Sundown SA-12: less powerful than I tought?

[DoesDad 10+ year member]

Car audio knowledge>OP

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

No I have it wired at 1 ohm, I tested the terminals resistance with a DMM and I get ~1.1 ohm.

The impedance of the sub come from the wiring configuration. How did you get 2 ohm using a DMM?

Uh, huh?

 

[Golitan11]

You know, the gain is a knob, not an on/off button...

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

50 hz test tone at 0 dB with the subwoofer output level on the headunit set to the maximum (+6) and the volume at about 45/62.

Yeah, that's probably part of the problem. 0db tone putting out 800 watts, when you run music through the amp, is probably only putting out 300ish watts on most songs. Very little music is recorded at 0db, even most heavy rap only hits 0db for peaks. Do at least a -3 tone, -6 wouldn't kill you if your half way careful on the knob and don't always run it full tilt. Set it up so that a -6db tone at around 45 to 50 on your hu is around the 1000 watts mark. Then play some bass heavy music, Jeezy, etc, and see how it does. You can probably get away with running the sub at +4ish most of the time, but +6 when you want to show off, or play a quiet recording.

 

[murph 10+ year member]

And you know, you put the circle in the circle hole, not a square.

 

[Golitan11]

I know this is a bit off topic but this is like the most confusing thing I ever seen on car audio forums with so different opinions... Do I set my subwoofer output level (on my headunit) to the maximum (+6) or at 0? Some say it is only an attenuation setting while others say it can cause clipping. But if it is only an attenuation setting, then why the default value is not the maximum?

 

[Full Tilt 10+ year member]

Holy balls, I swear some of you guys are illiterate. He clearly said he's getting 1.1 ohms when hooked up to a DMM. Yes, maybe he's got a few settings or his gain set incorrectly, but he seems to understand gain settings and impedances better than a lot of you. FFS, the diagram that one kid put up was of a 4 ohm load when he was trying to show him how to wire down. Like..do people think?

Okay, /rant. I'm sorry, but seriously.

BTW OP, he is fighting with a decent amount of cone area on you. I'd make sure to double check on your settings, though; an SA-12 should (generally) be able to stomp out an L3.

 

[Golitan11]

Holy balls, I swear some of you guys are illiterate. He clearly said he's getting 1.1 ohms when hooked up to a DMM. Yes, maybe he's got a few settings or his gain set incorrectly, but he seems to understand gain settings and impedances better than a lot of you. FFS, the diagram that one kid put up was of a 4 ohm load when he was trying to show him how to wire down. Like..do people think?


Okay, /rant. I'm sorry, but seriously.

BTW OP, he is fighting with a decent amount of cone area on you. I'd make sure to double check on your settings, though; an SA-12 should (generally) be able to stomp out an L3.

God thanks...

 

[gckless 5,000+ posts]

Thanks god...

But fo real, reset your gains with a -5dB tone at 50/62. Me personally, I would set it with sub out level at 0 and then only attenuate (turn that level down) from there.

 

[BrownVanMan 10+ year member]

if your pioneer HU is like mine the sub level gots from +6 down to like -20 or something. set it at 0 and re tune with at LEAST a -3 DB test tone, the fast you bought an amp that should do a clean 900 at least and yor only trying to use 800 watts leads me to believe you have done your homework and that you could use a - 6 Db test tone and still be fine, but as im sure you've read, do the BIG 3 just tot be safe

 

[T3mpest 10+ year member]

It really depends on the HU and listening preferences. There is nothing wrong with doing it either way, minor clipping is inaudible and wont' hurt anything, and often is needed to get reasonable output. Does you HU go to -6 on the bottom end? If it does, setting it with a 0 is fine. However, if it only goes down to 0 and you make 0 max sub output at 0, then everything is going to be bass heavy with no way to turn it down. So if it goes to -6, then yeah, I'd do 0 because you can still turn it down from 0, if not, I wouldn't unless all you listen to is bass heavy music that you want bass to be louder than everything else. Does that make sense. Also I saw on youtube someone using a DD-1 with a pioneer and the DD-1 detected clipping with the HU at 54 and the sub at +3, so if your only setting gains at 50, you can probably go a tad higher and the DD-1 will pick up distortion long before you'll hear it or it will be an issue, that's why I don't like that particular tool lol.

 

[Golitan11]

if your pioneer HU is like mine the sub level gots from +6 down to like -20 or something. set it at 0 and re tune with at LEAST a -3 DB test tone, the fast you bought an amp that should do a clean 900 at least and yor only trying to use 800 watts leads me to believe you have done your homework and that you could use a - 6 Db test tone and still be fine, but as im sure you've read, do the BIG 3 just tot be safe

I already did Big 3 and I almost have no voltage drops. Thanks for the info anyway.

 

[av83 10+ year member]

Also it's only 1 12. That isn't going to be that loud or destructive. Even my 1 21 doesn't rattle or shake the outside of my car very much.

Stop it.... ^One 12 @ 32 hz.^ And if you're not doing something resembling this with a 21", you're doing it wrong, lol.

 

[Vegas WRX 10+ year member]

There are also other factors. 2 RE *** 12s seeing 1400RMS just did not sound LOUD in my 2006 BMW. I sold them to a buddy, wiring amp and all. He put it in his 1999 Blazer and did not change a setting. It sounded ATLEAST twice as loud in his blazer. Open cab compared to a closed trunk with metal firewall in trunk made a drastic difference.

I know in my tC the location of sub made a huge difference. If you corner loaded the trunk you gained significant sound level in the front seats compared to being behind the rear seats.

 

[t-money 10+ year member]

First off, you're only running 300 watts more than your friend, that would be barely audible. Second if you want your system to sound louder on the outside, put the subs on the roof. Stereos are made to be loud inside and from what you wrote your system sounds loud inside, even louder then your friedns.. People spend hundreds of dollars to make their systems louder inside and not outside. I guess all i can say is WOW