What amplifier for the most BOOM?

[Cashdollar2009]

As you can see in my signature, i have two Petra Prowler 15" subwoofers. My problm is that i do not feel that i am getting enoug power from my amplifier. I used to have an 800watt Visonik amp hooked up with 16ga. cable in my Blazer. Once i got the Alero i switched to a 2400watt Visonik amp with 4ga. cable and noticed minimal difference. Also, i added a 5 farad Power Acoustik capacitor t this amp and i'm still not getting much more power. What i am looking for is A LOT more boom from my subs. What is the best/ most reasonable amplifier out there right now for a relatively cheap price? If not a specific amp, what brand is generally know to produce amps with good output power? Thanks in advance! :)

[Alero_1986]

What are the specs on that sub? are the ratings in nominal(rms) power?

I assume the visonik amp is rated 2400Watt peak(not rms) otherwise you must have quite the thirst for base to want more.

I would look into wiring with at least 0ga power and ground wire for that set-up.

[Valley olds]

Did you try bridging the subs? If your subs have 4 ohm coils, you could wire them together, and I think thatd be 2 ohms (someone correct me if Im wrong). If your amp is 2 ohm stable, it should make them thump a bit harder. Also remember, subs are not everything. With big subs, you need a big enclosure as well. If your enclosure sucks, you wont get the full potential of the subs

[Cashdollar2009]

I do not have the exact specs on me. My uncle gave them to me a few years ago as he had no need for them anymore. They were discontinued back in the mid 90's... Back then he said that he had four of them in his car running off of a 600 watt amp and hitting 140's on the dB scale. He has shown me the trophies to prove it. But i know that i am not getting anywhere around 140, and have the feeling that my amplifiers is greatly underpowering these subs. I tripled the amplifier wattage, shrink the wire from 16 to 4 gauge, and i'm not noticing much of a power gain. The amplifier is rated 600x2 at 4 ohms stereo, 1200x2 at 2 ohms stereo, and 2400x1 at 4 ohms bridged. I have my amplifier bridged to the speakers and am still not getting as much as i feel that i should?

[kwhauck]

lose the wing ricer boy......

[Valley olds]

Are you using the same enclosure as your uncle?

[Bad99Olds]

any possibility its just the subs?

[chevymuscle218]

For one, Visonik = junk! Two, search for specs on your woofers (or some times they are on the magnet on the back of the woofers) before you go hooking amps up to some speakers that you know nothing about. Just dont want you to kill em'....:rolleyes2:

[Cashdollar2009]

I suggested to him that it may be the subs, but he insisted that the amplifiers may not have been "quality" enough. They are Visonik, which may not be a premier brand, but i don't know, considering i have never used or heard a different brand pushing 15's anywhere around here. His box is long gone, but i picked mine up from a swap meet a few years back. The box is solid. It's dimensions are 36"x16"x16", which i thought was reasonable enough? Heck, it was hard enough to stuff in the trunk.

[Bad99Olds]

It could be the amps, for sure. But I have a sneaking suspicion is the subs.

[Valley olds]

For now, just try to see if other cheaper things will fix your problem. Try bridging it, adjust your crossover, bass boost on stereo, etc... And like I said before the enclosure is VERY important. It is probably as important as the subs themselves. I experienced this first hand when I changed enclosures. If all this fails, and your subs are working properly, then go for a new amp. Id go with a Well known brand. Punch, Memphis, Kicker, etc... When buying an amp also, dont pay too much atenttion to the max wattage, just the RMS and at what resistance the rms is achieved.


-Just saw your enclosure specs. That is pretty small front to back. I think my box for 300 w rms10's is as big front to back as yours for 15's.

[GA_turbo]

change your box, trust me on this, i did comps for a few years before i fot in the racing world and i was always in the top 3 spl in my class.

Also what do you have the amp tuned at and your deck, what voltage are your RCAs running at, wich way do you have your subs facing, ect ect ect to much to list to try to help but like i said do a diferent box.

if anything take a pic of the trunk set up to see whats going on.

[Cashdollar2009]

Alright sounds great. I'll do my best to figure out the ratings of my subs from my uncle tonight and put them up sometime. The problem is that he lives in Arizona and i'm in PA, as well as the subs being disontinued, try searching for them online... :( ... Thanks again for all of the help! :) I love being able to get helpful advice from a good bunch of Alero owners! :)

[Cashdollar2009]

These are the only two pictures that i have on the computer at the moment. The head unit is the Kenwood kdc-mp238 with subwoofer control. I will have to double-check but i think my amps lpf is set at 50Hz, but i'll have to double check it in the morning.

[GA_turbo]

Ok so i found some info and they are like 400-to 600 watts rms, also i found your pics online of your box and thats about all you really could use so you dont blow them, if you go ported they will fry, they only said that those only had a 13mm of excursion wich in lame terms, you want more bass get new subs its not the amps fault.
set the amp to 80hz and also on the deck.

found this

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u44/daescort2/HPIM0722.jpg&imgrefurl=http://audioforum.termpro.com/topic/8/25897.html&usg=__X6JxKwQMK0YlcxIN_bx9EwTgN2c=&h=480&w=640&sz=94&hl=en&start=20&um=1&tbnid=Qr5kGeQybSOutM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3D15%2522%2BPetra%2BProwler%26hl%3Den%2 6sa%3DG%26um%3D1

[Cashdollar2009]

Here is the amplifier and capacitor...

[GA_turbo]

i know what you want for bass but those are not going to cut it, how they sound thats about it, you cant get anything below 32hz give or take with those. Sell those and get 2 12s and make your own ported box, it will sound 20 times better than the 15s you got.

[GA_turbo]

your amp specs.



PB Series 2-Channel Class AB Car Amplifier
RMS Power Rating:
4 ohms: 275 watts x 2 chan.
2 ohms: 560 watts x 2 chan.
Bridged, 4 ohms: 1110 watts x 1 chan.
Max power output: 1200 watts x 2 chan.
LED power and protection indicators
Tuned Bass EQ (0-18 dB bass boost)
Bridgeable operation
Metallic finish and plating
Variable high-pass filter (50-250 Hz)
Variable low-pass filter (50-250 Hz)
Dimensions: 15.24" L x 9.06" W x 2.17" H

[AleroDrime]

it couldn't hurt to loose the excess wire, and trim things down, also it would clean up the look of your system

[Cashdollar2009]

Honestly, i have been contemplating two 12's for a while now. I love these because it was my "first" system. I guess that's why i am so hesitant to change. I'll stick with these til i save up the money to get something new. Any suggestions for subs? And possibly size suggestion for the box? By the way, thanks for the insightful help GA_turbo, i appreciate it!

[GA_turbo]

no problem glad i can help. Now for subs there are tons of options out there but if you are keeping that same amp you could run some kickers comp vr dual 4ohm voice coil those are 500watts rms and they will sound pretty good, also you can get some LANZAR 12 but they etheir have to be the OPTI series or the MAX series those are the only 2 from LANZAR i would recomend. ( All of this is if you are on a budget ) i can give you crazier options lol.

[chevymuscle218]

if your looking for bang for your buck, I would get a pair of these - http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_8878_Kenwood+KFC-W3514DVC.html

[Ryan from Ohio]

Please refer to this thread for many face palm pictures:
http://www.aleromod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26908

You need professional help...

16 Ga power wire???????? :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

O'rly?

Ok...

4 Ga power is on the small side for 1200 WRMS, which is what your amp is 'supposed' to do, but it doesnt...

Next your ground wire is to long. Cut that thing down.

If these subs are as old as I think they are probably only single voice coil. Probably just 4 Ohms per sub. So for wiring the lowest Ohm rating you will get is 2 Ohms.

Boxes... Theres more to it than just looking at it thinking "its big enough". One doesnt just cut a hole in a box and call it "ported".

www.bcae1.com Read until your eyes bleed. Everything you need to know about car audio is there waiting.

[Redog]

Where in PA are you?

[Cashdollar2009]

When i put my system in at first, i was a sophmore in high-school, therefore my controlling father insisted that the $14 wiring kit with 16ga. wire was all that i needed and aloud to spend my money on. I understand it was stupid, but not much that i could have done at the time. I'm liking the looks of those kenwood KFC-W3514DVC's on sonicelectronix's website. Anyway Redog, i'm from Hadley. It's about 10 miles out of Greenville in northeast PA. Small cities, i could just say about halfway between Pittsburgh and Erie. I am on a tight budget right now, paying for college isn't too fun, but audio has been an interest of mine, i just want a better sounding system. So basically what i am getting is: my amplifier is nowhere near the greatest, but is efficient enough to achieve what i am looking for as long as i get the correct subs, in the correct box. Correct?

[Ryan from Ohio]

Not correct.

Your subs are old, as in technology also.

The amp, well review it and find the true Rms of it and verify at what voltage the RMS is taken at.

Now if your buying subs, match them to the amp. unless your buying a better amp...

Box... Again this is dependent on the subs and the power available.

[chuckseabo]

A good site to check out if you haven't already is sounddomain. There is a lot of useful information there for car audio.

[Cashdollar2009]

I see i see... The conclusion i am coming to is to find a new subwoofer/bx setup. Two 12"s in a ported box posssibly. Without getting bashed too much, i've looked around a bit but, what *exactly am i looking for to match the subwoofers to my current amplifier well? For example, my specs are:

PB Series 2-Channel Class AB Car Amplifier
RMS Power Rating:
4 ohms: 275 watts x 2 chan.
2 ohms: 560 watts x 2 chan.
Bridged, 4 ohms: 1110 watts x 1 chan.
Max power output: 1200 watts x 2 chan.
LED power and protection indicators
Tuned Bass EQ (0-18 dB bass boost)
Bridgeable operation
Metallic finish and plating
Variable high-pass filter (50-250 Hz)
Variable low-pass filter (50-250 Hz)
Dimensions: 15.24" L x 9.06" W x 2.17" H

I'll have to find time to take a look around sounddomain too. :)

[Cashdollar2009]

Does anyone online have the best answer to my question of exactly what i have to look at when matching the subs to the amplifier? I've searched around the net and still haven't found the clearest of an answer yet... :/

[Ryan from Ohio]

You need to match or come close to WRMS at a given load.

For instance if your amp puts out 600 WRMS into 1 Channel @ 1 Ohm, then you would want 1,2, or 4 Subs that can wire to 1 Ohm and take the power divided by subs.

[itsbmw]

I have the same head unit.. I just bought the KCA-ip500 addon.

[chevymuscle218]

Yah if you keep that amp and want something loud, I probably would not use the Kenwood subs I suggested. They are rated at 380 watts RMS and are 4 ohm subs. At 4 ohms, your amp puts out 275 watts. In order for the subs to be "louder" it is best that they are bridged at a 2 ohm load (2 ohms is less resistance than 4 ohms, there for = more power) and your amp makes 560 watts at 2 ohms, which would be over kill for these subs. Try finding subs on the 600 watt RMS range and you will be ok.

[Cashdollar2009]

Alright, and on that note does anyone have a suggestion on a set of subwoofers in the 600 watt rms range that perform well and produce good bass for a reasonable price, or have seen anything for deals lately? Being on a budget isn't very fun.

[chevymuscle218]

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_3410_Kicker+05CVR152.html - I have one of these with a 550 RMS eclipse amp and it sounds pretty good.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Ive been looking around a bit...

Audioque has some decent subs, only 2 series to choose from but solid stuff.

American Bass has a nice sub lineup. Excellent quality also.

Massive Audio has some ok subs which is a bit more value oriented but still good quality.

Depends on the money you have available. I would get the best you can afford.

If you intend on keeping your current amp I wouldnt go hog wild/splurge here. If you plan on getting a new amp in the near future then it opens the flood gates of possibility.