evildude88

Hey guys,

So I'm an SQ fanatic and now have the ultimate sound quality system. Well, for me it is! I have the following:

Head Unit: Pioneer DEH-P800PRS (Dual 16-band EQ copper chassis burr-brown dacs the whole works..)
Fronts: JL Audio C5 Components 6.5"
Speaker amp: JL Audio 300/4 v2 Slash Amp
Subwoofer amp: MRPM-2000

And the sub I am putting in is a Boston Acoustics G5 Dual 4 ohm subwoofer.

What my question is basically regarding the ohms. I'm wondering if it's OK and if it's actually better in this case to run the subwoofer at 8 ohms - I know 8ohms is generally used for sound quality setups if possible, and in this case I can because I have an amplifier rated for 2300 watts RMS at 2 ohms, which will mean around 1000 at 8 ohms. I only plan to run the one subwoofer, and it's also in a ported box so power is no issue.

Just worried about the amp. Other then that, it's all setup and time corrected just need to put it in and do a bit of tuning!

Thanks guys.

jstoner22

iTrader: (1)

if you have enough power at 8ohm then do it. you may not notice a difference in sound quality, but it means less draw and heat generated by the amp.
as long as you have sufficient power, then there isn't really a drawback.

evildude88

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. That's what I figured too - less draw on the amp, less draw on the alternator, all around good stuff for the equipment. Plus I think running 2300 watts into the one sub is too much! I have the big alternator but that's just a lot of power to throw at the little sub, even with the gains all the way down.

Thanks again! I'm gonna hook that sub up right now and we'll see how she goes.

evildude88

All right, all finished! I got it hooked up at 8 ohms and no problems whatsoever.

In fact, I'm very happy how it turned out because the gain on my amp isn't even at nominal and I'm getting a LOT of bass! The sub even hits full excursion. Quite the setup I must say.

Again thanks for your quick reply. I wouldn't have put it in this morning if I didn't know better. But I do now and it sounds INCREDIBLE!

I'll have to get some pictures of it all

Lymen

Cant wait to see pics!

Lymen

jstoner22

iTrader: (1)

glad you're happy! I'd like to see pics too. that is some nice gear you have.

evildude88

Thanks! Speaking about my gear, do you know much the DEH-P800PRS? I know what specs it has but I know nothing of the actual components inside.

I'm assuming it's something like the DEX-P99RS, but I doubt it's anywhere near it!

jstoner22

iTrader: (1)

it is a completely different beast than the P99.

the 800 is an amazing unit in its own right though.
there are lots of threads floating around the internet on both units.

once you get good at tuning, you will really be able to dial it in with the 800. do some reading on tuning with and utilizing a L/R eq as well as T/A. It is a little different process than a combined eq.

evildude88

Hey jstoner22,

Well I did indeed do some research. Wow, you aren't kidding! I had no idea what I had until now - this thing is incredible. It's almost a crime what I originally paid for it!

I understand what you mean about the left/right equalization. You have to long-press the multi control button while in audio adjustments to get into the independent mode. And also I had no idea about the 3-way network mode. Truly incredible device. After learning all of this I have a new plan with my stereo, and I was wondering if I could get your input.

The way it is right now my front speakers are bridged on the 300/4. I'm going to change that; I'm going to run my 6.5" drivers off of one channel and my tweets off of the other. As far as crossovers go, I'm not sure if I should use the crossover supplied by JL or just completely toss it altogether and only use the DEH-P800PRS. My feelings are leaning towards that - much simpler, but the only drawback is all the settings are kept inside of the DEH-P800PRS. I do have a solution though and that is to just simply write down all of the settings. I don't have a problem redoing them if that needed to happen.

Then after that it all comes down to a matter of tuning, but with THAT amount of separation between the channels and that much adjustment I can see how much of an upgrade it will be. I've never tuned a system before so this will be an awesome learning experience.

Thanks for the advice. I didn't even realize there was so much more info on the internet about the unit. Thought I had found everything until I looked a little more It really is an amazing unit.

jstoner22

iTrader: (1)

You already have the means, so I would definitely go active.

You will be able to fine tune it much better like that. The passives are convenient if you don't have the DSP capabilities and just want a plug and play, but that isn't the case with you.

Run each driver of a single channel. Then you gain the ability to properly time align and can level match the gains between tweeters and mids and sub much better.

Sounds like you are quickly learning a lot! Just keep reading and asking questions!

Personally for the tuning I will,
set my crossover points & slopes
level match gains
t/a
adjust combined eq by ear so each frequency band is same volume
adjust eq L/R separately for center image
t/a

everyone is going to do it differently though.