so, years ago i was on this forum and learned all i could from a man named Jason Carol. Dont know if he's still around, but if you are, youre the man. anyway, I've progressed in my auto interests and I'm now a GM Dealership Tech specializing in DC electrical systems. I bought 3 infinity kappa perfect subs years ago and hooked them up to my JBL 600.1 amp, but because JBL was very unclear about some wiring info in the manual, the amp blew immediately and i never got to hear these subs that i wanted for so long. I'm getting tired of tripping over them in my room, so i've decided it's time to sell my current setup (two alpine type S 12 inch DVC subs with a JBL 360.2 amp) in favor of buying a Power Acoustik amp for my infinity subs. here's the problem:

if i buy an amp to push all 3 of these subs it will be almost 1200 watts rms. this is MUCH more than i want pushing in my car all the time. i'm much more likely to want 5 or 6 hundred watts for the sake of actually enjoying my music. so here's the situation. I want to put single pole double throw relays in the speaker wiring. one sub wired right to the amp (4 ohms per sub), then have the relays open/close the circuits to the other two subs and lower my resistance to the amp for when i want to actually put out some ear pounding bass. what i want to know is has anyone ever heard of a speaker setup with relays in the speaker wires? does anyone see any problems coming from this?
i know the first thing some of you will say is "well if you energize a relay coil and create a magnetic field right around the wire then it will create distortion, maybe even enough to damage the subs." the answer to that is, using a single pole double throw relay i could wire it so with the relay energized the circuit to the speaker is open, so when it's not energized (in it's natural state, like when the car is off) then the circuit is closed. that way any time the sub is playing the magnetic field isn't present. so, that leads to the question of, if the circuit is open with the relay energized, and the end of the open speaker circuit is inside the relay, will the magnetic field induce any kind of distortion or anything through the open circuit that could feed back down the wire and influence the playing subs?

any ideas of things i need to consider are definitely welcome. and to answer a question i know some may have, i called power acoustik yesterday and talked this over with one of their techs and he said to NOT change speaker load on the amp while it's powered up. That makes sense, and i kinda figured that to be the case. i just wanted to ask to make sure. so i'll end up with 3 switches on my dash-1 to open the turn on signal to the amp (power it down) and 2 to activate the speaker circuit relays as i see fit

you could just try using that volume knob or maybe get a head unit with an adjustable sub out. i have 30 dbs of attenuation for mine.

yeah i thought of just using a bass knob, but I'm a firm believer in less is more, meaning the less you try and change the audio signal the better, clearer the sound. using something to pull down or boost the signal usually involves having a center frequency that it focuses on (around 50hz i think) and the frequencies around that are not adjusted to the same amount, so the sound quality can get shotty. the best alternative is using a head unit with a sub out level, like you said. If i dont use a variable circuit then that will most likely be my solution, but i'd really like to find a way to not run all 3 subs at once. cone surface area creates additional bass just as much as delivered power.

so if you believe less is more, why are you trying to wire in relays for voice coils and all this other stuff?

cause that's not changing anything in the audio signal or frequency delivery, it's just complicating the wiring to the speakers.

Noah Hasenfang wrote:
if i buy an amp to push all 3 of these subs it will be almost 1200 watts rms. this is MUCH more than i want pushing in my car all the time. i'm much more likely to want 5 or 6 hundred watts for the sake of actually enjoying my music. so here's the situation.

why are you making this so complicated. if you want to do a science project.then by all means go ahead with your plan.

either put less subs in, or adjust the system accordingly. im assuming you know how to do this, since your doing all kinds of crazy circuits to try to solve your so called dilemma. then again.....you want to buy a jbl or power acoustik amp, and you cant follow wiring instructions, so i have my doubts.

If you still planned on doing this, each speaker would have to be in its own chamber.

what n8ball might be talking about is a subwoofer level control.

These are not centered around a certain location, only attenuates the subwoofer rca's to put out less voltage.



Elemental Designs
Performance.Mobile.Audio.
alexl@edesignaudio.com
Warehouse Manager

yeah adding several relays and more wiring is going to have a better chance at changing the sound then going with an amp with a remote level control. me personally i have the old kicker amps that have the remote level controls and mounted then in my center console so i can adjust the bass with the turn or my wrist, same goes for the highs, i can go from full power to off basically. since u dong have the amps yet id push you to just consider that. no hassles, allot less wiring. and everything u really need.

another thing to remember is the diffrence between 500 watts and 1000 wats is 3db. not that much to really mess with.


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whiteboyz24: dont act like a dick. of course i know how to setup a system correctly, but im lookin for a different way to control the system from being reasonable to being out of control with just switches or some other interface. I've already got the subs, thats why i'm not building it as a lower powered system. Otherwise i would just buy 2 subs and be alright with that.

alex and sndsgood: yeah i think the best solution so far would be to get a deck that i know has a nice sub output control. that way the RCA voltage could easily be lowered and increased easily without changing the audio spectrum. but isnt the difference of 3db basically sounding twice as loud to the human ear? thats what i always heard. thanks for the reply.

yes three dbs is twice as loud to the human ear. my kenwood has a -15 to +15 rating. it really does work.

just look into it before you buy its much easier with a remote mounted amp gain close at hand versus leaning forward everytime u want to adjust your bass. mos of them are a basica volume control so you set the gain and then this is either 1-100% volume.


n8's probalby more up on the spl side but i thought 3db's was were people could pick up a noticable diffrence in sound and 5db was the quivilant of doubling your sound. what i was getting at though was having a bit of extra power is a good thing, just because you have the power doesnt mean you have to use it. id rather have a 500 hp car being used at half power versus a 250 hp car being ran at 100% full out all the time.


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i might have been acting like a dick about your choice of amp brands....oh well.

i was just letting you know that you are over thinking the setup and making it more complicated than it needs to be.

i personally have an in-dash crossover which would do what you want. are you running an amp for the interior speaks?

you could also do a line driver. that would accomplish what n8ball was saying about rca voltage but without changing the HU.

i dont mind changing the HU in the future cause i'd rather have one you can turn the internal amp off if you want. or not have an internal at all. but for the time being i'll keep running it off my deck taken from my gf's wrecked car. Whiteboyz, the reason i wanted power acoustik is cause I need a high powered amp made by a company that i at least trust to put out what it's rated, and also not overheat from normal operation. i'd say power acoustik just skims that standard, and the gothic series looks great. i can get an amp from them that puts out 1200rms @ 1 ohm for under 200 bucks. not bad. I've installed a couple power acoustiks in my early days in audio and they ran just as well as the next amp as long as you dont abuse them. i wouldnt buy jbl again, simply cause I know that they gave bad info about their mono amp and it wouldnt even play a single note before blowing when it was wired into a strained output that it should have been able to handle.

i was more worried about your doubt that i know how to wire things. It's literally my job to do those things, its easy, thats why i dont mind complicating a system if it will do exactly what i want it to do when im done.

you want budget bang look into the hifonics brutus line please.

i just looked up the brutus line, and yes it looks like a great bang for the buck. it's almost exactly the same power output as the amp i was looking at, except at 4 ohms it puts out 450 rather than 600, which is actually better for my setup as each sub is rated for 350rms/1400 max, and it's only about 20 bucks more. thanks for the suggestion! i'll look into that and check out some customer reviews and youtube videos of it in action.

yea unfortunately, jason carrol is a huge tool and went . So he was perma ned for doing (i can bring myself to mention it, the details still bring chills to ma bones....) unspeakable things to little kids........


(carrol = sndsgood )

Noah Hasenfang wrote: Whiteboyz, the reason i wanted power acoustik is cause I need a high powered amp made by a company that i at least trust to put out what it's rated, and also not overheat from normal operation. i'd say power acoustik just skims that standard, and the gothic series looks great.

That, right there, made me piss all over my face.

Lanman31337 - Cavfire wrote:

Noah Hasenfang wrote: Whiteboyz, the reason i wanted power acoustik is cause I need a high powered amp made by a company that i at least trust to put out what it's rated, and also not overheat from normal operation. i'd say power acoustik just skims that standard, and the gothic series looks great.

That, right there, made me piss all over my face.

I thought you looked familiar

Okay, that's that was funny, lol

Either way, I'd never buy power acoustik...there's so much better out there for the same money or just a little more.


'03 Cavalier
DesertTuners.com

that thing about jason-thats a joke right? i mean.... he didnt really do anything to little kids did he? that would just mind f*** me right there.