Amp & Sub recommendations/queries

Power is a very subjective subject. excuse the pun ; )

Without going into too much detail, when an amp is driven too hard the power output that the speaker sees is too high even though the actual speakers do noyt seem any louder. The amp output reaches maximium voltage and so cannot exceed this voltage, so the output is clipped. This is what the distortion is.

Er, so when you heard the distortion, why didn't you turn the volume down ?

If you're trying to make the sub shout louder than it can, then it'll break. And it did...

Assuming your wiring/alternator isn't shagged, you simply had it too loud. When things start to distort, you need to back off.

I've never heard of ProPlus - it's quite possible they're a purveyor of s**te :)

You'd be much better off spending your money on something like

I can't see as to how the amp was driven too hard though - it was barely turned up to half power and I didn't have any distortion.

There wasn't any distortion. It just one day blew.

Cheers, am checking em out now :)

Either it was *s*it*, or you were running it CRAZY loud, or you have a wiring problem !

Before you spend any moolah, get yourself down to your nearest garage. Get them to check your alternator's outputting the right voltage etc. just so you can elminate the car's electrics.

I think #1 was probably correct. It can't have been the wiring - cause it took a few months to blow it each time, right?

in news:cplafn$54a$ snipped-for-privacy@hercules.btinternet.com, "Gr8-Scott" slurred :

You can have distortion from; 1) the amplifier voltage limiting - this gives obviously audible effects, 2) the amplifier dragging the supply voltage down, again giving audible effects and 3) the speaker reaching the limits of it's compliance - depending on the speaker design, this can be quite a 'soft' distortion, and not necessarily very audible, especially at low freqs.

So whilst you say that you didn't have distortion, you could have had (3) without realising.

Alternatively, some cheap amps actually impose a net DC component on the output. This is completely inaudible, but significantly increases the power dissipation in the speaker and the temperature of the voice coil. This can kill the speaker eventually, but it's easy enough to check with a voltmeter.

HTH.

note: if you have (1) then the amplifier will be delivering twice the RMS power that a sinusoid of the same amplitude, so you should check that your speakers can handle at least twice the power output of the amp (continuous).