Is there anything terribly wrong with doing this? I ordered some Comp CVR12's the other day, they are a 400watt RMS 4ohm speaker. The amp I will be connecting them to only puts out 150watts RMS at 4ohm and 300 watts RMS at 2ohm. So what would happen if I wired the amp for 2ohm?

 

You really don't have that option. If the speaker has one voice coil, putting out a 4 ohm load, thats what the amp will see. The speaker shows an amp resistance, not vice versa. You could get a different sub that will run at 2 ohms or or another of the same 4 ohm speaker and wire them in parallel (pos to pos, neg to neg).

Edit...just reread your original post...If you got a pair of them, your in business...like I said...wire them in parallel and they will show your amp a 2 ohm load, getting max power from the amp.....

 

You sub(s) would get more power. I hope your sending 300 watts rms to each sub.

In my case I have JBL 600.1 which sends 300 watts rms at 4 ohms and 600 watts rms at 2 ohms and its a 1 channel amp. I have (2) 4 ohm subs hooked up to the amp in parrallel to give me an overall impedence of 2 ohms. In this setup each sub should be getting 300 watts rms.

 

There is NO need to worry about feeding a speaker it's RMS rating. YOur problems arise if you grossly overpower a speaker or send it an ugly clipped signal because you are underpowering it and tryin got compensate by cranking the gains.

Haha, i was in one of those "local" stereo shops and some kids came in looking to purchase speakers not based on sound or application...based on RMS value. And I BET their amps aren't putting out that power consistently....

 

Welcome to my world, and the world of 90% of people who buy car audio. You think thats bad, people that come into my Circuit City dont know what RMS is. Some come in and think only the bottom of the line decks are cd players, and higher ones are only radios, since they have no idea the face folds down for you to insert the cd.

 

lmao

To the OP, get a new woofer.

 

Or get a new amp

 

Wait, they have cd player.....behind the radio?

 

I'm sorry for posting this question in replies, but I do not have proper privilages to start new threads, or search. I have a 2004 maxima se and I recently installed an audiobahn A8000T amp. It is a 2 ohm stable mono amp with 1600 watts ACH Power and 400 watts x 1 at 4 ohms RMS power. I have two Audiobahn 1 ferad capacitors wired to it as well (Please hold the comments on the negatives/positives of capacitor use), obviouslly they are wired in parallel to produce 2 ferad total. This setup powers 2 audiobahn ABP12T subwoofers which have a power handling of 800 Watts RMS. Their impedance is rated at 4 ohm stereo and they are wired to the amp in a parallel cirucuit to produce a 2 ohm total load (since the amp is 2 ohm stable). I left my stock headunit alone (non-bose); therefore, I decided to tap into the rear speakers after the stock amplifier and use the amp's high level inputs. Also, I have everything wired with 4 gauge wire and capacitor grounds as well as the amp ground does not exceed 3 feet. Everything worked perfectly for a day or so, even with the music turned up fairly loudly at times. However, problems have arisen. I believe my amp is overheating for some reason. I don't see why, since it is in the open with plenty of air circulation. After about half an hour of driving with the music set to a comfortable listening volume, the amp shuts off and goes into protect mode. Initially, I assumed that this was caused by a speaker wire short. Now however, I don't believe this is the case since the amp is extremely hot to the touch when it shuts off. After about 2 minutes, it goes on for a period of one minute or so, only to shut off again. I'm planning to take the whole setup out tomorrow and inspect everything for problems. Before I do however, I hope some of you will be able to comment on my problem. Sorry for the long post, these are my questions:
1. I've heard that a bad ground can cause amp overheating. I reason that if the amp has a bad ground, the current that it needs doesn't go to it, and therefore the amp should be cooler while the ground connection itself should be hotter. Please correct me if I'm wrong...
2. Is it possible for the amp to overheat because it's receiving a too strong of a high level signal? Afterall, I tapped into the speakers AFTER the factory maxima amplifier. Would this cause the amp to overheat?

If anyone is at all familiar with what might cause an amp to overheat in a well ventilated area (and from what I've been reading these audiobahn A8000T amps are not infamous for overheating) please respond. Any response offering help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time.

 

are the gains set too high? the amp seems to be overstressing causing it to overheat and go into thermal protection.

 

Yea, I've thought about that as well. After it shut off on me last night, in cool weather conditions, I set the gains almost to a minimum, and turned the bass boost all the way down to see what would happen. I also set my factory radio bass on -2. Unfortunately, sure enough, the amp overheated again today. I'm running out of "obvious" ideas that's why I'm starting to consider the not so common causes.

 

power wire size of the correct gauge is being used?

 

i'm running 4 gauge wires all the way around. Power, ground, capacitors... That should be the correct size for 400 watts at 4 ohm rms power right? I mean... the connections don't seem to get hot, the wires seem to be fine, just the damn amp...

 

Alright, so I finally got frustrated and decided to call audiobahn to see what they have to say about it. They told me that if I'm running the high level inputs after the stock amplifier, the amp is getting overpowered by the signal causing it to overheat. My problem now is, does anyone know what color is the speaker wire which runs to the facotry amplifier from the headunit for the right and left rear speaker on a 2004 maxima se? I mean, if I get no responses I'll just do the battery test and pop the speakers, but it would be a lot easier if someone could help me out. Hopefully, after I'm done with that the problem will be solved. thanks

 

this was probably said already but don't do it, its probably not even possible anyways.

 

what?

anyhow...maybe kevin can chime in on your problem. i myself have never messed with high level inputs.

 

thats bullshiet, i had my amp running off my rear speakers, and it should not be too high of a level for it to overheat, that has nothing to do with the power going to the amp,.thats just for sound... put it this way if its not your ground, then your amp is garbage bro.. well it is audiobahn. in this case you are probably running the amp at 1ohm which i am not sure if that amp is 1ohm stable. is it?

 

and your main power wire is at least 1/0 ga ....correct?

 

1 awg for 400 watts? i thought 8 awg was enough for anything below 500

 

depends on the length of wire. i ran 4 gauge for my 500 (well....480) watt setup with my brahma to be safe.

 

Correct...

 

Hey Everyone,
I'm really sorry for not responding for so long... Anyway, why would I want to run 1/0 gauge wire? I have 4 gauge all around, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure I don't need anything bigger. I pulled everything out my trunk... Now I'll switch the ground, and connect the high imputs before the amplifier. Whoever said it shouldn't be a problem to wire it after the amplifier, I completely agree... But we'll see... Audiobahn service gays... I mean guys... seem to think otherwise... worth a try. Also I should mention that the amp wouldn't overheat to all types of music. If I was blasting RAP or Hip Hop it wouldn't overheat even though thats the music that bumps. If I started blasting rock, or alternative, that's when it would overheat. So perhaps it does have something to do with the audio imputs. Either way, I'll keep you posted as I try to fix this crap. Ciao for now...

 

usually i adjust my eq for the type of music i listen too. maybe that could be a problem??

 

Yea, well it's a factory head unit... and I didn't get an external eq. So if that has anything to do with the problem, tough luck for me... for now...

 

if you have all this money in audio equipment why dont you just get an aftermarket head unit?