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rand9192 
Member - Posts: 5
Member spacespace
Joined: May 04, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 04, 2003 at 11:41 AM / IP Logged  

Hello everyone.  Just want to start out by saying I just joined the group and it's really awesome.

this is my question:  I have a 1990 honda crx hatchback with an upper end panasonic head unit (2 preamp outs) 40x4 watt and front 5.5" and rear 6.25" nicer alpine speakers that came with the vehicle.  A few months ago I went to a reputable car audio place in my area and (without doing any research) was sold a Fosgate 301s 2 channel amp(300 rms at 2 ohm) and a pair of punch RFZ3810 10" subs (8 ohm, 150 rms) in a sealed box that pretty much takes up my entire hatch area.  They installed it for me. 

My soundstage is poor to say the least, No front audio is heard, and sound quality is poor.  The sub faces backward about 16" from the rear of the car.

question 1.  I have a pioneer gm-h50 amp (uninstalled) (25Wx2 at 4 ohms) I was thinking of using for the front speakers.  Good idea?  should I scrap the rear speakers and just use the subs for rear bass?  Should I try to run the rear speakers off of the fosgate amp with the subs?

question 2:  when I hook up the pioneer amp I was planning on using a power distrubution block...good idea?

Thank you all for your support.

DjRDifacs 
Copper - Posts: 64
Copper spacespace
Joined: June 16, 2002
Location: United States
Posted: May 04, 2003 at 1:39 PM / IP Logged  
Where did you go? so your amp is 300 watts rms at 2 ohms right? and your subs are 8 ohms each? You need to take them back and get two 4 ohms subs.
If you have that pioneer amp just sitting around, then use it. What size gauge is your power wire? If you run two amps, I recommend using 4 gauge power wire, and use a distribution block with one 4 gauge input, and two 8 gauge ouputs.
How does the rear speakers sound? If they still sound good, then keep 'em. That way you hear music from the rear. And it wouldn't work if you hooked up you rear to the rockford amp.
If you'd wanna amplify the rear speakers, then you should get a 4 channel amp.
Good Luck
Russ
rand9192 
Member - Posts: 5
Member spacespace
Joined: May 04, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 04, 2003 at 6:00 PM / IP Logged  

would that just be incompetance on the salesmans part to sell me 8 ohm subs with the amp?  Would I even have a case if I asked to exchange or return them?

they were purchased on 2/22...just over 2 months ago.

geez....the guy was the assistant manager.

luxuryrules 
Copper - Posts: 102
Copper spacespace
Joined: March 17, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 04, 2003 at 8:18 PM / IP Logged  
Sounds like incompetence to me.  Assistant manager?  Wow.  Just, wow.  You need 4 Ohm subs.
Anyhoo... DjRDifacs is correct with his wire guage sizes for running multiple amps, and you definately want to use a power distribution block.  In my case, I just went to WalMart and bought a wiring kit for about $25, which gave me a 4 guage wire with an inline fuse, a pair of 8 guage wires, and the distributer block.
That pioneer amp you have will do best running your front speakers, and just use the deck to push the rears.  If I'm not mistaken, that HU puts out about 18 wpc rms.  So, you'll have 25 watts in the front and 18 in the back.  You'll hardly notice the difference in power, and that will be made up for by the subs.
Now, if you don't mind buying new hardware, then you have a couple of options.  One, like DjRDifacs says, get a 4 channel amp and use it to push all four speakers.  Or two, buy another pair of speakers, then use the deck to push your original four and that pioneer to push the new ones and have 6 speaker sound.
rand9192 
Member - Posts: 5
Member spacespace
Joined: May 04, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 04, 2003 at 9:37 PM / IP Logged  

Alright.....I got screwed I guess.  Partly my fault for not checking things out and takeing the salepersons word...but where does that leave me?  How should I approach them?  The manner that I confront them will establish the outcome.  If I put them on the defensive right away they will probably tell me to go to hell, but if I'm too nice they won't do a damn thing about it. THEY were the ones that picked out the amp and the subs and installed them both.......no conversation of ohms ever took place.  I don't have the boxes for the subs any longer. 

Anyone with ideas on how to handle this please give me some advice. 

DjRDifacs and luxuryrules, thank you for takeing the time to reply to my post.  I'm pretty sure I'm stuck with the 2 channel amp, so I'll make due and follow luxury's advice.  Where could I put 2 more speakers in a crx......hmmm?

thx again guys.

Marc

luxuryrules 
Copper - Posts: 102
Copper spacespace
Joined: March 17, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 05, 2003 at 7:00 AM / IP Logged  

Actually, I just did some research on your new hardware... how do you know your subs are 8 Ohms?  Several websites say those subs are 4 Ohms... in which case you're alright with that amp.

Other speakers in a crx... good question.  I recently bought an HU and got a pair of free speakers with it.  With nothing better to do, I just hooked them up to my amp and put them under my seats.  I'm not familiar with the interior of a CRX, so I can't give you any better advice, but under the seats probably won't work too bad.
Check the specs on your subs and get back to me.  If they turn out to be 8 Ohms, then we'll talk about what to do.

rand9192 
Member - Posts: 5
Member spacespace
Joined: May 04, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 05, 2003 at 8:23 AM / IP Logged  
the specifications sheet that came with them states 8-ohms as nominal impedance, however in one of their wiring diagrams it shows them being  wired in parallele, in which case they would become 4-ohms each
monte_old _skol 
Member - Posts: 9
Member spacespace
Joined: April 23, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 05, 2003 at 8:38 AM / IP Logged  
the lower the ohms the more power you'll get from the subs and deeper bass, if you re-wire those subs to get down to 4 ohms and use that other amp on your highs you'll hear a huge difference in your system because once you lower your subs ohms the less power it will use and the bass will hit harder and your highs will have the power it needs to get the best sound
esmith69 
Gold - Posts: 1,511
Gold spaceThis member has made a donation to the12volt.com. Click here for more info.spacespace
Joined: November 26, 2002
Location: United States
Posted: May 05, 2003 at 10:26 AM / IP Logged  

If you bridge the amp's 2 channels  into one, you'd need to give it a load of 4 ohms, and the only way to do this with 2 single voice coil subs is to get ones that have 8-ohm voice coils, and then just wire both subs in parallel.  The salesperson was probably trying to save you a little money actually, since other ways of wiring up the subs would mean you'd have to get dual voice coil subs or get an amp that is 1 or 2 ohm bridged stable.  Both of those alternatives would undoubtedly be much more expensive to you.

Your amp is 2 ohm stereo & 4 ohm mono stable.  2 ohm stereo basically means you can hook up two 4-ohm speakers in parallel to each channel, so that doesn't really apply to your situation.

Ethan
-----
"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success"
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luxuryrules 
Copper - Posts: 102
Copper spacespace
Joined: March 17, 2003
Location: United States
Posted: May 05, 2003 at 12:21 PM / IP Logged  
emsith, could you run this by us one more time?  It sounds like, if he bridges his amp that will raise it to 4 Ohms, then wires his subs in parallel to that single channel they will resist at 4 Ohms.  Would that work?
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