Let’s see some subwoofer setups!

I should stop giving advice in this thread as I'm still learning, but I believe the red wire is 12v power, which turns the amp on and off when the truck turns on and off. I'm not sure how/where it connects. Also, I'd say yes to the rca connections.

 

I assume it's off the remote output so active only when the head unit is on and off when head unit is off. Not that we often drive with no head unit due to carplay, nav, etc.

The "correct" color is blue for remote turn on but you get what you get from eBay.

@ryanvar42 the entire purpose of the harness is to do a high level (aka speaker level aka amplified) to line level (aka rca aka signal) to feed an amp. If your amp/amps accept high level inputs (speaker level inputs) they have an internal converter which does the same thing so you can feed them the direct speaker inputs. Line level (RCA) is generally preferred for car audio but must be properly shielded to avoid noise introduction (hence RCA cables can be a little spendy sometimes and you don't want to run them near power wire to avoid induction induced noise like alternator whine). Whereas speaker level or high level signals don't have as much trouble with noise but they do have trouble with loss of fidelity since they are amplified and therefore not as "clean" as line level signals.

Tons of gross oversimplification in the above. I suspect it is TMI for you so double apologies for my posts which are likely not helpful.

 

Yeah, all this and that is way over my head I just wana plug that amp/speaker in with minimal fuss. I need to watch some more videos I think

 

Awesome setup, how do you like this box? thinking of going with the dual 10s but have never had a sealed enclosure before. I have a single 12 ported box with the same sub as you.

 

I went through that with a pair of 10's sealed and the single ported kills it in every way possible. Just as loud but plays lower and just sounds so much better. The bass sounds like its coming from the front of the truck. Using a single sundown sld 10

 

I love this setup for the tight and clean lows that I was after. But would definitely agree with @jjglass535 that a single ported box would be much louder and a better bang for your buck. It just wasn’t the bass I was going for with this setup

 

That's a nice setup and I wasn't in any way saying it sounds bad,in fact I'm sure it sounds great. I have my box tuned to 35hz and it plays everything clean with authority. I tried a pair of 10 sealed and it's just a different sound. Nothing is right or wrong in car audio just preference !

 

This is the best set up I have found without doing a blow through and if I didn’t need my bed space for work I would have done the blow through to begin with since there is no space in these trucks. Previously had 2 JL W6 subs in ported inclosure in a Titan XD and it would make your eyes crooked. Tried the JL stealth box and ground shaker ported with a 12. Not enough for me but sounded good. Ended up finding this box out of California for 3 JL TW3 10” subs sealed and tried it even though It was expensive but you can retain the factory look of your truck and I already had my amps and one TW3 sub. Sound proofed entire truck and ran Focal 6 3/4 components front and back. Running them with JL HD 600 and the 3 subs with JL HD 1200. Did the big 3 upgrade and the power seems perfect. This set up sounds really good and still has insane bass.

 

Ok, audio gurus. I've got a question about amp wiring / hookup.

Currently running a Kenwood double-DIN DVD head unit with 3 pre-amp outputs. 2 of the pre-amp outputs are running to a Kenwood 4-channel amplifier that powers all 4 doors. This leaves me with 1 remaining pre-amp output.

Here's the amp that I have: KAC-314

I was thinking about picking up a second one and powering a single 10 behind the back seats.

For the same price, they have a mono amp: KAC-511

My understanding is that 2 Ohm hits harder than 4 Ohm, but 4 Ohm sounds better/cleaner than 2 Ohm. For this reason, I prefer the 4 Ohm.

The multi-channel amp puts out 50W x4 @ 4 Ohm RMS and is bridgeable. I think you just double that to determine the bridged power. So that would be 100W x 2 @ 4 Ohm RMS (That isn't really the question, but correct me if I'm wrong). Peak is (I think) 300W x 2 @ 4 Ohm. The mono amp puts out 300W x 1 @ 4 Ohm RMS. Peak is 500W @ 4 Ohm (or 1000W @ 2 Ohm).

Ok, so here's the first question. Should I go with:
Option 1: Multi-channel amp bridged to a dual voice coil 4-ohm sub.
Option 2: Mono amp to a dual voice coil 2-ohm sub w/ each coil wired in series (should be a 4 ohm load if I understand correctly)
Option 3: Mono amp to single voice coil 4-ohm sub?

Second question: is option 1 even possible with only having 1 pre-amp output available? I'm thinking that either the amp would be smart enough to push the signal from the 1 input and send signal to all 4 (or in this case 2 bridged) channels, or it would only send signal to 1 of the bridged channels and effectively be inefficient to power the sub.

I was sort of planning on option1 until I had the thought about the pre-amp outputs (potential) limitation. Now, I'm leaning toward option 3.

Before anyone asks, I'm not set on those amps. Just using them as example for configurations. At this time, I'm not looking for recommendations on amp or subs. Just the best way to configure them.

Also, goals are important to consider in this decision. I'm not looking for competition level bass. I don't even really want anyone outside the truck to notice that it has a sub (at a stoplight for instance). However, I do find the bass to be lacking....even running JBL GX series speakers at all 4 corners off the existing Kenwood 4-channel amp.

 

Nice!

 

Quick question before I tackle my tiny little powered subwoofer project. Can I run the amplifier ground just to the back wall of the cab, off of some random bolt, if I grind up the paint or whatever is there? Or do I have to run a cable all the way to the negative battery terminal? Thanks!

 

wow, thats awesome

 

I would say yes, if a bolt like the seat belt anchor or something substantial like that. If not, it wouldn't be anything to right outside the cab to the frame below.

With amps, you don't want a self tapper or anything.

 

Awesome thanks!

 

You do not need to run back to the battery negative. Just find a suitable ground.

 

How do you determine suitable? I assume the back wall of the cab would work?

 

If its metal its a ground. Any and all bolts that go into the body or frame are ground. I am using rear seat bolts as my ground.

 

yep, i'm using a seatbelt anchor bolt as a ground. anything strong enough and convenient.

 

Finished up the sub install. I went with the Rockford Fosgate Power 1000 Watt class-AD 5-channel amplifier (T1000X5ad) and Rockford 12” P3 shallow mount subwoofer. The box is the Ground-Shaker single ported 12 inch from eBay.

 

I see a lot of ported here. From my understanding ported gives a louder bass but not as tight, and sealed is not as loud but a more SQ/tight bass. Is that correct