| Flyin11 |
| Probably a stupid question but I was trying to figure this out...I have a Alpine MRP-M450 which is rated at 400w into a 2ohm load. I have 2 4ohm 12's paralleled to make a 2ohm load. That beaing said, do you calculate the wattage to be 200w into each speaker or do you say it is really dishing out 400w into 1? :cannotbe: |
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| glen65 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Flyin11
or do you say it is really dishing out 400w into 1? :cannotbe: |
No,
Total output power will be divided among all of the speakers
connected to it. |
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| Flyin11 |
Thanks...Of course my first order of business is getting my HU situation straight and get what I want and all but after that, maybe if the price is right, I'm thinking of getting a capacitor (Or maybe a amp change from Class D to just stereo for 2 channels or a higher wattage Class D in March after tax returns) for my amp as my headlights seem to dim with the bass hits and I just got a new battery so it's not the battery. I saw that they say a general rule of them is 1 farad per every 500w. I tried a capacitor a long time ago on a Hyundai Excel and that was on a 280w MTX Thunder amp that was only running like 78w X 2 into 3 10" subs but that didn't help at all as my lights still dimmed on that car and I got the audio place to take it out and I got my money back.
I think that was a 2 farad cap but not sure.
I just don't want to waste my money :smash: so what might someone suggest? Would a 2 fard cap be enough or I'm looking at a good price on a 5 farad cap, would that be overkill? I don't want too much but then again I don't want to get something like a 1 farad cap and it not work and I'm stuck...Any suggestions (Also any good cap brand suggestions)? |
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| richie00boy |
| Caps are a waste of time all they do is drag the system down to the dimmed level. You need to upgrade the wiring, particularly the three main earths from the battery to the car and engine. |
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| jpruden |
We should nip this in the bud right now...
Caps are, at best, a band-aid.
Your system is *really* powered by your alternator. Upgrade the alternator and you'll see the problem go away.
Without going into the BigBucks™ department, you might want to take a look at a Class D amp for your sub. I used to dim my headlamps often with my McIntosh MC440 (all class AB) because my poor 8 year old car's alternator couldn't keep up (it did sound great, though).
I swapped out for my current setup (JL Audio 300/2 and 500/1) and I can get MUCH louder with it and never get any dimming of the headlights... even when I'm sitting with the engine off. No capacitor required as the bass amp is now more than 70% efficient and can get better use out of the output from the alternator.
Electrical systems are similar to plumbing systems. Your alternator is like the line into the house. Low pressure or low flow here causes problems for everything.
Your battery is like the lines in the house. They hold some capacity to deliver water, but they only last so long...
A capacitor is like the reservoir on your toilet. Good for short shots, but they don't last long at all (<.5 seconds) and once they're empty, they have to pull energy from somewhere to refill. If the pressure and capacity of the rest of the system are bad, it won't refill.
Hope this helps. |
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| jol50 |
I have a kicker with 420wrms at 2 ohm running 4 infinity 12s, so 105wrms each. Of course that would only be at 14.4v (in someone's dreams) and right at max output.
Going class D is about the only thing you can do to reduce power draw (or a smaller amp). Adding a battery will help more, or getting a large capacity battery. Larger wiring is needed to carry more current without voltage drop to keep output up, but not sure if that affects light dimming that much or not. From what I read a cap helps your alternator survive longer more than anything. It can help dimming only if very short duration. Adding a battery is more help than anything IMO, if you don't want to put in a larger alternator. Alternator runs at ~13.8v also, so you get more out of your amps than at a battery voltage of over a volt less. An alternator still can't always react fast enough to the sudden draws of an amp, depending on amp draw you might still need more battery at some point to hold voltage up until the alternator gets going.
If you had well water at your house, the battery would be the water tank that only has so much pressure and water in it. The pump would be the alternator, the pipe size to your faucet the wire size to your amp. You can imagine what happens if you change each component's size/capacity.
I bought a 1f cap for $15 and I'm going to use it with my stock alternator, but I will not be running huge wattage either. I also have a small sealed jumper battery I was thinking of mounting near the amps and I bet it would do much more than the caps....it will start a car and caps will not. |
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| Flyin11 |
The Alpine is a Class D ;)
Also, I'm know there have been some capacitor threads in the past but...All in all, I wonder if they don't do anything then why do I see so many reviews from people saying that they solved their headlight dimming issues? |
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| jol50 |
I think they help smooth things out a little, but are not a battery. Plus it might matter what you listen to, something with a drum beat might be fine but they are not going to help on a bass test CD with continuous bass tones. It seems like people just have way too high of expectations for what they can do, and too much marketing on them.
I was thinking that alpine was a D. I have a little mrd M to try next, it even shows the voltage on the amp, temp, etc.; pretty cool. I'm not used to all that new kind of stuff....lol. Heck it was only $30 and I hope enough power for two cheap efficient IB 15s is the plan. These infinity will take more power IB but the efficiency is 89 or something, it gets about loud enough for me this way so why not reduce and take 100lb out of my trunk...they weigh a lot. Found some 15s that are 99db.
I would also recommend you check the grounds on your headlights, usually a little bolt near and behind them. I have had them not work that well and make it easy for other things to affect them. Also check the ground wire frame to battery, as all this stuff has to go through that wire together. It is easy to add another one of those to test, remember all that stuff can add up if you have a restricted path for the power. You can run the lights for a while and feel if the wire/connection gets hot, that is a real basic way to check the headlight grounds....and be careful if you have a bad one it will get real hot. |
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| 17DoubleE |
A capacitor's esr (equivelent series resistance) X the ripple current it's being subjected to equates to power dissipation and thus heat. I believe the primary current in an amp's power supply can easily reach or exceed the ripple current rating of the relatively small capacitors built into the amp itself. How many times have you found bulged capacitors on an amp's input? If for no other reason, I believe an external capacitor will off load some the work being done from these internal caps and therefore reduce their temperature rise, extending their life. To minimize the total esr (the capacitor itself and the wiring) you'd want short wires between the external capacitor and the amp.
Music of course doesn't put the continuous strain on the power supply like sine waves do. During continuous output testing with sine tones my Punch 200's internal input caps will exhibit much temperature rise. I have not collected definate temp data but my fingers tell me they run cooler when I connect an external capacitor during this type of testing.
Any thoughts along this line of thinking? |
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| Flyin11 |
| No disrespect but...ummmm...LOL What? :confused: You just confused me with a lot of tech talk :smash: :o |
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| jol50 |
| Means there is not enough room to put much capacitor inside the amp, so they get worked hard....get worked less with an external capacitor, a big cap. This would be a bigger problem for bass guys and running tones. |
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| Rigs64 |
The way I was told is that a car battery releases it's power at a steady state and doesn't deal with power surge demands from a power hungry amp very well.A 1 farad cap mounted close to the amp after the fuse releases the needed short bursts of power that the amp wants during hard play.The power cap is said to improve the dynamic headroom of the amp by supplying very fast power bursts.
Another take on this is where I work...we use very large capacitor banks to compliment the power supply to all of the d.c. motor drives in the plant.:) |
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| richie00boy |
| quote: | Originally posted by 17DoubleE
I believe an external capacitor will off load some the work being done from these internal caps and therefore reduce their temperature rise, extending their life. |
Sorry but that is incorrect. The caps inside an amps are in the secondary side and smooth the rectified current from the switch mode converter. So putting caps on the primary side which is where they will be if they are outside the amp, is not going to add to the secondary capacitance.
The reason caps stop dimming is because they average the current, i.e. drag the system down so that the lights don't get back up to full brightness so it appears they don't fluctuate as much.
As I said before, "the big three" wiring upgrade is the way to go. |
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| 17DoubleE |
[QUOTE]Originally posted by richie00boy
[B]
Sorry but that is incorrect. The caps inside an amps are in the secondary side and smooth the rectified current from the switch mode converter. So putting caps on the primary side which is where they will be if they are outside the amp, is not going to add to the secondary capacitance.
richie00boy,
I'm refering to the caps on the primary side of the power supply, not those on the secondary....... Perhaps those amps you're familar with didn't have primary side aluminum electrolytics? |
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| Flyin11 |
Well, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. First thing first is to look into a new headunit and get that straight as the higher voltage on the preamps completely rocks my system. I was just looking into my RMS wattage on my subs (which is why I was asking about the output on my amp cause I was thinking about getting another amp of the same kind, 1 for each sub, cause some reviewrs said that the amp hits harder on 1 sub than 2 so they would not recommend it on 2 subs) and I thought they were 300w max but they are only 150w. So, 2 subs=300w max power and I have a Alpine putting out 400w. So that's 50w over per sub. I'm not hurting anything because the gain is still down a bit but I was beginning to look into a higher wattage amp to get me more power but that doesn't make any sense now being as I'm already have a bit too much power. Might look into another brand amp to get me the power I want and need cause this one might not be cutting it, or by tax return time, get the next level up JL Audio subs that handle more power and upgrade that way. I know they say to match your RMS range of your subs with your amp and I thought I had done that but it's just not hard enough so I'm thinking the reviewrs might have been right about this amp with 2 subs. First though, I'm waiting to decide on what to do about a new headunit first. A lower wattage amp, maybe 2 channel instead of mono, would work a whole lot better sound wise and efficient wise than what I have.
What works better? A mono class D or a stereo 2 channel amp? I always thought the 2 channel mode was the best way to go and am believing that now... |
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| shagone |
| quote: | Originally posted by Flyin11
Well, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. First thing first is to look into a new headunit and get that straight as the higher voltage on the preamps completely rocks my system. I was just looking into my RMS wattage on my subs (which is why I was asking about the output on my amp cause I was thinking about getting another amp of the same kind, 1 for each sub, cause some reviewrs said that the amp hits harder on 1 sub than 2 so they would not recommend it on 2 subs) and I thought they were 300w max but they are only 150w. So, 2 subs=300w max power and I have a Alpine putting out 400w. So that's 50w over per sub. I'm not hurting anything because the gain is still down a bit but I was beginning to look into a higher wattage amp to get me more power but that doesn't make any sense now being as I'm already have a bit too much power. Might look into another brand amp to get me the power I want and need cause this one might not be cutting it, or by tax return time, get the next level up JL Audio subs that handle more power and upgrade that way. I know they say to match your RMS range of your subs with your amp and I thought I had done that but it's just not hard enough so I'm thinking the reviewrs might have been right about this amp with 2 subs. First though, I'm waiting to decide on what to do about a new headunit first. A lower wattage amp, maybe 2 channel instead of mono, would work a whole lot better sound wise and efficient wise than what I have.
What works better? A mono class D or a stereo 2 channel amp? I always thought the 2 channel mode was the best way to go and am believing that now... |
it all depend on your power requirments and the subs you are trying to push. sound quality wise, I tend to prefer a standard class A/B amp with bipolar outputs over a class D amp or even a class A/B with mosfet outputs. there are exceptions of coarse. shop around and listen to a few different systems first. make sure the output gain from your head unit is compatible with the amp you choose and that you have the correct crossover options available as well. your sub enclosure and positioning will have a big influence on sound as well. are your subs in the recommended enclosure size? |
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| Flyin11 |
| Sub type, enclosure, sub size are all no problems...I love my subs...Just trying to get everything else straight. Made adjustments to the inside of the box a few weeks ago and knocked the internal cubic footage down from 1.37 to 1.27 per chamber...JL recommends 1.25 cu ft. so I'm about right on with no worries... |
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| jol50 |
| You will need a fairly expensive single sub for 400wrms if you beat it hard. That amp should hit pretty hard for a daily driver. What kind of box makes more difference how they work than the sub for the most part. |
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| Flyin11 |
| I just find it pretty hard to believe that the amp is really hitting that hard you know? I mean, if I'm sitting there with +50 watts more that the peak of the sub and my gain is 1 notch from max...It's not really mving me that much...It's just doesn't sound like it's doing it's job. I mean, if it was really hitting it hard then the gain would be say halfway...not almost full. So, maybe I need to try another amp. Or, heck...maybe I need to go to 15" speakers for my rock music...I mean, I thought 12's were suppose to be very loud :xeye: These are the answers I'm trying to find out about my system...If Alpines are such good amps, why isn't it driving it hard enough? |
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| jol50 |
| If it has some kind of problem, I guess you would need to describe what you have like wire sizes, box size/wood thickness/porting, how it is in what type of vehicle, HU and output voltage, any processors, using RCA input?, all that stuff. You should feel 400wrms no problem, I sure do and mine are less efficient IB that like to hit 30Hz not 50 as much. So they are not as 'loud', but they have the thunder and I can feel the thunder and the punch when they are cranked up. In fact my high side just gets blown away by the subs its ridiculous....and why I am dumping the big kicker because it does not have any power at 4 ohms as 4ch. Unless you mistakenly have it wired at 8 ohms or something, that will chop the power down. |
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| Flyin11 |
Car: 2003 Honda Civic EX Coupe
RCA cables: Rockford Fosgate brand
No external processors or crossovers
Headunit: KDC-MP4028 with 4V preouts using RCA inputs
Power and ground wire: About 8 foot of 8 gauge power wire with a 40 or 60amp fuse between the battery and amp and the ground wire is only about a foot and a half and grounded to the seat bolt.
Remote wire: 14 gauge
Speaker wire: 14 gauge
Amp: Alpine MRP-M450 (220 X 1 4ohm - 400 X 1 2ohm) - under the seat
Subwoofers: 2 12" JL Audio 12W1v2-4 wired in parallel for a 2ohm load and connections to wire screw terminals from the outside are soldered on the inside
Front Speakers: Kenwood 6 1/2's (Not sure on model) - connections soldered on
Rear Speakers: Kicker 6X9's (Not sure on model) - connections are regular speaker connectors
Car stock tweeters on the doors
Sealed 3/4 MDF dual 12" sub box - Standard front firing rectangular box in the trunk pointing away from the seats, towards the back of the trunk. Model# H-212 (adjusted inside to make 1.27 cu ft per chamber)
http://www.subzoneusa.com/dual_hatch.htm |
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| Clipped |
point the box forward and push it all the way to the back.
unbolt the back seat and tilt the top forward about 6 inches.
did you hook it up yourself? sometimes shops hook up subs at a lighter load and leave a voice coil or two disconnected so the system is less stressed and you so you wont come back with a warranty claim.
check the gains yet? sub level? crossover?
if your battery is dimming with 400 watts, that is a problem...
1.run another ground from batt to chassis
2.run ground wire from engine to transmission to chassis.
3.run another wire from alt positive to batt positive.
4.run another wire from alt casing to engine block to chassis.
(if its mounted in rubber)
if you have a multimeter check your voltage before starting the car, with the leads still in place check the voltage when starting the car...then keep the leads hooked up and see what the voltage drops to after the alt heats up...if the leads are long enough drive around playing music and see what the voltage drops to.
check water level in battery, drive around on the highway and just drive and let the battery charge up without turning the system on....i know its tempting to turn it on while driving but please refrain. :D |
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| jol50 |
If you run it hard on something with low bass, are the subs hitting xmax? It looks like that amp should put them there. If not I'd say the 8ga could be on the small side, but that is a short car too. What you could do is hook a meter to the + and - of the amp, then run it hard and see what kind of drop you get. If your ground is bad it will show as well as lack of 12v. Normal to drop some, but if you get under 12 it might have a problem. If there is a bad connection and the amp works, you have to check under load to see how low the current is. I run 420rms on 4 infinity 300wrms subs so it is no surprise mine doesn't get to xmax, but they are IB and say half wattage for that. Still 105 under ideal conditions to 150 is a ways apart. But you are 200 each, even 175 should max them out according to JL. They might not xmax in sealed box before they burn up, but still they should be moving a lot. Looks like that rating is for ported too, they should move more in a ported box, would likely hit xmax at rated max power.
Clipped has some good points also. |
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| Safe_Cracker |
| There is only two things that would all in all solve a dimming problem, that is 1 a dedicated isolated battery system ( not connected to cars elec system) or 2 a battery isolator and a second battery. Even if you had a 300A alt the time it takes for the regulator to notice the drain would cause a 1-2V dip in voltage providing the strobe effect. A stock alt arround 100A with a good battery on music is good for a true 1000rms, this has been proven. Caps are not useless, they just need to be used in conjunction with a good charging system and battery (s). A good non carbon cap with a low ESR can help mask the latency problem of an alternators regulator but cannot take the place of real honest to goodness voltage... Polo. ;) |
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| tsmith1315 |
| quote: | | About 8 foot of 8 gauge power wire with a 40 or 60amp fuse between the battery and amp and the ground wire is only about a foot and a half and grounded to the seat bolt. |
A 400W amp should be grounded to clean metal chassis, not a seat bolt.
Tim |
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| shagone |
| quote: | Originally posted by tsmith1315
A 400W amp should be grounded to clean metal chassis, not a seat bolt.
Tim |
i second that! i was going to point that out but i figured that was a given and that he might have scraped the paint away under the seat bolt at the mounting point. a bare metal spot on the chassis is a much better choice even if you have to use your own hardware. i always sand down and clean my grounding points well befor making the connection.
you could also try 12awg ofc wire on the subs. is the wiring inside the box 14awg or smaller?
what are all your crossover settings (frequencies and slopes)? |
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| Flyin11 |
I adjusted some of my settings on the amp...A little bit more gain, a little bit more bass, and I moved the frequency up a little bit on the low pass on the amp and now it sounds pretty dern good. I still defiantly think a new HU with the higher voltage preouts is going to make a huge difference like it did before as well. I'm also eyeing maybe a amplifier change as well...Might have my eye on a JL Audio amp to compliment my subs. I talked to a audio dealer today and yes, they are a Rockford Fosgate dealer so of course he was trying to sell me a Rockford amp and telling me a lot about them but I still can't find a 07 model that gives me the specs I want and need to make me get a Rockford. He had a lot of interesting things to say about Alpine amps and I could agree on some points. He also agreed with me on what I told him about my experiences with Alpine decks so we were also on the same page there. I will try the grounding point change and scrape away paint and all but that's not really going to increase the power...just maybe give it a little cleaner sound which is not what I'm going for. I also saw people on this baord saying they ground their amps to seat bolts and rear seat bolts, also to rear common grounds from the factory electrical system and have been fine. I will try though...
The wire inside the box to the speakers is the same as the wire outside to the amp...14awg I believe. I saw a topic on this board before about you not needing huge or big wire for your speakers...any wire size will do...So I don't think that needs to be changed and I'm not taking the speakers out the box again and take a chance on the screws not screwing tight on the subs for a good sealed fit.
Crossover frequencies:
High Pass: HU is through
Low Pass: HU is 80hz and amp is almost at 100hz...I get more bass out of the amp that way.
No settings for slopes as there is nothing on the HU or amp for that... |
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| jol50 |
| It depends, mine is on a seat bolt but the bolt is quite large say like a 3/8 bolt. I took the paint off under it, and it is higher than the floor so any moisture should not be a problem. It is also right next to the trunk where my amp is, about where the bottom of a rear flip down seatback would be. |
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| tsmith1315 |
| quote: | | I will try the grounding point change and scrape away paint and all but that's not really going to increase the power...just maybe give it a little cleaner sound which is not what I'm going for. |
Try looking at it this way:
Ohm's law governs anything electrical. V=I x R.
Let's say the painted surface, bolt threads, spot welds, etc add up to just 0.1 ohms of resistance.
The voltage lost when the amp is trying to pass 20A through that ground connection is:
V= 20 x 0.1 = 2 volts
2 volts is significant, and can certainly take the edge off of dynamics. It can cause the amp to overheat.
If the amp is really running near full output, and not just delivering big transients, power will absolutely suffer.
That's not to say this is the problem in your situation, but little things add up. And the more current you're dealing with, the more important the little things become.
The same applies to connections on the power wire at the amp, fuseholder, and battery terminal.
In addition similar problems in the battery/charging system are often the cause of dimming headlights and other nusiance electrical problems.
The 4 connections Clipped mentioned are critical, and if there's just 0.1 ohm of resistance in any one of them, there will be considerably less voltage to run the car's electrical system.
Tim |
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| shagone |
| quote: | Originally posted by Flyin11
I adjusted some of my settings on the amp...A little bit more gain, a little bit more bass, and I moved the frequency up a little bit on the low pass on the amp and now it sounds pretty dern good. I still defiantly think a new HU with the higher voltage preouts is going to make a huge difference like it did before as well. I'm also eyeing maybe a amplifier change as well...Might have my eye on a JL Audio amp to compliment my subs. I talked to a audio dealer today and yes, they are a Rockford Fosgate dealer so of course he was trying to sell me a Rockford amp and telling me a lot about them but I still can't find a 07 model that gives me the specs I want and need to make me get a Rockford. He had a lot of interesting things to say about Alpine amps and I could agree on some points. He also agreed with me on what I told him about my experiences with Alpine decks so we were also on the same page there. I will try the grounding point change and scrape away paint and all but that's not really going to increase the power...just maybe give it a little cleaner sound which is not what I'm going for. I also saw people on this baord saying they ground their amps to seat bolts and rear seat bolts, also to rear common grounds from the factory electrical system and have been fine. I will try though...
The wire inside the box to the speakers is the same as the wire outside to the amp...14awg I believe. I saw a topic on this board before about you not needing huge or big wire for your speakers...any wire size will do...So I don't think that needs to be changed and I'm not taking the speakers out the box again and take a chance on the screws not screwing tight on the subs for a good sealed fit.
Crossover frequencies:
High Pass: HU is through
Low Pass: HU is 80hz and amp is almost at 100hz...I get more bass out of the amp that way.
No settings for slopes as there is nothing on the HU or amp for that... |
have you tried using only one crossover at a time? the combined slopes may be too steep or of different slopes creating phasing issues? i like a slope around 70-80hz 12 or 24 db's per octave but thats just me and every install sounds different. also have you tried reversing the phase of your subs? some head units have this option. if yours doesn't you could simply reverse the speaker wires going to your amp or box (+ to - instead of + to + ect..) and see if the sound blends in better with the front stage. sometimes it works sometimes it won't. |
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| Flyin11 |
I tried the phase thing before and it doesn't work out too good with the subs...It sounded pretty good one with 1 10 out of phase but doesn't with 2 12's. Oh well...I have some things I'm working on now...
After doing some searching around on wire sizes, I found a old thread about Power Wire and if it is really necessary to have 0 gauge wire. I found in there a link Perry Babin put up for his wire section on his site: http://www.bcae1.com/wire.htm and found out that I was losing 19.49 watts from my amplifier to my speakers, judging by Perry's chart, cause I'm using 16awg wire for my speaker wire. The best fit would have been 10 gauge wire but the only 2 car stereo shops around here were out of it of course. So, I got 12awg which should do a pretty good job as I should only lose 7.85 watts from the amp to the speakers. With 10 gauge I would have lost only 4.96 but oh well. Out of time this week before Christmas and I should be getting a JL Audio A1400 amplifier tomorrow that I just bought. I just wanted to make sure I do this right and could not believe how much wattage I was losing with 16 gauge wire. So I'm gaining almost 12watts from just changing my speaker wire hopefully. It's JL Audio 12AWG speaker wire I got from the car shop. Doesn't look too thick but it says 12AWG so I'll roll with it. The dealer said I won't notice any difference at all in power (He also said 10AWG would be overkill) but I don't believe that too much...I mean, we are talking about a 12 watt difference and I notice even 1-2 watt differences on a HU. What's done is done...I'd rather have a JL Audio amp than a Alpine but that's my choice and I was beginning to think that some of the reviews on this Alpine were probably right, that it doesn't seem to put out a lot of power for 2 subs. So, I got the JL to replace the Alpine and we will see how that goes after I hook it up. I'll then sell the Alpine on Ebay. I also have my new HU coming which is the Kenwood KDC-X891 that has 5volt preouts and a USB interface. Then I will sell the Clarion on Ebay as I just got a brand new one back to replace the other one I sent back. So it's all coming together.
In terms of settings, the audio guy at the audio store came out there and sat in my car and listened to my system today and said it actually doesn't sound that bad at all but he would suggest to turn the LP to 60hz and set my HP filter at 80hz cause the 12's were drowning out my highs but I sort of like it like that for rock music cause then if the highs are louder, the lows don't sound like they are hitting. I listened to his suggestions though. He also said to turn the gain down a little bit as it sounded like it was too high but I think he misunderstood me when I told him it was 1 click away from all the way as he probably thought I meant one turn on the screwdriver when I actually meant one line on the amp. He said that he would have it 70-80% of the way up as even in competitions they only run their gains at 50% or a little more and use the subwoofer settings to try and gain some more of the bump back...he said maybe to turn it up to like 9 or 10 as it is at 3 out of 15 right now. He did suggest getting a 4 channel amp for the highs which might be something down the road. Right now, I'm trying to get this all straight. I left and headed back to work and didn't touch the gain but left the lows at 60hz and the highs at 80hz and it was hitting pretty low and nice but I'll have to get the settings straight on the JL now when it comes. I'll keep you informed.... |
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| Perry Babin |
Most of the calculators on the site will warn you if you drop below 300 circular mils per amp of current. That's probably why it told you to use larger wire. At 300cm/a, there is very little chance of the wire overheating. At a lower ratio, the wire may overheat but it would require full power constant output (sine wave) to produce heating sufficient to cause the insulation to melt.
If you are running 1400 watts, 19 watts will be absolutely inaudible. 1dB is generally considered the minimum difference people can hear. From experience, it seems that it takes at least 3dB to be noticeably louder/softer.
16g wire is good for most applications. 12g would be more than enough in a vehicle. |
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| Flyin11 |
Yeah...That's what it would tell me with a 16awg wire:
There's too much loss, too few cm/A and/or an error due to the values entered. Use a larger wire or a shorter length of wire
Circular mils with 16awg is 165 and with 12awg it's 415...Big difference from what I can tell. I still think I made the good choice.... |
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