Captain YARRR

Hey guys,

So I bought the boat with one Polk 10 and eight Polk 6.5s. The previous owner had one Polk 600 watt amp pushing all this. Needless to say, that was not cutting it. The boat also has a bit of a wiring mess, we've done a lot to clean it up, but it could definitely stand to be rewired correctly.

Since then I've added one more Polk 10 for a total of two 10s. My buddy gave me a Powerbank 1500 W amp.

We set the Powerbank running the speakers and the Polk running the subs.

The Powerbank is a champ and never gets hot. The Polk gets real hot and shuts down if I push the subs at any reasonable volume.

What do you guys think? Should I switch these amps or do I just need more amp pushing my subs?

F-2 Speedy

iTrader: (6)

u talk about the wattage of the amps but u dont say what the speakers are. The amps should be sized to max wattage of the speakers. SO if you have a 600W anp for the subs they shouldnt be larger than 300W a piece. The same goes for the 6.5's

Captain YARRR

I have no idea on the first sub since I didn't buy it and same with the 6.5s. This is the sub I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-DXi.../ref=de_a_smtd

Says 540 W peak.

All these wattages get confusing because it seems some amps claim one number and then it really is another number.

BTW, I am a complete audio n00b, so please be gentle

F-2 Speedy

iTrader: (6)

It can get a bit confusing, 8,4,2 ohms, the other speakers should have the watts listed on the bottom of the magnet, but if u dont want to go to all that trouble, just try switching the amps. If you were building it all from new it would be easier to go into detail. Example below kind of rule of thumb.

1-1000W 2 channel amp = 2-500W subs
1-300W 4 channel anp = 4-75W speakers
1-600W 6 channel amp = 6-150W speakers

You can parrellel the speakers but it cuts the out put wattage in half.
I put all new Marine grade components in my new system
Sony amps and Rockford Fosgate speakers.

Also what wire size are you running for the amps

tzw

You need to find out the the Peak and RMS wattage of each speaker and each amp. then read about series and parallel speaker wiring.

Captain YARRR

Did a little looking around, these are the speakers, I have eight of them total:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-c9wuJJT...dio-db651.html
Power range: 6-60 watts RMS (180 watts peak power)


So does this mean I need another 1500 watt amp or will my 600 watt Polk do it?

The Polk is this one:
http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CG4Q8wIwAA

Been looking and can't find an RMS.

Jay Gadsby

If the Polk is running hot, I would run a larger amp. I am a fan of overkill on my amps. Better to not push it enough than to push it too much and have the cutting out issues you are having. I would also personally run a dedicated amp on the sub as well. I am a fan of JL Audios amps, they are all rated RMS and are stable down to 1.5ohms but push the same power at 4ohms if I remember correctly.

HotForTeacher

find out the ohms on all of your speakers and write them down then find out what the lowest ohm load your amps are able to run and the number of channels they will run that load at. Probably can look that up with the model number and find the info on the net. Once you have this go to www.the12volt.com and them have speaker and sub calculators that will give you all of the possible wiring diagrams that you can wire the speakers with the combination of ohm loads they will give, parrallel, series and if you run the amp in bridged mode for subs or not. Run them in the lowest ohm load that your amp will run stable at and that will give you the most thump and not shut the amps down. hope this helps

tmobileguy

Quick lesson in audio....

Peak numbers are for selling, do not pay attention to them...the only number you are interested in is RMS which is the number of watts a speaker can handle (or an amp can produce at a constant rate)

look up the model number on your sub and see what the RMS numbers are on them...

the other important number is the ohms...ohms measure the resistant in the signal...more ohms means more resistance and less ohms means less resistance....less resistance means more more power...however, your amp HAS to be able to handle that amount of power being pushed out (meaning it must be 'stable' at that particular ohms rating)...

the other thing you have to know is how many voice coils your sub has (either single or double)...if you sub is 4ohms but it has double voice coils then wiring that sub in series (meaning connecting the positive of one voice coil to the negative of the other and vice versa) will double the ohms...so it will become an 8ohms speaker....wiring it in parallel (meaning conecting the positive terminal of one voice coil to the other positive on the other voice coil and doing the same with the negatives) will cut your ohms in half...so your speaker will now be a 2ohms speaker....and running 2 speakers at 2 ohms off the same channel will make the load coming out of the amp a 1ohm load...running 3 speakers at 2ohms will make it a .75ohms load, and running 4 speakers at 2ohms off of one channel will make it a .5ohms load....you get the picture....

most amps are 1ohms stable at most....meaning you cannot go lower then that or they will heat up and fry...

so look up the specs on the amp and see what ohms load it can handle....

the reason people like to run lower ohms is because if the amp can handle it, you get more power out of your amp...remember...less resistance means more power....

to sum up, you need to know ohms ratings and stability of your amps and speakers, and rms ratings of your amps and speakers....as a general rule of thumb, you always want more power on your amp then your speakers...i usually go about 25% higher on the amp...and then run your amp at 75% of its full power....so if i had a 2 400w rms speakers I would get a 1000w rms amp and run the amp at 75%....but remember, you must match those ratings to the proper ohms that you running the speakers at and the amps at.....hope this helps...