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Newbie looking for a amp


FineVisionz

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Hello, I have a single kicker compr 12in 2ohm sub.  My current amp, a Kenwood x500.1 bit the dust and no longer turns on.  I've even tried it In a buddies system and it still doesn't power up.

 

I'm looking for a new/upgraded amp.  One that has caught my eye is the Kenwood KAC-9016D.  I'm open to other suggestions around the same price though.

 I do know this is a more powerful amp but if I have my subwoofer wired at 4ohms to get 500watts RMS do I need to still upgrade my amp wiring to 4 gauge from my current 8 guage wiring?  Or would I only have to upgrade my wiring if I had a sub wired at 2ohms to get 1000watts RMS out of the amp?

 

I'm a newbie to the subwoofer/car audio game so any help and suggestions will be much appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Jake

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Personally I'd use 4ga even with a 500rms amp. I'd go 0awg with 1000, and multiple runs at 2K+

 

Is your sub single 2ohm or dual 2 ohm? If it's a single 2ohm, that amp may be fine... After impedence rise the sub won't be getting the full 1000rms, probably be closer to 500-750rms.. That's if that amp produces rated power at your voltage level. I just don't have any experience with those subs or amps. 

 

If that sub is a dual 2ohm, which I expect since you said Wired to 4ohm... you should really get a different amp. No reason to buy an amp that produces it's power at an impedence that your sub won't wire to. You have the option of 1ohm or 4ohm... if you wire to 4ohm that amp says it's rated at 500rms, I'm not sure what voltage that's at, but let's say it's 14.4, which is common...yet your car may only charge at 13... So you may only get 350rms before rise... After rise that sub may only see 200... See what I'm saying? Less than half it's rated power.

 

I'd find a decent 1ohm stable amp that produces 750-1000 at 1ohm to account for rise. Always better to have an amp a little more powerful than less powerful. You can always reduce the volume or gain to lower the power, but when an amp isn't strong enough you end up cranking it up past the clipping point and that's when gear gets damaged.

 

Plenty of great options in that price range... Even cheaper options that are better. I'd suggest the sundown SFB1000. It's 1ohm stable, 1000rms and cheaper than the Kenwood. More power, less money.... Spend the extra on a good quality amp wire kit.

Singer 250amp Alt, Singer PCM bypass harness

Titan8 Lithium Underhood safe BCI PWR-S5

Big 3 W/ dual runs of power/ground. All 1/0awg OFC

SounDigital EVO 5K amp, Two 15" Fi SSD subs

Next Level Fabrication @ 7 cubes net, tuned to 32HZ 

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4 hours ago, Backwoods said:

Personally I'd use 4ga even with a 500rms amp. I'd go 0awg with 1000, and multiple runs at 2K+

 

Is your sub single 2ohm or dual 2 ohm? If it's a single 2ohm, that amp may be fine... After impedence rise the sub won't be getting the full 1000rms, probably be closer to 500-750rms.. That's if that amp produces rated power at your voltage level. I just don't have any experience with those subs or amps. 

 

If that sub is a dual 2ohm, which I expect since you said Wired to 4ohm... you should really get a different amp. No reason to buy an amp that produces it's power at an impedence that your sub won't wire to. You have the option of 1ohm or 4ohm... if you wire to 4ohm that amp says it's rated at 500rms, I'm not sure what voltage that's at, but let's say it's 14.4, which is common...yet your car may only charge at 13... So you may only get 350rms before rise... After rise that sub may only see 200... See what I'm saying? Less than half it's rated power.

 

I'd find a decent 1ohm stable amp that produces 750-1000 at 1ohm to account for rise. Always better to have an amp a little more powerful than less powerful. You can always reduce the volume or gain to lower the power, but when an amp isn't strong enough you end up cranking it up past the clipping point and that's when gear gets damaged.

 

Plenty of great options in that price range... Even cheaper options that are better. I'd suggest the sundown SFB1000. It's 1ohm stable, 1000rms and cheaper than the Kenwood. More power, less money.... Spend the extra on a good quality amp wire kit.

Oh wow, I didn't even know about voltage and rise.

Yes, my subwoofer is a dual 2ohm sub rated for 500 watts rms online, but odly the cardboard box the sub came in says it's raited at 800 watts rms. 🤔

 

This is the amp you are refering to, correct?

https://caraudiobargain.com/sundown-audio-sfb-1000d/

Much cheaper than I expected for a Sundown product and a 1ohm stable amp.

I figured the Kenwood KAC-9016D would be ok because my current amp, the Kenwood x500-1 only pushes 300 watts rms at 4ohm and it always seemed to power my sub good when I had it in a good box.  But if the Sundown amp is a better option for a cheaper price i'm not going to argue with that, haha. 😂

 

What amp kit would you recommend?  I was looking at the Crutchfield 4 Guage Kit .

 

Thank you so much for you help!!!!

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Yes thats the amp, I have ran one on two 10" subs and its a good amp... And that website is a good place to order from too. The guy usually ships quick and has good customer service. 

 

looks like that kit is not in stock... but if you want to go with a 4awg kit, just make sure its OFC wire. Oxygen free copper.  Something like this would be good. But theres lots of choices out there. At 1000 watts a 4awg will probably be fine... Though i personally prefer 0awg.  

 

https://skyhighcaraudio.com/sky-high-car-audio-4-ofc-amp-kit/

 

Now... If you were pushing your sub pretty close to the max with the old amp, make REAL sure that you set the gain correctly with this new amp. Then watch it carefully to see if its too much power. You can always drop the gain a little lower to prevent any issues. 

Singer 250amp Alt, Singer PCM bypass harness

Titan8 Lithium Underhood safe BCI PWR-S5

Big 3 W/ dual runs of power/ground. All 1/0awg OFC

SounDigital EVO 5K amp, Two 15" Fi SSD subs

Next Level Fabrication @ 7 cubes net, tuned to 32HZ 

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8 minutes ago, Backwoods said:

Yes thats the amp, I have ran one on two 10" subs and its a good amp... And that website is a good place to order from too. The guy usually ships quick and has good customer service. 

 

looks like that kit is not in stock... but if you want to go with a 4awg kit, just make sure its OFC wire. Oxygen free copper.  Something like this would be good. But theres lots of choices out there. At 1000 watts a 4awg will probably be fine... Though i personally prefer 0awg.  

 

https://skyhighcaraudio.com/sky-high-car-audio-4-ofc-amp-kit/

 

Now... If you were pushing your sub pretty close to the max with the old amp, make REAL sure that you set the gain correctly with this new amp. Then watch it carefully to see if its too much power. You can always drop the gain a little lower to prevent any issues. 

Awesome!  Thank you for your help Backwoods.  Can't wait to get my new amp and sub box all put together.  I'll try to post some pictures when it's all installed.

 

Cheers!

Jake

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7 hours ago, FineVisionz said:

@Backwoods

I noticed the amp only has one RCA sub input, but my headunit has a Left and Right channel subwoofer output ports.  How would you recommend connecting the dual RCAs from my head unit to the single RCA on the amp?

 

Sundown has a video out about the SFB amps where they say you can plug both RCAs from your headunit into the 2 RCA plugs on the amp. One in the amps input and one in the output. It's designed like that in case you have multiple amps you can run an RCA from one amp to the other.

 

I've tried multiple ways, as said above, only using one of the 2 RCA plugs, and using a Y adapter that turns the 2 RCAs into 1 plug for the amp... I've noticed absolutely no difference whosoever with any of the methods.

Singer 250amp Alt, Singer PCM bypass harness

Titan8 Lithium Underhood safe BCI PWR-S5

Big 3 W/ dual runs of power/ground. All 1/0awg OFC

SounDigital EVO 5K amp, Two 15" Fi SSD subs

Next Level Fabrication @ 7 cubes net, tuned to 32HZ 

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4 hours ago, Backwoods said:

 

Sundown has a video out about the SFB amps where they say you can plug both RCAs from your headunit into the 2 RCA plugs on the amp. One in the amps input and one in the output. It's designed like that in case you have multiple amps you can run an RCA from one amp to the other.

 

I've tried multiple ways, as said above, only using one of the 2 RCA plugs, and using a Y adapter that turns the 2 RCAs into 1 plug for the amp... I've noticed absolutely no difference whosoever with any of the methods.

Interesting.  I would have thought that even the bass signal be mono, I feel like the strength of the signal would be cut in half due to only one RCA being plugged in.

 

But i'll just plug my left RCA in the input and my right RCA into the output like you said.

 

My box build is coming along nicely, and my Sunday SFB-1000D amp gets delivered Friday!  So I should have my the new system settup soon!

 

Thanks! 

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