Let me start off by saying that I have 2-15's and 2 separate 3.0cu ft. boxes and 2-3000 watt amps and a 6.0 farad cap. Up until a few days ago I only had one fifteen, one amp, one box, and the capacitor in the trunk and it was loud as hell! I decided to put the other 15 in because i was finally able to afford another one of the same amps. After i put the beast in the bass was nowhere near as loud! I checked the wiring, tried using the phase shift on my amp and it didn't get any louder. (it did get even quieter once i used the phase shift, that's how i know it wasn't the wiring). I'm thinking that the boxes may be so large that they may be causing this. With both boxes in, they take up almost all of the trunk and the subs are huge too. 2-360ounce magnets both inverted. another problem i think it could be is that my back seats don't fold down. please help. i didn't want the purchase of my second sub to be a waste of money!
Had the same thing happen to me. Had 2 amps 2 subs one was hitting in one out, flipped one of the subs speaker leads + to -, - to +. bam lots of bass. Maybe this will do it for you. Can't hurt.
WOw, this is easy. 6 farad cap isn't doing sh*t. You are drawing around 300 amps of power off of probably no more than 150 amp alternator. More like 90-100. If the power ain't there the amp can't amplify it. Do you think your car is producing the same power as a nuclear powerplant? Its really common sense.
Chris, if he's using a pair of 3,000 watt RMS amps, he's pulling quite a bit more than 300 amps of current.. Around 415 at 14.4V.
Also, I dont think that it's common sense to have to upgrade your alternator to be able to have a HO audio system. It's something a lot of people who arent told, dont realize.. You dont see HO alts sitting around at some of the lower-end electronics stores (like BestBuy and Circuit City), but you see amps, subs, boxes, etc.
I'd say most people never even give a 2nd thought when they hear someone bumping, that they probably had to upgrade their alternator, etc, unless they're into car audio themselves.
Also, even if he cant supply the current, he should still be producing the same amount of power between the two amps, as he was with the original one (albeit maybe clipping) - and adding a second sub should still give a 3 dB increase if you're not increasing the power.
But he never listed his alternator specs, or how many batteries he has. For all we know, he might have a really nice battery bank.. He asked a legitimate question, that he wanted help with..
No reason to belittle him, and claim that everyone should know this, cause it's so easy and common sense.
"Also, even if he cant supply the current, he should still be producing the same amount of power between the two amps, as he was with the original one (albeit maybe clipping) - and adding a second sub should still give a 3 dB increase if you're not increasing the power."
If he's got his spare power from the alt running to the amps, then that power would be divided by half, meaning each amp would get half the power than had he kept ONE amp and ONE sub. Meaning that amp 1 would then be getting less power than before. So that whole 3dB increase idea would be hard to accomplish since the doubling in power would have been from the additional amp. Really he's keeping the same power but putting less wattage to each sub.
Tyler - If he's running the same amount of power before (assuming it's the situation) roughly.
If you have lets say 3000 watts, (either on one amp, or 1500 watts on each of two amps), and you add another subwoofer to that amount of power, without increasing the power, just adding an identical sub, you will also recieve a 3 dB increase. I'm not saying he's doubling the power, I'm saying he's doubling the amount of subs.
If you add a new sub, and double your power, the increase is 6dB.
I see. I know by adding the extra sub he gets +3dB (sounds like playing D&D here lol).
But say hypothetically his available alternator power allowed for his amp to put out 1000W RMS to the first sub.
Now, he adds the second amp, well the power from the alt. is then divided. Meaning each amp then could only put out about 500W RMS.
So basically he neutralized the affect of adding the second sub, as he cut POWER, and added OUTPUT so to speak. So by lowering one side and raising the other it becomes moot!
