[EmpirePB]

drift event

[cockerpunk]

i continuously learn, when it comes to working on cars, slow and steady wins the race. working under the gun is a recipe for having no fun at all.

[SilentButDeadly]

TK-421, on 13 May 2013 - 12:57 AM, said:

Okay, so according to my research, if you use a 750w amp to power two subs, each sub will only get 375w, not 750w, which is what my uncle told me they'd get. It didn't sound right at the time, but my uncle knows a ton of stuff about audio, so I trusted he knew what he was doing and that I had read something wrong. Now I have to sell my amp to try and recoup some of the lost money, since I'm sure the box was thrown out and it can't be returned to the store now. And then I'll get the bigger version, the 1100w amp, so that I can give my amps their full 500w, with a little extra.

I was kind of curious as to why I wasn't getting ridiculous amounts of bass with a pair of 500w 12" woofers, turns out I was only giving them 3/4 of their power. Now my car will be stupidly loud once I can afford an amp that will feed them their full power.

No offense, but your uncle sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about. DB drive seems like a sketchy company, at best. I can't even find the specs to your woofers on their own website. Not to mention they actually sell that brand at Wal Mart.

The amp he got you is a miserable match for those woofers. You're not even getting 375w per sub, you're sending 375w to both, which means you're getting around 188w per woofer. And all that is assuming he even wired it down to 2 ohms. Furthermore, those amplifiers are not even CEA rated, so who knows what their real output is.

Even if you get the bigger 1100w DB amp, you're going to have to wire your subs down to 1 ohm, which will probably fry the amp. If those truly are 500w RMS subwoofers, then you need to get a real 1000w RMS amp, like an Alpine MRP-M1000, and quit dickin around with mediocre shit.

This post has been edited by SilentButDeadly: 14 May 2013 - 12:32 AM

[TK-421]

I think it's the fact that he has been out of the audio loop for a while. He used to own his own audio shop, and he's a freaky genius, so he at least used to know what he was talking about. I don't know if he still knows or not, but who knows. Supposedly DB Drive is supposed to be a quality brand, and they're compliant with some sort of 2006 thing, which means that their rating is what they actually produce.

I don't know what's up with their site, my woofers are rated for 500w RMS and 1000w peak, and are dual voice coil 4 ohm woofers.. My uncle says that the company is good, because they don't try to bullshit you with RMS power, or peak power, and they don't try to claim their stuff can handle more than it can. Which I don't get, because 1000w is written right on the front of the subwoofer, which tells me they're doing exactly what he says they don't.

Supposedly my uncle got the subs down to 1 ohm, by wiring the negatives together and wiring them to the negative part of the amp, and wiring the positives together and wiring them to the positive part of the amp.



Just, instead of attaching the wires from one subwoofer to the other, he just attached them all together at the amp itself. So hopefully it's down to 1 ohm and is getting the full 750/2. That way I don't have to muck with the wiring and can just install the new amp and give them both 550w.

I don't have a multimeter though, so I can't check what they're running at the amp, but I hope he wired it correctly for 1 ohm. Honestly I would prefer to run it at 2 ohms, or even 4, to keep my amp cooler, but I can't afford an amp that can do 1000w at 4 ohms, and I haven't looked around hard enough to find one that will 1000w at 2 ohm, but I'm pretty sure I could afford one of those.

I'm taking this as a learning experience for me. If it turns out my uncle was wrong about a lot of stuff, and doesn't know as much as I think he does, then it just means I need to do more research and do more of the work myself. And make my own decisions on what to buy based on what I want.

And if he's right, then he's right, and I'll keep going to him for advice.

And I don't care if DB Drive is sold at Walmart, just because something is sold at Walmart doesn't mean it's crap. Otherwise hundreds upon hundreds of companies would only produce crap, including Johnson and Johnson, Proctor and Gamble, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper/7up, etc. etc.

[SilentButDeadly]

The certification is CEA 2006, and if the amps have that then that's a good thing. Only time will tell if the amp will last long wired to 1 ohm. I could be completely wrong about DB drive, but the fact that they're a relatively unknown, unestablished company would make me cautious.

[TK-421]

Yeah, well, even if they are unknown and unestablished, it's what I got, so I'll work with it. I want to try and keep everything uniform and the same brand, so DB Drive is what I get, because I can't afford to replace everything. I'm having a hard enough time affording the second amp, but I need it to fully power my subs, presuming the wiring is correct and it's down to 1 ohm.

Who knows, maybe everything will work out great and the system lasts 10+ years, hopefully. But I'm not that worried about it, life will go on if something breaks. And if it breaks before I want it too, then I'll go with a different company.

[HeroForADay]

I fucking hate car shopping. There's always one or two problems I have continuously: #1 - I can't find what I want, or #2 - I find it, and the idiots selling it (including dealerships) want WAAAAY too much for what it is.

This post has been edited by HeroForADay: 16 May 2013 - 12:31 PM

[RomanG]

Stealerships will always do that, I did basic calculations on the cost of the car, plus tax, registration, and interest and divided it by the months for my payment plan. Stealerships wanted almost 2 times that. You have to talk alot of shietttt, like tons of shiett, even if you walk out, theyll call you back they wont let a sell go. I got my payments down to the exact payment it was supposed to be

[TK-421]

HeroForADay, on 16 May 2013 - 12:31 PM, said:

I fucking hate car shopping. There's always one or two problems I have continuously: #1 - I can't find what I want, or #2 - I find it, and the idiots selling it (including dealerships) want WAAAAY too much for what it is.

Yup, that's what I experienced when I was shopping for my 6. Fortunately I was able to find an ad the dealership had just put up like 10 minutes before I found it, so that I was the lucky guy to snatch up the good deal. The place I had been looking at wanted about $3k more than the car was worth, and the place I got my car from ended up giving me it for $2k less than what it's worth. All it takes is patience and a bit of luck to find the right deal, at the right time, before anybody else.

[TinyBear]

After buying and selling as many cars as myself you get used to the game.

Had a 99 Ford Ranger for about 4 years. Bought it a year old with only 25,000kms on it from a small used car lot. Truck was immaculate but the check engine light was on and ran like a bag of crap. Got it for $14000 due to the issues. Drove away from car lot Streight to Ford dealer got the O2 sensors and IAC replaced under warranty and even got a free rental for a day. Drove it for 4 years after with absolutely no other issues and sold it for $9000

I bought an 04 Jetta TDI once for $17,900 back in 05. Three years latter and another 100,000kms and I sold the car for $16,000 to a dealership no less.

Bought a older 1986 golf diesel for $1000 with a bunch of spare parts including a spare engine and trans. Sold off the spares for $600 drove the car for couple years lent it to my brother for another year. Put only maybe $400 into it or repairs and sold it for $600 in all that time. Heck I rarely bought even fuel for that car as I'm a diesel mechanic for a living. Every fuel filter I changed got drained into a Jerry can and put in that car.


You can get cars and not spend ALOT of cash and have reliable transport for many years. Just takes a bit of patients and to know we're and what to look for.

That being said my last three cars and few of my bikes I purchased new. And you will always get screwed on new cars purely out depreciation. But ALOT of those "dealer fees" can be skirted with good negotiating. My current Toyota I purchased new and got it at price advertised even with the options I added.

This post has been edited by TinyBear: Yesterday, 01:10 PM