Is my amp powerful enough?

you will NEVER hurt a speaker by under powering it... EVER

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yep, I know that, I am more concerned about the amplifier at the moment. Considering I bought the amp new and the subs were given to me for free and arent in the greatest condition anyway.

Thanks.

edit: I'd also like to add that I used a dmm to set the gain to the correct RMS on the amp, I am getting absolutely no distortion whatsoever.

sooo... what exactly are you asking here then?

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If the amp heating up more than usual could cause damage to the amp.

yes it i will common sense right... now why do you think its running hot? no much air circulating maybe? what about no having a good ground could cause this problem.. check your speakers and see what they reading with a dmm

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just to clarify it isn't burning hot, just a little hotter than usual, and right now I'm just at the testing stage with the amp connected to a 750W computer power supply. When I put it in the car it will be back on the usual 8AWG wires if that makes much difference. And as for measuring the speakers do you want me to measure Voltage AC? and with a 50hz tone? each speaker individually? or how?

Cheers.

just to be safe that your not running your amp less than it should be run at( ohms)

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Well all I've measured so far is:

I put a 50hz tone in the head unit at max volume.

(185x4)^1/2 = 27.2V

Without the speakers connected I set it to 27.2V

but with them connected I get a reading of 23.8V or thereabouts.

I don't understand why this voltage drop is occurring, because with a single 200WRMS sub the voltage didn't drop at all, or maybe a very small amount.

So with them connected I set the gain to 27.2V and it started to sound bad imo, then I disconnected them and it read about 40.7V.

So I decided to put them back down to the original 27.2V with the speakers disconnected. They don't hit as hard that way but atleast it doesn't sound at risk of breaking.

Cheers

edit:

Been looking on the net and I think it may be worth noting that with a single sub I use an 18 Gauge wire from the amp to the sub because I got one in my wiring kit.

With both subs connected I have a wire from the amp to the sub at 18 gauge and the wire connecting both subs in parallel is thinner, it doesn't say how thin it is but I could guess it would be around 24 gauge. (needless to say I will be replacing the 24g wire with a 18g wire as 24g is just way too small)

I'd also like to know what kind of voltage drop I'd see with 8ohm/2ohm impedance as opposed to 4ohm. I assume the voltage difference would be bigger/lower respectively.

1. when you say "max volume" are you taking it to the very highest volume on your HU, or 3/4 of the way? most HU's will start to clip the output signal at around 3/4 volume, so that should be your max volume.
2. from the equation you posted, it seems as if you're running your amo at .5 ohm? if so, this could be the reason your amp is running much warmer... the lower impedance you run, the more strain you create on your electrical and amp.... so, you might want to check with a DMM and see what you are actually wired to, and wire to 2ohms if needed.

3. the voltage drop you are seeing is most likely due to box rise... any sub that is in a box, no matter how efficient the box, will have box rise... meaning that as the sub plays, the actual load impedance (ohm load) will rise, which in turn will mean the amp puts out less power... which in turns make your output voltage drop.

also, please read this sticky, as it answers alot of frequently asked questions....

http://www.caraudio.com/forums/general-discussion/532425-new-car-audio-read-first.html

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I was referring to max on the head unit, before I set it up I found conflicting information on the internet of whether to set the HU at 75% or 100% when setting the gain, so I had my head unit at 100% when I set it because I figured that way I wouldn't be able to set the volume any higher.

I used this as a guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suX13VixU5k

But after your statement I think I'm going to reset all my gains at 75%

Sorry, I shouldve used units in the equation

it was (185WRMS x 4ohms)^1/2 = 27.2Volts... btw ^1/2 is the same as sqrt

185WRMS coming from the amp at 4 ohms due to the speakers being 8 ohms each wired in parallel.

And I believe this amp is only stable at 4 ohms. If less resistance puts more strain on the amp then is it safe to assume this amp could handle a single 150WRMS 8ohm box by itself?

I never heard of the box rise Vdrop, but I believe using thin wires was my mistake in this setup, but I will definitely be checking the voltage afterwards and any difference then I will count as box rise Vdrop.