need advice

[reno]

My oldest son is the luckiest person in the world. He bought a box with 2 10" M.A. Audio speakers that has speaker hookups on each side of the speakers (2 +'s and 2 -'s on one then the same on the other) they are already wired up, but not sure right now how. He also got a 12" JL Audio speaker and 2 mids, ALL for $25!!!!!! He got it an Auction, no one else bidded on it. Then we go to Best Buy to look at some amps, he finds a 200W Rockford Fosgate Punch that was being cleared from that Best Buy only for $79!! He got the last one. Now we are down to wiring this baby up this weekend. What should he buy? He is looking at the monster cable setup @ Wal-mart with the Capacitor for $75, but should he need that? Or would the monster wire setup for a 350 or 500W amp setup do?
How should I make sure the subs are wired? He wants BASS. I read the manual that came with the amp, and totally understand the settings for that and hookups. It is the small stuff. The box does not have holes (I guess that would be called "Ported"?) and no divider between the speakers (it is all open space).
Right now, he is planning on running RCA inputs from his radio to the amp and out to the Subs only. I guess we can leave the existing speakers connected? We\I need some advise. He has a 4cyl Ford Escort 1995. He can't spend to much as he has saved just for the amp (I bought the Subs for him), he is 16 first car and only works P/T @ sweetbay (10 - 16 hrs week). So we need to try to keep cost to a minimum. I would imagine in the future, he will upgrade to a much bigger Amp.
Oh, yeah, those speakers are rated @ 1000W.

 

[Danger06Ranger]

are you saying that the subs are 1000W each, or combined? id get the 500W wiring kit. and i would recommend a capacitor. and you dont always need a ported box. with that amp, i dont know if youll have enuff power. youll need to bridge the amp if possible, it will show you how on the speaker terminals.

 

[Defective]

All you need is a length of 4 gauge wire from the battery positive to the amp, an in-line fuse close to the battery, and a short 4 gauge ground wire to ground to the cars chassis. Do not waste you money on a cap. Caps are "bandaids" used for systems that do not have adequate wiring to supply the amplifiers with what they need in the first place.

For RCA's, get good ones. Ones with the third wire for remote amplifier turn-on is what I like.

Run the power on one side of the car, signal on the other.

Give some specifics about the amp you bought and the speakers you are going to use, like model numbers, and maybe we can help with wiring that part up too. Right now, we don't know vital information like # of voice coils and the voice coil impedence. You can get the same model speaker, with different voice coil values. We also need to know the amp specs so we can tell you if it's stable to what the speakers are going to show it.


And BTW, underpowering subwoofers can kill them quicker than too much power.

 

[Psychopete]

My oldest son is the luckiest person in the world. He bought a box with 2 10" M.A. Audio speakers that has speaker hookups on each side of the speakers (2 +'s and 2 -'s on one then the same on the other) they are already wired up, but not sure right now how. He also got a 12" JL Audio speaker and 2 mids, ALL for $25!!!!!! He got it an Auction, no one else bidded on it. Then we go to Best Buy to look at some amps, he finds a 200W Rockford Fosgate Punch that was being cleared from that Best Buy only for $79!! He got the last one. Now we are down to wiring this baby up this weekend. What should he buy? He is looking at the monster cable setup @ Wal-mart with the Capacitor for $75, but should he need that? Or would the monster wire setup for a 350 or 500W amp setup do?
How should I make sure the subs are wired? He wants BASS. I read the manual that came with the amp, and totally understand the settings for that and hookups. It is the small stuff. The box does not have holes (I guess that would be called "Ported"?) and no divider between the speakers (it is all open space).
Right now, he is planning on running RCA inputs from his radio to the amp and out to the Subs only. I guess we can leave the existing speakers connected? We\I need some advise. He has a 4cyl Ford Escort 1995. He can't spend to much as he has saved just for the amp (I bought the Subs for him), he is 16 first car and only works P/T @ sweetbay (10 - 16 hrs week). So we need to try to keep cost to a minimum. I would imagine in the future, he will upgrade to a much bigger Amp.
Oh, yeah, those speakers are rated @ 1000W.

He should run the wire for what he'll want later on, so that you won't have to run it again. 4ga. would probably work well for no more than 800-1000watt applications. If you have most of the wiring, I would say skip the kit. I never had used a cap, and don't plan on it either. I am going to opt for the "big 3 upgrade." I used to have a 50ft roll of 4 gauge power wire, but I don't know where it ended up.

Those are dual voice coil speakers. Will have to watch the ohms, remember you'll have problems if you're trying to run 1 ohm on a amp that's only 2 ohm stable. The less ohms, the more punch, but the more, the better quality sound. Home audio is 8-16ohm. So you would want less ohms. Some amps are also only 4 ohm stable, I've blown a few running 2 ohms.

For bass, bigger the speaker, typically the lower frequencies it can hit, but bigger speakers usually aren't as "punchy." I used to make bass tracks with a bass sample I made from a 10hz sample I generated, I've hit notes that couldn't be heard, but just shook everything.

I actually have a quad voice coil 10" that I am going to run with a 1000 watt RMS monoblock that's 1ohm stable. The speaker is 1500 RMS (3000 peak), and is taller than it is round. Most audio equipment is rated in peak wattage to make it look more appealing. I am probably going to run 0 welding lead wiring.

I've noticed that in trunks, speakers are much more louder in the car if the speakers are pointing away, or towards the person behind you.

The trunk will rattle like bees. Some have used dynomat to supress, but not sure how or how well or it worked out.

For now, I would just say run what you have as far as the box. When it comes down to porting and tuning them, that's kind of a black art in itself. It will give him something to do.

Keep it down within a 5 mile radius, don't let anyone know he has it, and it won't get stolen. I used to take my stuff out every single night and put in into the garage.

It helps to have a kill switch for the remote wire from the deck to turn it off at will (cops).

Pete

 

[reno]

This is the Amp... http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/prod...y_id=20&item_id=108227&locale=en_US&p_status=

And these are about as close to the speakers as I can find right now. It is raining out and I can't go outside right now and unscrew one to remove it from the box. Will try tomorrow and take a few pictures.

http://www.maaudio.com/category.jhtm?cid=16
The MA1008XL is close, but let me take a photo of them.
And yes they are rated @ 1000Watts each. Maybe he should run just one speaker then?

 

[Psychopete]

I'd wonder if you could hook the dvc coils each in parallel (2 ohm) and then the speakers in series (back to 4 ohm). Run the 2 as 1 speaker "bridged" (from amp perspective) to get 200W rms @ 4 ohm.

Also looks like you could just hook the dual voice coils in parallel and just run each to L/R output for 100W @ 2ohm RMS. This would probably be safest, the above would be an "experiment", but would be the loudest if it worked.

Those speakers on the web page are 500W RMS (which isn't bad). 1000W is basically the point of blowing it up.

Under powering the speaker isn't necessarily bad for the speaker, but harder on the amp because it needs to to work so hard to keep it as loud as the operator wants it. It ends up over working the amp. The clipping from trying to run a 100w amp like a 1000w amp is what will kill a speaker. I've never blown a speaker from keeping too low on volume.

Pete

 

[Pistons23]

i would get a 4awg amp kit, no cap. yes the 4awg is not needed for a 200w amp, but in the future if he wants to get a amp with more power, 4awg will work up to about 1000w.

what model is the jl 12"?

 

[reno]

i would get a 4awg amp kit, no cap. yes the 4awg is not needed for a 200w amp, but in the future if he wants to get a amp with more power, 4awg will work up to about 1000w.

what model is the jl 12"?

I think th JL 12 is from a home stereo, is has 120 8ohm on the bottom and V R C.


The model on the bottom of the M.A.'s is MA1000XL Dual 4 ohm 1000W rated.

They look as if though they are wired like this (I can't find the cable to my kids camera!! ARRRGGHHH)

 

[Shran]

Reno...I may get flamed for this, but I've had really good luck with the "Dual" brand amps that best buy sells. I've got two 500W amps in my F150 and that sucker BUMPS with a single 10" sub...some brand...dammit, I can't remember now. Anyway, they're absolutely cheap and in my experience they last too.

 

[reno]

All hooked up now, and L-O-U-D!!!!! Holy crap!, if he goes any higher in watts, I just don't know about his hearing...... I will hook up a toggle switch for the amp though .

 

[Pistons23]

I think th JL 12 is from a home stereo, is has 120 8ohm on the bottom and V R C.

all of jl audios subs are either 8 or 4 ohms models. an 8ohm sub will still hit pretty good. it might be worthwhile to find out more about that sub.

could there have been a "w" between the 12 and 0?

"VRC" is for vented reinforeced collar

here are all of jl's discontinued subs
http://mobile.jlaudio.com/products_subs_pages.php?page_id=15