audiophiles, please help

35th_tbird

Registered User
i have a problem with my subwoofer setup. it plays like normal for a while then it just cuts out to trake a break then it kinda of fades in, but rather quickly. i'm thinking that the amp is overheating, stopping to cool off, then coming back in. i had the gain all the way up at first but then i lowered to a little less than half and it still has this problem, but it takes longer for it to cut out. i'm getting really aggrivated with it so i'm here asking for help.

oh, and i have an audiobahn 1251q subwoofer (entry level, but i really like it, people think it's two 12's) wired is parallel powered by an ma audio 400 watt max amp, i can't remember to number but it was bottom line amp. thanks for any help
 
How many ohms is the sub the way you have it wired? Put a meter on it to make sure. Once you get that check and see what your amp is capable of pushing. If the amp is only stable to 4 ohms and you've got your sub wired to run at 2 ohms you will have problems with the amp.
 
How do you hook up the subs to handle different ohms, and same thing on the amp side? I dont see any switches anywhere on mine.. :(
 
If you have a dual voice coil sub and wire both voice coils together it will change the resistance of the sub. If you have a 4 ohm dual voice coil sub you can end up with either a 2 ohm or an 8 ohm sub depending on how you connect the two.

As far as the amp, they're built to push a range of speaker loads like 4 ohm to 8 ohm, 2 ohm to 4 ohm, etc. I haven't seen many low end amps that are actually stable with a 2 ohm load. The lower the resistance the more volume you get but the more power the sub sucks from the amp. You see a lot of fried amps from people cranking 2 ohm subs.
 
another option if ur running the dvc sub 4ohm is to add 1 more sub--the majority of amplifiers out there will run a 2 ohm stereo load with no problem--its when you go down further to say 2 ohm mono load that amps struggle. I suppose ur prob could be elsewhere-but i think mod is right gl josh
 
thanks for your help. i think that's probably what the problem is. the sub is 4 ohm dvc and the amp probably isn't stable to 2 ohms mono, which is how i have it wired. here's another question: coul i just run one of the voice coils or would it be better to change it to s series wiring to get 8 ohms mono? i really like my bass how it is now, but i would be MUCH happier with less bass that will play forever instead of the cutting out i have now. i could also turn the bass up on the head unit as well. right now it's at zero. so thanks again and which config would be better for me to do?
 
I'd run the amp two channel, one to each voice coil. It'll be a stable 4 ohm load your amp shouldn't have any problem with.
 
it's a two channel amp. i think i'll try the 8 ohms mono first. then if i don't like that, i'll try the two channel method. thanks to all for your help.
 
Do not run ur dvc subs voice coils to seperate stereo channels-this may in fact play but only till disaster strikes--the voice coils must work together in mono-running them on seperate stereo channels can cause sub blow out--how about changing your amp out to a new mono block amp?--Ive installed a few and have been very happy with the results. Just yesterday I installed a bazooka 600w mono amp to 2 12 in. 4 ohm subs--the amp was running 2 ohm mono and plenty of power--I think the customer paid 160.- for the amp. Just a thought g/l
 
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