Spiffywerks

Alright! I finally did it. I broke the padlock on my wallet and spent some money on some car audio. I figured, well, I'll never have to buy this stuff again if I get some nice equipment, so that's what I did. Anyways, Here's my setup right now:

Stuff I currently have:

HU: Apline CDA-9831 (i love it, sounds great, plays great!)
CDA/WMA/MP3 Player
45w x 4
4v Pre-outs, F/R/S

Stock front Components, Pioneer 260w 4-way 6x9 Rears. (With the area in the 6x9 stuffed to capacity with Seat Foam Cusion, cut-outs made for the 6x9s and then putting polyfiller in that space. Gives them a nice clean thump. No rattle - yay!)
I didn't bother upgrading the speakers around yet. I'll probably amp/replace them later, that's a later project.

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Stuff that's in the Mail on its way to me:
AutoTek MM1400.1D ( http://www.maxxsonics.com/autotek/mm_amps_SuperD.html )
D-Class Mono Amp
650w RMS x1 @4ohm
1000w RMS x1 @2ohm
1400w RMS x1 @1ohm - Yes, it's a 1ohm stable amp. cool.gif

Went with this guy cause every review that I read on AutoTek amps has been nothing but praise and they also seem to be the coolest running amps out of all the major competition for high powered amps.

2 Kicker Solo-Baric S10L7
4 ohm Dual Voice Coil
1200w peak / 600w RMS Power handling

I've wanted a pair of kickers for the longest time. Didn't go with 12" cause... well, I just didn't want 12s.

I'm building just a standard box for now. 1CuFt per sub, sealed 50% poly filled - per manufacture recommendations. Almost thinking of just buying one that's made with 1"MDF since I've never made a box before. But so far what I hear, its pretty simple to make one.
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Ok, here's my questions.
1. Is my amp going to murder these subs? I'm thinking of just running @4ohm, I'm thinking if I wire them for 1ohm, my amp is going to kill them.

2. What kind of cap do I need? 1 farad? 2+ farad? And does it really matter what brand you get? I kinda figured a cap was a cap. No real difference between this company or that.

3. I'm planning on running 4g wire. Should I just run 0g to a distro block in the rear for a future 4ch amp?

4. Do you think with this much power on the subs that its going to totally overpower my deck? Or should my little Alpine unit be able to handle the HFP/LFP without having to get other things, such as an Ai-NET unit, 4ch amp, etc.

5. Any other suggestions for me?

Thanks in advance for all your input. Please grace me with your knowledge! fing02.gif

Role Reversal

as far as the amp killing the speakers, not likely to happen. i personally would get a more powerful amp to run those. if you get a more powerful amp you are not as likely to get clipping or cut-off cause you wont be stressing the amp. if you only run at 4ohms you wont be getting all the amp or speakers can give. get a 2 farad if you plan on throwing in another amp in the future. same goes for the wire if you plan on running another amp go with the 0 to a distribution block, but the 4 will do just fine. as far as overpowering your h.u. ...it will handle it just fine , but you will want to replace your front speakers.

Spiffywerks

o.O More powerful amp? It's 1400w ---RMS--- output. That's not peak output. 700w per sub RMS. And you want me to put more power to them? lol

Yeah the front speakers gotta go eventually. I would like to use the stock locations for new componets, but as far as I know, its pretty tough getting to where the tweeters are in the dash without taking out the windshield or removing the whole dash. I guess the other option is fabricating new tweets into the plastic panel that covers our mirror mounting points. I think several people have done that. Kinda like how the new tibs are.

I will probably just run the 0g wire for the hell of it cause I'm pretty sure I'll want to put an amp in there after doing this. I mean I awakened the sleeping "GiV3 m3 m@d s0unDz" Beast that has been lying dormant for years.

So 2 Farad cap.. and this would be installed before the disto block, correct?

spiceflow

That's a nice amp and good subs. I don't think you will be disappointed. To answer your questions:

1. Run the subs at one ohm. That's 700W each, which is just about perfect. At 4 ohms your subs would be getting less than half that.

2. You don't need a cap. I run a 1400W sub amp and 2x70W for my fronts, and I have no dimming at full volume. None.

3. You can run 0g if you want, but it's not totally necessary unless you plan on upgrading in the future. I run 4g with no problems, but I would definitely need to move up if I run anything more powerful.

4. Yes, that will probably overpower your speakers. Get some nice components for your front speakers and a decent 2 channel amp.

Tibminn

overpowering isnt exaclty a bad thing... you want your amp ideally to be able to produce all your speakers want, so as long as you dont go crazy and try to deafen yourself, overpowering in some respects is a better thing. (for sure compared to underpowering)

About the cap however, I was running about 375w rms to 2 10" subs, and about 300w rms to two 6x9s. The 6x9's bass was even cut off significantly from the crossovers and when the bass hit at high volumes i could get my car to dim soooo much at idle that it would throw a cel! hahaha. I NEEDED a cap, and that said, I believe you will too

Spiffywerks

Throwing a CEL from too much bass. bwahahaha!
Dude, I could have like a disco fever thing going on while driving down the street! That'd be pimp!

Alright, I purchased a Voodoo Power Kit.
17' 0/1 Guage Power Cable Voodoo Hex Cable
3' Ground Cable w/ Platinum Dual Ground Foot
Voodoo 2.4 Farad Cap w/ 4 Platnium Ring Terminals
Voodoo Digital Plantuim Battery Distributor
Voodoo Platinum ANL Fuse holder /w 200 amp Fuse
Voodoo X Series RCA 16.4FT Spiral Cable
20' Roll of 4g cable
Some Platnium 0g > 4g Reducers
0/1g > 4g Digital Distro Block

I hope this takes care of my Wiring needs. I dun want to spend anymore on accessories.. this stuff gets expensive quick!!!

dquicksta

cap's are talked up too much... unless you spend some money a caps not going to help your power problems except for maybe a little of the light dimming... if you get a cap, spend the money to get a reputable one, those cheapo's just look good

Spiffywerks

Oh yeah. I guess I should give an update on this. I got it all in.
0 Guage Wire to the back, running through a 2.4 Farad Cap into the MM1400 powering two Kicker L7 10".. wired up as 1ohm. umm I guess I need to take a picture.

Verdict: It's SOOOOO LOUD. omg... but gawd does it sound and FEEEEEEL good! cool.gif

It's all kind of in a temp setup. I just bought a box to put it in, dual sealed box 3/4" MDF, $50.00.
I had some issues to start... but my buddy helped me out with a little bit of tuning and they go so freaking loud. It still needs tuning to get it absolutly right, but it sounds really good so far.

now I just need to figure out how to get my rear view mirror to stay in place. It's always vibrating up and pointing at the roof.

a_gut

Dude, get an alternator. At 1.4kW that amp is pulling a shitload of current, lol. If you haven't killed your battery already you will soon without a high output alternator. The rest of the setup looks sweet though, I bet it sounds killer hail.gif

DTN

I'm going to have to lay the:
[Smack down] Negative! A capacitor will stablize the voltage fluctuations caused by an amplifier under high load. Your alternator does NOT put out enough to run a amplifier on it's own. Your battery was NOT meant to drain 20 times per seccond. If the lights are dimming you NEED a capacitor to save your battery. It supplies the quick power charge and discharge that your battery cannot handle. A capacitor does not cause adverse reactions except that when you discharge it (leaving it disconnected for a while, you need to recharge it. You can buy a cheap capacitor that is 1F that performs as well as a name brand 1F. Reaction time is not a property of a capacitor as they like to say in sterio shops to take your money. They work on a resistance time constant. Unless they ADDED resistance, the name brand and the off brand will charge and discharge at a rate of 66% per period. Heck, even if you don't use your capacitor for your sterio, it acts as a voltage stablizer for the rest of your car. [/Smack down]

How much power you draw is directly related to the way you set up your subwoofer. you can usually get 2 or 4 ohms of resistance out of a dual voice coil speaker depending on the resistance of the coil. You will usually need 3 voice coils to run 1 ohm. But remember, 1 ohm is usually just for clarity of sound, it's not efficient at all. You will get more bounce to the ounce (of power) if you rig it up at 4 or 8 ohms.

i know guys with 50 Farad caps on their 20,000W amplifiers. A 2-5 farad should work fine for your setup. Just don't spend all of your money on a name brand.

I've got a 1200W class D amp. i have dimming on my lights and the idle drops slightly when the bass drops for a while, and i have my A/C on. I'm running a 1F capacitor. I could use a bigger one.