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Thread: Complete system upgrade.

  1. Back To Top    #31
    Human Gatorade's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    Okay fellas, Some of you guys have been extremely helpful in broadening my car audio understanding, and I appreciate that very much, thank you. But as it seems it looks like my electrical setup is going cost more than I thought. My car audio stash is looking smaller the more I learn. To start off with should I go with the big 3 and a h.o. alt, or leave the stuff under the alone and get a 2nd battery in the back? Another thing, I was looking at a 12v 250 amp alt made by Delco for $170. Will this alt supply the power for 2500 rms. I plan on doing some other stuff with my electrical, but that could be in the not so near future. I made a deal with my wife that if I put this system in my truck she could get new flooring in the house. Yeah I'm about to be broke! Lol. Anyway what combination would work best for awhile...new alt, big 3, or stock alt 2nd battery, or stock alt with an adjustable voltage boast module, maybe a 12 to 16v converter somewhere in the mix. I'm working with $300. I just want to get a setup that will bang. I don't know enough yet to choose the best combo. There's so much information and I work 55hrs a week to support my family, little time, little pockets.
    Last edited by Gatorade; 10-13-2017 at 10:40 PM.

  2. Back To Top    #32
    Procrastinator beak81champ's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    Take a look at the CAB1600.1 amps. There are youtube vids of those things doing over 3000 watts, plus they are only $199! Also, take a look at the Dark Audio Industries DKI line of subs. 1000 watts rms for around $200 each. Might make a great little set up with amp and subs for $600! I have a pair of the NKO-12's (600 rms), although I've never powered them, the build quality seems very solid.
    Kenwood DDX9903S, Arc PS-8 w/PSC, Arc Audio 1200.6, Helix SPXL1000, Audiofrog GB12D4(2) IB, GB60, GB25, GB10

  3. Back To Top    #33
    Owner BigAl205's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    Okay, this is a true story: one of my co-workers wanted me to come out and check out his new rims after work. I went out and saw these big 22" chrome monstrosities on a 70's Monte Carlo, and since I knew he worked hard to pay for them and was so proud, I told him they looked great (I lied). After talking cars and stuff for a few minutes, I got ready to head home. He stopped me and asked me to help him push his car out of the parking space, the reverse was jacked up on his transmission.

    The moral of the story is that when your budget is slim, spend your money wisely.

    Instead of worrying about high-output alternators, extra batteries, and the like, just get your system installed and then determine if you need the rest. A 2500W system is only going to put out 2500W when you're playing test tones at full volume. Most of the time (at regular listening volume), the system is only putting out 200-300W. If you get your system installed and find that you have electrical issues such as lights dimming or weak battery, then start doing electrical upgrades. You could start with the Big 3 because it's cheap, but forget about upgraded alternators, extra batteries, etc. for now.

  4. Back To Top    #34

    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    at the risk of...


    I don't have confidence in your understanding of parallel vs. series wiring schemes, Gatorade.

    if you would go look at bcae.com, the tutorials are easy to follow and may give you some ammo to help me believe your ohm-fu is strong.

    the idea that simply swapping vehicles with the same equipment leads to amps going into protect and new problems, makes me believe the new install is perhaps, in error somewhere. Usually it's a bad ground path, something as simple as the body to frame rail ground strap that came stock with the vehicle, not sufficient in gauge could bottle neck the amp flow to the battery/alt power source.

    grinding the paint off instead of scraping lightly with a dull pocket knife, etc.

    making tight crimps, all large gauge terminals should be strong enough to almost lift yourself from, little set screws ln amps should compress copper strands to indent the bare ends with a circle...

    once you've gone twice through all your connections, pulling, pushing, twisting, to check for tight, then you can attach GD at the battery and see what you've got.

    it's usually very simple and rare that a component dies or goes bad just from moving to another vehicle.

    as for the dreaming about subs and amps and all, just try to get your head around the ohm law, and be less eager to just jump in on e-experience, also known as "I read it on the internet"

    you'll be better off long term, if you can make a couple of passes through that BCAE site, and see another step in the process instead of just extrapolating what one install took, (in electrical demands) over what your install will require.

  5. Back To Top    #35
    Dickhead SublimeZ's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    Quote Originally Posted by Gatorade View Post
    Anyway what combination would work best for awhile...new alt, big 3, or stock alt 2nd battery, or stock alt with an adjustable voltage boast module, maybe a 12 to 16v converter somewhere in the mix. I'm working with $300. I just want to get a setup that will bang. I don't know enough yet to choose the best combo. There's so much information and I work 55hrs a week to support my family, little time, little pockets.
    Look at your negative battery cable. Wimpy, right? This feeds your entire system plus all other vehicle electrical demand.

    Start with improved grounds. 1/0 from neg battery post to frame and neg post to engine block...

    I usually run 3 amps. A mono in the 1k-1200 rms range, a big 4 channel bridged to mids and a small 2 channel. With improved grounds and the biggest AGM battery that will fit stock location, no need for other electrical upgrades.

    Good luck


  6. Back To Top    #36
    Human Gatorade's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    I'm doing a lot of research today, and it's getting clearer. But there's one thing I just can't get to the root of. All the wiring diagrams I've looked at say wiring 2 ohm subs parallel creates a 0.5 ohm load to the amp, but in verbage it talks about half ohm impedance, and the kicker product mannel says it's a 1 ohm load. I don't want to damage anything.

  7. Back To Top    #37
    Owner BigAl205's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    Forget about the word "subwoofer" for a minute and think strictly about voice coils. All subs have either one or two voice coils (sometimes 4), and each voice coil has its own impedance rating, usually 4, 2, or 1 ohm each.

    When you wire similarly rated voice coils in parallel (+ to + and - to-), you divide the impedance by the number of voice coils. For instance, if you have a 4ohm VC and you run it parallel to another 4ohm VC, the total ohm value drops to 2ohms. If you wire four 4ohm VC's in parallel, you end up with a total of 1 ohm. If you wired three 4ohm VC's in parallel, you would end up with a total of 1.33ohms.

    When you wire similarly rated voice coils in series (-of one VC to + of another), it adds all of the ohm values. Example, if you wire two 4 ohm voice coils in series, you end up with 8ohms. Two 1ohm VC's in series produce a 2ohm load.

    Having said that...a sub with dual 2ohm VC's can be wired to either produce 1ohm (if the VC's are wired in parallel), or 4ohms (if the VC's are wired in series). So, if you took a pair of subs with dual 2ohm voice coils and wired everything in parallel, it would all produce .5ohm. But, if the subs only had single 2ohm VC's, then wiring them in parallel would produce a 2ohm load.

    Now, to add a little bit of complication to the matter, if you had a sub with dual 2ohm voice coils, and wired the VC's in series, you would have 4ohms, but if you wired two of these subs in parallel with each other, it would produce a 2ohm load overall. This is known as a series-parallel circuit.

  8. Back To Top    #38

    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    also, the impedance seen by a 2 channel amp is stated in stereo, with regards to minimum impedance guidelines.

    that's why you can get confused also, because a 1 channel amp, known as a mono amp, doesn't freak out when you put it's minimum impedance on it.

    the stereo amp, by virtue of having 2 channels, when operated in a mono or bridged configuration, (also, mono and bridged, haha) will get wooly if you transpose the stereo minimum impedance rating to the bridged rating without considerations...

    the 2 ohm stable stereo amp, is hurt by 2 ohm mono installation.

    see there?

  9. Back To Top    #39

    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    the kicker manual says 1 ohm, because that's what 2 ohm coils in parallel is, half the impedance of one coil.

    the reason it might be confusing is when you use a 2 channel amp, and you bridge 2 ohm coils but want to say what the stereo impedance turns out to be, you have to assume it takes two 1 ohm final impedances at each channel, left and right. This means the bridged impedance on that amp is now 1/2 ohm, since you are basically wiring in parallel when you bridge a stereo amp.

  10. Back To Top    #40
    ~Paw~Paw})]<^>¥ Hic's Avatar
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    Re: Complete system upgrade.

    You are in effect using each half of the sine wave , as viewed on ocilloscope .
    Viewing Smilies , you trying to access privileged system?¤Somewhere 0ut There¤}]

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