91muddog

My new subwoofer and amp setup is cutting out at high bass volumes.

I have two 12 inch Kicker comp cvr's dual 2ohm voice coil wired into a Kicker 400.1 amp.
The amp is very easily overdriving causeing it to cut out, even with the gain and boost turned all the way down.

Is there a way I could wire the subs themselves to the amp to prevent this?
Is there anything else that could be done?

All connections are good, new RCA'a and Headunit, ground to Seat belt, connected good.

Its driving me crazy and my other ams just dont hit as hard with these subs...

bratliff

DOUBLE CHECK YOUR AMPLIFIER GROUND... after that..

Sounds like you are clipping. Do you have the subs hooked 1 to each channel ? subs wired parallel with the amp mono'd? Subs wired series with the amp mono'd?

If each channel or subs parrallel, you may try wiring them in series to increase the impedence see if that helps..

91muddog

this shows exactly how they are wired as of right now

http://www.crutchfield.com/learningc...C&amptype=mono

midiwall

Whoa.. so two 2-ohm subs connected in parallel to an amp rated for two ohms? That would put an effective dead load of 1-ohm to the amp, which is TWICE the active load, and would explain your clipping.

midiwall

My bad,.,. they're dual 2ohm coils, so each sub present a 4 ohm load, then 2 in parallel create the 2 ohm load.

midiwall

What's your connection like to the headunit? Do you have it setup with a LP filter through a sub channel? You say your "other amps don't hit as hard with these subs". What are the OTHER subs you had? What are the other amps?

91muddog

Yeah, the amp is also rated for a 2ohm load so i dont know why it is cuttign out,
its not getting hot or going into protected mode either.

dijlop

hmmm. i deff woulda thought ground first. thats always been my prob. try a diff ground point or something?

ShortyzKustomz

I had the same problem, check your connections on the subs. one sub wired backwards can cause some issues

midiwall

So... it may help if you answer some of this stuff:Past that, do you still have the clipping issue if you hook up just one sub? (try both separately!)

91muddog

it only does it at high volumes, not too high, just about halfway.

its connected to the headunit via rca's through the h/u's subwoofer output channel.

I hooked up my 1200watt Boss Chaos C700amp and everything worked fine, no filters between the headunit and amp.
i may try the subs seperately tomorrow. There are

HappyCamper

i'm not exactly convinced you have everything wired correctly so i'm going to give you a complete answer; forgive me if you know all this already.

first of all, you should *definately* install a low bandpass filter. you know, you can make your own cheaply -- eg. make a first order low-frequency filter with a coil you can buy at partsexpress.com; no need to buy a $100+ unit. a second-order filter will provide a sharper drop-off, but if you have a midrange, a first-order will be fine, just don't cut-off at too high a freq. you can probably find a good chart online to tell you what inductance is appropriate for your woofers (depends on freq range of your woofer and mid).

however, i'm not sure this would cause the cut-out problem. the first thing i suspect is that your speakers are wired such that you have too few ohm so you're drawing too much current.

what's the load (ohms) expected by your amp? be aware some amps have a switch (i.e. "bridgeable"), with different loads expected in each setting. make *sure* you know how many ohms your speakers need to be. next, how many ohms are your speakers? they come in 2, 4, 8, and single vs dual coil.

you have to wire your speakers in the correct manner -- i.e. series vs parallel.

if you connect two 4 ohm speakers in series, they are 8 ohms (Rt=R1+R2+...). if you connect two 4 ohms speakers in parallel, they are only 2 ohms (1/Rt=1/R1+1/R2+...). how many ohms are your speakers? check the connections to be sure they are connected the way you think they are! it's not too hard to make a mistake.

to explain the diagram you linked -- it shows two dual-coil crossovers. connecting two 2ohm coils in series makes for 4 ohms. two 4ohm subs in parallel makes 2 ohms, which, in the diagram, is correct for an amp designed to push 2 ohms.

note that some amps are designed to push 4 ohms, not 2!

so, you have to understand series-parallel circuits in order to connect your components together correctly, not just copy another setup because it may have different components. car stereos used to always be 4 ohms but nowadays 2 and 4 ohms are both common. home stereo speakers on the other hand are generally 8 ohms.

i hope this helps a bit. if you post the specs of your amp and speakers i can help some more. if you tell me the freq range of you woofers and mids, i can even recommend a crossover circuit. just don't give me model numbers, i'm too old to know what models are what anymore

91muddog

In my system there is no need for a low pass filter, there is one privided in the head unit itself as perviouly stated, in its tuning capabilities, which is why i spent a ton of money on it, there is also one on the amp itself so one in line going to the amp would only hinder my possible performance and ease of tuning.

I know how to wire, the subs are both 2ohm Dual Voice Coil, wired for a single 2ohm load, as perviouly stated and the amp IS capable of handing a 2ohm loadas perviouly stated

i provide models incase you want to do some reasearch on your own or anyone has any previous experience with them, this thread isnt only directed to you...

olharleyman

try Putting Some Fans On The Amp. I had the same issue with mine shuting down and it would have to sit for a few mins then it would play again for a couple mins and off it would go. I put 4 mini fans on it and it will run at full volume all day and never shut down.

91muddog

Thats the weird part, it doesnt get hot.
I went outside just now, and as soon as i turned it past half way it cut out..

gametom

if you have a volt meter touch it to the 12+ and the ground on the amp and watch the voltage if the voltage drops below about 10.5v the amp will cut out untill the voltage rises over 11v. at least that's how my amp was.