I have kove XS 10s...here let me get a link...

http://www.koveaudio.com/xs_series_popup.html

i have the XS 10s

 

Damn, looks like all the boy's were tying one on last night. Where was I

I'm going to guess that your looking to run this sub amp in a 1 ohm load and are going to be pushing somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 watts. With that said, you would want at least 1.5 farads worth of cap to efectivley get the improvments they are capable of for that amp. Is the hart a class A/B or Class D?

I take it your running it in a sealed enclosure?

 

yes i am running it in a sealed enclosure

I am not sure what class the amp is. Its a really nice amp though...not some 100 dollar pep boys amp.

Is there a way i can tell what class it is?

LOl i just called my sound guy and he said it is a class A/B amp.

4 ohm mono
2 ohm stereo

and of course its a 1200watt amp LOL

 

So can anyone answer this. I have a 2002 F250 turbo diesel with 2 batteries and a very strong alternator. I am running an Audiobahn 3000 watt single channel sub amp at 1 ohm that is driving 3 audiobahn 12" aluminum subs. The mids and highs are driven by an audiobahn 400 watt amp as well. The problem is when we monitor the voltage at high volume it goes from 14.4 volts all the way down to 11.7 volts. So would a capacitor help in this situation????

 

Welcome to the board racjas351. You didn't quite leave us with enough info to accuratly get you an answer.

What size wire is running to the amps from the battery. How long is the run?

How many amps are the batteries? Any idea what amperage the alternator is kicking out?

I'm guessing the voltage drop your seeing is at the sub amplifier? When is the voltage dropping like this?? test tones or music? If so, what type of music are you listening to?

Are these sound Q or ALUM12 Q subs?

Have you Magic 3'd the trucks charging/ground system?

You've got alot of stuff going on here with minimal explantion of the whole pic. See if you can get us the info and we'll see what we can do to help. You my friend could see a world of difference with the proper voltage feeding your system.

At the bare minimum you should have a couple runs of 1/0 if not three running back to the amp for the bass alone. 4 - 5 farads of cap could help if everyting else is up to par. I would suggest an additional battery but lets see what you got for us to work with.

I'd love to see a pic of this monster!

 

My guess is that your engine was at idle when you experienced those voltage drops. A stock truck alt puts out 35-65A at idle. That is a wee bit short of the 270A demand from that 1 amplifier. Even at full tilt with a 200A alt I would expect a serious voltage drop.

If you go by the 1 farad per kilowatt rule of thumb, there will only be enough juice in the cap to hold the voltage for milliseconds. Hence the reason for 25+ farad capacitors and batcaps. Kids these days all think they need 2000 watt amplifiers when it takes two high output alternators and a couple deep cycle batteries to power them. Whatever happend to the days when 500w was rediculous? You didn't need a cap, alternator, and extra batteries back then.

 

This is just about over the top, aint it

What happened is you don't have to spend $2500 for the 500 watts anymore. Now $2500 will get you 5,000 watts and all the speaks one could desire.

Are those diesels putting out 200 amps??? Man, theres not much of a choice other than adding another alternator if this thing is wired right. Yellow top Optimas may be in order as well.

I will agree, most people don't realize how much more there is to this than buying 3,000 watts and hooking it up. That is alot of install time, parts and knowledge!

 

Ok lets add some more info. The truck I believe has a 180 amp alternator from factory and 2 900 amp batteries. It doesn't matter what rpm it is at it can't maintain voltage. There are 2 4gauge cables to the sub amp and 1 8 gauge cable to the mid high amp. I am running the 12 alum Q subs rated at 1000 watts each in a sealed 1.2 cubic ft per sub enclosure. SPL should be right around 155 db's right now. I will be at my first competition this saturday. We are going to install a 15 farad cap on the sub amp only to see what happens. I just thought it was kinda odd that everyone seemed against caps, but i know that my amp is starving. It is rated @ 12.5 volts, but I cant maintain that right now. Hope that helps.

 

Hey Sticker what is magic 3d by the way??? And the voltage drop is music. Bass music at that. Trying to peak the DB's right now, but it sounds amazing with any type of music.

 

WOW, I can guarantee your starving your amp by not using large enough wire.

go to click here and click on "16 Wire". There are a couple calculators there that I bet will come to about the same conclusion you have with your volt gauge. You are missing amperage too, but you can see what size wire does what, etc. Same deal on speaker leads.

Your alternator is never going to let you get the full potential out of your system. IF your serious about SPL and want to actualy hit the 155, your going to need more amperage, period! The cap is a band-aid at best in your situation. Another alternator is the fix. Another battery back near the amp would also do your system good.

If it were my gig and I found out this info today but still wanted to compete this weekend, i'd be running down to the highest end shop I could find and buy up all the 1/0 they got and would be working day and night to upgrade the wiring to your whole system. You could also add a cap, but it aint gonna help you go from 140 to 155 just because you put a cap in it. Where the wire is gonna help you a bunch. You will probably still see the spike in voltage but i bet the amp doesn't crash like it is probably doing now.

Magic 3 is:
1- alt + to batt +

2 - batt - to engine ground

3 - engine ground to chassis

Re-wire all these points with 1/0 at the minimum and you will have magic 3'd your truck. This will help your alternator get all the amperage to the battery and the grounds will round out the system back to the battery.

Are you setting this up with a term lab mic? If so, what is it hitting right now? Where is the comp at? DB drags?

I vote your hosed unless your crafty! 4 days aint much time to be ripping this thing apart!

I'm running the same subs but in the 10 inch flavor.

 

Never go larger than 4 gauge from alt to battery.

 

It already DB'd at 148 with the adiobahn 2000 watt amp. That is why I changed to the 3000 watt one. Of course the meter was not at the store that day last Saturday to see what it would do. We also installed dynamat in the back portion of the truck. The competition is in Miami this weekend, but it is a small one. The big contest is the following weekend in Miami Beach Convention center. There is time to run new cables. It is going to sleep at the audio store tonight until it is finished. I love those subs. This thing moves a ton of air. It is already hard to breath in the truck. So how would you connect 1/0 gauge to the amp that can only accept a little larger than 4 gauge????

 

Why is that? I've been running 1/0 on mine since new but that aint been all that long. Have an inline 140 wafer on it. The stock wire was 4 awg.


I'd be whilling to bet you won't see much of a difference between the 2,000 and 3,000 with the current wirring. Run the 1/0 to within 1 foot of the amp into a distribution block then come off there with the needed 4 awg into the amp. The idea is to get as much amperage back as close to the amp as you can. If your wanting to put the cap in, put it in the same area.

Any idea how low hz these are hitting at 148. These subs don't plot that low in sealed enclosures, just curious.

 

And this is a good thing?

50% more power - 1.5db
Power compression - (.5db)
Result - A lot of money and headaches for 1db.

The 4awg thing has something to do with burning up alts due to current and heat. Just relaying info from the hardcore SPL guys. Sounds odd to me too.

 

Word! I would have dropped coin on RE subs before just throwing another 1,000 watts on it but hey, that's me.

Copy that deus! Alternators are no problem but will keep that in mind if she blows. I will have to take a closer look at the cars this summer. I can't wait to get my butt up there.