DrTre5189 10+ year member
Member
I guess the best way to explain my issue is to start from the beginning of it all.
2011 Dodge Charger. Installed two 12" American Bass TNT subs and American Bass Phantom 2500 Amplifier with 4 gauge wire. The subs were rated at 600 watts rms and amp was 1250 rms. The system bumped really loud even at mid volume but the amp was overheating after about 10 minutes all the time. Even with the gain all the way down it would overheat. I thought it might be a bad design issue with the amp or something because it was a really small amp. I also thought the amp might not be powerful enough for those subs.
So I went and got the Wolfram 1500 amp. A decent amount more powerful. I got it installed with 0 gauge wiring and at the same time I also had 4 speakers installed to a speaker amp in my car. When I picked up my car I was really disappointed in the output of the subs. I essentially bought a more powerful amp and was getting less output.
At some point I realized I had a blown subwoofer. I am not sure if it got blown after or before the Wolfram amp got installed. So it looked like I needed new subs. I decided to upgrade and get two 12" Sundown SA-12's. I got them installed and was still getting mediocre performance. The gain would have to be at like max level and the volume of my head unit had to be cranked really high as well. Mid volume barely had any bass at all. It wasn't like that with the American Bass set up. My head unit goes to 38 volume and the American Bass system was loud at like 20 volume while with the new amp it had to be at 30+.
I had heard good things about Wolfram but I wasn't happy with it and thought my issue was the amp. I went out and got the Skar RP 2000. Installed it. It seemed just a little bit louder but I was still having the same issues. Gain had to be cranked and still wasn't as loud as my initial set up. Also when cranking the gain, the amp went into protect mode like my very first amp. So I turned the gain down. Maybe half way or less. The problem is the subs were almost nonexistent at that point. Still thinking it was an amp issue I went and returned the Skar and got the Wolfram 2400. I figured that it was a better quality amp and would possibly not go into protect mode no matter how high I had it cranked. Basically though, the issues are still all the same. The system is only loud when gain is around 75% or higher and when volume is at 30 or more. It also gets really hot at that level however. Hasn't gone into protect mode but I think that's because once it gets really hot I take a few moments and turn the system down to let it cool off a bit.
I finally accepted that maybe this is just the way the system is meant to be. But that really didn't make sense to me at all. I had an amp pushing about 1200 watts rms that sounded louder than my new setup that has an amp pushing double that with new subs that I hear are very underrated and can do at least 1000 watts rms or more each.
Then today something weird happened. I got in my car and had been driving for a minute or two and was playing music or whatever. And then all of suddenly for a split second the bass in my car seemed to double and then returned to normal. The volume wasn't cranked all the way up either. I think it was around 22-25 which is about mid way. It was how I expected the system to always sound. I'm not sure what triggered it for that split second.
I did get the big 3 upgrade done and I have an AGM Duralast Platinum battery installed. I am however running a factory 160 amp stock alternator. So do any of you all have any clue what might be going on?
A friend said it might be a bad ground and I'm wondering if maybe the amp isn't getting enough power from the alternator. I think it is also important to note that when the audio guys switched to the 0 gauge wiring from the 4 gauge, that is when everything changed. So maybe it has something to do with that. I really want to figure this out because it has been a nightmare for me. Everything was professionally installed but people make mistakes so maybe it is just a bad ground. I don't know. I'm not too smart with all of this stuff.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I own a digital multimeter but don't know well how to use it. But if it can help diagnose what might be happening I can figure what I need to do with that.
2011 Dodge Charger. Installed two 12" American Bass TNT subs and American Bass Phantom 2500 Amplifier with 4 gauge wire. The subs were rated at 600 watts rms and amp was 1250 rms. The system bumped really loud even at mid volume but the amp was overheating after about 10 minutes all the time. Even with the gain all the way down it would overheat. I thought it might be a bad design issue with the amp or something because it was a really small amp. I also thought the amp might not be powerful enough for those subs.
So I went and got the Wolfram 1500 amp. A decent amount more powerful. I got it installed with 0 gauge wiring and at the same time I also had 4 speakers installed to a speaker amp in my car. When I picked up my car I was really disappointed in the output of the subs. I essentially bought a more powerful amp and was getting less output.
At some point I realized I had a blown subwoofer. I am not sure if it got blown after or before the Wolfram amp got installed. So it looked like I needed new subs. I decided to upgrade and get two 12" Sundown SA-12's. I got them installed and was still getting mediocre performance. The gain would have to be at like max level and the volume of my head unit had to be cranked really high as well. Mid volume barely had any bass at all. It wasn't like that with the American Bass set up. My head unit goes to 38 volume and the American Bass system was loud at like 20 volume while with the new amp it had to be at 30+.
I had heard good things about Wolfram but I wasn't happy with it and thought my issue was the amp. I went out and got the Skar RP 2000. Installed it. It seemed just a little bit louder but I was still having the same issues. Gain had to be cranked and still wasn't as loud as my initial set up. Also when cranking the gain, the amp went into protect mode like my very first amp. So I turned the gain down. Maybe half way or less. The problem is the subs were almost nonexistent at that point. Still thinking it was an amp issue I went and returned the Skar and got the Wolfram 2400. I figured that it was a better quality amp and would possibly not go into protect mode no matter how high I had it cranked. Basically though, the issues are still all the same. The system is only loud when gain is around 75% or higher and when volume is at 30 or more. It also gets really hot at that level however. Hasn't gone into protect mode but I think that's because once it gets really hot I take a few moments and turn the system down to let it cool off a bit.
I finally accepted that maybe this is just the way the system is meant to be. But that really didn't make sense to me at all. I had an amp pushing about 1200 watts rms that sounded louder than my new setup that has an amp pushing double that with new subs that I hear are very underrated and can do at least 1000 watts rms or more each.
Then today something weird happened. I got in my car and had been driving for a minute or two and was playing music or whatever. And then all of suddenly for a split second the bass in my car seemed to double and then returned to normal. The volume wasn't cranked all the way up either. I think it was around 22-25 which is about mid way. It was how I expected the system to always sound. I'm not sure what triggered it for that split second.
I did get the big 3 upgrade done and I have an AGM Duralast Platinum battery installed. I am however running a factory 160 amp stock alternator. So do any of you all have any clue what might be going on?
A friend said it might be a bad ground and I'm wondering if maybe the amp isn't getting enough power from the alternator. I think it is also important to note that when the audio guys switched to the 0 gauge wiring from the 4 gauge, that is when everything changed. So maybe it has something to do with that. I really want to figure this out because it has been a nightmare for me. Everything was professionally installed but people make mistakes so maybe it is just a bad ground. I don't know. I'm not too smart with all of this stuff.
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I own a digital multimeter but don't know well how to use it. But if it can help diagnose what might be happening I can figure what I need to do with that.
