Good Amp Suggestions

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CyberNUPE2

Member
2005-06-24 3:22 pm
Phoenix AZ
  • #1
    Please HELP!!!

    This past december I bought a system for my car to tie me over until I get my SUV. I bought 2 15 inch Volfenhaag Subs 1200w peak 600W RMS. I also bought a Lanzar Heritage HTG264 2400W 2 channel amp. Well needless to say that amp is history. I just cracked open after uninstalling it and there is so much light brown goo in there you would think somebody pooped in there. I just need a suggestion on what amp or amps should I get to push these subs. They run 2,4, and 8 ohms if that helps any. I'm a novice to this stuff so bear with me. I not looking for loud enough to crack a windshield but I do want to be able to do some damage when I'm riding on the block.:devilr:
     
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    Dr. Photon

    Member
    2005-02-24 6:50 am
    texas
  • #2
    I'm not usually in the car audio scene (I quiet dislike car audio for a multitude of reasons, but I do end up installing all fo friends systems), but I've heard good things about MTX amplifiers. i hear that they are one of the few companies in car audio that doesn't completely pull the wattages out of their *****, and their dollar/watt ration is pretty good. Most of the other "good brand" amps are somewhat truthful about their power. When I look for an amplifier, I first check the fuses - there can never be more than 14.4 X <fuse rating of amplifier> watts getting into the amplifier. the RMS output is typically about half of this. If I can physically see the amplifier, I generally look at the quality and size of internal components (especially output transistors, chopper mosfets, filter capacitors, and the toroid transformer), and feel the weight of the unit. heavey units with plenty of butch internal components are generally better.

    Here's a hint, that Lanzer amp really wasn't 2400 watts. that's a lie. PMPO and other "peak" ratings are complete and other ********. go by RMS and RMS alone (the new CEA power ratings are generally good to go by) . I had a 1800 watt cheap inverter that had 6 30 amp fuses on it, and drew about 150 amps at near-full loading. buy that thing sucked power like crazy. I seriously doubt that lanzar amp had half as much current going into it.

    There's also no need to match the power rating of the subs to the amps. if the amp has more power, then you will never clip the amp, and just be mindful of overpowering the speakers (bottoming them out, or simply overheating them in tiny sealed boxes!). If the subs can handle more power than the amp, you can basically never fry out the sub, but you can distort the amp when you crank it, and you should get a bigger amp only if you notice distortion on loud parts of the music.

    How are the speakers wired? I'm just going to assume that they are each a single 4 ohm load. if they are dual 4 ohms each, then you have more choices. You could either use two amps into 4 ohms, or a single amp into 2 ohms. I would:
    1. a 4 channel amp - bridged into 2 4 ohm outputs
    2. two stereo amps, both bridged
    3. a single class Dmonoblock amp, running into 2 ohms
    4. two class D mono sub amps, running 4 ohms each.

    You typically will get the most power out of an amp by bridgeing it, and running the lowest possibly impedance it can safely handle.

    ensure that the amplifier has decent ventilation (12V computer fan from remote wire to ground is sometimes useful), and is NOT mounted on the sub box itsself (as the vibrations will eventualy get to it, and you'd have to fix dud solders.)
     
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