I am trying to install an additional amp on my 2006 G35 sedan. It already has a bose amp, Installing Alpine PDX1.1000 with a 4 farad capacitor.

3 Questions
1) The sticky says I run the power from battery, a lot of work. Why can't I just get the power from whats going to the Bose AMP?
2) This amp should already be getting line out from HU to it, so why do I need a LOC, can't I just take this link out form HU going to Bose and feed to this new amp?
3) Is there a wire harness that I plug between whats going to the Bose AMP and it has a line out. Not that I won't, but given an option, I would hate to splice wires, just seems extreme.

 

1. The wire for the BOSE amp is not nearly big enough to power your extra amp. Your going to blow the fuse to that amp over and over, or burn something up.

2. Stock HU does not have a line out. The LOC is to convert the high level to Low level.

3. No there is not. If you hooking up just a sub (and it reads like you are) you can tap into the rear sub output at the speaker to get your signal.

 

Out of order because #3's a big one.
3) If you think splicing a wire is extreme, stop reading now, take your stuff to a pro and hand over your money.

0) Capacitors are worthless for everything but looking at or impressing 17 year-olds in a high school parking lot, or making money by selling to said 17-year-olds. Also, that amp sucks for its price, the only good thing about it is it is small.

1) Do you own stock in a fuse manufacturer? Want to give your fire department some practice with car fires? If not, run your own wire.
2) The line out from the HU is a differential-balanced signal. The Alpine PDX1.1000 doesn't accept differential-balanced signals, so the amp isn't going to get a decent signal at all. The output from the Bose amp is unbalanced. You can tap either the pre-amp signal with a MTX-REQ to unbalance the signal, or you can tap the signal after the amp with a LOC. I recommend the MTX-REQ.

 

Jinx!

 

Ok, Splicing it is

In regards to the capacitor, it was thrown in the deal. So I have it, is it useless to put it in(i.e. 0 benefit) or now that I already have it, should I just install it? I don't want to install it if its 100% useless.

Another question, I got a SWX-1042D (paired with pdx1.1000), it has two dual voice coils of 4 ohm each. Its booklet says, as single I can run it in 2 ohm or 8 ohm, what gives, why can't I run it at 4 ohm. although pdx1.1000 is a mono, it still has left/right output, can I hook each output independently to each of the 4 ohm voice coils.

Although Amp says its 2 ohm stable, it gets clipped at 2 ohm if the gain gets too high. at 8 ohm is running very stable but I assume I am loosing power at 8 ohms.

This question could be for another forum altogether, just hoping folks here know about this.

 

I said at 2 ohm its getting clipped, in case I am using "clipped" in the wrong context, here is the behavior.

The Amps protection circuitry kicks in and switches off the sub completely.

 

the amp has two speaker outputs but they are bridged internally.

8 ohm vs 2ohm will give you different voltage outputs from your speaker terminals, it gets a bit complex form there.

you can only run one dual 4 ohm sub at 2 or 8 ohm.

if you add another sub you can run them both at a final impedance of 1 ohm or 4 ohm

 

Correct me if I am wrong.

So, the trick to get maximum out of the sub/amp combo is to put it in 2 ohm and calibrate the gain so that it doesn't get the sub to trip.

 

well its not really a "trick" every amp has only certain capabilities.

When you try to get the amp to do more than it can handle it will cut off.

Gain setting is not to hard to do.

find a song with decent bass, turn the gain on the amp all the way down, then turn your radio to about 3/4 of the volume level.

SLOWLY turn your gain up until the sub distorts a bit, then turn the gain back a little.

There are more mathematical ways to do this, but by ear is fine for most people.

 

well its not really a "trick" every amp has only certain capabilities.

When you try to get the amp to do more than it can handle it will cut off.

Gain setting is not to hard to do.

find a song with decent bass, turn the gain on the amp all the way down, then turn your radio to about 3/4 of the volume level.

SLOWLY turn your gain up until the sub distorts a bit, then turn the gain back a little.

There are more mathematical ways to do this, but by ear is fine for most people.

 

If your amp can't handle it at 2ohm, run it at 8ohm.

'nuff said.