Why am I clipping?

If your voltage is staying up, then you don’t need a HO alternator for your system. You have the amplifier wired at 2 ohms, which is 1920 watts rms rated. But with impedance rise the subwoofer could actually be getting 1000 watts rms or less. The rise is what is killing you.
Just to throw this out there, if you replaced the Taramps Bass 3k with a Taramps smart 3, you could potentially double the wattage that the subwoofer is getting.
 
You would probably be better off upgrading the alternator. Start with the big 3. Your battery is a storage unit, and your alternator recharges the storage unit. Go and play it loud for an hour and see how your electrical holds up. Turn on your lights, your AC, use your turn signals, plug some stuff into your cigaretter or usb, and see if you have any dimming lights or voltage problems. If you do (after the big 3), you need a battery that can put out enough amperage. If you have problems right away then you need a larger battery to keep up with your demand in the moment.
If after an hour your voltage starts to steadily drop, your alternator can't recharge enough to keep up with the demand, and you would need an alternator that can produce more to keep up with what you are using.


What am I missing here: That amp puts out rated 1920w RMS (and aren't those underrated)? That speaker is rated 900w RMS. Unless you are dialing down that amp, its going to kill that sub, if you didn't already.


What year gmc 1500? 05+ or earlier?



Clipping is when the amp is pushing the signal too loud. It is when the wave, or signal is being cut short / clipped. The cause of It has nothing to do with the speakers. I would guess that the clipping and your power issue are two separate things. The clipping would be because of an improperly set gain where the signal is set wrong. I swear I looked at those taramps, and the signal voltage is 3v max. (I could be completely wrong though). I remember there was some setting that was really odd on those.

Your crossovers / pass filters might be set wrong and cutting off what you want and that would be losing your power. If you have a multimeter you can check your dc voltage and see what wattage is putting out.
Have you ever seen a crossover or passive filter on the output of a sub amp? Amp crossovers modify input signal, and passive filters can't handle enough power to feed a sub. It would take an enormous heat sink to dissipate 1920w (trusting your spec). Look up pictures of a 10w resistor for reference.

I agree with your assessment that clipping and power are separate issues. The parrots on this site like to spout that poor electrical causes clipping without ever seeing in on an oscilloscope.

There are so many posts from people who don't know what they're talking about that I've almost stopped trying to correct them.
 
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