Quick sub and amp question

The temperatures you described are normal. If it burned your hand when you touched it, then you definatley have a problem. Most newer amps have thermal protection, meaning they will shut themselves off if they get too hot. What guage wire do you have run to the amp?

Yes, your 8ga will be fine to around 250- 300w rms, depending on the length of the wire. But as you have stated if youre looking for more bass, keep your eyes open for a better amp. By the way, is your sub dual voice coil, if so how many ohms is each one? How did you connect the outputs of the amp to the sub? I had the same problem wanting more bass and ended up going with an MTX 1501D 1500w amp and 2 MTX 7500 12''s. See below...

2BADSTANGS said:

Yes, your 8ga will be fine to around 250- 300w rms, depending on the length of the wire. But as you have stated if youre looking for more bass, keep your eyes open for a better amp. By the way, is your sub dual voice coil, if so how many ohms is each one? How did you connect the outputs of the amp to the sub? I had the same problem wanting more bass and ended up going with an MTX 1501D 1500w amp and 2 MTX 7500 12''s. See below...

Click to expand...

I bet the baby riding in the car seat enjoys the heart stopping bass!

The amp is hot because of the lower impedance load (ohms). Any time you run an amp bridged, you're increasing the load on it, and thus making it work harder. You could also be over-driving the amp which will make it hot (and sometimes make the sound noticibly ****, if it doesn't just quit altogether).

An amp that small, you most likely won't hear any difference bridged/etc. There's not a significant difference in power output. The only way you'd really be able to notice a difference is if the speakers were extremely efficient (100-105db+). The only thing you're really accomplishing by bridging that amp (that specific amp) is making it hot.

2badstangs is on the right path. What's the impedance of the speaker/sub? I'm assuming it's 4ohm, but is it dual voice coil or single? These will play a major part in how the amp "sees" them and the load it puts on the amp. If it's dual, how you hook it up will make a big difference. 2 4ohm in series will be an 8ohm load, 2x4 in parallel will be a 2ohm load. It also depends on how stable the amp is at low impedance. Some amps can handle 1/2 ohm setups, while others **** themselves at 2.


Many, man, many years ago, I had a setup in my CRX (great car for it, two seats and a big ass hatch for a big ass sub cabinet) that had a pair of Lanzar 12" subs and a single Lanzar amp. I ran them bridged in 2 ohm which pumped 1200W to each one. I hit 147db on the SPL meter. The fun thing was setting off other peoples' car alarms about 100' away.

As a result, nearly 15 years later, I can't hear **** in a crowded room... ah, youth.