Want 10 inch sub in car. What else is needed?

Question

Whats minimum powered amp to run that and whats recommended powered amp? Do you NEED a new deck or would a stock deck have whats required? Im assuming you dont NEED new speakers. How does the wiring work? Battery --> Amp --> Sub?? or Battery --> Amp --> Deck --> Sub??

Answer 1

you need a 300watt amp. mono block classD amp is prefered. the amp is connected to the battery for power. it needs the remote wire and rca cables from the stereo's outputs. the amp then sends signals to the speaker(s).

Answer 2

Unfortunately there's no standard sub power out there. It will depend on the size of the magnet and the number of coils; as well as the material density. Luckily, you don't have to know any of that. What you're interested in the number on the box (or what the guy at the store told you). There are two numbers you want. Peak power and RMS power. This goes for your amp as well when you marry the two products (and you're right. You require an amp to run a sub).

The peak power is the maximum amount of power the sub should draw. The RMS (root mean square) is the root mean square of the peak power. Think of it as the average power the sub will require when you're listening to your fiddy cent cd.

The reason I told you this is so you'll know what the guy at future shop is saying when he uses his fancy terminology to confuse you.

Now, I had two Rockford Fosgate 10" subs with 300W RMS. I found a 1000W amplifyer on ebay for under 100 dollars and it kicks. I keep the amp tuned to the minimum (instructions came with the amp) and the subs only draw what they need. If I turned the amp up, I would ruin my subs. It will make sense as you acquire more products (and product knowledge).

Just don't be afraid to give a 200W sub a 300W amp. While it's not perfect, it will work. Just make sure you keep your settings low until you determine what the sub can handle.

In terms of installation, You will have a wire 4-6 gauge (I think - double check this before you buy) running from your battery (with the appropriate fuse). You will need to find a penetration in your fire wall and run the wire to your trunk (or to wherever the amp is). Then, depending on what kind of deck you have, you should have pre-outs specifically designed for subs. I bought a panasonic in 2004 with 3 pre-outs which was pretty new then. Now, it's probably common. One of your pre-outs (sound outputs) will be your base. It's usually a black and red (or red and white) RCA jack (like if you were hooking up your dvd player to your tv). The left and right audio are red and white, and the yellow is video. Since we aren't using video, the red and white RCA's are what we're looking for. These will go from your deck into your amp. From there, you will need speaker wire (nothing smaller than 12-14 gauge or you risk melting it) will run from your amp to your sub.

Your sub should be in a box. I don't mean to patronize you, but you'd be surprised some of the questions I've been asked about car audio.

Contact me again if you have more questions or google some "do it yourself" tips on car audio. I'm sure there's tons of stuff out there.

Hope this helps!

JRG

Answer 3

Seems like you are starting from scratch.

A 10" sub can be added to a stock system. You'll need to find the stock rear speaker lines and add a RCA hook up to them. This is a small circuit board and wires that will link to the factory speaker wire and create a female set of RCA jacks while converting the signal to a line level.

You need to run the RCA to some sort of an amp. The factory radio and most regular head units do not put out enough power to truly run a sub. The amp may not need to be huge for a single sub. If you go for a dual voice coil (DVC) sub you'll essentially need 2 times the power.  You'll want to match the sub's power handling ability to the RMS  and Peak power outputs of the amp you choose. This will make the system sound the best it can.

The wiring is more complicated then can be explained in words. The battery is hooked to everything. A lead will need to be run for an amp specifically. Signal wire (RCAs) will need to be run from the deck (or off of the speakers as noted earlier) to the amp. speaker wire will go from the amp to the sub. a ground wire will go from the amp to a good ground on the car (frame). You'll also need to run a wire called a remote wire from your head unit to the amp telling the amp when to turn off and on. The amp should come with a wiring guide.  

Hope this helps. You might want to have someone do it for you since it seems pretty new to you.

Answer 4

It depends on how many watts your sub is you r****d

Answer 5

You are going to have to reword your question because it is incomprehensible.  Ask one question at a time.  It is really hard to answer any of this be cause you have not described your setup at all.