Pushing too hard or not enough?

[digitalrainman 10+ year member]

Right now i have a Kicker cvr 12 inch sub being pushed by a cheap crunch amp with gains set to 400 watts. The sub is supposedly rated at 400 rms / 800 peak. This sub is in a sealed box at 1.37 cubes. My question is am i underpowering this sub or does it seem right. The only reason i ask is because just from my opinion for some reason it seems i am overpowering it. Its not distorting or anything but i am just judging from how much it moves. It says the max excursion is .5 inches and there are some songs i play where it seems to almost hit that max. But alot of people say that you can go about 50% higher then the rms rated, is there more excursion with sealed enclosures, would that be why it seems to move alot? Because i have seen the same exact kickers in ccity in a ported box and they hit much harder and only moving less then half the distance mine does.

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[stuckinok 5,000+ posts]

power wise your okay but if you it to hit harder then try putting git in a ported box

 

[Polecat 5,000+ posts]

I say you need more power. depending on 'real world' power from that amp, sealed drivers tend to hanlde MORE power, then ported. IF you go ported, lesser power is better.

Can you borrow a different amp from a buddy, that is more power, same impedance reference to test?

 

[digitalrainman 10+ year member]

Im about to upgrade my door speakers to pg rsds, and am going to buy either a cadence 3002 or a 6004 and run the sub off the 6004 also. I guess i can try a different amp to see what is up. It just seems odd to me sometimes, i mean my bass is fine and loud and dandy, but sometimes i have to turn it down because it seems to go crazy with the excursion. I have the gains set to 40volts at 4ohms, and that should be right, 40^2 / 4 = 400 watts.

One quick question also that i posted in amp section but havent got much response, do you think it would be fine to run a cadence 6004 on 8 gauge power wire. I will be using about 700watt rms out of it. And according to the ratings on the wires, it says you dont need 4 gauge till you hit about 1500 watts, but i know that that is just a number they slap on the package and know its probably off.

Nevermind on the second part, i just read up on recommended power wire and it says i need 4 gauge, and if i go over 16 feet i would even need to drop to 2.

 

[Anniku989 10+ year member]

Like this

http://www.realmofexcursion.com/videos.html

 

[digitalrainman 10+ year member]

Yeah that link didnt go to a direct vid, but i looked at some other 12 cvrs and they do seem to move about the same as mine. That just seems weird to me since im pushing the minimum rms that it recommends and those people are probably pushing more.

 

[cblaze 10+ year member]

more power im giving mine 500 rms watts each and they take it like a champ

 

[Anniku989 10+ year member]

RMS doesn't mean mininum power, it means the most they recommend giving it.

I'd just leave it and not worry

 

[NJTStang11 10+ year member]

I'd agree with leaving it how it is. Sure these tend to handle 450-550 fairly easily. Your amp more than likely does between 350-375. Just don't think it's worth the difference to buy a new amp.

 

[cblaze 10+ year member]

rms is recommended power yes,but ive never seen a sub fail from giving it to much wattage,unless its a mechanic failure,but i thank u would know to turn it down when it was bottoming out,and i mean a clean signal w.o bass boost read this paragraph at the bottomm of this post,its of bcae and the site doesnt lie,most subs will hold there max wattage if u give it a non clipping signal

Amplifiers and Speakers:

Many people ask the question... Can my speakers handle this amplifier or will this amplifier blow my speakers. Well, the truth is that any speaker can be driven by any amplifier. The only time that there will be a problem is when the person operating the system becomes abusive. Most people (and I do mean most) drive their amplifiers well into clipping. I know what your thinking... I never drive my amp into clipping. Well, you must be one of the very few. Generally speaking, if you have friends who are impressed by high volume, you drive your system into clipping.

 

[cblaze 10+ year member]

but u cant blow a sub underpowering

 

[Anniku989 10+ year member]

You can't blow a sub solely from underpowering it, BUT you can still clip a signal that is less than is the speaker rms (thus making it underpowering the speaker, but still cliping)

 

[luvinthebass 5,000+ posts]

it'll just be a triangle or square wave and sound like shit.

 

[Lakota 5,000+ posts]

Give it 2500w daily.