Intruder

Thank you, boss!

MisterT

How much was the Tsunami? Also did they cut you a break on shipping (as in no charge for S/H)? Lastly, what kind of power are you talking now? I know the other amp is rated at 500 watts. FYI, I have one sub disconnected and running at 400 watts RMS and it sounds really good. It would sound even better in a ported application like yours, but I am feeding the sub an extra 100 watts since I am not running the other sub. With both hooked up, it hits a little harder. I wonder though if they are underpowered or if they just need more current from electrical system to keep them sounding good. Still want to go ported.

MiserT

Intruder

MisterT (my other boss ), the Tsunami is $260 ($5 less than the Avionixx, although there is a huge difference in MSRP price). They did not cut me a break on anything. Basically they shipped the Tsunami overnight. All in all they had to pay an extra $15 for the overnight shipment of the amp. That's all.... I got nothing "extra" nor a refund...

I mentioned in a previous post that my speaker's total resistance is less than 2 ohms (about 1.7ohms). The Tsunami is rated to output 650W at 2ohms, but since my load is less than 2ohms, the amp will be pushing more -- maybe more than 700W. I have to be very careful with the gain control.

I got the carpet today, but unfortunately I will not be able to work on anything today. Maybe I will install the new battery terminal, but that's it. WOW, I am approaching the finish line! I have all I need to complete this project. All I need is some time...

Rider69

Intruder, I don't feel like searching back on all the posts but how is your speakers impedance less than 2 ohms if you are using 1 12k44?

demoninvictus

i'm no electronics nerd, and obviously our friend intruder is an electrical engineer of sorts , but simply by wiring the sub up, without running power to it through an amp kit, and just using a voltage meter, you can measure the impedence/resistance through any material or circuit that will conduct electricity. while the resistance level he calculates to be at 1.7 ohms, the guestimation of how many watts that will yield is purely just good guess work. by recognizing his actual ohm load, he's not going to have much resistance at all, meaning the amp will hopefully put out more watts than it is rated for at 2 ohms.. instead, he might be able to drop the amp to a 1.7 ohm load. several factors will play into the actual peak wattage obtainable, and even so, that particular wattage may only spike up at certain frequencies for a couple hundreths of a second, or hopefully in intruders case, will sustain an rms wattage around 650 to 700 watts. am i right, or am i wrong? it seems to me, the best situation in his is case is to run his monsterous amp at 1/2 the gain and he'll be in business. i was thinking about that amp rack intruder... i definately will have to figure out something if i ever get the tsunami amp wired up in my car, as 2 amps mounted on that back seat aren't going to make for the cleanest install
peace

MisterT

Cool beans! Let us know how it sounds. The best thing is that you did it yourself. On my Pro, it was my first install. I learned a lot from uninstalling stereos when trading in cars in the past. I went to the shop where I used to work and was blown away at how much it would be for all the crap I had It was around 5 or 6 hundred for what you see right now (minus a prefab box). This was also for the 6 1/2 midbass to go in the rear deck and the seperates in the doors (before getting kickpanels). I saved a considerable amount of money doing it myself, but nothing beats the satisfaction that comes with it....hang on, I think I smell something burning...ha! Glad to help out in any way that I could.

MisterT

Intruder

demoninvictus is totally right! my 700W figure is based on a wild guess because -- my "resistance" (impedance) is less than 2ohms, and since the amp is rated to put out 650W at 2ohms, it will possibly put out slighlty more Watts at 1.7ohms...

Rider, I do have the 12k44, which has two voice coils each having ~4 ohms of impedance. I read somewhere (I think in the Tsunami manual) that in reality, the resistance(impedance) of the coil is actually less than advertised, and this is very common. So, after reading this, I decided to measure the actual resistance. I had the two coils connected to the terminals and the bus bars were in place (coils in parallel), so I took my digital multimeter and measured the resistance across one pair of +/- terminals. The meter read 1.7 ohms (0.3 ohms less than the "advertised" value). This lead me to believe that my amp will be able to push more current through the two coils, effectlively increasing the total power output. By how much, I cannot say, but there should be a slight increase in power.

MisterT

You don't have to be all too concerned by the .3 volt less than 2 ohms when it comes to your amp. Remember, ED was selling the 2ohm amps with their dual voice coil sub in a sub/amp combo special. Just don't have it so high that it distorts, and otherwise, you are just fine.

MisterT

Intruder

sure man, I was never worried. I just wanted to point that out.

Intruder

I'm gonna go fix the battery terminals now.
After that, I will start carpeting the amp rack. Hopefully I'll finish it quick. I'll be posting pics -- as always.

Rider69

I understand the part about actually measuring the resistance of the coils, but in actuality, most speakers impedance will change slightly with the frequency of the signal it is being fed. For example: the e12k44 has a resonant frequency of 26.39hz. It is easiest to drive it at this frequency. The measured value of the voice coil will only give you the DC resistance of the coil. If you actually multiply that value by 1.3, this will give you the nominal impedance of the sub. in the case of the e12k44, this value is 2.21 ohms. But using the info from edesigns website, the nominal resistance is 1.44, thus the nominal impedance would be 1.872 ohms. Of course, the impedance will change with frequency and can range from <1ohm to over 60ohms. So, in conclusion the impedance your amp will see most of the time is probably closer to 2 ohms than you think.

Here are a couple of good pages that give info on this:
http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/resvsimp.htm

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/a...impedance.html

demoninvictus

ah, very informative. and in actuality, won't the amp run cooler at a higher impedence, as the peak output is lowered as the resistance level is stepped up? just curious
peace

Intruder

this is logical.

wow, I had no idea it was THAT MUCH complicated. Thanks to Rider69 for sharing this info with us!

Intruder

Well, I finished installing everything. I tested the system and I am satisfied. I have to do some serious adjustments though... I am not sure how to properly fix the input level of the amp -- it can be anywhere from 0.something to 6V. As far as I know my HU has 3V pre-amp outputs. Does that mean that I have to set the input level of the amp to 3V? Also, should I touch the LPF (low pass filter) of the amp? Subsonic filter - ON or OFF? I have other questions as well, but I am very tired right now. I'll post more tomorrow.

Basically, today I finished the electrical work. I had a few set-backs due to various stupid reasons, but in the end I was able to get everything working together - in sync.

Now I have to carpet the amp rack and the box... and I'm done!

The amp looks AWESSOOOMMEEE in the dark!! The logo lights up blue when the power is ON. It looks SWEET. I can't wait to see it mounted on the carpeted amp rack... shining... blue... in the night. *sigh*

The sub is a monster. I don't think it was outputting more than half of what it can, but with the rear seats dropped, my hair was vibrating!! My spine was vibrating... I was feeling it in my neck... I got a very good vibe... I felt like I was at a Metallica concert. I was FEELING the music. WOW... And there is more to come....

I'll post a few pics now. Talk to you guys later!


count 'em - 7 albums - over 7 hours of METALLICA!!







This is where I connected the amp's ground wire.


you gotta see it first-hand... it looks 100 times better in reality.

Intruder

I forgot to add -- my lights are dimming... NOT!