kicker cvr 15’s
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=104055
Printed Date: April 27, 2024 at 8:21 PM
Topic: kicker cvr 15’s
Posted By: sealed-fate
Subject: kicker cvr 15’s
Date Posted: April 16, 2008 at 11:34 PM
Ok, so I have 2 Kicker CVR 15 subs. I received one that was 2 ohm and I had got another that was a 4 ohm. The voice coils are wired in series and I have them wired parallel to the amp. My question is since my amp overheats quickly if it is because one is a 2 ohm and the other is a 4 ohm, also could this be a sign of needing bigger speaker wire? I am using only 8 guage wire on these speakers and I am using a Kicker ZX550.1 amplifier.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Replies:
Posted By: aznboi3644
Date Posted: April 16, 2008 at 11:57 PM
I never knew kicker made a 550.1
I'd upgrade your power and ground wires to atleast 4 gauge.
Also what is the voltage at the amp while the system is on full tilt??
How is the amp grounded??
Posted By: auzz
Date Posted: April 17, 2008 at 9:03 AM
Are they single or dual voice coil subs?
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 17, 2008 at 10:28 AM
Yes they have made one, :P
My power and ground wires are 4 gauge already and the ground is grounded to the frame of the car.
Also they are both dual voice coils.
Posted By: auzz
Date Posted: April 17, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Here is a topic about wiring a 4ohm and a 2ohm sub. https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=82541&KW=2++4ohm and here is another https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=74664&KW=2++4ohm You have limited options. And I can't find any info on a ZX550.1 so I am not sure what ohms that amp is stable down to, are you sure it is not the ZX500.1 or ZX550.2 or ZX550.3 ? 8 gauge should be plenty fine for speaker wire! (correct me if I am wrong), what gauge is your power and ground wire? My guess would be you have your sub wired incorrectly and are putting stress on the amp.
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 17, 2008 at 6:56 PM
Oh right my mistake it is a ZX550.2
4 guage power and ground wire.
I used to run 2 kicker cvr 12's and was told to use 4 gauge wires as speaker wires too. And could swear I heard that a 2 ohm and 4 ohm wired causes stress or something like that.
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 18, 2008 at 11:52 PM
Ok now here is the deal.
I have 2 matching Dual Voice coil Kicker CVR 15's which are both 2 ohm subs. Voice coils wired in series on both and they are both paralleled to the amp. These speakers are on small 8 guage wires and the amp still overheats.
Solution, wires? Anyone else think so or could I be wrong?
Posted By: klctexas
Date Posted: April 19, 2008 at 12:17 AM
If you bought this amp authorized, it should have come with a birthcertificate. What is the wattage on the birthcertificate? Your amp might be underrated and overheating too quickly. How long does it take before it starts overheating? The thermal protection circuit on the amp should kick in at about 20 to 30 mintues of playing at moderate levels. ------------- Soldier: This is the worst part. The calm before the battle.
Fry: And then the battle is not so bad?
Soldier: Oh, right. I forgot about the battle.
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 19, 2008 at 3:36 AM
It says Total Maximum Output is 591 watts. But I was reading that it was a bridgeable amp though which doubles that right?
Posted By: stevdart
Date Posted: April 19, 2008 at 4:38 AM
sealed-fate wrote:
Ok now here is the deal. I have 2 matching Dual Voice coil Kicker CVR 15's which are both 2 ohm subs.
...kinda figuring out what you got as we go on here, eh? 1. Next post, describe exactly what is happening to the amplifier to cause you to believe it is overheating. 2. Before that, go over every detail of your install. Make sure you have all wiring correct, fuses installed, proper grounds, and "a day's worth of attention" to setting the gain. 3. Please quit theorizing that the speaker wires are too small. You hear a lot of different things from people on the street but this thread doesn't need to reference all of them. Fourteen gauge wire for AC current from amp to subs is plenty of wire and anything larger gauge offers no improvement. 4. If a sub is dual voice coils and each coil is 2 ohms, then refer to it as "a DVC 2 ohm" sub. Not as "a 2 ohm sub". Because if using both coils it's really not a 2 ohm sub, is it? This is to keep you aware of what you are really working with and to keep everybody, responding here, on the same page. ------------- Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 19, 2008 at 12:41 PM
No I am not figuring out what I have as I go, I had just replaced the DVC4 ohm with a DVC2 ohm. I have already looked over the wiring and grounding, fuses and gain is only turned not even half way up. WHat causes me to believe the amplifier is overheating is the wires. I used to run the same kind of system with the voice coils of both speakers wired in series, and just wired negative and positive on both speakers to the amp. The only difference there was it was a Sony Xplod 1200 watt amp stable at 2 ohms and the 2 kicker cvr12's dvc 2 ohm. To get to my point the amp over heated and it was never bridged to that amp, at the time I was using 8 guage wire and then went and bought some 4 guage wire and no more overheating problem.
I'm sorry if im not making any sense or leaving out lack of information but I am trying to give full details of what I know and whats going on
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 25, 2008 at 8:42 PM
What does clipping the amplifier supposed to mean? I have been trying to figure out why my stuff over heats still, and my manual on the amp talks about the bass boost, if you turn it all the way up you may have to re adjust the gain to avoid amp clipping. Could this be something? Also it doesnt say clearly what ohm the amp is stable at but it says:
Two Channel Operation (Stereo) These ZX Amplifriers are capable of operating into a minimum impedance of 2 ohms per channel in stereo operation. <-- Ok I guess that is where I am going wrong because they are 2 ohm speakers and I am bridging them parallel to the amp so that makes it a different impedance?
(continuing)
Bridged Operation (mono) ZX.2 series amps are capable of operating into a minimum impedance of 4 ohms when in bridged operation. <---- does that mean I need to bridge differently to avoid overheating?
(continuing once more)
Stereo and Mono Operation Simultaneously ZX.2 series amps are capable of operating into a minimum impedance of 4 ohms mono and 2 ohms per channel in stereo simultaneously wth the use of passive crossovers.
I will remind that these are 2DVC sub's, and the power of the amp is not that great to push 2 15's unless bridged, and I have the DVC's wired series and parallel to the amp, which is causing an overheating problem and I do not want that. Any other wiring suggestions? Or should I just not bridge at all? This amp is supposed to be bridgeable obviously so I just dont know how I should wire the speakers to the amp without causing overheating and having it sound nice.
The way they are wired now sounds so lovely, while it lasts... Which is about 20-30 mins.
PLEASE help me figure this out I will appreciate it.
[The amp: Kicker Stereo Amp, ZX550.2]
[Speakers: Kicker Comp CVR 15" 2DVC's]
Thank you
Posted By: chillin420
Date Posted: April 26, 2008 at 3:11 PM
wire your subs as one ohm each and put each on one channel of your amp. this will show the amp a 2 ohm load which your amp is stable to. and it will give you 275 x 2 ------------- you can do it....
advanced MECP, lol does it really matter....
patience is a virtue
Posted By: aznboi3644
Date Posted: April 26, 2008 at 4:04 PM
clipping is basically overdriving the amp...instead of the waveform being a smooth sine wave the peaks are "clipped" and are not smooth but flat plateaus.
Bass boost should not even be used...turn the bass boost off or all the way down...where is your gain an/or boost set right now??
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: April 27, 2008 at 12:59 AM
hehe thats probably why then. bass boost is all the way up and gain is halfway up
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: May 02, 2008 at 2:21 AM
Ok I lowered gain way down and used bass boost to compensate the no gain.. I threw my speakers in a new box and now all of a sudden at certain volumes I noticed that my amp throws the protection light and shuts off, and comes back on. If you dont change the volume (turning it down) it will throw a protection light and shut off etc over and over, but turning the volume down just a tad usually works. I am starting to wonder if my ground and power wire are not thick enough and cant stand up to that much current and it shuts the amp off? They are 8 guage wires, is it possible I may need to switch to 4 guage or 2 guage? This amp says you should have big wires... anyways any help is appreciated
Posted By: jmelton86
Date Posted: May 02, 2008 at 4:10 AM
sealed-fate wrote:
Voice coils wired in series on both and they are both paralleled to the amp.
*See below link, option number 2. That is how you have them wired. If you have the subs wired like this, to the bridged amp output, then you are loading the amp to 2ohms bridged = too low. This amp, if bridged, needs 4ohms of A/C resistance or more. This is your first problem. The second problem is having the bass-boost up. Wire the subs like this: https://www.the12volt.com/caraudio/woofer_configurations.asp?Q=2&I=22 -Option number 3, for an 8ohm load to the bridged amp. This is your ONLY option -unless, of course, you intend on having problems. (How did noone catch this? I don't know) After you get the subs wired correctly, set the gain correctly. Do a search through this site and you'll see how to do this. 8g is WAY too big for these subs, it's not going to hurt though, you just wasted your money. 4g is PLENTY for power/ground also. ------------- 2013 Kia Rio -90a alternator
DDX470HD GTO14001 GTO1014D (x3)
Big3 in 1/0G
1/0G to GTO14001
Posted By: sealed-fate
Date Posted: May 03, 2008 at 5:37 AM
I did the option 3 that you suggested. The protection light still came on even with the gain still turned down to almost nothing. It also made the speakers while it did play sound like total crap. So i just went ahead and went back to option 2 as option 3 only made it ALOT worse. I just have to keep a close eye how high i turn my volume I guess.
Let me remind you, it seems you think I have 4 guage power wires on my amp, but I do not, they are only 8 guage, should this be changed? My amp is also hooked up to a capacitor and I didnt have any of the good connectors so I just ran naked wire inbetween the negative and positive posts (poor way of doing it I know) and was wondering if maybe that could be a problem as well with my amp shutting off. I noticed the capacitor doesnt seem like it is working because lights still dim alot. I would imagine making sure I get a good solid connection to the capacitor can only help so I will do that.
if anyone else knows the cause of this plz let me know still listening for suggestions. thanks to everyone that has tried
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