Should I use the double power input my amp brought?

[MrPlebbian]

So first off I’m extremely new to anything in the electrical/sound world and all I’ve done is off intuition and very small amounts of verification from a friend who works with sound equipment occasionally.

Now on to the main topic. I used to have a 1500W Machete amp powering a Machete M12v2D2 which has a power rating of 500w rms and 1000 peak wires at 1ohm, it sounded great and never gave me issues but I decided that I would upgrade a bit. I know have an Apocalypse AAB 4900.1D powering an Apocalypse DB-SA272-D1 wired at 2 ohms which the amp can send 3200W at 2ohms. The amp brought two dual 1/0 gauge wire inputs but me and my dad decided not to use it. My issue that leads to me asking this question is that ever since the apparent upgrade I think the bass is even weaker than before on all but very specific frequencies. We thought it would be insufficient battery for the hard pulls it could be doing so we added a second battery next to the box in the trunk and connected it to the fuse. This still only helped by what even feels like margin of error to me and the amp would turn on the clip light when the gain was too high(which yes I understand that was probably the settings on the amp for the low/high pass filter, I’ve set those up to the best of my ability now). Now recently I decided to try to set the gain & low/high pass filters to where the clip light won’t turn on anymore unless I raise the gain knob too much at max volume but I noticed the protect light was blinking while the clip wasn’t. From my understanding the protect light means not enough power some way or another and so that raises my question of, should I use the double input blocks? Would that even change anything? Could there be some kind of issue elsewhere in the wiring?

Now some last minute stuff that I realized as I was writing all this. From what my dad remembers the wiring leading up to the fuse and therefor connecting all the batteries and amps is 3 gauge(I’ll double check to see what the wire physically says on the covering) and the amps official manual says the input terminals are meant to use 0 gauge wire, that’s problem two. Problem one is that the output wire on the manual is 8 gauge, and after seeing how thick it looks on Amazon I’m 75% sure that the wire we have is maybe 10-12 gauge, it’s really quite thin and now I’m thinking that could be the main issue. Please note that it’s only from memory and I could ver well be wrong since we got the wire from the shop he works at which deals with decently expensive service so it all tends to be high quality. Nevertheless I would still like to know the answer to my question above nonetheless but if anyone thinks that my last minute concern is valid, please do let me know as well.

Thank you all for your time and for your possible help.

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[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Just one additional battery is likely not sufficient to feed that amp. See if you can get a good volt-meter and see how bad your voltage looks when you play it. Your amp crossover settings may be wrong as well. Post pics of the controls on it. Post pics of the box as it sits in your vehicle. Box could also be a weak link here.

8 gauge speaker wire terminals don't mean you need 8 gauge cable to carry the signal to your speakers, they use these over-sized terminals so that you could run multiple woofers with more than one smaller cable in each terminal.

IF you do figure out how to get that amp to make its proper power you're going to destroy your sub quickly. That's enough amp to run 3 or 4 of those little 2.5" coil woofers you're using.

 

[1aespinoza 10+ year member]

possible help.

Too much amp. Best bet is to run it a 4 Ohms for 1800 watts with a 150 amp fuse. Anything else requires an upgraded electrical system.

 

[MrPlebbian]

Just one additional battery is likely not sufficient to feed that amp. See if you can get a good volt-meter and see how bad your voltage looks when you play it. Your amp crossover settings may be wrong as well. Post pics of the controls on it. Post pics of the box as it sits in your vehicle. Box could also be a weak link here.

8 gauge speaker wire terminals don't mean you need 8 gauge cable to carry the signal to your speakers, they use these over-sized terminals so that you could run multiple woofers with more than one smaller cable in each terminal.

IF you do figure out how to get that amp to make its proper power you're going to destroy your sub quickly. That's enough amp to run 3 or 4 of those little 2.5" coil woofers you're using.

The bass boost is completely off and the high filter is at around 60-65hz and the low is at around 100-120hz from what I can feel when certain songs play.

the voltage while the system is at full volume is 13.29v and drops to 13.18 on the lowest when the hardest pulls happen and the back battery has 13.08 and drops to 11.97 on the hardest pull

The box was designed by the resident music expert at the shop my dad works at and built by us. The sub has really similar specs when it comes to box size and frequency tune as the old one and he waived it off saying it should work fine, though I’m not opposed to thinking the box could be a problem.

 

[MrPlebbian]

Too much amp. Best bet is to run it a 4 Ohms for 1800 watts with a 150 amp fuse. Anything else requires an upgraded electrical system.

I would love to try out how that sounds but unfortunately when I bought the sub I didn’t know what the dual voice coil configuration meant and just bought a dual 1ohm so the highest I can wire it is 2ohms

 

[MrPlebbian]

Old on left and new on right.

And the box here

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

High pass filter should be around 25hz. That's why she's not putting out.

Those subs can take a little more than rated.

 

[MrPlebbian]

High pass filter should be around 25hz. That's why she's not putting out.

Those subs can take a little more than rated.

Well I tried it but it instantly clipped so hard it cut off completely, which is part of the reason I’m so confused about why this sounds the same as the old setup.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Well I tried it but it instantly clipped so hard it cut off completely, which is part of the reason I’m so confused about why this sounds the same as the old setup.

Box looks fine, though you may want to experiment aiming it forward or scrooching it towards the back of the trunk a little bit so you have more space for the sound wave to get up front through the seats.

I hate those + gain pots because we can't see where things are set but you do want that HPF set more around 25-30hz and you may want to come down a bit on the LPF..... higher is better there but play around until it blends in best with your mids up front.

Fix your crossovers and set your gain again. You probably set the gain way too high since you filtered out basically all the actual bass. That is also way too much amp for that sub so you will need very little if any gain before you start smoking that woofer even with inadequate battery.

 

[MrPlebbian]

Box looks fine, though you may want to experiment aiming it forward or scrooching it towards the back of the trunk a little bit so you have more space for the sound wave to get up front through the seats.

I hate those + gain pots because we can't see where things are set but you do want that HPF set more around 25-30hz and you may want to come down a bit on the LPF..... higher is better there but play around until it blends in best with your mids up front.

Fix your crossovers and set your gain again. You probably set the gain way too high since you filtered out basically all the actual bass. That is also way too much amp for that sub so you will need very little if any gain before you start smoking that woofer even with inadequate battery.

When I set the crossovers any higher or lower it clips extremely and will even completely panic shut off so I don’t really know what to do

 

[KicktheSDbasshead]

I'd try using both power inputs honestly jmo I use all 3 of mine on my amp

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

When I set the crossovers any higher or lower it clips extremely and will even completely panic shut off so I don’t really know what to do

That is because your amp is going to make 5X more power than your sub can handle. You will need to set your gain again and possibly even lower the sub-out level from your head unit to not be at a point where you are over-driving your sub.

 

[MrPlebbian]

That is because your amp is going to make 5X more power than your sub can handle. You will need to set your gain again and possibly even lower the sub-out level from your head unit to not be at a point where you are over-driving your sub.

I’ll try to lower the gain so I can change the crossovers. I’m a bit concerned because when the gain is low the bass goes with it. The only way for the whole system to come close to sounding like the old, much less capable sub is for the gain to be as high as it is. I think I’m just misunderstanding how these settings fully work. I’m probably going to take it to a shop to get it checked out and see what they can do for me since I feel a bit out of my depth.

 

[metalheadjoe 10+ year member]

I’ll try to lower the gain so I can change the crossovers. I’m a bit concerned because when the gain is low the bass goes with it. The only way for the whole system to come close to sounding like the old, much less capable sub is for the gain to be as high as it is. I think I’m just misunderstanding how these settings fully work. I’m probably going to take it to a shop to get it checked out and see what they can do for me since I feel a bit out of my depth.

Here's a quick description of some amp settings:

High pass filter - lets HIGH frequencies PASS - attenuates frequencies that are lower than this setting

Low pass filter - lets LOW frequencies PASS - attenuates frequencies that are higher than this setting

Gain - how much the amp amplifies the audio - simply put: if your subwoofer can handle "xy" watts, x would be your input signal and y would be your gain setting; you adjust gain to give your subwoofer what it wants. A tiny gain adjustment can make a whole lot of difference, especially with a big fancy amp like yours.

If you are uncomfortable tweaking it or you just want it done, then a shop is your best bet. If you want to learn to do it yourself, this website is a good source. Ask questions as specifically as you can to avoid mud, jargon, and arrogance.

Good luck and have fun!

- Joe

 

[KicktheSDbasshead]

Try using both inputs