new frequency and power issues, need some feedback/suggestions

[whitey 0]

i just got a new box built for my subs ( 2 12 inch dual 2 ohm L5 kickers in a 6.5-7 cube box tuned to 35 htz). i picked it up from the guy and set my amp at 25 htz with the gain set at about half way from what i can see on the dial. first, i must say it sounded amazing! i was running a 3.3 cube box that was kinda jimmy rigged together by the guy i bought them from so this is exquisite great sound, good range and a ton of sound pressure. if anyone needs a box built in central to eastern washington/ central idaho let me know i'll get you in contact with triticum audio.

 

ok, so the guy that built my box also installed the subs and wired in at a 4 ohm load. about a week after i got them home i got curious and pulled the subs out and switched everything to a 2 ohm load. it sounded awesome. great lows, tons of pressure and great sound quality. next time i had it going and my amp kept shutting off at mid to high volume and it sounded like i had a couple of crap tens in cardboard boxes. never had this issue. i'm running a kenwood amp rated at 500rms@ 4 ohm, 900rms@ 2ohm and they were even advertised to be 1 ohm stable. i have 1/0 power cable and 2/0 ground with solid copper terminals on both ends cause i filed down a set of terminals to actually bolt into my amp. i replaced my body ground with a piece of 1/0 instead of the 4 gauge i have for my big 3. changed the subs back to 4 ohms. i'm still not picking up the really low frequencies i was getting. tuned it in, and it sounded decent. tried running at 1 ohm and blew out 2 fuses simultaneously. back to 4 ohms.

 

                                              NO CLUE WHATS HAPPENING!!!!!

is my amp taking a crap? could it be my off the shelf kenwood deck? could it just be my subs? do you have to acoustically reference each sub according to which voicecoil produces what?

                                                           NO CLUE!!!!!

 

 

[S.DeYoung 968]

Two D2 ohm subwoofers can only be wired into 8, 2, or half ohm. I bet you switched from 2 ohm to half ohm. Your amplifier will hate that.

 

It would help to know how you have your subwoofers wired together and how exactly did you set your gain.

[frogcase2002 393]

You ran it down to half an ohm not 2

[whitey 0]

well my gain is actually labeled as input sensitivity. i had it at about 2 volts, now its set at around .75 for the sake of volume. when i said 4 ohm, i had the coils in parallel subs together in series. i reversed this putting the  coils in series subs in parallel.

[S.DeYoung 968]

So you did go from 2 ohms to half ohm which your amplifier will not be able to handle. Also you can not use your input sensitivity knob as a volume knob. The level needs to be correctly set to match the output of the headunit. 

[Chris Mosionier 0]

Both of his wiring configs are 2 ohms, unless I am misreading his description....

[hdrox88 142]

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it looks like he stayed with a 2 ohm load, just turned the gain up? D2 coils in series make 4 ohm, those wired in parallel make 2 ohm, correct?

[S.DeYoung 968]

series/parallel is 2 ohm final load

 

parallel/parallel is half ohm final

[S.DeYoung 968]

and you can only wire series/parallel. Parallel/series is not an option, so I believe he is referring to parallel/parallel

[Chris Mosionier 0]

He didn't do parallel/parallel, his second config said he was coils in series subs paralleled.

[S.DeYoung 968]

He didn't do parallel/parallel, his second config said he was coils in series subs paralleled.

 

This is why it would help to know exactly how he did wire them. Rereading maybe he just reversed the polarity?

[Chris Mosionier 0]

I would definitely bet on accidentally ending up with half ohm, and I'm also fairly certain Kenwood amplifiers are normally rated to 2ohms and not necessarily even one ohm stable, let alone .5

[whitey 0]

ok i didn't know that. i'm just getting into most of the technical parts of car audio. so i just checked and the manual says the "preout level" is 2500mv @ 10k ohms is that what i'm looking for? match that on the amp?

[whitey 0]

alright i will re explain the wiring to my understanding:

 

configuration 1) i had each subwoofer's coils, wired together in parallel, red to red, black to black. each sub had a pos/neg lead on one voice coil, and i used another 2 wires to jump across to the other coil. each main pos/neg lead goes from the sub, to a terminal on the back of the box.from the amp at the terminal i have the neg wire hooked to one terminal, and the pos hooked to the other terminal with a jump wire going in between.

 

configuration 2) i had each sub's coils wired with the pos lead to the poa of coil A, and the neg to coil B and a jumper between the remaining push terminals.each sub has it's own terminal in the box. outside the box, each terminal had it's own wires providing power; no jumper wires going between since my amp has 2 pos and 2 neg terminals. ( not a 2 channel )

 

configuration 3) voice coils in parallel, terminals outside in parallel.

 

i thought configuration 1 was a 4 ohm load, configuration 2 was a 2 ohm load and configuration 3 was a 1 ohm load. 

Edited March 28, 2014 by whitey

[///M5 2,833]

POS lead.  I can't read that anyway but piece of shit.

 

Perhaps keep this simple.  Use +/- or red/black  add a A or B depending on which sub.  Would be a bit easier to follow.

[Shogen 325]

http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/rftech/woofer_wizard.asp