I have two MTX 10's and was wondering if it would be better to hook up two smaller amps one to each sub or should i go ahead and spend the extra 150 or so for one big amp? The two smaller amps are about 250 watts max and the one big amp is about 750 watts. Thanks ahead of time.

 

I heard that 1 amp was better because the subs are more in "sync" with each other. Oh well hope this helps.

 

even if th esubs are in two seperate enclosures?

 

one amp definatly. depending on the wattage and voil coil ohms u can make it work. i would say wire them in paralell to get them to 2 ohms if there 4ohms. if there 8 ohms paralell wiring will net 4ohms. if i confused u just lemme know and ill explain better. sorry if i did.

 

Are there any drawbacks to running them in 2 ohm? I heard that you lose some of the quality. Tanks again.

 

not really, its the resistance. make sure the amp is capable of running at 2ohms and u should be fine. sound quality is up to the driver (speakers), amp/head unit (signal and power).

 

How would I go about wiring a 4 channel amp to two subs in parallel? Would I use only one channel bridged? Also my subs say 4-ohm and nothing about 2 is it ok to run them with 2 ohms?

 

ok, ima gunna break it down for u. on a 2 channel amp u have 2 channels. whatever the sub says ohm wise is all it'll be. the ohms is what the amp sees and turns it into power. u can either power a 2 or 4 ohm speaker (depending on the voice coil ohm like u said urs was 4ohm so u would be using each channel at 4 ohms). next theres bridging 2 channels (one positive from one channel and one negative from the other channel). this will only be good for 4ohms (unless otherwise stated on the amp or box but general rule is only 4ohm). same basic concept will work for a 4 channel amp. u can bridge the 1st two channels to one sub and other two to the other sub. i would say if i can use a mono channel amp go for it, more efficent. this is a little hard for me to explain over the net. maybe someone can step in and help.

PS: u can wire to 4ohm subs in a series to get 8ohms or in paralell to get 2ohms.

u can wire to 2ohms subs in series for 4ohm or paralell for 1ohm

and u can wire to 1 ohm subs in series to get 2ohms or in paralell to get 0.5ohms.

dont worry about anything but the 4ohm subs. run each bridged off the 4ch amp or in parallel on a mono channel amp. confused yet? good cuz then u'll learn. sorry if i did tho...lol if i can fnd the website ill post it with an easier way to go about wiring subs...

 

There are really only two things to consider, at a high level:
1) The impedance of your subwoofers, and the possible impedance combinations they will yield when you wire them different ways.. series, parallel, series/parallel combination, etc (you need to know this to properly shop for an amp, as amps will all make different power into different impedances)

2) The power output of the amplifier into different impedances (particularly ones that you can present to the amp, given the possible impedance combinations you determined above). Most amps nearly double their power as you cut the impedance in half, although some amps are regulated.

And of course from a budgetary standpoing, there's the "whatchaget/dollar" factor... including not just how much the amp costs, but how many watts/dollar you are getting at the impedance you are running... what features the amp has, and how good they are (crossovers, subsonic filters, remote gain control, EQ circuitry, protection circuitry, etc.

As far as subwoofer duty goes, you can realistically almost ignore any specs relating to THD, damping, etc.. don't focus too hard on those (although it is intuitive to want to)...
Bear in mind that psychoacoustics plays a large role here.
Specs like that are very important in shopping for main staging speaker amps, but the lower you get in frequency, the less sensitive you are to distortions and anomolies...
Even trained ears most often can't hear distortion until it reaches almost 10% in the subwoofer range!

But as far as whether it is better to get two amps, or one amp...

I personally like a single amplifier, because I like to use built in features like crossovers and the like...
If I had multiple subwoofer amps, I would have to ensure that I had both amps adjusted identically... gains set identically, crossover set identically, etc... Not to mention if it had remote gain control you'd have two of those, not as handy.

But, it may be justified to go that route if for some reason it is easier for you to fit two smaller amplifiers in an installation than it would be for you to fit a single larger amp (ie. mounting one behind each jump seat), or if you can get a screaming deal on the smaller amps, making your "whatchaget/dollar" value better going the 2 amp route.

But usually the single amp presents the best value, and the easiest install, setup, and maintenance options to you.

Good luck!

 

I imagine if i post after geolemon and optikal, i will prolly just add to the technical confusion =) It is very nice to have some other Audio guru's on the site. LOL

To put in my own response,

Using 2 amps for 2 subs is fine-AS LONG as they are the same model powering the same model sub, you will not have problems. Most SQ competition nutz actually prefer a different amp for every driver.

In your situation, I would recommend using the single channel amp, because it will provide more power to both the subs than the 2 smaller amps will provide to each on its own. ( an MTX 10" will like more than 125 watts RMS anyway)

Finally, when you look at power numbers, ALWAYS refer to the wattage in RMS. This is the nominal, or continuous amount of power that the amp will put out. The MAX number is only the amount that the amp can put out in a musical peak, and is not a reliable number to go by.
Hope this helps!

Steve