Taramps HD3k Clipping

[Angel Galvan]

On 10/3/2020 at 9:47 PM, Dafaseles said:

Absolutely it can

 

Yes, you do, but it'll be set correctly, so it doesn't matter. 

 

Hello so update I went ahead and installed some CCA skyhigh oversized 0 gauge for the taramps with some 0 gauge to 4 gauge reducers and since I sold my 1 ohm sub I had it wired to 2 ohms and I was bumping when it started clipping again. The sub was a iddy bitty 300 watt peak sub and theres no reason for it to be clipping. Im starting to think that I might need a battery ??? Im bummed out cause I just got a Skar vxf 12 and I feel like its going to clip like before at 1ohm.

( The truck was running by the way, it wasn't off)

[Angel Galvan]

On 10/3/2020 at 9:47 PM, Dafaseles said:

Absolutely it can

 

Yes, you do, but it'll be set correctly, so it doesn't matter. 

I also heard about taramps amps not liking 4v rcas ? How do you drop your rca to 2v ? 

[Dafaseles]

A 3000 watt amp on a 300 watt "peak" sub even at 2 ohm can absolutely send the sub to over excursion.

 

Tell me exactly what electrical you have (alternator and battery) and the equipment you're running (amplifiers, mids, subs, we already know the head unit). I'm not trying to be disrespectful in any way, but I think you might be confused or misled on how an aftermarket stereo system works exactly. I can help you

[Angel Galvan]

23 hours ago, Dafaseles said:

A 3000 watt amp on a 300 watt "peak" sub even at 2 ohm can absolutely send the sub to over excursion.

 

Tell me exactly what electrical you have (alternator and battery) and the equipment you're running (amplifiers, mids, subs, we already know the head unit). I'm not trying to be disrespectful in any way, but I think you might be confused or misled on how an aftermarket stereo system works exactly. I can help you

 

I'm on stock electrical f150 2002. Okay so I hooked up my vxf to it and it starts to clip a when I up the volume more at this point its probably because I put the volume on the headunit (at 30).

Do you think it could be my ground ? I have my ground hook to the floor and the metal there looks thin. I would have to make a hole through the floor to ground to the frame. Tommorow when I get the chance I'm going to look at how bad my voltage is dropping.

[Angel Galvan]

Oh and my gains on my amp aren't at max either I have it like about 3/4 up. I did have a small incident were my speaker leads touched and put the amp in protect. But my clipping issue was already happening before that.

[Dafaseles]

1 hour ago, Angel Galvan said:

 

I'm on stock electrical f150 2002. Okay so I hooked up my vxf to it and it starts to clip a when I up the volume more at this point its probably because I put the volume on the headunit (at 30).

Do you think it could be my ground ? I have my ground hook to the floor and the metal there looks thin. I would have to make a hole through the floor to ground to the frame. Tommorow when I get the chance I'm going to look at how bad my voltage is dropping.

So, I'll just start from the beginning. 3000 watts is a lot on stock electrical. I would recommend the highest output alternator you can afford and 2 AGM batteries 80ah or more, or 1 25ah lithium battery. It always helps to invest in a voltage meter and mount it to your dash board. When you're dealing with high draw amplifiers with a decent amount of watts, it's a good thing to keep your eye on. Grounding is a huge thing! A nice, clean, thick, clean, hard, secure, CLEAN, grounding point is important. It's not a rule, but it's not recommended to ground multiple grounds to the same point, or have any of your grounding cables more than 18" long. In my opinion, and a lot of others opinion, CCA wire is not recommended. Especially when dealing with high wattage. OFC is the only way to go. 

Now on to the clipping problem. If you don't know the max volume your head unit can go up to without sending a clipped signal, three quarters of the way up its usually the method used, along with your phone three quarters up or your MP3 device three quarters up. There's a possibility there music you listen to is already clipping. Basically recorded and mixed terribly. Your gain is halfway up? So? The gain is not a volume knob nor is it an output wattage control. It is used to match the head unit output to the amplifier for the max clean sound. There's a possibility even with your gain up halfway, it's still up too much. You can, technically adjust the output wattage if an amp using the gain, but you need to know the output voltage of your head unit, and you need a digital multimeter to monitor the output, and a specific mathematical equation (you can find the procedure on YouTube) but it's not exactly an exact science. Yes, your electrical not being sufficient can cause your amp to send a clipped signal. If the voltage goes down too far, the amplifier will keep trying to push the same output and exceed the electrical limits of the amplifier signal. Also, if your speaker isn't strong enough for 3000 watts, your speaker will reach its mechanical limits, heating up the voice coil(s) until the speaker fails. Also, if your crossovers aren't set correctly, the sub could be trying to play below its intended limits, causing it to reach its mechanical limits. If the box is too big or the port is too big, the sub could be reaching its mechanical limits. 

So, I would recommend if you have the cash, invest in a DD1 and, if you have a little more, a CC1 as well. Or at least watch some YouTube videos on how to set your gain properly without a distortion detector or an oscilloscope. Number 1 though, upgrade that electrical! Alternator and batteries. And invest in a voltage meter

[Angel Galvan]

14 minutes ago, Dafaseles said:

So, I'll just start from the beginning. 3000 watts is a lot on stock electrical. I would recommend the highest output alternator you can afford and 2 AGM batteries 80ah or more, or 1 25ah lithium battery. It always helps to invest in a voltage meter and mount it to your dash board. When you're dealing with high draw amplifiers with a decent amount of watts, it's a good thing to keep your eye on. Grounding is a huge thing! A nice, clean, thick, clean, hard, secure, CLEAN, grounding point is important. It's not a rule, but it's not recommended to ground multiple grounds to the same point, or have any of your grounding cables more than 18" long. In my opinion, and a lot of others opinion, CCA wire is not recommended. Especially when dealing with high wattage. OFC is the only way to go. 

Now on to the clipping problem. If you don't know the max volume your head unit can go up to without sending a clipped signal, three quarters of the way up its usually the method used, along with your phone three quarters up or your MP3 device three quarters up. There's a possibility there music you listen to is already clipping. Basically recorded and mixed terribly. Your gain is halfway up? So? The gain is not a volume knob nor is it an output wattage control. It is used to match the head unit output to the amplifier for the max clean sound. There's a possibility even with your gain up halfway, it's still up too much. You can, technically adjust the output wattage if an amp using the gain, but you need to know the output voltage of your head unit, and you need a digital multimeter to monitor the output, and a specific mathematical equation (you can find the procedure on YouTube) but it's not exactly an exact science. Yes, your electrical not being sufficient can cause your amp to send a clipped signal. If the voltage goes down too far, the amplifier will keep trying to push the same output and exceed the electrical limits of the amplifier signal. Also, if your speaker isn't strong enough for 3000 watts, your speaker will reach its mechanical limits, heating up the voice coil(s) until the speaker fails. Also, if your crossovers aren't set correctly, the sub could be trying to play below its intended limits, causing it to reach its mechanical limits. If the box is too big or the port is too big, the sub could be reaching its mechanical limits. 

So, I would recommend if you have the cash, invest in a DD1 and, if you have a little more, a CC1 as well. Or at least watch some YouTube videos on how to set your gain properly without a distortion detector or an oscilloscope. Number 1 though, upgrade that electrical! Alternator and batteries. And invest in a voltage meter

Right now im not trying to get 3000 watts out of the amp at the moment. The thing is that im pretty sure im only getting like 1000 to 1500 watts and it clips cause If i were hitting 3k my sub would of been long gone. I did order a voltage meter to hook up to see it while im bumping so thats coming. I'll start to look in to batteries but ill have to make some modification to fit it under the hood.

[Dafaseles]

18 minutes ago, Angel Galvan said:

Right now im not trying to get 3000 watts out of the amp at the moment. The thing is that im pretty sure im only getting like 1000 to 1500 watts and it clips cause If i were hitting 3k my sub would of been long gone. I did order a voltage meter to hook up to see it while im bumping so thats coming. I'll start to look in to batteries but ill have to make some modification to fit it under the hood.

That's the thing, you don't know how many watts your getting. Even with the gain up halfway, there's still a chance the gain is too high. It's not the usual case, but still, my point is you don't  know for sure. You're guessing. And not necessarily about the sub being long gone seeing max wattage. It's handling being clipped like crazy, so it's got good pole venting. And you don't necessarily have to put both batteries under the hood. You could put one in the cab, or both in the bed... just saying. But usually, you don't have to modify too much in a truck to get both batteries under the hood. Usually there's a factory option for 2 batteries and even though you're only using one spot for one battery, there's usually still a spot for a second already configured into the under the hood layout. Usually it'll be in the other side of the engine bay from the current battery location, in the opposite corner as well. 

[Angel Galvan]

1 minute ago, Dafaseles said:

That's the thing, you don't know how many watts your getting. Even with the gain up halfway, there's still a chance the gain is too high. It's not the usual case, but still, my point is you don't  know for sure. You're guessing. And not necessarily about the sub being long gone seeing max wattage. It's handling being clipped like crazy, so it's got good pole venting. And you don't necessarily have to put both batteries under the hood. You could put one in the cab, or both in the bed... just saying. But usually, you don't have to modify too much in a truck to get both batteries under the hood. Usually there's a factory option for 2 batteries and even though you're only using one spot for one battery, there's usually still a spot for a second already configured into the under the hood layout. Usually it'll be in the other side of the engine bay from the current battery location, in the opposite corner as well. 

But if my gains are too low on my amp I dont get the bass I want which will lead to me maxing out volume on the headunit. I would put one inside but my box is already using up most of the available space to hide the battery

[Dafaseles]

36 minutes ago, Angel Galvan said:

But if my gains are too low on my amp I dont get the bass I want which will lead to me maxing out volume on the headunit. I would put one inside but my box is already using up most of the available space to hide the battery

Your truck should have a space under the hood. I'm fairly confident in that. And, let's just say your gain is a little too high. Lowering your gain the little bit to match the head unit output wouldn't lower the output of the sub... lowering the gain a lot to get down to where it's matched to the head unit won't decrease the output. Now, lowering the gain past the matched voltage of the head unit will decrease the volume. Honestly, you won't know if it's a problem with the gain or the amp until you get that electrical correct. I'll put it to you this way, in my truck right now I'm pushing 4000 watts at 2 ohms. I started with 2 80ah AGM batteries and a 160 amp alternator. That wasn't enough. I had to go bigger on the alternator. Yes, that's more than you're trying to do, but honestly, not that much more. So, in my opinion, I would buy the biggest alternator you can. For a Ford truck, you shouldn't have any problem finding a 370 amp alternator or higher. If you're planning in upgrading in the future, the bigger the alternator you get, well, that's just one less thing you have to worry about. I love my mechman 370. 

1 more thing to check, make sure the settings on your head unit are flat. No bass boost or powerful setting or anything like that. Flat, flat, flat, flat. 

Like I tell my friends who ask me about car audio then frown when I talk prices, I tell them all, car audio done right is expensive. That's just the way it is