Help and Advice please

[seagull 10+ year member]

ok so i know some about car audio, but im planning on buying a whole new system soon, and i have some questions

- What exactly does Ohms mean and what effect does it have on the sound? Is more better? Does it depend?

- What exactly does bridged mean, and what does it do?

- Mono amps are for one sub correct? And 2-way for two, how come 2-ways are almost the same price, tho they offer a lot less wattage, even x 2?

- Would you recommend an amp for 4 kicker door speakers at 130w?

- What exactly does a capacitor do? Do i need one for this?

System i wanna build:

- 12" Kicker 1500W

- what kind of amp would you recommend here? i was think 2-way kicker 850w incase i wanna buy another 12" later, or what should i do here?

- 4 kicker 130w door speakers (amp for these?)

- pioneer head unit

car is: 1996 pontiac firebird

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[undeadxsunshine 10+ year member]

-ohm is the resistance, doesn't really affect sound, just affects what amp the speaker will work well with

-bridging is taking 2 channels of an amplifier and combining them into one channel

-mono amps can be used for as many subs as you want, as long as it's providing enough power

what model kicker speakers are you looking at?

-generally, capacitors are a waste of money

can you give us a budget for your system?

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

Mono amps are for as many subs as you want to put on them.

I don't like 2 channels for subs myself.

Capacitor stiffens your voltage. For the price of a cap you can get a small audio battery instead and those are a lot better.

Ohms is a measurement of resistance. It is important when matching subs to amps. Make sure your subs are wired to an ohm that your amp is rated for. Usually the fewer ohms an amp sees the more power it produces.

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

my first question would be why are 4-ohms more expensive if less generates more power?

- Pioneer AVH-4000DVD head unit

- 12" Kicker 06CVX12

- 4 Kicker 05KS65 (amp for these? worth it? yes? no? thoughts?)

- amp, either, mono would be Kicker 06ZX1000.1, 2-way would be Kicker 06ZX850.2

 

[undeadxsunshine 10+ year member]

is that question about speakers or amps? i don't really understand what you're asking.

amping those speakers would be good, something that can do at least 60 x 4 w rms at 4 ohms.

and for that sub, if it's dual 4 ohm you'll want a mono amp that will do at least 700w rms at 2 ohms. so the Kicker 06ZX1000.1 would work just fine.

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

what if it's dual 2-ohms?

like my questions if you're saying less ohms is more power, why do they makes subs with more ohms? would that take away power? and i just means speakers and subs in general

 

[undeadxsunshine 10+ year member]

it all depends on what load you're trying to wire them to, and with how many subs.

if you have one dual 2 ohm sub you can wire it to either .5 ohm or 4 ohm. if its a dual 4 ohm then it can be 2 ohm or 8 ohm. kinda depends on what you want.

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

what do you recommend? im not sure exactly if i get what you mean, wired as the whole thing? or wired to what exactly?

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

And how many subs you are using, If I am running one sub I want a dual 2 ohm so I can parallel it and get 1 ohm.

If I am running two subs I want dual 4 ohm so I can get 1 ohm final load.

Edit: play with this sub wiring calculator. then you will see what we mean.

http://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer_configurations.asp

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

well one for now, maybe two later, so should i just got with the dual 4 for upgradabilitly?

and what do you mean by parallel?

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

well one for now, maybe two later, so should i just got with the dual 4 for upgradabilitly?
and what do you mean by parallel?

parallel means connecting positives to positives and negatives to negatives. Series is the opposite positive to negative.

Parallel halves the ohms. Series doubles the ohms.

You'll see on that calculator.

Edit: Dual 4 would be fine, Just look for good 2 ohm stable amps. Alot of people like kickers for two ohm applications. And since you are getting kicker subs....

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

and i want less right? like whats the advantages to both parallel and series then? dont i want less ohms?

and what about 2 12" at dual 2s? then i could get .5, but is that better then dual 4's at 1?

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

Less ohms, Like the .5 you are talking about are harder on your amps. They will run hotter and you really want to know what you are doing before running most amps at .5 ohm.

Lets say you get a kicker sub that is a dual 4 ohm 750 rms 1500 peak. Then get a amp that is rated at 750 watts rms at 2 ohm. ignore all peak ratings. They mean nothing.

 

[undeadxsunshine 10+ year member]

Well not many amps are stable at 1 or lower ohms, so thats why your not always trying to get less.

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

Less ohms, Like the .5 you are talking about are harder on your amps. They will run hotter and you really want to know what you are doing before running most amps at .5 ohm.
Lets say you get a kicker sub that is a dual 4 ohm 750 rms 1500 peak. Then get a amp that is rated at 750 watts rms at 2 ohm. ignore all peak ratings. They mean nothing.

why do they mean nothing? and if i got that 12" kicker at 750 rms, plus that amp which is 1000 at 2-ohms, what would i be looking at in total wattage? would be ****in sweet? lol

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

They mean nothing because a "peak" is like when you first turn on your amp. For a millisecond it will surge and have that peak. It is just a trick to make you think that something is better than what it really is. A marketing ploy.

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

what about the second half of my question lol

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

Amps are adjustable. So you can run a higher wattage amp on lower wattage subs. But if you are any thing like me it is never enough and you will turn stuff up till it blows //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[alvitae 10+ year member]

Myself I wouldn't have a problem running 1k watts into a 750 watts sub. But box size and tuning also factor in how much a sub can handle.

 

[seagull 10+ year member]

well the box isn't huge, but it's not small either, do you think that 12" can handle that amp?