I was also very interested in the Alphasonik 8" but remember it is 4 ohm DVC, which means you won't be able to power it and your fronts with a single amp unless you run two subs. This is because the DVC can only be set to 2ohm or 8ohm. Right now I am trying to look into the Eclipse 8" but I don't know anyone who has one in one of Will's enclosures.

If you do get a 4 ohm sub, a 4X100 should be plenty of power, most likely too much. Typically a bridged amp will put out close to 4X it's rated power at 4ohms.

 

Hmmm, even more evidence why it pays to ask here before buying anything. I didn't know that about DVCs, but looking at the instructions PDF it does look like I could only get it to work at 4 ohms if I added a second. Not sure I want to do that.

So back to looking at getting two amps.

Do people like the the Phoenix Gold R5.0:1 for driving a sub like this? Price seems right compared to what else is out there.

 

D-04,
Can you explain that a little better? My amp is 75x4 at 4 ohms, but bridges into 300W at 2 ohms, which means that it can run two speakers at 4 ohms and the sub at 2 ohms right? Let me know if that's mistaken, b/c I don't want to be damaging my amp (or speakers). Thanks
Ice

 

Are you sure that your amp bridges into 300W at 2ohms? Typically it is bridged to 4ohms. Bridging a 4ohm amp into a 2 ohm load is very dangerous.

What you could do is run a channel to each voice coil but then you are only looking at 150 watts which is rather low.

 

Ok, I'm confused, I'm getting conflicting info here. The manual says it bridges into a 4 ohm load, however, it also says that the minimum bridged load is 2 ohms? So does that mean it will be alright? I'm not much into EE, so I'm unsure now.

 

Unless this is a high end amp (basically 1 ohm stable) I wouldn't chance it. Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer though. There are amps capable of doing this (RF Power), but it is not common.

In any event, think of it this way P=V*V/R

So a normal bridged amplifier is running at 2ohms per channel in series therefore equaling 4ohms (2+2). At 2 Ohms the amp is making twice as much power per channel, plus there are 2 combined channels so you are looking at roughly 4X the power (this isn't actually the case, but it's close).

Now if you are going into 2 ohms, that means each channel is at 1 ohm in series (1+1). That means each channel is producing 4X as much power plus there are 2 channels which means 8X the power or roughly 600 watts.

I am no EE either, so I apologize for any errors or simplifications.

 

[QUOTE=D-04,Jul 26 2004, 11:03 PM] Unless this is a high end amp (basically 1 ohm stable) I wouldn't chance it.

 

No worries. All of this is good info and effecting my eventual purchase as well.

A couple more questions:

1) When installing two amps, do most folks run two power cables to the battery, or just one that eventually gets split with a distribution block?

2) Are the MY04's doors pre-wired for both tweeter and mid? Based on the photos it looks like Honda puts in components. Does that mean I won't have to worry about rewiring the doors?