Do i have the power i need

Systems

I just bought 2 12in rockford fosgate He2's, they are duel voicecoils and are rated 800 watts a piece. but i only have a 1200 watt ultimate amp to push them, if i go bigger with my amp im afraid that my car altinater will not give my amp the juice it needs. I have a little honda civic so my altinator doesnt give off much, would a capasitor give me the power i need?

neomagus00

unfortunately, no, all a capacitor does is provide very short bursts of power. i will reccommend a cap for your car, and i'm sure others will dispute this, but nothing you do short of upgrading your alternator will allow you to run that pair of subs to its full potential. if you use the amp you have now (assuming all the numbers you gave are RMS, not peak), you should get pretty good sound out of the subs. if you upgrade your amp to fully power your subs, your alt probably won't be able to keep up, and you'll rapidly lose power, possibly damaging your electrical system . i think Ohio Generators is the name of the popular alternator company... you have a civic, you're lucky... there's gonna be a half dozen companies out there that make alts for your car, just find one you like.

Systems

the 1200 watts i gave you was peak, i dont know what it puts out RMS probley in the 500-600 range. how big do you think i could go with out herting my car, with my 1200 it already dims my head lights when i beats with my new stock altinater.

neomagus00

i'm not sure how large you can go, i'm not terribly familiar with civics. there are civic forums, you could ask there, but i know that the general rule of thumb is a maximum of 2000 watts rms total for a stock electrical system. as a note, the capacitor might help with the dimming headlights. another note, never quote peak ratings, they're absolutely worthless. always, always, always use RMS ratings.

p.s. that amp wouldn't push even one of those subs all the way.

Systems

Well what kind of amp do you think i should look in to? I dont want to spend alot but it would still be nice to know around what i need to push those subs.

exalted512

if youre really that worried about your electrical system but dont want to upgrade the alternator, id look into USAmps digital series because theyre hella efficient.
www.usamps.com
online authorized dealer>>www.speedsound.com
one thing that must be done and will help is the magic 3, or big 3.
positive battery -> alternator
negative battery -> chassis/frame
engine block -> chassis/frame
replace it with 4 awg.
also, look up "batcap" on ebay. id recommend getting the 800(or 8400) which will run you about $170
-Cody

neomagus00

i can't seem to find that sub model on rockford's site, so i'll assume it is 800 watts RMS each. in that case, you'll need a 1600 watt amp. if each coil is 2 ohms, you'll wire them in series and then the pair of subs in parallel to get 2 ohms total, and your amp in that situation would be something like this RF Power amp. if the coils are 4 ohms each, parallel everything and use the same amp. lucky you if you have 4 ohm coils.

to set gains, follow these instructions to the letter.

Systems

What about boss amps, they are really cheap, do they work? And is volfenhag amp's, are they good would a 2000 W ZX-8400 amp push my 2 12 He2's? Or a 2000 watt boss, These ratings are peak!

Systems

The He2 are the older model. I bought them used off a friend.

neomagus00

again, no peak ratings, they do not matter. i'm not familiar with boss or volfenhag, you'll have to ask someone else. did you look for a civic forum?

exalted512

if youre wanting something cheap check out hifonics on onlinecarstereo.com
the amps you listed are crap...sorry
-Cody

Systems

Rockford Fosgate Punch HE2 12" refurbished subwoofer. Power handling is 400 watts rms and this is a dual four ohm subwoofer. This are my sub's.

exalted512

400 watts per voice coil or total?
-Cody

Systems

Would the Hifonics bx 1500d push my 2 HE2's. Its only 250 watts rms when you bring it down to my 8ohm speakers.

neomagus00

i'm gonna guess that it's 400 total per sub. in that case, the bx 1000D is what you're looking for, paralled all the way down to 1 ohm.

Systems

Ok thanks for the help on finding the right amp, but im new on the ohm thing, what do you mean pallel it down to one ohm. I thought i had a 8 ohm sub, i guess i dont understand "ohm" and yes the subs are 400 per speaker.

neomagus00

what you have is a sub with two 4-ohm coils. if you connect them in series, that is, one after the other, they add up to 8. if you parallel them, which is a different way of connecting them, they divide down to 2 ohms. do that to both subs - or, preferably, get a friend that knows how to parallel them to do it for you - and then put the two subs in parallel. this will divide the 2 ohms of each sub down to one ohm, and the amp will work quite well at one ohm.

chakabobo18

Originally posted by jonny
I just bought 2 12in rockford fosgate He2's, they are duel voicecoils and are rated 800 watts a piece. but i only have a 1200 watt ultimate amp to push them, if i go bigger with my amp im afraid that my car altinater will not give my amp the juice it needs. I have a little honda civic so my altinator doesnt give off much, would a capasitor give me the power i need?

Yeah I would definitely upgrade the alternator. But if your money is kinda of funny, you can always settle with high performance car battery. Rockford, Optima and Stinger are three companies that I know sell their own version of the batteries for sure, incorporating the same technology. They aren't a substitute for the alternator, but it doesn't help out a great deal.

The your subs you say are 800 watts a piece, I know from when I used to be a Rockford diehard that you are speaking of the max power of each one for that particular model. Some companies like to refer to the RMS of their product, by including it some kind of way in the model number of the amp. Most manufacturers RMS on their products range from 1/4-1/2 of the total power. Assuming based on the fact that you quoted the max power on the subs and not the RMS, which isn't a crime, I'll assume you did the same for the amp. So if the amp at least outputs 1/3 of the 1200 watts, I would go as far as to say that you can get by on that, because I've powered 400 watt rms subs with 200 rms watts of power.