Need more power

[ShooterK2]

My son and I have done a budget build in our Honda Civic hatchback. We have built a wall with 4 15's, which are rated to handle 500 watts each. So we bought a couple of Audiopipe 1500 watt amps to run them. Subs are wired to a 1 ohm load at each amp (dual 4 ohm voice coils on the subs), and the amps make their best power at 1 ohm. So we figured we would be just about right, power-wise......

As it turns out, however, our subs are still hungry. We are doing decent numbers and it sounds good, but the subs just aren't doing what we feel they are capable of doing. We desire more power, but are uncertain how to get it on our limited budget.

Should we add 2 more amps (which we can afford) like the ones we have now? Then each amp would be wired to 2 ohms, where they are rated to do around 950 watts. OR, should we sell these amps and buy new?

We need to stay in the $300 - $400 range for this upgrade. Any help is appreciated, and thanks in advance.

[cgrez33]

Crescendo BC2000 are going for like 279 I believe.. You can buy 2 for around 150 more than your budget. :/

[ShooterK2]

Thanks for the reply. Well if we sold our 2 Audiopipes (for, hopefully, around $100 each), we could put that toward the purchase. So it would still be within budget, but I'm not sure we would be better off with the two Crescendos as opposed to FOUR Audiopipe 1500s.

Like I say, the only problem with having the four Audiopipes, is that our ohm load would be less than ideal for max power from them. They do best at 1 ohm, but they would be wired to two ohms, yielding (supposedly) 950 watts to each sub. BUT, since the ohm load is easier for the amp to push, would it be better that way? Louder, even though it not producing as many watts, because the wattage is "cleaner"? We've all heard the arguments about the APs and their supposed "dirty" power.....

Also, for what it's worth, we do have a 190 amp alt, and two extra truck batteries, in addition to the stock battery under the hood. 1 run of 1/0 on positive terminal.

I'm very confused as to what to do. We want our subs to do all they can, but we can't spend a fortune either. So far, I think we have done well as far as money spent compared to system output. We want to continue with that theme.

[D-train-13k]

that crecendo should do rated power with your electrical. and i know the new ones have the same boards as the DC amps so they're pretty strong. i havent personally had any experience with the older BC2000 but if its built anything like the new ones they should handle .5 ohm on each pair. which could be just over 1000 to each sub.

you have a good enough electrical so i think that would be your best bet IMO

edit: i didnt realize they were D4's but at 1ohm it should still put out the same or close to the same as those 4 audiopipes.

Edited May 2, 2011 by D-train-13k

[Freshman6969]

wow, an actual thread with details before being asked! smart man! what coils do you have on the subs? im assuming dual 1's? and since when is DD a budget build? :/

[ShooterK2]

Well that's where we screwed up. We got dual 4 ohm coils instead of dual 2s. If we had gotten dual 2s, we could just add two more APs and be done. But we didn't think the 1500 series DD subs could take that much, so we planned on just using two amps at 1 ohm each, which we are. And, don't get me wrong, it wangs now. Plays really low, and still meters in the low 150s on the dash, and almost 153 in the kick. BUT, we really feel like it is capable of a little more........ I mean, I've seen these subs in other vehicles GETTING DOWN, looking like they are gonna jump right out of the box, and ours are nowhere near that..................

By the way, we call it a budget build because it's DD's entry level 15s, and cheap amps. I mean, we have less than $1000 in subs and around $300 in amps. Not a drop in the bucket to some of you guys on here.

Edited May 2, 2011 by ShooterK2

[ShooterK2]

What I'm more concerned with than anything is, if we were to get two more AP1500s, is that we will be wiring them at two ohms. Right now, we have two of them (1 on each pair of subs, at a 1 ohm load), and as soon as we get the volume where we feel like it's pretty close to all it can do, we start heating up the subs (smelled voice coil a couple of times), so we know it's a clipped signal at that point. Turn it back down a couple of notches and all is well, but then, we know it's not as loud as it could be.

Don't get me wrong, we are impressed with these amps for the money. I can't give an actual watt reading on them, as I don't have a clamp meter, but they DO put out. I just feel like they clip the signal at full volume. So maybe having two more of them at an easier ohm load will get rid of that clipped signal, and give us the power to max out these entry-level subs without clipping.

So I'm basically wanting to know if these amps will give a cleaner signal at 2 ohms than at 1 ohm. Anyone have any experience with this situation? Anyone running AP amps at less-than-optimal ohm ratings?

[fecupe2001]

Yo Kevin, i wouldn´t buy 2 more and wire them @ 2 ohms each one, after impedance rise those amps aren´t gonna give you WAY MORE power than the one you already have, remember something about impedance rise, if you are wired at 1 ohm and your real impedance it´s at 2 ohms, this means your impedance rise it´s X2 no matter what wiring configuration you have, in other words, so in that same example, if you wire the amplifier to 2 ohms, you are gonna get 4 ohms

This means, that having 4 amplifiers at 2 ohms each one should give you a big ass gain, i don´t doubt it would be louder but i don´t think it worth the money!! I would save some more money, sell the AP´s and buy myself a single AQ3500.1 and wire that thing to 0.5 ohms since i know you have a decent electrical and you are peaking on higher frequencies , they have even less rise so the amplifier should be save!!

Edited May 2, 2011 by fecupe2001

[D-train-13k]

Yo Kevin, i wouldn´t buy 2 more and wire them @ 2 ohms each one, after impedance rise those amps aren´t gonna give you WAY MORE power than the one you already have, remember something about impedance rise, if you are wired at 1 ohm and your real impedance it´s at 2 ohms, this means your impedance rise it´s X2 no matter what wiring configuration you have, in other words, so in that same example, if you wire the amplifier to 2 ohms, you are gonna get 4 ohms

This means, that having 4 amplifiers at 2 ohms each one should give you a big ass gain, i don´t doubt it would be louder but i don´t think it worth the money!! I would save some more money, sell the AP´s and buy myself a single AQ3500.1 and wire that thing to 0.5 ohms since i know you have a decent electrical and you are peaking on higher frequencies , they have even more rise so the amplifier should be save!!

i agree that sounds like a good idea

[fecupe2001]

Yo Kevin, i wouldn´t buy 2 more and wire them @ 2 ohms each one, after impedance rise those amps aren´t gonna give you WAY MORE power than the one you already have, remember something about impedance rise, if you are wired at 1 ohm and your real impedance it´s at 2 ohms, this means your impedance rise it´s X2 no matter what wiring configuration you have, in other words, so in that same example, if you wire the amplifier to 2 ohms, you are gonna get 4 ohms

This means, that having 4 amplifiers at 2 ohms each one should give you a big ass gain, i don´t doubt it would be louder but i don´t think it worth the money!! I would save some more money, sell the AP´s and buy myself a single AQ3500.1 and wire that thing to 0.5 ohms since i know you have a decent electrical and you are peaking on higher frequencies , they have even less rise so the amplifier should be save!!

i agree that sounds like a good idea

We all agree your avatar it´s FTW!!

Edited May 2, 2011 by fecupe2001