Car Audio Central - Ultimate Car Audio Forum and Community

"would rather have expensive subs+clean amp working at around 20% than low wattage amp working 90% all the time pushing subs to they're max will last much longer in my oppinion"

You have a clouded view on how this all works my friend.

The amplifier works no more or less if its a higher powered or lower powered one...

Efficency falls off when you supply less and less voltage...

by the way, one reason that i may now have dimming lights, or anything is cuz i very rarely turn the volume on my head unit past 23-25/ i think 40 and may bass level usually stays on -1/ -3 - +3 thats plenty loud enough for me except when i wanna impress sumone, or when sumone rolls up beside me bumpin loud....that waz oart of the reason i wanted to go a lil overkill on this system......would rather have expensive subs+clean amp working at around 20% than low wattage amp working 90% all the time pushing subs to they're max will last much longer in my oppinion

yea those are pretty decent amps and it sounds like your electricle system would be fine to me with the dual optimas. and the 120 amp alt.

i am more picky on my amps than my subs i am pretty loyal to crossfire amps......since day one, they have always been rated [email protected] volts ex.....the vr1000d 's which are the ones i have put out atleast 1,000-1,200 watts each.....i also like Crossfire becuz they are very efficient

what kind of amps are they that makes a huge diffrence? were talking true rms here

sorry, i havn't posted in a long time, just letting u know that i have (2) 1,000 watt amps on a 120 amp alternator and i have no caps (don't beleive in them). i do however have two optima yellow batts (one feeding each amp, each amp feeding to subs) i can turn volume to near max (ouch) for bout 5-10 min, and have not noticed any lights dimming.....i do however dim my dash lights (becuz i like my pretty head-unit display) and drive with low beams on. like i said...never experienced any alt problems, had all four subs in for about three months now

[quote="Jonathan"]A lot of it will depend on the music you're listening to. Poorly recorded music (like Rap) will have limited dynamic range to make the music seem louder at all volumes. They do the same thing with TV commercials, that's why an infomercial will be louder than the TV show you were watching. Some CDs are recorded so poorly that they only have 3db dynamic range compared to the average output, but if your gains are correct that means that the average output is half the power of the peak output. 6db output means average output is 4x less. And so forth.

Anyway, just remember that 3db requires twice the power, 6db requires 4x the power, and so forth. A small change in volume makes a big difference in current draw.[/quote]
You know, I've come to the conclusion that commercials are louder for one reason only: So that when you walk away from the TV, you will hear the commercial!

I can rant on about the recording techniques used in most rap songs, but I won't. It's really more the mentality of the artist rather than the actual studio doing the recording (but it can be the other way around too).

i run around 300w total for my system... i have no problems and my alt is like 70-75amps. (would be around 400 if i had rear speakers), so 400 shouldn't be much more trouble.

A lot of it will depend on the music you're listening to. Poorly recorded music (like Rap) will have limited dynamic range to make the music seem louder at all volumes. They do the same thing with TV commercials, that's why an infomercial will be louder than the TV show you were watching. Some CDs are recorded so poorly that they only have 3db dynamic range compared to the average output, but if your gains are correct that means that the average output is half the power of the peak output. 6db output means average output is 4x less. And so forth.

Anyway, just remember that 3db requires twice the power, 6db requires 4x the power, and so forth. A small change in volume makes a big difference in current draw.

I think you will be fine with 400 wrms.

I keep hearing alot about "ransient draw" affecting the total. How dynamic the music is and the actual maximum RMS is only attained for split seconds here and there....

Give it a try, should be ok I think.

I remember running 600 RMS on a stock 80 amp alt just needed a cap...