Help with wiring sub and amp?!

veilside · Post by **veilside** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 10:31 am

Okay, hugely confused and probably shouldn't have tried to do this myself anyway, but here's where I am:

Decided it was a good idea to wire my own sub. The sub is a Fusion PowerPlant FPW-1200 (450wrms/900wmax, dvc 2+2ohms). The amp I'm trying to use is a Lanzar Vibe 261 (2x600wrms@4ohms). I assume I can just turn the gain down to stop it putting to much power into my sub?

Now I've wired the amp up (apart from connecting it to the battery). I've gotta put my sub in it's box and then connect it to the amp. Because the amp is dual voice coil, it has 2 positive and 2 negative things on the back. The box (that was packaged with the sub) only has 1 positive and negative thing. Can I connect both positives from the sub to the one in the box, and the same for the negative, and then split them again to the amp?... As I said, really not sure what I'm doing

ALSO... Assuming I can hook the sub up in the box the way I have described, what's going to be the best way to hook the sub up to the amp? Should I even use this amp/sub combo or should I sell one of them and buy something else? If possible I'd rather just use what I have...

veilside · Post by **veilside** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 12:13 pm

Okay, I know parallel and series vc wiring now, so that's okay... Now how should I go about wiring it up to my amp?

Grateful for any help/suggestions!

ruchi · Post by **ruchi** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 1:23 pm

You've got two options, and it basically just comes down to personal preference as to which you use as the difference between the two options is neglible.

Un-Bridged
Bypass the wiring terminals on the sub-enclosure and just wire the sub directly to the amp. One set of terminals on the sub to each channel on the amp. If you wanted to be neat you could add a second set of terminals to the sub enclosure.

Bridged
Bridge the terminals on the amp to make it a single channel amp and do the same with the terminals on the sub. With this option you could connect it all through the single set of terminals on the sub enclosure.

It might pay to get the opinion of Rudi (mrdj1234) and Mil (FTOluv), but personally I think there will be no noticable difference between the two options. Bass, due to its low frequencies is very non-directional and is more about "feeling" than sound quality, so it is very forgiving in terms of wiring setups, the biggest issue is that you got a good enclosure and the right size for the volume of air the sub moves.

veilside · Post by **veilside** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:01 pm

Ta ruchi. Is it easy to turn the gain down on an amp? Cos 4ohms bridged from this amp is going to give me about 1200wrms and i only want maybe 500ish

Post by **smorison** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:07 pm

what did you earth to?

veilside · Post by **veilside** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:16 pm

Bolt behind the tail light. My other amp (which was done by a pro) is earthed to one on the passenger side, so I used the driver side one. Would that be okay do you think? None of it is running to power yet.

Edit The other amp was actually installed by me but I had a pro take a look at it because I was worried about my dodgy job. Nothing seemed out of place

Post by **smorison** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 4:06 pm

yeah i'm just having troubles with a reliable earth at the moment...

veilside · Post by **veilside** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 5:31 pm

Well something's wrong. Everything's connected correctly as far as I can tell and all I get is a protect light on the amp. Tried different speaker cable from box to amp and no difference. I want to try all options before pulling the sub outta the box again. Maybe my earth is dodgy...

DZYRME · Post by **DZYRME** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 6:41 pm

veilside wrote:Well something's wrong. Everything's connected correctly as far as I can tell and all I get is a protect light on the amp. Tried different speaker cable from box to amp and no difference. I want to try all options before pulling the sub outta the box again. Maybe my earth is dodgy...

In my previous experience at Strathfield Car radios, 90% of the time, the reason why amps mainly dont work is because of a dodgy Ground connection. Try scratching off the paint where you are connecting the wire too. The paint can act as an "Insulator", which makes the Amp think its not grounded. Sand off the paint with a sander, until u get to bare metal. Try that and see how you go.

veilside · Post by **veilside** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 7:00 pm

There's no paint where I've earthed though. On the tail light bolt under one of those little flap things in the boot. I'll take a look and try another spot just in case though!!!