I dont' think it is my subs cuz they can handle way more then my 600 what alpine mrd-m605 puts out. Subs are two 12 inch alpine type r's. The new ones. when i turn it up, i hear a noise coming from my subs, but they aren't really moving much. I think my amp is clipping, how can I be sure?
the alpine type-R's are dual 4ohm subs, now basically, when you wire two of them together, you will get an 8ohm load, or a 1 ohm load. that amp isnt stable at 1 ohm, you could be damaging the subs depending how you have it wired.
How much did you pay for M1005? If your subs are 2ohms DVC, then in parallel wiring, they will give you 2ohm load. If your amp can handle 2ohms then you're fine.
The amp will handle a two ohm load, that is what i had them wired at on the 605. Thrush, I like alpine the 605 just didn't have enough power in my opinion, i think i was pushing it to its max, and it was clipping, that was the point of this thread, to see if there is a way i can tell if the amp was clipping. I like alpine, just wanted more power, I have an alpine cda 9855 which controls the functions of my amp from the head units, plus tells me the temperature of the amp and voltage going to it, which is usally right at 14.0, somethimes drops to about 13.7, have seen it hit 13.2 though. I will let you know if the upgrade in power stopped the distortion. If it does than i can only assume that my amp was clipping before becuase i was pushing it to its max. Which i hope is the case.
Alpines are a little overpriced for the quality. I agree that JL is also overpriced, but they have exceptional quality, so you get what you pay for. Alpine's just too expensive for what you actually get.
About the clipping. Are you sure you have the subs wired to a 2 ohm load? You may have them wired to 8 ohms, and aren't getting very much power to your subs. When an amp clips, it tries to produce more power than it can, so it has to alter the audio signal in order to squeeze out more energy. The effect is a square wave, which causes horrible distortion. When an amp is just barely cliping, you may not be able to hear the distortion. When you progress into heavier, more sever clipping you should be able to hear the distortion.
From what you said, it doesn't sound like your amp is clipping. I think you have things wired wrong.