ok, so i got a pretty good deal on 2 subs a box and an amp from best buy. 2-12's and an 1100 watt amp and a sealed box.

its my very first system, and i installed it myself. before that i knew absolutely nothing about systems other than they sounded good. so it took me about 6 hours to get it all hooked up and working. about a week later i learned about bridging my amp and i did that and i was blown awayby the difference it made. i also heard about connecting the subs within the box to make it even louder. you guys talked a little about it in the thread below mine, the one about the remote wire. but i still dont understand how it all works. do i cut like extra speaker wire and just twist it together with the wires that come out of the subs? + to + and - to -? if anyone's got some time and they could jus give me a step by step so i dont mess anything up.

i also have one more question. what are the pro's and con's of ported boxes?

thanks a lot guys

 

well i would do a ported box just cause i love them but there are things to consider first cause some subs dont go good in ported...just let us know what all brands you got and we can help you out.....Im sure stumasters will step in and let you know some more,he is the dedicated audio man for the week...lol

 

lmao. yes i've noticed that. he has like 8 posts on every thread. ha. but he seems to know his stuff forwards n backwards so thats cool..

all the audio in my car matches. its all sony xplod (the head unit and speakers were in there when i got the car.. then i installed the subs)

so i have the sony xplod amp 1100 watts i believe (which i find really hard to believe. i dont think there's any way that that amp could put out 1100 watts. i got the 2 1200 watt 12" subs to match the amp (it was a package deal. 300 for everything but the wiring kit).

the system sounds good. it hits hard and all. but being that i learned everything i know about subs when i installed them... im afraid that if i try to do anything extreme that i'll mess somethin up and be out 300 bux on account of my stupidity. haha

 

No amp put's out what it says it does in watts (for more than a half a second), go by RMS.. anywho, those sony amps are really, really good for there price, plus you can return them to wal-mart if they break.. (i have a 4 channel and a 2 channel, both still work fine, in a pretty damn good system I gotta say). Alot of the reason "better" amps cost more is that there more efficent.. if you dont care about your lights dimming, or the amp overheating, or losing power, or running the stereo when the cars off, its not a HUGE deal.. Alot of sony stuff is like that... great for the money, but.. not great in comparison to other, more expensive stuff (though alot of people would probably disagree).... sorry rambling.. anywho.. I can help you with your second question a bit.

Ported boxes Pros:
More vibration (most people like more, some dont)
A more mature wave
I think there louder.. personally.. im not sure if thats correct.

Cons:
Will wear out your subs faster (not as big of a deal if you buy high end alpines and such, but, if you have lower quality ones with paper cones and the like, it will definatly decrease there life)
Less reactive.. not sure how to phrase it, but a sealed box will react very slightly (milliseconds) quicker drum beats (if you like rock, and dont listen to rap or anything, lots of people perfer sealed boxes for that)
Sealed have a bit cleaner sound.

If you look up "sub box comparison" you can probably find a page dedicated to it, I had a link to a decent article.. lost it.. sorry.

 

If you can get me a link to the exact speakers you have, and box, and amp, I can probably help with the wiring more.

What I need to know most is if they are single, or dual voice coils, and at what resistance "ohms" they operate, 2ohm, or 4ohm., also the RMS wattage, and Peak power wattage of both the subs, and the amp.

A link at bestbuy would be the best, I will re-check this thread again in a few.

BTW, my first set-up was a set of Re-built MTX Thunder 15's in a truck box, with a 400 watt Sony first edition amp.. I think sony is a great choice for a first system! I moved there to Pioneer Wal-mart subs, then up to Kicker, then JL

 

Here's what I found just by looking, let me know if this is what you have.

Sony Subs http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1134701343151

Sony Amp http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1134701343037

That amp is listed as 1200watts, I didn't see a package deal, it might just be at your best buy, that happends.

If you have something different let me know

Here's the box link to CA - Tells you a brief of each box type

 

um... you're real close stu. those are my subs, but i have 12's not 10's. and im almost positive that my amp is 1100 watts not 1200. and yea the package i got was like a sunday sale paper thing. it was just the week before christmas. i looked on bestbuy.com and i found the same stuff you did. but those arent what i have.

i found the closest sub to the ones i have on sony.com. heres the link. this one says that it can handle 1300w tho. mine is only 1200.
http://sm.crutchfield.com/S-UqsbpceB...mp;I=158XSL123

and my amp was not on sony.com so im not sure if you'll be able to tell me anything. im just wondering how exactly i go about wiring my subs within my box.

 

Yeah, I noticed that they didn't have the same set-up online, sometimes their website is lacking to tell you the truth.

The more and more I look at these diagrams, the more I notice that it looks like they are bridging all the amps. Your amp is cool bridged at 4ohms, but the only way you can wire them is to 2 or 8, and 8 would sound like ****.

I am gonna have to say since its a 2 channel amp, just use option 1 here. Wire 1 sub up, just as it looks, + to + and - to - on 1 channel, and the other do the same thing. It will be a pretty straight forward setup, but your amp will see 2 ohms, and thus you will get more power.

If you were to bridge the amp, you would be running 2 ohms, which could, over time, dammage the subs or the amp. Try it normaly and see what you get.

I need to polish up on my reading about the effect of bridging on resistance loads. If I learn something different I will get back to you on that.

Wiring them normaly will get you the best power without bridging, and should be plenty loud!

 

Ok scratch that, it appears that if you wire them normaly, each channel of the amp will view a 4 ohm load, which means the speakers will only get about 1/2 the available power. I should have known that, duhh..

The only other option is to bridge the amp, which I don't want to suggest to you, because I am honestly not sure how it will hold up to that kind of power.

Since you figured out how to bridge it on your own, and noticed an increase in sound, you are probably already getting all the power you can. The correct way to bridge your set-up would be both speaker positive leads, to 1, L or R positive lead, and then both negative leads to the other negative lead, in other words you will run both subs on the left channel positive, and both subs on the right channel negative. If you try moving wiring around in your box, you are going to end up with 8 ohms, which will sound twice as bad as the first time you hooked it up.

Just remember, your amp is only "stable" when bridged to 4 ohms, you are technicaly pushing it beyond its production parameters. It may last that way for 10 years, and it could burn out in 1. Sadly, there is no way to get a 4ohm bridged load with your speakers :-(

With dual 4 ohm SVC subs, It would honestly be better to have a mono amp, something thats 1 channel. Think you could afford to swap it for something mono ?

Thats one big thing that bothers me, You buy a system, and think, wow this thing is going to kick, and then when you get down to the anatomy of the electrical systems, you realize that you didn't get exactly what you paid for. A high powered amp is awesome, but it has to be paired with the right speakers to reach its potential. The resistance raiting on subs makes it hard sometimes to get a perfect match.

It bothers me even more that stores pair this stuff together and sell it, whether they just don't know, or don't care, they are just hurting the industry. I wish I could smack some sense into some of them :-)

 

haha. well thanks a lot stu. yea i have my amp bridged the way you said. both positive to the left positive. and both negative to the left negative. as far as burning out my amp, i dont see it happening. i dont really listen to it loud. cuz most of the time my girlfriend is in the car n she cant stand the bass. but all in all im not really lookin to make it rediculously loud. i just want it to sound as good and clean as possible. loud is just a plus. but thanks for all your help