Hifonics Zeus 1800 watt rms not getting lows

[Danknasty]

I just got a new Zeus 1800 hooked up to a sealed box with two kicker 400 rms. It sounds fine until a song hits a really low bass frequency and then it's like it barely produces any sound. I've tried messing with all the frequencies etc and no luck. I have the subsonic all the way at zero. Is this an issue with the amp or could it be because I'm using the cars stock head unit with a line in converter for the amp?

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[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

CVR's?

It might not be the amp, or the head unit.

Getting low with some authority is a difficult thing to achieve with a cheap(er) sub in a sealed box. You are largely xmax limited and ~12.5 of the cvr isn't a whole lot.

The IDEAL box winISD spit out is 11.5 cf, and even that has a -3dB point of 37hz.

If your box is average size 1-1.5 you're going to peak at about 75hz, the -3db point from the peak is at about 45hz and by 40hz you're down about 5db from peak.

It could be the head unit though. There are some stock systems that use low cut filters to keep low bass from damaging stock speakers.

You can test this if you have a DMM.

Play varying test tones recorded at the same level (0dB) at a medium volume -- I'd probably use 80, 60, 40, 30. You can disconnect speakers for the test. Measure voltage at the stock speaker outputs. You should get close to the same voltage at all Fq's. If it varies (drops) by more than a few tenths you have a filter cutting power.

There are some processors that will correct this, but I don't think any of them are cheap.

 

[Danknasty]

CVR's?
It might not be the amp, or the head unit.

Getting low with some authority is a difficult thing to achieve with a cheap(er) sub in a sealed box. You are largely xmax limited and ~12.5 of the cvr isn't a whole lot.

The IDEAL box winISD spit out is 11.5 cf, and even that has a -3dB point of 37hz.

If your box is average size 1-1.5 you're going to peak at about 75hz, the -3db point from the peak is at about 45hz and by 40hz you're down about 5db from peak.

It could be the head unit though. There are some stock systems that use low cut filters to keep low bass from damaging stock speakers.

You can test this if you have a DMM.

Play varying test tones recorded at the same level (0dB) at a medium volume -- I'd probably use 80, 60, 40, 30. You can disconnect speakers for the test. Measure voltage at the stock speaker outputs. You should get close to the same voltage at all Fq's. If it varies (drops) by more than a few tenths you have a filter cutting power.

There are some processors that will correct this, but I don't think any of them are cheap.

The car I have this in now has a somewhat dated head unit that uses aux and CD player at best. It a cls500 Mercedes. On some songs the bass will play flawless but there are particular songs where it just sounds like the bass cuts out at certain notes or gets very faint. Yes they are the kicker comp cvrs and even though this amp is pretty overpowered compared to the amp they seem to be able to take the abuse. Would better subs in the sealed box resolve this?

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