04 F-150 Screw New body style.

I have a set of JL Audio 10W1 svc 4 ohm subs, setup in parallel and being pushed by a JL Audio 500/1 mono slash amp, in an Atrend A372-10 box. I have the gain turned down to where it is only pushing about 20-30% of full potential. They sound great, don't get me wrong, but when I want to hit some hard, heavy bass, these subs just can't handle it. I have my mids and highs running off a JL Audio J2 320.4 amp, and these things can seriously outperform my subs, so I have had to turn these gains down as well to keep the sound very well rounded. I am seriously looking at Kicker 10" CVX dvc 4 ohm subs. I don't really care about having to cut the box to make them fit, depth wise, I just wanted to know if anyone is running these Kicker subs in there F-150, and if so, what their thoughts are. Any input is appreciated.

 

Do you know the box volume of that box per sub? does the box seperate each sub into its own chamber? You do realize that if the box volume is larger then the recommended air space for the subs your power handling goes way down. How are the subs not keeping up? Each of your speakers sets should be playing diffeent frequenys...so they really shouldnt be trying to out do each other at all. If you are just talking about the subs just cant get loud enough for the rest of your system, id def look into your box. Is the box leaking at all? flexing? You can make or break a sub install by the size and quality of the box.

 

@ 4Ohms that amplifier is rated for 340W. Split that between 2 subs and thats 170W each, which is under what they are rated for. Get a bigger amplifier and test them out with it.

 

I am actually running the subs at 2 ohms, when you run parallel, if I am not mistaken, you always cut the ohms in half at the next level, and so when both 4 ohm subs come into the amp, I am running the (-) on the left channel and the (+) on the right channel, and that should yield me a 2 ohm output, which should be more than 340w, I would think. And those speakers are only rated for 125w RMS optimum, and 250W RMS on the danger side. I had this amp pushing 3 12" Eclipse subs, in a ProBox, and it pushed those subs crazy. The box volume per sub is .70, and there is a wall between both .70 volume eclosures. I just don't know. Maybe my setup is wrong, I did check the box visually before I installed it, and checked for anything out of the ordanary, and everything looked good. Now one thing I do not like about the box is the terminal cup, where the wires connect from the outside. Pretty weak springs on the terminals, I would like to upgrade those quickly.
Well let me ask this question then, is anyone running these 10W1's on the same amp or something comparable, that pushes 500W RMS? If so, please chime in.

 

Timelessr1, you make a good point, about the box maybe being to big in volume. I added polyfill to the interior of the box. Could this inadvertantly be causing the volume to raise to a point that is damaging air flow, or just causing the subs to not perform in a positive manner?

 

Hey Max...you are right...you are running that amp 2 ohm! Since both subs are 4 ohm single VCs, and you have them wired in parallel, then the amp is seeing one mono 2 ohm load...so you are good power wise.

Now onto the box. Poly fill is "usually" used if the box was constructed too small, and you want the box to mimic a slightly larger box. If your box is already too big, and add polyfill you are compounding the issue.

I would try and measuer the box (internally) and come up with a volume. Then if you are too big, start adding wood blocks (but make sure you know the volume of each block)to the interior of the box (they dont have to be glued down for this test) when you think you have the right internal volume, put the subs back in the box and try it again. Also....i would make sure your gains are set properly on the sub amp...your ENTIRE system sound reach maximum output together..if not then your sub gains arent set high enough.


oh....also...is your box ported?? or sealed?

 

The box is sealed. I think that I am going to remove the polyfill today, and give that a whirl.

 

dont expect a miracle from removing the polyfill. Do you know what the internal volume of the box is though? I looked at those subs...and they are reccomended in .625 cu ft enclosure. If ther eis no speration between subs in your box, then your entire box size should be 1.25 cu ft. Now if you have the box larger then that...then each sub really cant handle 250watts...and your subs are distorting doe to being over powered. If you go a little smaller of a box then whats recommended, then you can actually give them a little more power.

the key is making sure your putting the subs in the CORRECT box size....too many ppl think if the hole fits a sub...then it will work..and wonder later why their buddies system sounds soo much better then theirs with the exact same components.

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/pdfs/8551.pdf

 

^^ Confused???

Can you explain what 'channels' you are referring to on a single-channel ( mono) amp?

Are the subs actually in phase?

thanks
MGD

 

The box is rated at .70 cu ft per side. This is the box that all the local stereo shops were telling me to buy. And most of them said that they would put the 10W1's in it. Now they did say, that it won't rattle your head, but it will sound good and clean. It does sound good and clean, but I want to really hit sometimes, and these speakers, I am affraid, will not do it.

 

MGDfan
Here is the web page for that amp. I cannot explain the multi-channel either, but it is a mono amp.

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_amps.php?amp_id=439

 

I think he's confused about the two positive and two negative outputs on the 500/1 as being a left and right channel. But your right..it would be good to make sure his wiring is correct....

Max-JL gave you the two positive and two negatives in the case you wanted to run a speaker wire to each sub seperately.. if you did this...youd still be running the amp 2 ohms. OR you could use one of the positives, and one of the neagatives...run this to one speaker...then from that speaker run the wires off to your other speaker. JL jsut gave you flexability....its still only ONE channel available to you on a 500/1

 

I am running in a bridged configuration, or atleast that is what I beleive they call it. (-) to the left channel, and (+) to the right channel, giving me an impedance of 2 Ohms.

 

Um, no. You cannot 'bridge' a mono amp - you need two channels to perform bridging. You only have one.

I'm still confused - yer running each sub's negative to either the same (-), or a negative from each sub to one (-) terminal, and likewise fer the positives, correct?

The sub speaker outputs do not say "left channel/right channel". ... no idea where you are getting that from ....

Help me out here ...

MGD

 

Actually thats slightly incorrect....

the only time you rally can run in a "bridged configuration" is when you take a two channels of an amp and run the positive from one channel with the negative from the other channel.

You are NOT doing that in this case since the 500/1 is only ONE channel that it..no more no less. Now ....depending on how you have the subs configured is what allows the amp to either run in 1 ohm, 2 ohm, 4 ohm, etc.

For example....if you left your wiring the same on your amp, and jsut hooked up one 4ohm sub to it....the amp will be running in 4ohm mode, b/c thats the load (sub) you are putting on the amp. the cool thing about JL's Slash series is...the amps put out the same wattage across all the ohm configurations you can throw at it