ICE Advice please!

[c0rowe]

Afternoon people,

I've been looking through old posts and you lot seem to know your stuff, so I thought I'd come to you for advice.

First off, I have a SEAT Toledo GT. 1993

Since buying it I have been impressed so I decided to upgrade the stereo.

In the car I have: an Alpine 7874RB Head Unit (from my old car)

The original mid's and tweeters which are surprisingly good quality speakers in the front. 6x9's in the back.

The speakers are running from a four channel amp occupying the front and rear pre-outs from the HU. But the HU also has a 4v Sub-out.

In my house I have two Rockford 3412 12" in a double box. Just waiting to go in the boot.

My dilemma is how to power the two subs. I have a Dragster two channel amp which runs at 2x 105w . Will this be enough to power the forementioned subs?

If not would it be best to fork out a large outlay to buy a high quality 2 channel amp to run them? Or to spend a little less and bridge a four channel?

I'm ok with the basics of car stereos but thought I better go with some expert opinions just in case I blow something up!!!

[Saul]

Im running one of the the 3412 rockfords at the mo in me beezer.

i think they are rated to 200W RMS, so the 2ch amp u've got will power em, but not much.

As im finding out, its all money this ICE game, ive got a punch 400 at the mo which ive bridged to run the sub and it kicks like a mule.

I think www.cel-direct.com have now got that amp at 250.

I think its cheaper than buying a higher powered 2ch.

How have u wired the subs? Parallel or in series?

[ZBOYD]

Im running a Dragster 1202 sounds the same as what you have there, thats running quite comfortably a Focal 500W RMS Subwoofer, all driven from my Alpine Headunit.

To be honest a bigger amp is always going to run two subs miles better than a smaller one. But ive found the Dragster amps to be very powerful and work well for their size, if money is an object then as Saul has said the kind of amp he is running is just what your looking for, and isn't wildly expensive.

:cheers:

[c0rowe]

The subs aren't wired up yet.

This is where I begin to get a bit lost, my mate mentioned to me something about running them parallel and forcing it into a 2ohm load to gain more power. But the subs are single voice coil and 4ohms. Now I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) I would need either 2ohm subs or 4ohms with a dual voice coil to run them this way?

[Saul]

Aye, these subs wont run @ 2ohms.

3 choices methinks.

1) Wire em up to the dragster and see what you think, they might work well having remembered how much Zboyds focal moves with his dragster powerin it.

2) Buy a new amp, audiobahn do a 2ch for £360 150Wx2@4ohms. www.audiobahinc.com or something like the rocky 4ch.

3) Buy a bass driver, dont know much about these other than Pete keeps trying to make me buy one.


Have a fiddle, and see what you come up with (sicko pervs can leave that well alone thank you)




:cheers:

[c0rowe]

I think the plan is going to have to be test the Dragster first. Lets hope it outdoes itself and provides some decent power.

If not I will have to put some pennys aside for a new amp or do some research into one of these 'bass drivers'. Because I do not have the foggiest what they are!!

Cheers for the advice

[genesis]

are you running the subs in a sealed enclosure or in a ported
enclosure ?
differance is sealed sounds a bit better but requires a lot more power ported requires less power and is more efficient but is a lot more critical about box size ,port length and tuning
id try the amp you allready have anyway but try to remember this

1 your subs have 4 ohm voicecoils
2 your amp will not drive at 1 ohm
(if you wire two 4 ohm speakers together in parrellel you get 2 ohms but you are wanting to bridge the output on your amplifier
therfore the amplifier will see a 1 ohm load )
3 you must wire your subs in series so the amplifier will see
the proper impedance then bridge your amplifier to mono
this way you should have no trouble at all
4 when its all done have a listen if you personally like the sound then dont bother upgrading if your not quite happy and you think you cold use a little more power then upgrade the amplifier
would reccomend the new phoenix gold amps or possibly if money is o.k one of the genesis profile series amps