Matching Subwoofer with Amplifier

[Sk8almost44 10+ year member]

Hello, I think I may have a good setup..

I have a

Memphis PRD 500.1 amp

and

JL Audio 8W1v2-4 subwoofer

I got a 8" sub for 3 reasons:

1. I have VERY LITTLE room in my truck

2. I have had 10", 12", and a 15" sub, so I wanted to try an 8" and see how it sounds

3. I am not looking for a lot of bass, just a bit upgrade and less strain for my door speaker's bass.

The Memphis amp is rated at 200w @ 4 ohms

and the 8" sub woofer is rated at 150w rms @ 4 ohms

Is this setup correctly? I have the amp Gain turned down to 1/4, because I was thinking 500w vs. a 150w rms sub, but it's 4 ohms... Should it be about 1/2?

Also where should the Bass EQ be about?

Also, it sounds like it's missing every bass note, what is a basic way to tuning your amp? The amp has 2 knobs for Sub Sonic, and Low Pass.

Thank you in advance!

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[bbeljefe]

Your gain should be set to match the preamp voltage of your head unit. That is what it is designed to do and it doesn't matter what size, how many or what power rating your subs are. As for bass boost, the best setting for it is OFF. ;-)

It would help to know what head unit you have and what the specs are of the box the sub is in. Otherwise no one can really offer you and useful advice.

 

[Sk8almost44 10+ year member]

Your gain should be set to match the preamp voltage of your head unit. That is what it is designed to do and it doesn't matter what size, how many or what power rating your subs are. As for bass boost, the best setting for it is OFF. ;-)
It would help to know what head unit you have and what the specs are of the box the sub is in. Otherwise no one can really offer you and useful advice.

Thank you for the fast reply,

And my headunit is is an Alpine CDA-9884

and the box:

CP108LG-W3v3 - Car Audio - Subwoofer Systems - MicroSub

Thank you so much for helping me, I will make the adjustments with the Gain and Bass Boost.

 

[bbeljefe]

You could set the gain on your amp at up to half way with that head unit but don't go above volume level 28 with anything other than AM/FM.

 

[Sk8almost44 10+ year member]

Okay sounds good!

Did I correctly match the amp/sub with both of them being @ 4ohms, the sub is 150w and the amp is 200w? I'm still not too sure how the ohms effect the watts being pushed out of the subs...

For example, if I had two of these 8" subs connected, that would make them 300w @ 2 ohms? Then 4 of these 8" subs connected, 600w @ 1 ohm?