Once again I am in the market for a new sub and amp...I am looking at a Profile AP100M Mono amp 300 RMS at 4ohms, and 500 at 2 ohms. What I want to make sure is 1. Are profile amps good?? And 2. I am wanting to hook up an Alpine Type-R 12" up to it, It being dual voice coil that will make the amp push 2 ohms correct? The whole ohm reduction thing still confuses me sometimes, and I want to do my research before forking out a good bit of cash. Thanks in advance.

 

That sounds about right. I had two infinity's hooked up to my 1000M and it sounded pretty good. Crank it up made the box dance.. had to strap it down. Tuning the amp goes along way. I'm selling the amp with wiring kit due to going to no room in the ranger if your interested might save you a little cash.

 

try looking at power acostiks when i was looking for an amp to power my 2 10"s it was that or the profile and the power acoustics was cheaper and had more watts per.

 

Do not look at Power Acoustiks, they are junk. Profile is probably 4x better than them. I don't care what anybody here has to say, I've heard lots of PA's and none have even come close to impressing me. Profile on the other hand has pretty good quality, especially for the money. They're also CEA approved which shows that their power ratings are accurate.

As far as a place to get the ohmage thing down a little bit click here.

 

I've had both and prefer Profile. Yes, the PA are cheaper and have a higher rated wattage but you will NEVER reach max output. I've got a 1200w SPL amp that is made by PA w/ the exact same ratings as it's PA marketed sister. My old 400w Profile sounded just as good.

 

Thanks a lot for your input everyone. I had heard good thingd about profile, and for $100 its worth a shot. And also thanks a lot for that link that helped quite a bit .

 

Either of these brands are very average, when taking into consideration what is available. If you ask enough people, you will find that both brands are considered decent "bang-for-the-buck" amps. But that could be said about most any major brand of amp that is designed to "appeal to the masses". So if this range of quality is suitable for what you want, then go for it. But, as your first sentence hints, this is not your first time purchasing amps and subs. So if you have experienced equipment failure due to buying poor quality gear, I would suggest stepping up in that respect. In fact, I would recommend that anyway, but, that's your call. Either of these could last for years IF used easily. But, if you buy such an amp, and you expect to really put it through the paces, you may be investing in another amp shortly. Problems occur when users have equipment of this quality level and then want to pretend that it is some true high end gear, and treat it as such. The basic truth is, you pretty much get what you pay for. While one amp may appear to be a bargain @$100 vs. an amp that "seems" similar @$400, most times there are glaring reasons for the price difference. And, the bargain $100 amp may not be a bargain at all if it has to be replaced three or four times vs. the $400 amp lasting years and years, while all the time offering very average performance as well vs. the better amp. Don't believe for one minute that the old saying "a watt is a watt" is all there is to it. Having said all that, I understand that buying high end gear isn't all that important to most people. We all place a different importance on different things. Just some suggestions to consider IF your audio enjoyment is important.

Concerning the difference in ohms. This is crucial with a "bargain" amp because of the fact the amp will flow TWICE as much current with a 2 ohm set-up vs. 4 ohms. This does not happen without a cost, especially if you are running the amp on the ragged edge of its capabilties. If the output devices are saturated to the max, you're asking for trouble. This is one area where high end amps differ from low end. A high end amp may produce its rated power while the outputs are working at 50% of their capability. This equals less heat as opposed to 100%. A cheaper amp may have to be pushed to that 100% level to produce its rated power, and then it will be at some outrageous distortion. Heat kills amps, and the parts and pieces used in the construction determine how the amp handles excess heat. This is one huge reason for the price differences.

 

Linear Power you made some good points, and i'm glad you did. I do enjoy my music very much, and i don't want cheap crap that is gonna give out on me in a month or so. You reminded me with the heat issue of how well a higher quality amp will hold up. I had an American Pro audio 600w for a little while, and heat killed it, now i have a kenwood that gets quite hot, but is still goin strong and it is probably over 6 years old. i also changed my mind on woofers. It seems to be a trend here that noone likes kicker, but I am going with an L5 12" and If I am going to push it, I want good clean power so I think I will break down and pay decent money for a good amp. On the amp thing still, I have never owned a DVC sub, and all of the wiring diagrams hav me asking one question if I am going ot use a mono amp. Do I need to run a wire to each post if it is wired in parallel, or do I need to run 2 wires to 2 posts, then have another branch from the other post? I am sorry for all the questions, like I said since I have never owned a DVC sub I want to make sure I get it right so I don't throw a few hundred dollars down the drain. Thanks again.

 

You will find that advice on forums such as this are full of general statements. like "Kicker sucks!", or "Audiobahn is crap!" The facts are that these "mainstream" companies make many different lines with differing levels of quality, so a broad, generalization is a bunch of crap in itself. Kicker makes some nice amps, you just have to get one correct for your application. They also make some marginal stuff. As do almost all the major companies who try to "appeal to the masses". In fact, these companies probably make more $$$$ selling their lower end stuff than the better gear, simply because they sell so much of it and it is so cheap to make. I am into DIY electronics, and I'm telling you that the parts used to build amps can be very, very cheap. I just built a vacuum tube headphone amp with ultra high end parts, and invested less than $100 including a VERY nice enclosure. I could have built the same amp with cheap, cheap stuff for less than $50. The cost variation for electronic components is HUGE, so seemingly similar amps can be very different. Another thing I recommend is to forget all the well intentioned advice from people who say to match your subs and amps RMS ratings. That is another load of crap. Buy an amp with the most power you can afford. This is only an example, but you are far ahead to use an amp that is capable of 1000 watts RMS, but is only producing 500 watts, than to have a 500 watt RMS amp and run it to the edge of its capabilities. There's no unwritten rule that says you must play your gear to it's max. It's easier on all components involved in the equation, and the performance results will be better. More stability for the amp in the form of less heat and distortion. Less likelihood of clipping, which can be death for voice coils and amps.

As far as how to connect one DVC sub. There are only two ways to do it. Series and parallel. With series wiring, you will connect the + terminal of one voice coil and the - of the other voice coil to the amp. Then connect the other + and - terminals to each other. Parallel is probably what you will want to do. Connect the + and - terminals of both voice coils together and then run a + and - to the proper terminals on the amp.

http://mobile.jlaudio.com/support_pages.php?page_id=145

 

Everyone has been EXTREMELY helpful in helping me make a decision on what to get and how to do it. I am near the end of my search and have hopefully one last question. I am looking at a Kenwood KAC-9102D mono amp. 500watts at 4 ohm, and 850 at 2ohm. Should I get a dual 2 ohm l5 and run it at 4 ohms for the reg 500 watt and not put a lot or strain on the amp or sub, or go all out and just get a dual 4 ohm and run it at 2 ohm for the 850 watts? I usually stick real close to the RMS handling of subs because I am very paranoid about goin over it so I need some good advice because I don't have the money to throw out the window by accidently roasting the voice coils.. Thanks as usual, you guys rock.

 

If you want to go easy on the gear, go with the 4 ohm set-up. Lower ohm set-ups are vastly overrated. And, if you can't be happy with a 500 wattRMS sub set-up in a truck, then I don't know what to say. As far as getting 500 watts from the amp vs. 850 watts, understand that SPL increases on a logarithmic scale, not a linear scale. Doubling power does not double SPL, it increases SPL by 3dB. For example, if your sub has a sensitivity rating of 88dB, that means that with 1 watt of input, it will produce 88dB in SPL measured at 1 meter distance. Every doubling of power will increase the SPL by 3dB. So it goes like this, 2 watts=91dB, 4 watts=94dB, 8 watts=97dB, 16 watts=100dB, 32 watts=103dB, 64 watts=106dB, 128 watts=109dB, 256 watts=112dB, 512 watts=115dB, 1024 watts=118dB. You can see that the results are hardly staggering. It takes 10 times the power to double the SPL, which is an increase of 10dB on the dB scale. So 101dB is perceived as twice as loud as 91dB, which in the above example would take 20 watts and 2 watts respectively. That's not to say that 3dB is not noticeable, but it's not what some people expect. Plus, you have to weigh the cost to the equipment to gain a couple of dB vs. just being satisfied with a nice solid bass of 114dB instead of 116dB. Good equipment would probably be fine with the 2 ohm set-up. My point is that the difference in results is hardly worth it. But that's just my opinion. You know what they say about opinions. If a couple of dB is worth the trouble, I say go for the lowest ohm set-up you can run safely with whatever amp you get.

 

I'm not lookin to win any dB drags or anything lol, I just want to be able to turn my music up loud and have no distortion, and have some nice low end bass. I love bass, and am hoping that this will deliver what I am looking for. Its hard to put into words what I am wanting, but for the most part, I want it to be able to go louder than I want to turn it up to.I am so used to, and tired of having to turn some bass WAY down because my subs can't handle the low end at that volume.I want something that will play almost anything no trouble. Its nice to be able to show off sometimes and shake a few windows heh. I never knew that increases in power meant so little. It makes sense, but its something you wouldn't look and pay attention to, thanks for informing me. As always, I have learned somethin new and appreciate it very much

 

From the description of what you want, I can't stress enough that you buy the most powerful amp you can afford of really good quality. Something that will deliver its rated power truthfully at some reasonable distortion level.

Another thing I thought of and forgot to include in an earlier response is that using an amp into a 2 ohm load vs. a 4 ohm load also cuts the damping factor of the amp in half. With an amp used for subs, a very low damping factor can be a problem. Damping is the amp's ability to maintain its output voltage under all conditions. An amp of questionable quality with a very low damping factor is not a good choice for sub use. Especially with you wanting good, clean bass at all volume levels. I would look for an amp with 200 or more damping factor, which would be 100 if you use 2 ohms. 400 or 500 would be even better.

For example, a JLAudio 500/1 has a damping factor of over 500@4ohms, while the cheaper JLAudio e1200 has a damping factor of 200@4ohms.