07 grand marquis new 1500w amp clipping at 18 vol power issue or exceeding sub wattage?

[jgi420]

I recently purchased a 1500w rms mono block went from a 700w to the bigger model.  Hooked it up with the gain turned almost 75% up other settings are turned down. 

 

I had the volume up at 18/19 on an alpine head unit the other day and opened up the trunk noticed the clip light come on when the bass note hit then go back out i ended up turning the gain down alil bit and the light did not seem to be coming on any more.   The system still seems to pound more then the 700w deff louder which is noticeable but now im thinking is something wrong why cant i go the full 75% gain and go up to 24 volume like with the last amp.

 

I am thinking the alternator can not handle no were near the power it is rated for possibly or maybe my older budget speakers are exceeding their capabilities with the amp turned up to high?  alt is a basic high output rated for 250amp so it says battery is reg napa gold legend 

 

Subs say 600w rms 1200 max in the spec sheet dual voice coil hence the reason i only started with around 75% gain. Amp is a 1 ohm mono block.

 

Now what else i notice is is at the 19/20 volume level at night the headlights flick with the bass a couple of times it seemed like when i went to put my car in reverse the rpms dropped from 800 and sounded like my car was gonna stall i also noticed when i put my heat on in the car rpms kinda dropped then went back up. 

 

So far car still starts does not stall and the radio is fairly loud so maybe i am just expecting too much from old speakers.?

 

I also have a 400w door speaker amp hooked up aswell.

[Dafaseles]

9 hours ago, jgi420 said:

I recently purchased a 1500w rms mono block went from a 700w to the bigger model.  Hooked it up with the gain turned almost 75% up other settings are turned down. 

 

I had the volume up at 18/19 on an alpine head unit the other day and opened up the trunk noticed the clip light come on when the bass note hit then go back out i ended up turning the gain down alil bit and the light did not seem to be coming on any more.   The system still seems to pound more then the 700w deff louder which is noticeable but now im thinking is something wrong why cant i go the full 75% gain and go up to 24 volume like with the last amp.

 

I am thinking the alternator can not handle no were near the power it is rated for possibly or maybe my older budget speakers are exceeding their capabilities with the amp turned up to high?  alt is a basic high output rated for 250amp so it says battery is reg napa gold legend 

 

Subs say 600w rms 1200 max in the spec sheet dual voice coil hence the reason i only started with around 75% gain. Amp is a 1 ohm mono block.

 

Now what else i notice is is at the 19/20 volume level at night the headlights flick with the bass a couple of times it seemed like when i went to put my car in reverse the rpms dropped from 800 and sounded like my car was gonna stall i also noticed when i put my heat on in the car rpms kinda dropped then went back up. 

 

So far car still starts does not stall and the radio is fairly loud so maybe i am just expecting too much from old speakers.?

 

I also have a 400w door speaker amp hooked up aswell.

Gain up 75% off the way up means nothing dude. How did you go about setting your gain? Are you just guessing? Do you know the max, clean signal volume you can go up to on your head unit? What amp is it? 

 

I say, buy a DD-1. They are expensive, but in my opinion they're the best as far as setting your gain. 

 

Too expensive? I get it. Go on Amazon and buy a decent oscilloscope to set your gain. Watch some YouTube videos on how to use it, then set your gain with that. 

 

Still no? OK, at least use a digital multimeter. Again, tons of videos on YouTube on how to set your gain with that. 

[Never Enough Bass]

Buy a agm battery it'll help with your lights plus do like @Dafaselessaid and stop guessing on your gains

[jgi420]

i did not really guess i know what the subs are rated for so i tried to set my gain based of that numbers don't lie simple math my next step will prolly be looking into an agm battery now i should be able to start my car with it still right i shouldn't need 2 batterie's correct? 

 

ill use an estimate to satisfy the first poster about the gain level which as we all know is not a volume knob and i do not use those knobs i do not believe in those you can interduce extra distortion.   

 

So anyways 75% gain level equals out to around 1120w which is just under my rms rating for the subs so i did not think i was pushing them to their limits like i said i did some basic simple math left the gain alone for a couple of days popped my trunk saw the clipping light come on when the bass hit then go out so i did not want to blow my speakers or damage them so i turned the gain down alil till the light stopped coming on an i have left it that way since still pounds more then the previous amp.

 

Now i could have used a 40hz tone that prolly would have smoked the speakers i know playing music is different bad enough the signal was clipping with music a straight tone would be brutal.  

 

Now with the previous amp the kid from the audio shop was able to help me adjust it to the point where i could turn the head unit up to like 28 at that point my highs sounded too loud and might have even been clipping but the kid said it was fine. i decided to turn the gain back up on the amp and just go up to 22vol was still fairly loud.

 

The head unit is alpine but i guess since i do not want to cause confusion because this is a forum and i do not know skill level of random people on here who should probably know some of the answers.  like most hu under that brand the volume goes up to 35 i usually find that from 21 to 24 is usually clean on alpine units had one 20 years ago as well   i actually do not know what level they distort at for certain someone can correct me if needed but i have found that 22 level is kind of a sweet spot on the newer one maybe i am off alil bit.

 

Now if the amp is clipping because the woofers are reaching their limits i am willing to accept that i do not really know how newer amps deal with signals you would think newer stuff could better prevent blow outs and offer more of a warning but i am rambling now i think.

 

Is it the fact i just do not have enough real power?  expecting too much from a cheaper aftermarket alternator.

 

I had considered using an old service cruiser alternator because those usually will put out amps even at idle i believe they are 180 amps someone mentioned 220 but i don't know enough about what years and model had that certain one.

 

What agm is budget friendly that would work?

[Dafaseles]

I didn't mean to be mean about my first comment. You just said the gain was 75% up. 9 times out of 10, when someone says that, it's because they don't know how to set their gain. 

What amplifier exactly is it if I might ask?

Is your ground nice and tight? All the paint sanded off? Nice and clean? 

What final impedance are you wired to? 

Are all your connections nice and tight? Can you pull on all your ring terminals and they not come off the cable? 

The clip light on your amplifier won't measure the mechanical limits of your sub. So the clip light going off has nothing to do with that. It basically measures voltage and when it reaches a certain, predetermined voltage from the manufacturer, it lights up. An effective little tool, but not precise. Which is fine. If the clip light is blinking, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Play a song with heavy constant bass and see what it does. If it blinks every now and again, really quickly, I wouldn't worry. If it stays on for any period of time, then I'd worry, and I'd assume you'd need a second battery. 

[MrSkippyJ]

6 hours ago, jgi420 said:

So anyways 75% gain level equals out to around 1120w

 

Mind shedding some light on this? How did you come to that conclusion? 

[jgi420]

the numbers might be off i am not really sure now  amp is an nvx xad12 mono block  and i only have a 125 amp fuse i was also told by someone that when the clip light comes on during a hit then goes out thats not real clipping to be concerned about could have left it turned up.

 

I was told if the clip light stays on solid then you have a problem andi should bring it back.

 

But i noticed something if you take 1500 and divide it by 10 that would mean i need a 150a fuse for this amp correct? Could that be an issue ?  i for some reason thought i needed to upgrade only to 125a

 

If so then i would need a say a 180a or 200a fuse in the front then say a 150a in the rear distro block?

 

I was thinking that the amp would not draw the full 150a because i wouldent be running it at full tilt so what am i doing wrong sounds like the issue is something else

[jgi420]

i have done the big 3 subs are wired at 1 ohm the model i have are dual 4 ohm voice coils i will try and get a picture later of the setup later.    I appreciate the responses i have been given not looking to really compete or create a demo car i just figured why not use the subs to their full potential if they blow well i have had them for around 25 years they will have had a good run. 

 

I have seen some really stupid setups with grounds attached to paint and jumper cables for power wires ect.

 

So yea thanks for not beating me up too bad in here i have general knowledge with electronics just trying to get full potential without damaging anything hopefully. 

 

 

[CstrokerV]

Why would you take 1500/10 to get your fuse rating? what size wire? 

and your car acting the way it is, Could be a few things weak/bad Alt,  weak/bad battery, bad grounds, bad/loose terminals, probably a combination of things.. ID check all  your  grounds alt, block, battery, frame etc.. Might as well check all your power ones while you are at it.. but a reserve i.e a battery bank or cap bank would help some a bigger alt also 

and headlight flicker you are almost always going to get. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jgi420]

On 10/27/2022 at 7:20 PM, CstrokerV said:

Why would you take 1500/10 to get your fuse rating? what size wire? 

and your car acting the way it is, Could be a few things weak/bad Alt,  weak/bad battery, bad grounds, bad/loose terminals, probably a combination of things.. ID check all  your  grounds alt, block, battery, frame etc.. Might as well check all your power ones while you are at it.. but a reserve i.e a battery bank or cap bank would help some a bigger alt also 

and headlight flicker you are almost always going to get. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I know I haven't been on here at least a month and have an updated anyone but everything checks out everything is normal for what a vehicle should look like when you install a stereo system I followed the protocol I don't have a bad ground if you've read some of the previous post I mentioned the size of wire that I have and I mentioned that the big three has been done I'm using even using silver tinned ofc shouldn't be getting a bad connection at all the battery is just a normal lead acid battery more than likely it is a standard grade Legend battery from napa and it seems to start the car every single time seems to be holding voltage there's no corrosion on any of the terminals of the battery it's all solid been that way since I bought the vehicle never had to clean the terminals off once which is kind of impressive actually. 

 

I'm using 1/0g bca compliant wire should be good for up to 300 amps if not a little higher plus I still have the original alternator wire I also have multiple grounds. I'm running two amps I've got a piece of 4 gauge going to the subwoofer amp that is ofc  just regular copper this is coming from a distribution block which is fused the fuse that I am using for the distribution block might even be a little underrated and it has never blown since I hooked the system up I even replaced the fuse going to the subwoofer amp from 80 amps which I'd used on the last amplifier which was the nvx 11 this is the 12 model I am running now.

 

I have the gain on the amplifier turned up to 3/4  level which should be about 75% when I crank the volume up to around 19/20 that's when I notice the headlights starting to dim with the bass notes I also noticed that the clipping light will come on for a second and the base hits then go out like I mentioned in the last post which someone had said I probably shouldn't worry as long as it isn't staying on.

 

Now I was under the impression that I should be able to turn my volume up on my head unit to 24 or 5 and it should be clean so I don't really know if I'm exceeding my Subs capacity. I figured at 75% gain my amp would be putting out around the RMS of the subwoofers which is around 1200 each sub is capable of handling 600 watts RMS.

 

Now the system seems fairly loud at 19 volume but I also have not blown any fuses so I almost don't think my amp is putting out the power to its full potential I'm not saying that it's a bad thing that my fuses aren't blowing.

 

Also as of recently I've developed a new problem I am getting bearing noise in my alternator now I'm not 100% expert in this department but I am somewhat mechanically inclined now I would like to know if my alternator is putting out the full power as it was advertised but it probably wouldn't however the problem I seem to be having which probably occurs with 90% of cheap alternators is the bearings seem to be making noise all of a sudden after about 4 months now the area that I live in there is not a lot of specialty shops around that deal with repairing or rebuilding alternators and starters I see that that is usually common around the cities I live further north so there isn't a lot of specialty shops I guess the question I have would be how hard would it be for me to replace the bearings myself in the alternator with some quality bearings and still be able to use this before it blows out completely.

 

Now one would think that it shouldn't be too difficult to replace the bearings in an alternator or is it even worth it on a cheaper alternator I have heard that people have replaced the bearings and ended up having good success for a while after doing so honestly I'd like to have it inspected and upgraded with components as needed to guarantee that it's going to put out it's 250 amp rating as advertised if I needed it too obviously I haven't spoken with anybody who is an expert on this haven't talked to any shops because I don't know of any in my area that have the expertise in this so I don't know what would need to be done or what is needed to shore up this alternator the other alternative is if this alternator isn't going to work the way I'm expecting it to is to head to the Pick-A-Part yard and pick up a police  interceptor one. 

 

 Now with the previous amp the nvx 11 model I could turn my gain all the way up and the clipping light wouldn't come on unless I was playing a 40 HZ tone with the bigger model that I had just purchased seems like the clipping light already comes on at just 75% gain now I don't know if this means that my speakers are just  reaching their limits?