As long as it's not above 4 ohms ... even this amp has power supply voltage limits ...

"If you connect a load higher than 4Ω nominal
to the 500/1v2, power will drop by half with
every doubling of impedance above 4Ω."

On a lighter note, I Love this excerpt form the manual:

Stupid mistakes to avoid:

• Check before drilling any holes in your vehicle
to make sure that you will not be drilling
through a gas tank...

• Do not mount the amplifier in the engine
compartment, under the vehicle, on the roof ...



MGD

 

Yeah good catch on the "over 4 ohm load"


Hahahah... I remember back in the day In audio control's manuals, they used to state something very similar. you have to wonder though...how many ppl actually called their tech lines stating that their amp wasnt working now, only to find out they mounted it right next to their engine b/c they were trying to keep their power wire as short as possible...hahahha

 

OP - connected like this? Sorry about the crap chikkin scratch drawing, lol



MGD

 

dont forget he can also go from the positive of one speaker to the positive of the other, and same with negative side. Both speakers dont have to have speaker wire going back directly to the amp

 

Yep - ran outta chikkin scratchin' time, lol.

They're all electrically equivalent anyway ...

MGD

 

Instead of the kickers how about a couple of Image Dynamics ID10D4's? Price is roughly the same and you don't have to mod the box for them to fit. (you may need to pop of the dust caps but that's all.)

Brad

 

I have seen the ID104's in adds and on internet sites, does anyone have any experience with these subs? I will do some research on these myself in a while when I get home. Also, someone on another forum mentioned IDQ10's setup. Are those any good?

 

This is how I am connected. (-) of left sub, to (-) of right sub, to (-) on amp, and the same with the (+). I believe they call this parallel, or atleast that is what I read. Anyways, I am home now, so I am going to tear into the sub box, take the subs out, remove the polyfill, reinstall the subs, and give it a whirl. Who knows, these things may hit, or not. Either way, I should have tried it first without the polyfill. I just got excited, and decided that what I read on the internet was what I was supposed to do, when in reality, I should have done more research. But I have to tell you that I am researched out, and my wife is basically sick of my truck...... or atleast sick of me working on my truck.

 

Well, I removed the polyfill, and it's still the same. At hard hits, when volume is loud, it sounds like the sub is almost floating, so it's causing a popping, or a rattling noise, but if I turn it down, or turn down the boost on the bass it will sound good. Now I am talking about having the volume up fairly high. Sometimes I do like to listen to it loud, and I just think these subs are not for me. I am going to look at the ID subs, but Kicker CVX's are still a sub I know that can hit, with ease.

 

Yu might be getting that "floating" sound of the sub b/c the actual cone isnt being controlled. There can be a number of things that can cause this. My first guess goes back to box design and size. A correctly sized box will allow the air , and air pressure inside the box to act like a suspension for the sub. You make the box too big and guess what...you loose that air suspension. This is why a sub in a smaller box can handle more power is b/c its using more power to fight against the "air suspension" inside the small box. Too big a box, things get sloppy pretty quickly.

No you say you want to try Kickers or ID's? Thats great...but your basically taking the stance most car Dealerships take when they get a problem then dont understand....they jsut start replacing parts till they hope they find the actual issue. My suggestion is to save your money, and work with what you have. Back in the day I had the older JLW0's that hit so hard and tight it would make you crossed eyed. So its not the W1's that are the issue. Do you know tha internal volume that the Kickers need? or the ID's? so you wanna replace the JL's and put the kickers or ID's in the exact same box your using that you dont know the volume of?

 

Just going off the atrend website, the volume is .70 cu ft per side.
Ok, so im with you so far about figuring out what is going on. I would love to figure it out, and continue to use these subs. Now, the subs that I am using, the 10w1's say they need a .625 cu ft. I'm at .7, so do you think the box is to big.

 

Ok...now we're getting somewhere. Yes..i do think the box is too big. Remember what i said earlier about if a box is too big for a sub then the power the sub can handle goes down. Now 250 watts a sub is right at the max those subs can take in thier optimum enclosure. Now since the box is technically .1 cu foot larger your sub isnt going to be able to handle 250 watts, and you are prolly over powering it. what you want to do is make the internal volume smaller, and you can EASILY do this by cutting about a 6-7 inch 2X4 piece and putting it in there. maybe even try two pieces. You can actually find out the voume of each piece you put in by multiplying the length Xwidth X height of each 2X4

The second thing to look for is leaks! In a sealed box which is already too big for a sub, a leak can make the box act as if it is an even bigger box...make sense? I've seen prefabed boxes actually leak right at seams...or through screw holes...you have to be sure the box is 110% sealed.

 

.625 and .7 are not very different, and once you take into account the space displacement of the subwoofer, your airspace is actually damn near ideal. A box that is SLIGHTLY larger than recommended wont hurt a thing, just a slightly higher QTC which I've found to never be a problem. Power handling wont be affected by a .05 cu ft difference. If your box isn't leaking, you wont get much more out of the W1s without porting. I doubt the box is leaking, I used to have that same attrend box and the build quality was superb...no leaks in mine.

Now the JL W1 has a maximum excursion of 9mm one way which is not a lot. Your subs are simply running out of mechanical throw at higher volume. The ID10 has a maximum excursion of 17mm one way, DOUBLE that of the JL. You can throw more power at them and get far more output. Grab the ID's and stuff that box with polyfill. Should be a very nice upgrade. I used to use the W1s and at the time switched to a pair of 10"s with 20mm one way (Adire Kodas) and the difference was huge.

EDIT: Also, dont use bass boost. it creates a 18dB spike at 45Hz, which will surely cause your subs to run out of throw quickly and possibly damage them at high volume. Use the head unit to increase the subwoofer output, not the amp's bass boost crap.

 

Ok. I will do that. I will get a couple pieces of wood and fill the box. I will measure the internal dimensions of the box and record each side. Is having a bit smaller box preferable?

 

Msall150, what you said is perfect. It's exactly what it sounds like in the truck, I am running out of room.