Stere guru's...amp question.

Got Smoke?

Got Smoke?

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Oct 8, 2006
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Hey stereo nuts..I have a question I'm curious the answer too.

I had a Profile 600 watt 2 channel amp I ran my two 10" Kicker CVR's on. I let a buddy of mine wire it up for me when I put it in my current truck (99) a few months ago and he wired it down to 1ohm and needless to say I fried the amp. :badidea:

Went to the local electronic express after it happened trying to figure out what to do ,and the only amps they had that went down to 1ohm were $400+! :eek:

I'm just curious which is better for just a budget quality sound system.

1) A larger watt amp that only goes down to 2ohm's
or
2) A lesser watt amp that goes down to 1ohm?

Thanks!
 
It depends on the load configuration you come up with. Obviously the lower the ohm's the harder it is on the amp (0 ohm's is a dead short by the way, most people don't know that). I would look at a mono-block amp for driving subs. Lot of power (more efficient too as far as power consumption) for a lot less $ than a stereo amp. The mono-blocks are class "D" amps if I remember correctly, class A is the best for sound quality. Bass does not require a "quality signal" in my book. I have herd these amps on subs, and can hardly tell any difference in sound quality. What ever you do do not drive any amp under the recommended Ohm, the ratings are their for a reason as you found out.
 
dieselduck said:
It depends on the load configuration you come up with. Obviously the lower the ohm's the harder it is on the amp (0 ohm's is a dead short by the way, most people don't know that). I would look at a mono-block amp for driving subs. Lot of power (more efficient too as far as power consumption) for a lot less $ than a stereo amp. The mono-blocks are class "D" amps if I remember correctly, class A is the best for sound quality. Bass does not require a "quality signal" in my book. I have herd these amps on subs, and can hardly tell any difference in sound quality. What ever you do do not drive any amp under the recommended Ohm, the ratings are their for a reason as you found out.
Click to expand...

How do I distinguish between the two different types, and where do I look for "mono-block" amp's?

As for my amp....I didn't know what my buddy did...I was trusting in his experience in doing many stereo's and it bit me in the butt.:kick:
 
By the way the 1 ohm amps came about as "cheater amps" for sound off's. I still have an Orion HCCA 225 (the red ones from 20 years ago). The idea was that say my 225 (2ch x25WRMS @ 4 ohm) was entered in competition in the 50watt class, but loaded down to 1 ohm it would put out over 400 wrms. The drawback was the cost of the amp, and they used a ton of power. that HCCA 225 will pull over 35 amps of power loaded down.
 
I still have 2 of them in the closet. Used to run a pair of 18" RF subs in an extended cab Nissan truck in a huge ported enclosure tuned to about 35hz IIRC
Could literally be heard about 5 miles away. LOL
And I wonder why Im 1/2 deaf. LOL
 
Got Smoke? said:
How do I distinguish between the two different types, and where do I look for "mono-block" amp's?

As for my amp....I didn't know what my buddy did...I was trusting in his experience in doing many stereo's and it bit me in the butt.:kick:
Click to expand...

Your buddy probably wired the subs in parallel ( pos to pos/ neg to neg) instead of series ( pos to neg, like a flashlight with multiple battery's). Parallel forces the amp to work harder putting out more power/heat. Heat probably got you.

Go to crutchfield.com they have some excellent explanations of technical electronics on their site.

A mono-block is going to be a 1 channel bass amp (mono = 1). Do some searching online, I'm sure you can find something to suit your needs.
 
UNBROKEN said:
I still have 2 of them in the closet. Used to run a pair of 18" RF subs in an extended cab Nissan truck in a huge ported enclosure tuned to about 35hz IIRC
Could literally be heard about 5 miles away. LOL
And I wonder why Im 1/2 deaf. LOL
Click to expand...

Carefull your going to give away your age. Wait I just did!LOL
 
Got Smoke? said:
Now I'm confused....you said mono-blocks were supposed to be cheaper, but then you posted "the drawback was the cost" ??? :what:
Click to expand...

I was talking about the "cheater amps" back in my day. Please reread my post, I was just giving you some background info on the 1 ohm amp. Sorry to confuse.
 
dieselduck said:
I was talking about the "cheater amps" back in my day. Please reread my post, I was just giving you some background info on the 1 ohm amp. Sorry to confuse.
Click to expand...

Yeah I realized that after reading it again, and deleted that post. Thanks!
 
Got Smoke

I'm going to bed (I'm old you know) pm me anymore questions you have.
Goodnight

DD
 
It depends on what ohm subs you have as well....When you buy an amp it will usually be rated at say....300 watts and 4 ohms or 600 at 2 ohms...whatever ohm it's rated at is the lowest the amp is stable too. If you have two two ohms subs wired in series, it stays at a 2 ohm load, making a 600 watt stable amp at 2ohm amp run at 600 watts full tilt.
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_108R1600A/Infinity-Reference-1600a.html?tp=35834
 
If you go to a car audio store, they should try to sell you a class d or "monoblock" amp for your subs. But you dont have th buy one that is 1 ohm stable. There are not a lot of amps out there that will go to 1 ohm stable. I would suggest checking out ebay. You can buy Hifonics amps there for cheap and they are very nice amps for the money. I think their mon amps are called the Zues or Brutus. Cant remember. Its been a long time. If you wanted a higher end amp, I would recommend a Memphis or JL Audio. Kicker also offers some pretty nice amps now days for a good price.
 
Tru Technologies Billet B8
Thatll run your whole system. :D

It's high on my wish list. LOL
 
UNBROKEN said:
Tru Technologies Billet B8
Thatll run your whole system. :D

It's high on my wish list. LOL
Click to expand...

Yea. Or a Brax. I'd be willing to bet those are gonna be out of most peoples price range for an amp. LOL. Maybe a Memphis Belle would be more economically appropriate. Back in the day, i would have owned a Tru. But when i look back on my life in car audio, i realize that i probably could have built a very nice home for the money i blew on that chit. It makes me a little nauseous. Come to think of it, the big US Amp is still hiding in the shop somewhere. Damn, I can ebay that and buy some diesel parts. LOL
 
Blacksdieselhp said:
Yea. Or a Brax. I'd be willing to bet those are gonna be out of most peoples price range for an amp. LOL. Maybe a Memphis Belle would be more economically appropriate. Back in the day, i would have owned a Tru. But when i look back on my life in car audio, i realize that i probably could have built a very nice home for the money i blew on that chit. It makes me a little nauseous. Come to think of it, the big US Amp is still hiding in the shop somewhere. Damn, I can ebay that and buy some diesel parts. LOL
Click to expand...

HA HA, O wait, I can relate, except my Orion, Soundstream, amps are in the attic.

I thought about selling, but I hate to give away good stuff for cheep.
 
Yea, Orion and Soundstream used to have some awesome stuff. Probably be hard to come by any of it now. Thats why the US Amp is still laying around here somewhere. I'll probably never touch it again, but at least if I do need one, I wont have to spend $3500 for one that will do what it will do.
 
I ran a Fosgate 2ohm, 2 channel amp on some old fosgate paper subs for 3 years. Hit like hell for 2 10's. Got if from a cousin who bought it all new, it was 6 years old when I plugged it back in. That 2ohm 2 channel would get so damn hot under the seat its not funny. Burnt my hand a few times. Finally one sub gave, and the amp's circut board melted. In place of it I bought a 1ohm Memphis (cant remember the name of it for the life of me) amp and it was an animal on 2 10's. And the price was not too terribly bad.


Can't beat them old school beats on old school bump!
 
I could be off, but based on what you said I am assuming these are the subs you have, and in the dual 4ohm configuration, 07CVR104 - Kicker 10" 600 Watt 4 Ohm DVC CompVR Subwoofer

So thats dual 4ohm 300w RMS subs, you would be looking for an amp that will be stable at 2ohms per sub and 300w per channel, or a mono amp stable to 1ohm at 600w.

Wiring each sub to its own channel like this,
1_4ohmDVC_2ohm.gif


or wiring the pair to a mono amp like this,

2_4ohmDVC_1ohm.gif



I always had luck with Profile California series amps and they have a good reputation for budget amps, but obviously running them below their rating will let the smoke out. I had a AP2000 for a while that was great, but it was a monster.

Some good budget amps to look at would be Hifonics, they are a little over rated power wise but not by much. You have lots of choices though, a mono block with 600w RMS at 1ohm, a 2-channel amp with 300w at 2ohm per channel (pricey) or a 4-channel amp that will do 300wx2 when bridged.

This right here would fit the bill quite nicely, and not break the bank, ZXi6008 - Hifonics 2 Ch 600 Watt Zeus Amplifier



UNBROKEN said:
Tru Technologies Billet B8
Thatll run your whole system. :D

It's high on my wish list. LOL
Click to expand...

:drool1: that'll go nicely in your truck with the rest of the billet
 
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