REaudioBuff Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 I have a DC xl 15'' d2 sub that is BNIB.. I have not gotten to play this badass sub and i wish i could do it. My problem is i have an addictive audio 500.1 amp... Now if i do hook this sub up at this point the only thing i can safely do is run it @ 4 ohms... I have the electrical to back it all up, I just don't really know what to do. Should i sell this badass sub and get a lvl 5.. Should i try something crazy and put the full amp to this sub... Should i get rid of the amp and go smaller??? IDk lol I'm mad i got into this situation.. but the price was right lol. I will have the box tuned @ 32hz with whatever setup i get. And only have about 3.5-4cubes to play with. What to do... Quote 1 Crossfire XS v2 15" 2 Deka group31a's 1 XS Power D3400 (under hood) 1 Addictive Audio 500.1 1 Rockford 3sixty.2 4 Crescendo pwx 6.5s 2 Pyle Pro Super tweets 1 Crescendo 1000c4 Kenwood excelon x494 Head unit Big Three upgrade All 0 gauge of course 1 4.56c^ft box @28hz (New Best official db score= 151.2 @ 36hz) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skullz Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Use what you have and have fun and enjoy it, the worst that will happen is that it blows and you need a recone. Quote 01 Ford focus ZX3 Pioneer AVH-X491BHS PPI PC 4800.2 Morel Maximo 6.5" x2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REaudioBuff Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Well i want a few more people to chime in on this cause its tempting to do that. It's just is it stupid to do that is my question or is the sub good enough that after rise i might be able to get away with it... IDK Quote 1 Crossfire XS v2 15" 2 Deka group31a's 1 XS Power D3400 (under hood) 1 Addictive Audio 500.1 1 Rockford 3sixty.2 4 Crescendo pwx 6.5s 2 Pyle Pro Super tweets 1 Crescendo 1000c4 Kenwood excelon x494 Head unit Big Three upgrade All 0 gauge of course 1 4.56c^ft box @28hz (New Best official db score= 151.2 @ 36hz) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skullz Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 It's the closest thing to a level 5 so i don;t think handling the power is a problem. As the nike adds say, just do it. Quote 01 Ford focus ZX3 Pioneer AVH-X491BHS PPI PC 4800.2 Morel Maximo 6.5" x2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizart383 Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Since you have it use it. Just set your gains little lower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3nOSlaPP Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 i say hook it up and just set your gain appropriately Quote Vehicle: 2017 Chevrolet Silverado High Country Electrical: 320A Singer Alt, (2) Limitless Lithium 15ah, Full Throttle FT680-48 Speakers: Stevens Audio SA 6 (ACTIVE), Audio Designs 3” Subwoofer: (4) B2 Audio XM 8’s Amplifiers: (2) B2 Audio Rage 2500.1, (1) B2 Audio Rage 1200.6 Processors: NavTv M650 (integration), Helix DSP Pro MK2 Silverado Build Log Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REaudioBuff Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Well all i have to set my gains with is a DMM.. I know i can match everything with the formula that i found offline somewhere... I had my old system set like that and it sounded great. But I feel I will NEED an O-scope for this one. My prob is i live in MO so i don't know anyone around here that has an O-scope lol. I mean i can do it by ear so i know it doesn't get overpowered via bottom out or anything like that.. but yea lol.... Quote 1 Crossfire XS v2 15" 2 Deka group31a's 1 XS Power D3400 (under hood) 1 Addictive Audio 500.1 1 Rockford 3sixty.2 4 Crescendo pwx 6.5s 2 Pyle Pro Super tweets 1 Crescendo 1000c4 Kenwood excelon x494 Head unit Big Three upgrade All 0 gauge of course 1 4.56c^ft box @28hz (New Best official db score= 151.2 @ 36hz) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fr34kout Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Here's the thing that a lot of people don't understand about gains. If your amp will do 5000 watts @ 1 ohm, wiring at 1 ohm does NOT mean you're going to get that 5000. After voltage drop, box rise, etc you are not going to see that power. Now you can get MORE than 5000 watts @ 1 ohm, but the power will be dirty and it will be a clipped signal. You can also get LESS than 5000 watts @ 1 ohm. This is the reason why you have things like the volume knob, the sub level on the deck, and the gain knob on your amp. Here's my opinion. Wire the amp @ 1 ohm. Then, if you're set on using a DMM to set the gains, set it at something lower like 2000 or 3000. Truth be told, even if you set your amp with a DMM to put out 3000 watts, you won't be seeing that much power because you aren't accounting for box rise. I'll use my car as an example. I have an SAZ-4500 wired @ 1 ohm. If I were to use a DMM to set my gains, I would set my amp to put out 67 volts to see 4500 watts @ 1 ohm. After box rise, I'm @ 3.67 ohms clamping 2600 watts at roughly 98 volts and 26.7 amps. If I would have tried to set my gains with a DMM to 67 volts, I would only be seeing 1200 watts out of my amp because after rise I'm actually at 3.67 ohms not 1 ohm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REaudioBuff Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Here's the thing that a lot of people don't understand about gains. If your amp will do 5000 watts @ 1 ohm, wiring at 1 ohm does NOT mean you're going to get that 5000. After voltage drop, box rise, etc you are not going to see that power. Now you can get MORE than 5000 watts @ 1 ohm, but the power will be dirty and it will be a clipped signal. You can also get LESS than 5000 watts @ 1 ohm. This is the reason why you have things like the volume knob, the sub level on the deck, and the gain knob on your amp. Here's my opinion. Wire the amp @ 1 ohm. Then, if you're set on using a DMM to set the gains, set it at something lower like 2000 or 3000. Truth be told, even if you set your amp with a DMM to put out 3000 watts, you won't be seeing that much power because you aren't accounting for box rise. I'll use my car as an example. I have an SAZ-4500 wired @ 1 ohm. If I were to use a DMM to set my gains, I would set my amp to put out 67 volts to see 4500 watts @ 1 ohm. After box rise, I'm @ 3.67 ohms clamping 2600 watts at roughly 98 volts and 26.7 amps. If I would have tried to set my gains with a DMM to 67 volts, I would only be seeing 1200 watts out of my amp because after rise I'm actually at 3.67 ohms not 1 ohm. This is very very helpful man. Now my question is why would I use a dmm then if i couldnt account for the box rise... But besides that what your really saying is if i set my amp at likes say 55ish volts which by guess would be something like 3500-4k i would be pretty safe, because i would be seeing much less than that anyway. Then maybe after its broken in and i can find someone with an o-scope i can set it proper and account for everything? Quote 1 Crossfire XS v2 15" 2 Deka group31a's 1 XS Power D3400 (under hood) 1 Addictive Audio 500.1 1 Rockford 3sixty.2 4 Crescendo pwx 6.5s 2 Pyle Pro Super tweets 1 Crescendo 1000c4 Kenwood excelon x494 Head unit Big Three upgrade All 0 gauge of course 1 4.56c^ft box @28hz (New Best official db score= 151.2 @ 36hz) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fr34kout Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 The DMM would be super useful if you also had a clamp meter to go with it. If you can find your actual impedance after box rise at a certain frequency, then you can more accurately set your gains with a DMM. The only thing is you're going off of the manufacturers specs. Say you were @ 1 ohm and had no box rise at all. With picture perfect electricals you would be able to set the gains to match the specs of the amp, but if your voltage is dropping the wave will start to clip sooner than that. So basically the DMM is a way to set your gains a little better than eyeballing it, if you pair it with a clamp meter it would be relatively accurate. Of course these aren't going to replace an oscope, but they allow you to set your gains pretty safely until you can get access to an oscope. It's actually good that people don't think about box rise when they use the DMM to set gains, that way they actually get much less power than they think and they're less likely to blow the sub from overpowering it before they can scope it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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