_id=11&item_id=108289&locale=en_US&p_status=

It shows that I am getting a 4 ohm load from my 2 subs. I believe this is called series parrallel (where you have both subs connected to eachother and only 1 neg/pos wire leaving the enclosure going to the amplifier)?

Well the monobloc sub I bought has the following specs:

P 1000.1

1000W 1-Channel A/B Class Mono Amplifier

250W x 1-Ch @ 4-Ohms or

500W x 1-Ch @ 2-Ohms or

1000W x 1-Ch @ 1-Ohm

Its a Crunch amp, aka a cheapy stand in, I bought at the time because I was running low on money and I was told by the dealer that it would power my two subs for 500W. Well I think that is because he believed my subs were wired at 2 ohms and as the diagram shows, the model of Fosgates I have is the 4 ohm model and thusly cannot be wired to 2 ohms.

So am I only getting 250W to my subs when I need 500w?

Am I damaging my subs at all by underpowering them?

If I bought a new, more powerful amp that would push 500w @ 4 ohms would I then be fully powering my subs, and thusly be louder and more powerful?

Or could I right now go into my enclosure and rewire it to run at 1 ohms like in the diagram which would allow the amp to push 1000w to the subs. I suppose that would be overpowering it.

Would that increase its performance or would it just result in damage?

Finally I have a second 4-channel 100 watt amp that is powering my speakers right now. I am only using 2 of the 4 channels, is there some way I could send additional power from the output to the subs for a temporary fix without weakening the speakers' output?

I know I have a lot of questions but I like to learn before I spend money

Thank you in advance.

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[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

Wire em to 1 ohm //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[thegreatestpenn 5,000+ posts]

exactly, and that amp is underrated

 

[terra 5,000+ posts]

you guys are assholes...

and no ur not gonna hurt the subs by underpowering them.

give em more power and theyll get louder..

 

[Immortal 10+ year member]

Thanks, I guess Ill get back into my sub box and wire it according to the 1 ohm diagram next time I get a chance. And begin looking for a better amp :/

 

[Immortal 10+ year member]

Any reason why I would want it at 4 ohms over 1 ohms if I get an amp that runs it at 500w at 4 in the future?

 

[terra 5,000+ posts]

4 will be more efficient but usually you get less power

 

[Immortal 10+ year member]

so basically it will run hotter at 1 ohm?

 

[Ali1 10+ year member]

yes, but its occasional for most amps. The lower the ohm, the less efficient the amp is. If the amp states "stable at 1ohm", then you shouldn't be worried about running your amp at 1ohm. Most people usually have their amps wired to 2 or 1ohm load depending on the amplifier.

 

[Immacomputer 10+ year member]

Any reason why I would want it at 4 ohms over 1 ohms if I get an amp that runs it at 500w at 4 in the future?

You don't need 500wrms, you need 1000rms for 2 subs. That power will get divided between them so they will both see 500wrms. As of now, they're getting about 125wrms (assuming those values are in rms and not peak power). You won't be over powering them with 500rms each.

There is no advantage wiring to 4 ohms or 1 ohm; the reason subs come in multiple coils is to allow options in case an amp doesn't support one of the configurations.