Car Audio - Amp suggestions.

[Junster]

Two main amp killers are too small power wires going to them and improper speaker wiring. DC voltage gets huge drops over short distances. Use fat 6ga. on a 200watt amp, 4 or 2 gauge on a 1000w. 1ga or 0ga on a 2000w. Don't forget the ground wire has to be at least half the size of the power wire or bigger. If you have a big sub and at idle when the sub hits hard you see the headlights dim that is bad. To low of a power pulse can turn your dc to ac and blow the amp that why ppl install a big capacitor in the + side of the power wire. Fuses are critical when the wires are this big. A short can set your car on fire. The other killer is wiring the speakers so you inadvertently drop the OHM load down to 1 or less. The less OHM loading the more power that gets returned to the amp on the - side. This is why a 1 OHM rated amp is so costly cause the internal components have to be much larger and heavy duty to dissipate the returning power that gets turned to heat. A "dual coil" sub is a good example. it's usually rated at 4 OHMs. Each coil is 4 OHM. If you jump + on one terminal to - on the other, then + on the amp to one and - on the amp to the other it's now a 8 OHM speaker (easy on the amp but not as loud). Hook both + together then to the amp, both - together then to the amp now it's a 2 OHM speaker. Louder by far but hard on the amp. Do the 2 OHM thing then "bridge" the amp? Now it's a 1 OHM load, crank it up and you better have a expensive amp or it will melt it. Parallel connections (+ to+) half the OHM. Series connections (+ to -) double the OHM. As far as power of the amp? to get a 10" sub to make good thump takes about 250watts. To get twice what 250 delivers takes 1200watts. Good box design makes a sub thump. Good wiring keeps your stuff working.