Hey hey.
Pretty much know what I'm getting, but just want to be clear about sub woofers, amps and stuff...

1) Why do these things need to be in the boot? It seems strange to me that money would be spent on something that is big and booming, only to throw it in the boot of the car. I know that bass is omnidirectional (I am a bass player), but can this thing be installed so that the noise can come up through the rear parcel shelf through pre-designed sound holes?

2) Does one's amp have to equal or exceed the entire speaker wattage in order to maximise all the speakers going through it? (ie, if you have, for arguments sake, a 1200w woofer, two 120w tweaters, and two 180w 6x9's, would your amp need to be 1800w's to handle the load? If you had a 700w amp, would that mean your entire output can only ever be 700w?)

3) When is an eqaliser a benefit instead of a pain in the behind, or do you simply need to leave the house 30 mins early to get your pre-amp settings right every time you change a CD with an EQ instalment?

These are the early questions. As I screw around with the thing, I'm sure I'll have others (like 'what does a 6x9 look like', or annoying ones like 'if you had seventeen hundred bazzilion gazillion dollars, what would your dream stereo be like?').

Later!

Hey hey.
Pretty much know what I'm getting, but just want to be clear about sub woofers, amps and stuff...

1) Why do these things need to be in the boot? It seems strange to me that money would be spent on something that is big and booming, only to throw it in the boot of the car. I know that bass is omnidirectional (I am a bass player), but can this thing be installed so that the noise can come up through the rear parcel shelf through pre-designed sound holes?


Cos they don't fit anywhere else! You could build a 4th order bandpass box with the port sticking through your parcel shelf, but you'd only do it for the sake of it, nice sealed box in the boot sound ok.


2) Does one's amp have to equal or exceed the entire speaker wattage in order to maximise all the speakers going through it? (ie, if you have, for arguments sake, a 1200w woofer, two 120w tweaters, and two 180w 6x9's, would your amp need to be 1800w's to handle the load? If you had a 700w amp, would that mean your entire output can only ever be 700w?)

No, speaker wattage is really a useless measurement, although it does give a handy estimation of the sensitivity of the speaker. As a general rule, the lower power handling of the speaker, the higher its sensitivity, therefore the more output for a given amount of power. Note that this is a gross generalisation!

The real rule for speaker power is the more the better, you're more likely to damage a speaker from not enough power than too much!



3) When is an eqaliser a benefit instead of a pain in the behind, or do you simply need to leave the house 30 mins early to get your pre-amp settings right every time you change a CD with an EQ instalment?

Only really a benefit if you really want to win sound quality comps. If you don't have a spectrum analyser and don't have audiophile ears you could spend days and days trying to tune it only for it to sound worse than before.

1) Why do these things need to be in the boot?
Bass will reflect off the rear of your car (aka rear loading) It takes considerable length for the wave to "mature" and the usual distance is halfway in your boot boucing off the back of the boot lid and then into the cabin. A mature wave will sound better pretty much. For sq applications you dont need holes etc to let the air pressure in. I recommend a sealed box if your after predictable results and good sq. Ported if you want something loud with a lot of air movement. (spl)
The idea with subs is to not notice that there are subs. If you can do this then u wull get a good stage and good sq. Subs play low frequencies. And hopefully low enough that your ears cant distinguish their location and it sounds like it is comng from everywhere.
In the boot cos its big and requires a large box. Also safer in the boot. Some custom installs have subs on the dash. Many install larger mid basses (eg 8" drivers in doors) to bring the bass forward.


2) Does one's amp have to equal or exceed the entire speaker wattage in order to maximise all the speakers going through it?...

You generally want either a dedicated monoblock for your subs or utilise say a four channel amp bridging two channels for the sub and the other two for your front splits (midbass and tweeter)
Your subs amplifier should generally be able to provide higher rms wattage compared to what the total of your subs rms wattage is... Ignore any pmpo (peak output) figures as these are useless (my sub can handle 10000 watts then it'll blow up...) By having a higher rms rating, your amplifier will not struggle as much to reach the subs rms as this can all be controlled via the gains on the amp(volume control)
The only damage you will do to your subs is from excessive power. Over their peak. Or more importantly by pushing your amp so much that it causes it to distort (the output is clipped as it can no longer provide more power) Distortion will damage your subs!

Generally for speakers 50 w rms per channel is enough for normal applications. It is always good to have extra power on tap (or headroom) but 50 w rms is very loud. And for sq applications it is plenty. A headunit that says 4 x 50 watt will more likely put out ~20 w rms per channel to give you a comparison.

3) When is an eqaliser a benefit instead of a pain in the behind...

Dedicated Eq instruments are ok depending on the application. Money would be better spent on good front splits unless your spending more than $3k on a system imho. but each to their own. Simpler systems are usually very effective as there are less components to interfere with the original signal. A decent head unit will come with good enough eq controls and may be worth putting more money into (eclipse, alpine, nakamichi etc) instead of buying a separate eq. How much money are you looking to spend?

High passing(cutting off low frequencies) your speakers is also very important to stop distortion and many decks will do this.

Peace

Tim

The real rule for speaker power is the more the better, you're more likely to damage a speaker from not enough power than too much!

On the right track, true it's better to get speakers with a higher power rating, but if too little power damaged your speaker, every time you turned the volume down you would be causing damage.

Driving a low powered amplifier beyond its limits (headunit or dedicated amplifiers) will cause clipping and distortion which will cause damage

im just being picky.

On the right track, true it's better to get speakers with a higher power rating, but if too little power damaged your speaker, every time you turned the volume down you would be causing damage.

Driving a low powered amplifier beyond its limits (headunit or dedicated amplifiers) will cause clipping and distortion which will cause damage

im just being picky.

You are right, I should have clarified that over driving a low powered amp will cause speaker damaging clipping..... you knew what meant though!!!

install ya sub(s) in the spare wheel well if ya wanna save room, plus its a good, solid enclosure to put them in. u then have to work out whether u still want a spare wheel tho and where u r gonna put it!!

Theres ways around taking up space. A lot of subs don't need that much to sound good. Removable subs in prefab boxes are handy for when you need the space as well.

I like to keep my spare. But if ur willing to let that go it's perfect.

Yeah i knew what u were talking bout mate, just wanted to make sure other people had the right info before buying a 20 watt amp :) just jokes!

Peace

Tim

Sweetness.
That rocks. S.Q is my goal, but in looking at the nature of the sub, I realise now that stuffing it in the boot is not psychotic behaviour. I must admit, though, I did think the whole idea of sticking a big speaker in the boot was rather self defeatist. My eyes are now open, however.
It's cool to find a forum where one can ask a question and get quality answers, and not the usual "Well... it depends on what colour shirt you're wearing..." crap.

Thanks, fellow humans.

Later.

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Greetings All.



Thanks, fellow humans.

lol LOL...this guy cracks me up...lol
Good on ya mate!!!

Cheers,
--Tonba
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