i was running 2 ohms to 4 ohm sub, bad?

I have a legacy Rockwood Squadron Series 2ch 2ohm stable 400w max amp.

I hooked this sucker to a legacy sub Pioneer TS-W26C 10" 350w Max 100w RMS sub.

I have been running this set up for about 5 years. I always thought that the box I had on my Dodge Ram (single under seat) was messed up because of its size. It thumped a lot, not a lot of bass. I had a bigger box and the set up above sounded great on my Neon.

So, finally, I educated ma'self coming here and it made me wonder what I had, so I ran and opened the box to confirm what I had and then I saw it, 4ohm sub with a 2ohm amp. I happened to have a Pioneer GM-6200F amp that is 4ch 4ohm and 2ch bridged @ 4ohms makes about 150w. I hooked the Pioneer instead of the Rockwood and it was night and day. The sound is better, the lows sound nice and no thumps (only when I put the volume to high).

My questions are, is that all in my mind? Does the previous set up really prevented the sub from performing and if so, what kinda damage could 5 years of abuse have on the sub?

Now that I am looking into using the Pioneer only, I want to hook it up to my other 4 speakers and include the sub. I looked in the amp manual and it does not show a 5 way hook up. Is that possible? using 4 channels and bridging to the subwoofer?

Thanks all.

Thanks DYohn. Yes I know about the products, but my wallet is thin. They dont work that bad.

To answer your BTW, I really dont know what you are talking about. I guess you mean this

I did not have like the blue, if that is what you mean. Is that bad?

Thanks

your amp is 2 ohm stable, you had a 4 ohm load applied to it by hooking up a 4 ohm sub. You had it hooked up right.

2 CH. 800W/Max Max. Power Output: 400W x 2Ch = 800W (@ 2 ohm) Power Output: 70W x 2Ch. = 140W (@ 2ohm)                         55W x 2Ch. = 110W (@ 4ohm) Mono: 140W x 1 (Bridged) See-Through Top Tri-Mode (Bridgeable) Variable Low Pass Filter (40Hz - 400Hz) Mosfet DC – DC Switching Power Supply 2 ohm Stable Stereo High & Low Level Input Multi Channel Function: 3/2/1 2-8 ohm Capability Dimensions: 11.1" (W) x 2.5" (H) x 10.8" (L)

How do I get the 4ohms that this amp says it has? This is the Rockwood specs. Thanks all.

Yes, in your drawing use the blue lines you have, this will bridge the amp. The way you had it was only using one channel of the amp, essentialy only using half of the power of the amp.

You really shouldn't just take a sub from one box and put it in another box that is completely different.

Every sub has a 'recomended' box volume.  If you stay within 10% of this volume you should be OK.  If you go outside of this you can drastically reduce the output of the sub.

About your amp, just because something is rated at a certain level doesn't mean it will actually perform at that level in your car.  I would stay with at bare minimum namebrand components.  It is very possible that your first amp wasn't capable of driving this sub in your 'small' box.  When you swapped the Pioneer amp in it may have just enough power to make it sound good.

Thanks Kevin. The sub's recommended enclosure is sealed 1 cubic feet.  My under bench box is 1 cubic feet. I did the bridge and lowered the gain. Still at reasonable high volume the sub starts to distort and stops working. The amp goes into safe mode and I have to turn off the radio and back on. By the way, I hooked up the Flea Market amp back thinking I can get the 4ohm bridged even though the amp says 2ohm stable. At least, thats what I got from you guys. So what I am understanding is that the amp knows when it is connected to a 4ohm or 2ohm speaker, right?

Also, I have an Alpine MRV-F400 and the Pioneer GM-6200F. They are both rated at 60w x 4 @ 4ohms @ 14.4v

If you had to keep one, which one would you keep?