Indeed
Anime brings up some good points, so I guess I should clarify what I was saying for the other readers out there trying to get information from this forum.
For a majority of people out there, I would advise you follow your manufacturers recommendations for power handling. Pioneer engineered the speakers, they know exactly what kind of power to give the speakers to provide both good output and long life. It is also best to follow their recommendations for enclosure type and size.
Now for me to further expand upon what I was saying, and to stop making BS reasons for why I am doing what I am doing.
Over-driving the subs is a risk, but its a risk I am willing to take. I will be reducing the life of my subwoofers by doing this, I know that is a fact. But I am the type of person that likes to push things to their limit. I like to experiment, I like to try different concepts, I like to void warranties
.
The fourth order horn enclosure I am building should allow me to push the subs a little harder, without reaching their mechanical limits. Now the mechanical limits are only one factor in premature speaker failure. Even if you are not pushing the speaker beyond its mechanical limits, you are pushing it beyond its normal thermal capabilities, making them run a lot hotter, which can also lead to premature failure.
The Alpine head unit I am using is an older head unit, but the reason I plan on using it is for its fantastic 5V pre-amp. With the 5v signal, I know my amp gains are going to be pretty low to begin with. (Well the manual it says its five volts, but we will see at what voltage it starts clipping at when I put an o-scope to it. I plan I thoroughly going over the entire signal chain from head unit to amp output to watch for signal clipping.) For those of you how dont know what clipping is, in simple terms, its the point where you are demanding more power from the amplifier than its capable of producing with no distortion. Distortion not only sounds bad, but it can damage speakers very quickly. (unless were talking guitar amplifiers, then distortion sounds AWESOME, lol)
Now for informative purposes, I will will explain the planned setup in more depth.
Lets start with sub wiring (I love wiring
)
I'm working with 2 DVC subs, each voice coils at 4 ohms, which gives me several options.
1.Each subs VC's in parallel with the subs in parallel = 1 ohm impedance
2.Each subs VC's in parallel with the subs in series = 4 ohm impedance
3.Each subs VC's in series with the subs in parallel = 4 ohm impedance
4.Each subs VC's in series with thee subs in series = 16 ohm impedance
(option 2 and 3 are one and the same really, and 4 I just included for educational purposes, I have never seen a car audio amplifier that would output at that impedance)
I think I have settled on the Audioque aq2200d for my amp.The aq2200d is a pretty beefy amp, that reminds me a lot of some of the old school amps when it comes to how it responds to impedance. The AQ2200D will output 500 watts at 4 ohms up to 2200 watts @ 1 ohm, at 14.4v. Since I am planning with going with wiring option 1, we will estimate the impedance to be 1 ohm.
The efficiency of your enclosure contributes to your final impedance, if the enclosure allows the subs to run 100% efficient, then you will still be at 1 ohm impedance. Perfect efficiency is rare, so your impedance will tend to be a little (or a lot) higher depending on how efficient (or inefficient) your enclosure is. This is known as "Box Rise"
In the end, I most likely wont see the full 2200 watts this amp can produce. A. Because I most likely wont hit a perfect 1 ohm impedance
B. Because without pouring a buckets of money into the electrical system of my truck, I most likely wont be able to feed the amplifier a perfect 14.4 volts (even with 1/0 gauge wiring, and two batteries, the stock alternator can only do so much.....and I'm not keen on spending 600$ on a high output alternator that a 6 rib serpentine belt is going to have a difficult time turning anyways)
Once everything is hooked up, using a clamping meter and a good digital multimeter, I will be able to measure both the final impedance of the subs and enclosure, as well as measure approximately how many watts the amp is outputting.
I know this is a big read, but hopefully it will help some of you understand where my brain is at on this.
