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Old 05-08-2010, 01:38 AM   #1 (permalink)
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noob at audio stuff...how does a sub work?

hey guys,
I seriously have little clue on how a sub works, I recently got a pioneer deck, replaced the front speakers withe infinitis and rears with mtx 6X9, anyhow I just got a mtx sub the other day, but I realized I don't know where to plug it into, someone told me just connect it to the speaker wires, but yaaa almost noo bass from that, so I thought mabey there is a input for subs in the pioneer deck, so I asked this guy in a shop he said I need to get amplifiers, so the question is is the amplifier a must for a sub? if so what wattage should I get for normal usage, and where does it connect to, like does all 4 speakers plus the sub have to be connected to it? (alot of hassel =/ )
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Old 05-08-2010, 01:48 AM   #2 (permalink)
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Read through this.
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Old 05-08-2010, 02:02 AM   #3 (permalink)
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What type of sub did you get?

Did you get a powered sub system that has an amp and enclosure or just a subwoofer by itself? A sub needs to be in some type of enclosure and needs more power than any HU can put out. Without knowing the power handling of your sub, it's impossible to make any suggestions. You can get a sub with as little as 200W or as much as 10kW depending on the subwoofer.

An amp will require that you run wire from the battery to wherever you put it and a ground wire to the chassis. The wire gauge you need depends on the power requirements!
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Old 05-08-2010, 06:47 AM   #4 (permalink)
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You need a mono amplifier, or a one channel amp. or you could get a two channel amp that allows you to bridge the two channels. If you have a low wattage sub there are also four and five channel amps that may work, by allowing you to bridge the two back channels, or by providing a separate sub channel.

The easiest route would be to just use a single channel amp designed for a subwoofer, with internal low-pass and high-pass crossovers. crossovers fade out the signal above of below the frequency that you set them to. a low-pass lets the signal through below what it is set at, and a high-pass let through the signal above what it is set to, so you can select the frequency range that your sub can reproduce well, this way you are not hearing your sub try to reproduce frequencies above or below it's capabilities (which sounds bad, and can cause damage).

With a single channel amp designed for a subwoofer you would need to run a power wire (with a fuse) from the car battery to the amp, with the gauge and fuse rating depending on the amp's wattage. you would also need a ground wire from the amp to the chassis of the car, the same gauge or larger than the power wire. you would then need an RCA cable from the amp to the head unit's subwoofer output, or if it does not have one it should have a rear channel output that will work, however you will need a Y-cable to connect it to both (left and right) rear channel outputs (they have them at radio-shack, and audio shops). then you will need what is called a remote turn on line, or just remote. It supplies a very small +12v current to the amp when the radio is turned on, there will be a blue wire labeled remote on the back of the head unit for this purpose, however if you have the power antenna you may use the line from that instead of running a new one, if you go that route just ask and i'll find out the wire color for you. Then you need speaker wire to the sub, if it is a single coil sub you would just connect it like a normal speaker, if it has more than one coil, you will need more help with that, but until we know the sub and head unit model numbers, it's hard to help any further.


It would be wise to let us know the sub model number before you buy an amp, not all mono amps will work with all subs, besides wattage their is also a minimum load rating, for instance the amp that i'm running can power a .5 ohm load, with a 1ohm load being covered by the warranty, but that is not standard, most car sub amps are warrantied for a minimum of a 2-ohm load, and may let out magic smoke if you try running a lower ohm load. there are even some that cannot power anything lower than a 4ohm load. The power ratings of the amps also change with the ohm load. I'll use mine as an example again, it is rated to put out 1500watts RMS @ 1ohm, but with a 2ohm load connected it can only supply 800w RMS, and with a 4ohm load it's even worse, only being able to supply 400w RMS.

You must also pay attention to the power rating, there are two different ratings there is the peak, or max wattage, and there is RMS, or route mean square, (think of this as average continuous output) The peak is almost meaningless, that is the absolute maximum power that the amplifier or sub can output for much less than a second before it catches fire. it is almost always ONLY a marketing ploy, because a bigger number sells better when you have two amps sitting on a shelf next to each other. The RMS is a much much more accurate rating.

you may find this site helps you understand things better: http://www.bcae1.com/

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Old 05-08-2010, 03:56 PM   #5 (permalink)
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the sub is a mtx lengend series the rms power handling is 75 to 250 watts, and it seems like setting this up will be alot of work!?
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Old 05-08-2010, 04:04 PM   #6 (permalink)
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its actually really easy once you get familiar with everything. all you need is an amplifier, subwoofer/box, and a car amplifier wiring kit.
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Old 05-10-2010, 12:53 AM   #7 (permalink)
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Is this it? http://www.crutchfield.com/S-uIWMYNO...=detailed_info

Are the specs the same? 4 Ohms, 75-250W, single voice coil? There should only be two terminals on the subwoofer.

Any of these should work:
 Exile amp Exile amp

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...+MRP-M450.html

Get an amp install kit like this one:

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productDe...?prodID=KLM-K8

If you don't have an enclosure for the sub, you need one of those too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by KiDGiB View Post
its actually really easy once you get familiar with everything. all you need is an amplifier, subwoofer/box, and a car amplifier wiring kit.


For someone doing this for the first time, it might take about half a day or so to do the install.
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Old 05-15-2010, 01:29 AM   #8 (permalink)
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hey guys,
would this amp do?
http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehi...dIdZ205155816#
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Old 05-15-2010, 02:43 AM   #9 (permalink)
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That should be fine. Just turn the gain down a bit since it outputs more power than the sub is rated to handle.
---


Although I am somewhat suspicious of the 1x320W RMS @ 4 ohm rating though since it does 2x 80 W RMS @ 4 ohms. Also because of the single 30A fuse. 14.4V * 30A = 432W. Assuming 67% efficiency for Class AB amp, that's 289W output only.

That said, an electrical engineer is not going to design an amp with 30A fuse that will actually consume 432W constantly because that would make the fuse blow all the time. If we assume 20% head room, the current might be 25A or so. 14.4 * 25A = 360W. Assuming 67% efficiency again, we have 240W.

Something really doesn't seem right now...I would check the specs of the amp if it concerns you. Otherwise if it's in good working order, it should be ok to use with your subwoofer.

Since the amp doesn't appear to have any type of crossover settings, you'll need to set that in the head unit.
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Old 05-15-2010, 06:44 AM   #10 (permalink)
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oo ok, i am gonna check it out on monday, will update you on that, thanks
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Old 05-15-2010, 12:38 PM   #11 (permalink)
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If I was you, I would go buy some doubles in an enclosure and pop them in your trunk, would probably sound better if you have the correct AMP Watts going to the system and what not. I just got rid of 2 10" that pushed 2000watts. I wish I didn't get rid of them!
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Old 05-15-2010, 12:51 PM   #12 (permalink)
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how about this one for $50??!!!! (used)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+X...=1197678618474
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Old 05-15-2010, 01:32 PM   #13 (permalink)
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That works, as long as its tuned right. You shouldn't have any problems.
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Old 05-15-2010, 01:44 PM   #14 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KiDGiB View Post
That works, as long as its tuned right. You shouldn't have any problems.
so which one would you guys prefer? the sony one or the other one?
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Old 05-15-2010, 03:52 PM   #15 (permalink)
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I would go with the Sony.
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