Newbie question on subwoofer wiring

[azTony]

I am very new to this and like my heavy metal music.

I have a Rockford Fosgate Punch Mono P300-1 amp and a Kicker 10 CVT65 4-Ohm CompVT Subwoofer.

I have a few flaws:

1. First I did not put an enclosure in because of limited area (I am working on correcting that).

2. The other thing I was trying to find out was wire size I should use to the subwoofer and does this actually make a difference.

3. Trying to learn more about the Ohm rating. I know the speaker is a 4-Ohm but not sure on the amp, how do I find out?

4. My head unit is a Pioneer AVH-X5600BHS and I used the auto-equalizer and the sob has never been the same. How do I tell if I blew it?

My set up is as follows:

Head Unit: Pioneer AVH-X5600BHS

Speaker Amp: Alpine MRP-F240

Sub Amp: Rockford Fosgate Punch Mono P300-1

Speakers: Polk Audio db6501's, 2 in front and 2 in rear

Sub: 10 CVT65 4-Ohm Kicker 6.5" CompVT Subwoofer

I have 4 guage wire from the subs to the secondary battery and have a high output alternator.

I have limited door space and interior wall space for the rear sub which is why I had to go with the shallow speakers but they really sound good. The sub I am not happy with and looking to move to a 10" but with the enclosure area required building an enclosure may not be possible to meet requirements.

Suggestions?

Click to read more...

 

[mrpep]

Set your gain down and all the settings on your radio down or off and start from scratch. Put on a song you like and begin to raise gain with your volume set about 75% maxed out. Once it sounds distorted kick it back a hair and that should be it. I don't use my eq or any settings on my head unit. I let my amp do all the work and I have a bass knob. This is a really general way to go about it . This forum will teach you a lot.

 

[CSCStang]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying you have a sub just sitting in the car not in a box or you just havent put it in yet? What vehicle is it?

 

[juanmgarza26 10+ year member]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying you have a sub just sitting in the car not in a box or you just havent put it in yet? What vehicle is it?

That's one way to execute an infinate baffle lol. OP put that sub in a enclosure tuned yo the high 30's

 

[CSCStang]

That's one way to execute an infinate baffle lol. OP put that sub in a enclosure tuned yo the high 30's

Right?

 

[azTony]

The sub woofer is mounted in the factory location for a 93 Toyota LandCruiser in the passenger side rear panel, not just sitting in the vehicle flopping around.

The space behind the speaker is limited and the factory enclosure was in pieces when I replaced the woofer just like the speaker was.

 

[azTony]

Tough crowd but I deserve it. What does "tuned to the high 30's" mean?

 

[RandomBeat]

OK... I'm gonna try to help ya.

Wire size to the sub does matter. For power/ground to the amp, don't go smaller then 4 ga preferably. From amp to speaker, try to use at least 12 ga.

The speaker dictates the ohm reading. Most subs are 2,4, or 8, and some come in both single and dual versions of this.... so u can have a speaker with a single 4 ohm coil, or dual (2) 4 ohm coils... this helps when u want to wire up multiple subs to one amp, by allowing u different wiring options, series and parallel. It sounds like or speaker s a single 4 ohm coil, so ur pretty much stuck with that for now.....

Amps don't have an ohm rating, but most have a minimum ohm rating they can accept from the speaker, before shutting off or going into protect. Most all amps will run a single 4 ohm sub either bridged or stereo, bridged putting out the most power, so u should be fine.....

The auto eq on the deck probably made all kinds of automatic adjustments to ur eq, fader, balance, crossover and level settings... if u don't know how to reset these, it may be best to disconnect ur battery or pull the radio fuse, so u can reset the deck to factory settings, which should be flat across the board. Then make ur adjustments starting fresh.....

Boxes, or enclosures, have a specific frequency they are "tuned" at.... this is basically the lowest frequency the box will play loudest... each speaker has t/s ratings, and in a perfect world, u would have a box designed around those ratings, specifically for ur sub.... since u have a box that was stock w ur truck, and it sounds like it was torn up, replacing that with a custom enclosed box designed specifically for ur speaker, would be the quickest and best improvement u could make.... there are plenty of guys on here who can design a box for u for a small fee, just go to the enclosures forum and post ur speaker and size area u have to work with....

Hope that helps....

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

OK... I'm gonna try to help ya.
Wire size to the sub does matter. For power/ground to the amp, don't go smaller then 4 ga preferably. From amp to speaker, try to use at least 12 ga.

Waste of money. It's a 300w amp that will be running at 150w.

10 awg for power ground would be adequate. 8 awg would be reasonable. It would be pointless to go larger.

16 awg is plenty for amp to sub.

The speaker dictates the ohm reading. Most subs are 2,4, or 8, and some come in both single and dual versions of this.... so u can have a speaker with a single 4 ohm coil, or dual (2) 4 ohm coils... this helps when u want to wire up multiple subs to one amp, by allowing u different wiring options, series and parallel. It sounds like or speaker s a single 4 ohm coil, so ur pretty much stuck with that for now.....

Your sub's an SVC 4. It is what it is. Nothing to be confused about.

Amps don't have an ohm rating, but most have a minimum ohm rating they can accept from the speaker, before shutting off or going into protect. Most all amps will run a single 4 ohm sub either bridged or stereo, bridged putting out the most power, so u should be fine.....

Your amp is a mono. Nothing to bridge. Nothing to be confused about. You're hooking a 4 ohm sub up to it. it will produce ~150w rms.