New set up question

[Jvs 10+ year member]

Hey guys

I'm new to the car audio scene and I had a few questions. Firstly: so I'm running two old 12 inch Rockford punch xlc's with a 1000 watt Kenwood amp and I currently have the two subs hooked up to the corresponding right and left speaker inputs in the amp. Could I possibly install both positive and both negative connections for the subs into the bridged terminal and get more sound?

Second: I've seen that there are some devices used to do tuning and check for distortion and what not, is there any way I can do this myself? If I took it in and had it done at a shop how much would they charge?

Third: this is more of a car question but after the installation of everything I noticed my passenger side mirror won't open when I push the button the in the drivers side (it does work on the passenger side for the passenger side though)

Finally: man i gotta say, it helped so much having an aftermarket deck installed vs doing a LOC! I was amazed at how much easier it made things having a deck with RCAs and adjustable subwoofer controls built into it. Not to mention how good it made my stock speakers on my scion tc sound

Jeff

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[audiobaun 5,000+ posts]

You can wire those subs poss to poss/neg to neg, to the bridging terminals of the amplifier..that amp/majority of newer amps should be 2 ohms mono stable..just be sure to turn your gain down and switch on lpf,and bass boost down 3 or less,and make your adjustments for the bass on the hu,in which i recommend loud button off and no more than 3 on bass level,and go from there setting gain.

It has been much nicer to have rca connections on the hu these days..much easier/less frustrating,and less time consuming

as for the mirror switch??could be a connection issue on drivers side control?? just a possibility without being ther to experience the issue. might need check fuse panel also,for blown fuse?

a shop may charge by the hour/one time fee/some may do for free..there is a thread on here for setting gains with a dmm,i just use my ears,but a dmm is proper way do it/sticky on the forum

by the way...welcome //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/santa.gif.e1ec9cf2e0a0dd232ad35aa594a126d0.gif

 

[Jvs 10+ year member]

I did a little more digging and found out that because I disconnected the battery, I needed to reset the windows! Problem diverted, man I love forums //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

I also posted up On a local motorcycle forum and had a guy with a meter who's gonna do some testing and tweaking for me!

I'll definitely take it apart a little tonight though and bridge it and see what I can fix/improve/break

Thanks!

 

[Jvs 10+ year member]

Finally got around to bridging one of the 12s to the amp and man what a difference!

I'm gonna go get another amp and wire it in so I'll have a seperate amp for each sub. As is this thing is retardedly loud, I'm excited to see what improvement this will make!

I just need to find how to wire the new amp to the cap and give it power.

Jeff

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

the two amps should be identical, exact same make/model. then you use a DMM to set the gains so they are equal (play a 50Hz test tone and measure VAC at the amp outputs). you don't want different power going to each sub. and ideally, you'd just have one larger monoblock class D amp that is more efficient and gives equal power to each sub.

here's a gain setting sticky i did:

http://forum.sounddomain.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/65167/page/1#Post65167

 

[Jvs 10+ year member]

That might be hard to do with the amp being so ancient lol

Would it be possible to set my subs differently so that one is tuned for low frequencies and the other for mids and highs?

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

Nope, unless they are separate enclosures. Even then it is pointless.

Options:

1. both in stereo as before.

2. Run one bridged.

3. Buy a new monoblock amp to run both

 

[Jvs 10+ year member]

I didnt even think to hook up the sub to the Non bridged channel, I'll do that when I get home.

At this point I'm at the crossroads of getting a second amp and a tune or just going to a single enclosure and keeping the second sub in case I blow this one. I'm kinda leaning towards the single just because of weight, gas economy and will give me more space in the trunk.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

A single sub would be fine in that tC

 

[09civic 5,000+ posts]

Do single sub with a good ported enclosure built correctly

 

[Jvs 10+ year member]

That's what I'm thinking. Even with just the single 12, this thing bumps! It's just tempting to Add a second amp though just cause.... Well bigger is better //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

..no ****

Question: Would I notice that much of a difference to justify getting the second amp?

 

[Jvs 10+ year member]

Or not..

At this point, plan is to do a single ported 12 thats tuned as suggested. I'll keep the second sub for when I blow the other one and just use it as a spare if I have any issues. It would be cool to have two 12s with seperate amps but after doing a little research I'd be better off putting that money into getting a nice box and have everything set up right.

Man this stuff gets expensive when you add all the little bits and pieces together