subwoofers not as loud as they should be

[Tylerloves420 10+ year member]

Ok right now i have 2 12" power bass subs, with a 1500 watt phantom amp all hooked up to a pioneer head unit, but the thing is my subs arent that loud, i mean there not bad but if u get into someones car who has real 12's they sound like fireworks exploding in your chest while mine u can hear em and feel em but not at that level at all. I dont know if my subs are krap or its my amp or what, i did notice that on my head unit audio settings that i cant adjust my subwoofer, like if i change the ohm or turn off subs, or try to turn subs up it doesnt effect my subs at all. So i feel like some of the problem lies in the head unit but my stuff might be krap cuz i got it for 125 dollars so i wont be dissapointed if they are junk. So if someone could help me id appreciate it and if my stuff is junk can u suggest good ones that will sound real nice or tell me what i should look for on an amp amd sub thank your

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[Dr. Slam 10+ year member]

Bro you're asking a lot of questions in one post. Break it down and be more concise with what you want exactly

 

[anyfive 10+ year member]

If you're looking to upgrade, I'm sure you could get some recommendations here if you stated a budget, goals, etc.

 

[Tylerloves420 10+ year member]

Im mainly asking how to make my subs and head unit contact each other so i can turn up my subs, like which wire do i look for,

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

Post some pics of your setup man...

 

[kramer_212 10+ year member]

use the search and look up how to correctly set gains,

also i didn't read your post, but if it is an aftermarket hu there should be rear preouts that say eiter sw, or r on them if you use the rear ones then change the settings on the stereo so the rear output is on the lpf.

rcas to amp.

im sure this was mentioned but i am really confused by your last post.

 

[kramer_212 10+ year member]

ok i read it like i said before either set the gains correctly or you could have the wrong rcas coming from the back of the stereo. if the sw settings on the hu itself do nothing.

 

[globalminds_ent 10+ year member]

hook your amp rcas to the sub out or sw or r just like stated if u just have them hooked into any RCA outputs on the back u won't be able to adjust the sub level has to be the sub out into the RCA inputs of your amp

 

[ahole-ic]

Ok right now i have 2 12" power bass subs, with a 1500 watt phantom amp all hooked up to a pioneer head unit, but the thing is my subs arent that loud, i mean there not bad but if u get into someones car who has real 12's they sound like fireworks exploding in your chest while mine u can hear em and feel em but not at that level at all. I dont know if my subs are krap or its my amp or what, i did notice that on my head unit audio settings that i cant adjust my subwoofer, like if i change the ohm or turn off subs, or try to turn subs up it doesnt effect my subs at all. So i feel like some of the problem lies in the head unit but my stuff might be krap cuz i got it for 125 dollars so i wont be dissapointed if they are junk. So if someone could help me id appreciate it and if my stuff is junk can u suggest good ones that will sound real nice or tell me what i should look for on an amp amd sub thank your

Change the ohm brah? wtf u talkin' bout willis

 

[myjaja 10+ year member]

You dont have the amp connected to the subwoofer output behind the radio. You probably have the high pass filter on, so thatll pretty much ruin the whole sound because you dont have the amp on the right rca outputs. Also, what kind of enclosure do you have? Sounds like this could also be a problem.

 

[globalminds_ent 10+ year member]

Change the ohm brah? wtf u talkin' bout willis

I assume he means lowering the ohm load for more output

 

[Exiled 10+ year member]

I know I'm pretty new to this game, but isn't the ohm load determined specifically by the way the speakers are wired to the amplifier?

 

[Jakerrr 10+ year member]

It's probably the box. I'm not sure why nobody has mentioned that. I have 1 15 on about 1000 watts tops and it's louder than all of my friends systems by a huge margin. Some of the subs my friends have are 2 15s lanzar max, kicker cvx, l7s, etc and they all have a good amount of power and either sealed or prefab boxes. Mine is tuned to 34 hz and it's about as big as the boxes they use for 2 15s. If you do have a nice box, then idk what the problem is maybe you just aren't running ****** 12s lol. Maybe the gain is set too low?

 

[Bettr n' Revrse 5,000+ posts]

I know I'm pretty new to this game, but isn't the ohm load determined specifically by the way the speakers are wired to the amplifier?

Yes

It's probably the box. I'm not sure why nobody has mentioned that. I have 1 15 on about 1000 watts tops and it's louder than all of my friends systems by a huge margin. Some of the subs my friends have are 2 15s lanzar max, kicker cvx, l7s, etc and they all have a good amount of power and either sealed or prefab boxes. Mine is tuned to 34 hz and it's about as big as the boxes they use for 2 15s. If you do have a nice box, then idk what the problem is maybe you just aren't running ****** 12s lol. Maybe the gain is set too low?

Box is gunna be a big part of it...

 

[BoxLife]

+1 on the filter being on. Basically it means your amp won't play notes below a certain frequency, and those really deep bass hits you're looking for are in the low frequency range.