32 replies to this topic

[LongGone]

If a sub needs a 1000 watts to sound good, a point often made in posts on this site, what will it sound like when it is only getting 50 watts when the system is being played at lower volume levels?

[APS]

Crap .

I dunno im just guessing.

[~Spyne~]

what sub/s need 1000wrms to sound good?!?!

i dont know of any that need more than 500wrms to sound fantastic
except boss/soundstorm/etc, which need about 5000wrms to make a nice snap, crackle, pop sound

[Reza]

Is it about the ability of the amp to control the movement of the sub?? Higher rated amp surely has better damping factor compare to lower rated amp. My sub driven by Hammer sounds a lot better compare to it driven by SS Rubicon 1002, and i wired it at 2 ohm which both amps rated at 1000rms, but Hammer can handle 1500rms at 1 ohm. I didn't notice any degradation in regard to the sounding of the sub at lower volume.

[ntl]

Control and head room. If the amp is capable of 1000wrms, running at 500w is a piece of piss for it. If its only rated at 500w and your pushing it, it stuggles to keep up with control of the sub. Kinda like towing a trailer using a 4cylinder car, it may stuggle a bit especially up hills, where as a v8 does it easily, even up hills and accelerates alot faster.

[LongGone]

henrysutrisno, on Jan 3 2006, 01:55 AM, said:

However, IMHO if you are looking for a REAL SQ sub... meaning no boom boom boom... I reckon you should try Phase Linear Aliante 12" (required 1000watts), Scanspeak 9" (note: only required no more than 250watts), Audio Technology Subwoofer, Velodyne

This is perhaps more what I'm curious about. Surely and amp with 100 watts of highly damped power will do just as good a job up until the last few db where it runs out of power? Remember that power vs db is a logarithmic relationship, if it takes 100 watts to get 120db and will take 200 to get 123, 400 to get 126, 800 to get 129 and so on.

Does this mean that a particular sub sound crap at 120db but suddenly sounds great at 123db or louder?

[Fury♫]

Hutch, on Jan 3 2006, 10:25 PM, said:

This is perhaps more what I'm curious about. Surely and amp with 100 watts of highly damped power will do just as good a job up until the last few db where it runs out of power? Remember that power vs db is a logarithmic relationship, if it takes 100 watts to get 120db and will take 200 to get 123, 400 to get 126, 800 to get 129 and so on.

Does this mean that a particular sub sound crap at 120db but suddenly sounds great at 123db or louder?

I'd suggest perhaps you do a test, see if u actually "hear" the difference (apart from volume).

If you have a 4 channel amp, i'd say this would be a great place to start with a dvc 4ohm sub.
You could use a nice tru 4x100 amp, and an idmax d4...

First wire the each coil of the sub up to 1 channel of the amp...
Have a listen.
Then wire each coil of the sub up to a bridged pair of channels on the amp.
This should theoretically give you 4x the power (depending on amp), jumping from 100wrms per coil to 400wrms per coil.
Once again have a listen.

Which do u think sounds nicer?


I have done this with my splits and they just sounded so much better... More dynamic, much better midbass, better control.

[Volenti]

Hutch, on Jan 3 2006, 11:25 AM, said:

This is perhaps more what I'm curious about. Surely and amp with 100 watts of highly damped power will do just as good a job up until the last few db where it runs out of power?

This is true, the 100W amp producing 100W will sound exactly the same as the 1kW amp producing 100W, if the output never exceeds 100W (including peaks) then both will sound the same.

[ntl]

Hutch, on Jan 3 2006, 11:25 AM, said:

This is perhaps more what I'm curious about. Surely and amp with 100 watts of highly damped power will do just as good a job up until the last few db where it runs out of power? Remember that power vs db is a logarithmic relationship, if it takes 100 watts to get 120db and will take 200 to get 123, 400 to get 126, 800 to get 129 and so on.

Does this mean that a particular sub sound crap at 120db but suddenly sounds great at 123db or louder?

Our hearing is also logarithmic so that every extra 3db there is 2 fold change. 120db to 123db is a big volume difference.
a 100watt amp playing at a low volume, no i doubt u will hear much difference. Its only when you get near its limits you might start to pick it, but a sub is something that you really want to have control of hence so much headroom.
I can see this being very controversial tho.

[fuddbutter]

i went from 300wrm to 1kw and i still think it sounded better with 300wrms..

but then i still think the sub sounded better when i was running 200wrms into it.

[APS]

Thats cos your sub cant handle 1000wrms so it coughs and splatter and bottoms out and sound like ass .

[fuddbutter]

and wins SQ comps

[KickerCat]

If you have a car with 1000KW, doesn't mean its gonna perform better than one with 300KW, or even 180kw (depending on the car ) I reckon its the same with audio stuff - just because you HAVE the power, doesnt mean you can use it effectively, and just because you WANT the power, doesn't mean you NEED it

[APS]

Yeah but for SQ the sub is not really doing much which you kinda proved it Rob when your lost because the first time your system was to bass heavy .

[Caldor]

It all depends. A key figure will be the sensitivity of the driver.

I would say that is bogus to claim all subbass drivers require 1000watts to sound good.........at that power some will melt the voice coil and possible catch fire.

What is for sure is that over driven drivers will distort and that wont sound good at all.