Am i going to damage something?
 

As stated in other threads, i have 2 SVC 4 ohm subs.
They're 375 RMS 750 Peak .
My amp is 640 at 4 ohms.
My amp doesn't say anything about 2 or 1 ohm loads or the power it can give them. However about an hour ago i hooked up to deliver a 2 ohm load to my amp. The subs got louder. Not by a lot, but definitely a notable increase in volume. Before, at around 20/35 or greater, my deck would shut off and reset when idled, and repeat until i turned the volume down or started to give the car gas. This has stopped, i now made it to 35/35 while idling for a few minutes. My subs seemed to be in good shape during all of this, no wierd smells and no over heating issues with the amp.
Am i giving my subs more power?Would the subs that were getting 640 at 4 ohms now be getting 1280 at 2? Do you think i may hurt my subs this way?
Edit:
My friend also hooked up an aprox 1.33 ohm load using 3 10 inch subs and it seemed like a huge increase in wattage over his 1000 watt amp.

I think we took care of this and I hope I have answered all you questions and you found my advice to be helpful. if you have any other questions please fell free to PM me and Ill hit ca back!

yeah thanks for all your help!

Google is your friend. Holy hell I hate SVC-4ohm. Two of them can wire up into a 2-ohm load. If your amp can do 640W @ 4 ohm, it most likely will be around 1300W+ maybe 1400W @ 2ohm. You're overpowering each sub by 265W+, but that's if your electrical is up to par, it's not a lotta watts, your amp is probably only pushing 750W at any given time, even less on continuous basslines, and you don't have your gains up all the way right? Call it 600W. Now you're underpowering. Most companies probably measure their actual RMS with full gain & eq - Is your amp a Clarion or Kenwood? My Kenwood 550W amp was absolute crap. If you can't turn up your volume fully it's because your amp is crap because it's probably a Kenwood (I'm kind of joking), you seem like you wired it up correctly. Upgrade your battery, alt, and/or just get 1.0 wiring - it'll atleast be more efficient. My stock Sunfire (90A) powered a 1500W@1 amp better than my old buick with 550W. Run them at 2ohm and keep the gains down, it's not like you can't adjust these things. Most of us just want to have an amp that'll *almost* wreck our subs. Eventually we all decide to switch up, but before we do, we turn it up and break stuff. You'll see the surround almost cave in and make an ugly sound when it happends. Google your amp for specs.

My 1500W amp did 1500@1 & 1000@2, you'd think it'd do 750@2.

"My friend also hooked up an aprox 1.33 ohm load using 3 10 inch subs and it seemed like a huge increase in wattage over his 1000 watt amp."

3 10's have a surface area of 235.5, 2 12's have 226. Do you mean an increase in wattage ON a 1000W amp? That doesn't make sence, subs don't make watts. A huge increase in dB compared to what, your 2 12's? Over 3 10's on an amp doing 1000W@3.7ohm? Well of course, you're doubling the power almost, and he has more cone area than you.

Surface area
(10" / 2) = 5 x 5 = 25 x 3.14(pi) = 78.5
12" = 226.xx
15" = 176.xx
18" = 254.xx
21" = 346.xx

What kind of vehicle? If you're unsure if your subs are blown or about to, push on the cone and if you feel the coil scraping on the sides, she's facked.

Also check your fuses.

Hmmm....we would need the amp name and model to be sure.....:dunno:

There are a few things to keep in mind no matter what tho......

If it's a 2 channel and you were running the subs at 4ohms stereo, wiring it to a 2 ohm mono load will draw more power from the car and deliver more to the subs. How much depends on the capabilities of the amp and how much power your electrical system can deliver.

Most 2 channels are not designed to run at 2ohms mono, if the amp is not over-heating consider your self lucky and keep an eye on the amp if you're going to pound it for a while.

The fact that the deck would crap out at idle is a bad sign.......get a buddy and a DMM and check the voltage level at the amp power inputs at idle and with the engine revving a bit. Turn the volume up and down at each speed and keep an eye on the voltage. Do the same thing at the battery terminals. They will probably vary by 2 or 3 volts and doing the Big 3 will help with that.

I doubt the amp is now putting out 1,280Ws, but the extra stress on the amp may cause it to start clipping earlier. This is the most likely way you can damage the subs, they are rated for even more clean power than you can give them with your present amp.

HTH

From what i've gathered, hooking up a 2 ohm load to a 4 ohm amp is a bad idea. It is not stable at 2 ohms. It is an apx 640.2.
Prior to switching it to what it is now i had each sub in it's own channel.
Which now that i think about it was hooking up a 4 ohm load to a 2 ohm channel.
Now i just sort of reversed it. Are both situations damaging?Should i wire them to be 8 ohms and bridge it?

You want the subs ohmage to be the same as the amps, 1&1, 2&2, 4&4. If you run each sub on it's own channel, it'll be 4 ohm & 4ohm (that's if one SVC4 wires into 4(or 1!) ohm on it's own), I forgets. If 4ohm, that's 320W to each sub. Yeah, you did hook up a 4ohm sub load to a 2-ohm channel, maybe even a 1 ohm sub load to a 4ohm amp load or 8 ohm channel, now I'm just throwing numbers lol. You were drawing too much power, wire it back to 4 ohms. This is why people use 1ohm loads on 1ohm amps LOL! If you bridge both at 8ohms doesn't that mean it'll be like, 1 ohm again?

Is this correct, someone?

A 640W x 2 channel @ only 4ohm amp is like... a component amp.

I don't mean to be rude,and please don't take this the wrong way but it doesn't sound like you have a clue what your talking about.
Don't give advice if your not 100% sure. giving false information could lead to fried stereo gear and pissed off people.

If you series wire SVC drivers and bridge the amp, each sub still gets the same amount of power as if they were each running on separate channels......:smokin:

HTH

Again this is another case where people post a reply thinking there going to be helpful but in fact are just confusing people. some of the information here is correct but without knowing the amp model number how can you be sure. and in this case non of this information will apply.his amp is not stable at 2 ohm.
and the gain does not increase and decrease the power. its job is to mach the volume levels with your head unit.That's It!

please people,if your going to try and help someone you best know what your talking about.

Now I know this is going to stir up a bunch of but please note, I don't wanna offend you or discourage you from trying to help. I just simply want people to get the right information on here. its a great Forum with allot of knowledgeable people. Just do your homework first and be 100% sure of yourself before you post.

In a nutshell, that is exactly what I told him in a personal message.I was going to add it here so others can learn from it.

some good usable information here. Thanks.

Ehhhh I bought some cool stuff so I know what good stuff performs like, and I've had similiar problems with small amps cutting out at not-full volume. It's a beeeitch. I already told him, without knowing the amp, I asked if it was Clarion/Kenwood because I googled 640W@4ohm, we wouldn't know. So if you didn't notice, I said mostly the same things you guys did - and then some, even the big three - "Upgrade your battery, alt, and/or just get 1.0 wiring" + grounding and alt to batt yada yada. I'm not going to remember what svcdsvsdvcd323800ohm wires up to, theres a bunch of diagrams on google, and I don't bridge things :-P. If I wasn't 100% on something than I said so. How am I supposed to be 100% when he isn't? Does that mean I can't elaborate anymore after?

If the gains are not touched during RMS testing than how do they come up with those numbers - where are the gains set when they bench it? Does a bench test not give a shizz about gains? If gains don't have to do with power, than why does it get louder when I turn them up (it's like an extra volume knob in simple terms)? Is a 1000W amp making 1000W at zero gain and also full gain? If my stereo is up full and the gains are up full - does that mean the amp is at max power?

Your post made me feel pretty crappy, mustain. I said he was making his amp draw too much power. Wether I say 2 4 6 8 or 349275923 ohm, it's not the point. I'm not a google diagram. It sounds like he's frying his stereo already.

"If you series wire SVC drivers and bridge the amp, each sub still gets the same amount of power as if they were each running on separate channels......" ...........

Do the B3 before you blow fuses and can't find them at crappy tire :smilie_da.

You could of just said no, it's not correct, and then google it, and feel special.

"i bought some good stuff so i know what good stuff performs like"
What does that have to do with anything?This isn't a performance question and the BIG 3 upgrade is an important part of any Hi-output electric system but in this case the question is about subwoofer wiring.
Plus the question was answered already when you through you 2 cents in.
Again,listen. I don't wanna discourage you in any way from getting involved in the threads,I'm terribly sorry that I made you feel crappy. that was NOT my intention.

Amplifier Gain Controls:
Contrary to popular belief, an amplifiers gain control does not determine the maximum power that an amplifier can produce. As long as the preamp/drive signal has sufficient level, the amplifier will produce its maximum power output level. The gain controls are used to match the amplifier's gain to the gain of the other amplifiers in the system (in the case of a multi-amp system). The gain controls also allow you to match the amplifier(s) to the head unit. Not all head units have the same maximum preamp output voltage. Some head units are capable of producing 9 vrms out while others are only capable of 1.5 vrms out.

Please note that a head unit will reach its maximum output level (clipping) well before the volume control reaches the upper end of its range (usually at a point of 85-90% of its maximum range). This is especially true of tape decks, not because the audio section is of lesser quality but because some tapes are recorded at lower levels than others and the manufacturer must design the deck to be able to produce a sufficient output level with virtually any tape. C.D's are like this too as well as MP3's. just not as bad.

So this is what you do.

1. turn all eq,bass,treble,levels to flat.turn loudness off. turn all the amp gains all the way down.
2. find out what your max volume is on your deck. mine goes from 0-50.
3. figure out what 90% of max volume would be and turn you volume to that.(mine would be 45)
4. with the volume on your deck turned to 90% volume,turn up your amp gains till you start to hear distortion then back it off just a bit.(do this to all you amps)
That's it, your done. Your amps are now level matched. now when you crank the volume your using all 5 volts of your pre-outs(just an example, you may not have 5 volt pre-outs)

now that its set,do not touch the gains. from this point on if you wanna tweak the sound in any way do it from you head unit itself. or your EQ.

Now that was a little off topic but I had to clear that up for you because you seemed to be a bit unsure. Hope this has helped and again I'm sorry for all that crap earlier.