BuickMike's audio install thread

[BuickMike]

Your subs are rated to handle a total of 150w rms for the pair. Because they are in a ported box you don't want to grossly over power them either. If it were a sealed box I'd say go for it. I have found that ISO loaded subs have more excursion but not as much as a sealed box so ISO would only give a little more power handling. Not sure I'd put over twice what the subs are rated for on them in the ported or ISO box. I'd have no problems putting 200-250wrms on the pair in the ported box but more than that and you may burn the voice coils to easily. Why not bridge the rear channels of the Xtant on the subs giving them 200wrms and run the mids/highs on the front channels of the Xtant since you like how that amp sounds better? Even if your subs are 4Ω you could series them to 8Ω and run the gain twice as high on the sub channels as the highs channels.

Amps are rated to give different power at different impedance loads but the truth is that they will deliver their full power to any load. The output capabilities of an amp is determined by how much current the transistors can produce. Reducing the impedance of the speakers does the same thing as increasing the input gain to the amp as far as producing power goes. Both of these methods tax the output transistors for more current which produces more power. Keeping the amp with a load that it is designed to operate under is important to protect the internal circuitry of the amp but it can be worked around as well. You are always safe going up in impedance and compensating by adding input gain within reason. Run that Xtant at 8Ω bridged and the gains twice as high as the gains on the mid/high channels. One amp and a simple clean install that sounds good to you.

Hey Clay, I checked the specs on those subs and they are actually rated at 150W RMS each. I tried them in series bridged and it worked better, but they are severely underpowered. On top of that, they don't punch, but rather just resonate deeply. I was thinking about porting them higher to see how that worked, but decided to plug the ports just for fun to see what happens. All I can say is WOW!!!! They hit hard and tight, go deep, and are still musical. I tried one in a .7 foot ported enclosure and it sounded choked up, but they perform fantastic in the larger 1.3ft enclosure. I am going to work on playing with a second amp mounted to the front of the box so I can dedicate one to these.

 

[Nasty Wendy]

Trial and error...sometimes there is no replacement for it. You can feed them more power in the sealed box.

 

[BuickMike]

Yep. I first heard the Audiophiles back in the day in sealed boxes and was impressed. That was 2 12" subs in 1 cufic ft enclosures each. They were a little too tight but no bad. My box with these is perfect. Tight and still deep. I will probably dedicate the Xtant to these. That should be about 150-175W RMS per sub. I will try my Lanzar on the components.

 

[BuickMike]

Hmm, so I tried bridging the front channels of the Xtant to one sub and rear channels to the other. I put my Lanzar 50 in to power the components. It didn't work out well. I went back to putting the subs on the rear channels in series and the rest on the front channels of the Xtant. I then realized that the jumpers inside the amp were not set correctly. Way to low for the voltage I'm feeding them. I fixed that and how it is really clean. I'm calling this one a done deal.

 

[Nasty Wendy]

Well it's a done deal....for now. Lol

 

[BuickMike]

My gn is too noisy with all the poly mounts for me to go further. I'm turning my attention to my wrx now.

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[BuickMike]

So I started messing around a bit more. Big changes that I'm working on. I sold the Eclipse headunit and replaced it with a newer, but still old Panasonic unit for now. I ended up making the enclosure smaller so each sub is about .85 sealed. I then swapped the Xtant for a Sundown Audio SAX100.4 to feed everything more power. Still bridged at 8 ohms and still a bit weak IMO.

Then I realized that I just have no good path for bass into the car. I removed the rear fill speakers and it was better. I faced the subs forward and it finally sounded close to what I wanted. It was at that point that I was hearing some distortion. Then I yanked the Sundown amp and swapped in my old school Lanzar OptiDrive 100 and 50. The 50 goes to the fronts and the 100 is bridged at 2 ohms to the subs. DAAAAMN!!! I'm really getting somewhere here. I'm going to play around with some other sub options and redo the amps / sub box. More to come in a few weeks.

 

[rag231]

Luckily you have box building and install skills. The average person would be shelling out a ton of $$$$$ on just a few of the installs that you have shown us. Have you checked the cones on your rear deck speakers lately just to make sure that they haven't started to split at the cones? Those small woofers in the same air chamber as your big subs are the weak links, air leaks are your friend at the moment.

 

[BuickMike]

Finally cooling off here in AZ and I finished up the new setup. I had my Lanzar heatsinks powdercoated black and had my buddy make red vinyl decals for them. I mounted them to the back of the sub box and used chipboard and carpet to cover up the wiring and make it look clean.