Phoenix Gold Phorum

I just bought two rsd 12's on the internet a few days ago and was wondering what would be a good amp for these. I want them to pound like i hear they're supposed to

are they SVC or the DVC?

to give them their full justice you will want to give them 500-600 watts each

a xenon 1200.1 is a good match, or a RSD1200.1 if they are the SVC version.

i think there is someone selling a Tantrum 1200.1 on this forum right now too.

umm i beleive they are svc so thank you very much
what kind of enclosure would they be loudest in? i read that they nead 1.8 feet for one so do i double that for 2?

I would build a box with seperate air chambers. 3/4" MDF works nicely. Run them @ 2ohm off a 1200.1 and there ya go...... instant trunk rattle..

Welcome to the phorum.....What Ferrari do you speak of?

hahah a nonexistant one sir

i just bought the tantrum 1200.1 on the forum and is it just a direct hook up or do i need to rewire something because it says 4 ohms but i thought the subs were 2

anyone? i just blew like 3 fuses because of this i think what can i do

What fuses are blowing?

The fuse you put in the power wire near the battery.

Trevor,

What gauge power wire is run, what gauge ground? Is this the only amp right now? Most importantly, what size fuse are you using?

If the T1200.1 is the only amp in the vehicle you have to have a minimum of 4 gauge power and ground wire. If there are multiple amps, you need even larger gauge wire. The 1200.1 requires a 80 Amp fuse within 18 inches of the power input to the amp. The fuse under the hood is still necessary to protect the power wire run to the back. The under hood fuse should be rated to protect the cable, not the amplifiers. What kind of condition is your ground connection in? Did you clean the surface and make sure you have a tight connection to the chassis? You do have the power input polarity correct, right?

When is the fuse blowing? Is it immediate or after you have been running things hard for a while?

Sorry for all of the questions, but I sold the amp, and I know for certain that it was in perfect working order when it went into the box.

The T1200.1 is stable down to 2 ohms, if each of your subs are 4 ohm SVC, then you are fine, if they are 4 ohm DVC, you may have them wired for a total impedance of 1 ohm. While it may run like this, it will draw even more than 80 amps. You indicate early on in this thread that they are SVC, so you should have a total of 2 ohms, which is fine.

Let me know the answers to the above. I will be up all night.

Later,
Jason

ferrariboy150 wrote:hahah a nonexistant one sir

I have a whole garage full of those.

haha wow that was a lot of questions and its like 10 gauge power wire... really good ground... started at a 30 amp fuse for the wire 18 inches away, but now im 60. Where does an 80 amp one go?

the fuse blows after like a minute of really hard running of 5 minutes of medium hard running... it is the only amp... and its 2 rsd 12 SVC's so do i just need a bigger fuse?

10ga power wire for a 1200W amp is going to cut it dude. Like said before, you need a 4ga. If you plan on maybe adding more amps in the future, do yourself a favour and run 0/1ga now. It can never be too much.

-John

actually its 8 but i guess thats still bad? is that why its just blowing fuses? i jsut installed the 60 and havent really turned it up as i dont wanna break something other than a fuse

ferrariboy150 wrote:haha wow that was a lot of questions and its like 10 gauge power wire... really good ground... started at a 30 amp fuse for the wire 18 inches away, but now im 60. Where does an 80 amp one go?

Well, you can stop right now until you get bigger wire. 10 gauge is about 10 times to small. 10g Power wire is rated according to the PG wire chart Here as good for a 100Wrms amp, 8 feet from the battery. The 1200.1 is at least 1200 Wrms. It has to have large enough power cable, or you will destroy the amplifier.

When I had the amp in my pickup, it was the only amp, and I ran 0/1G to the rear of the extended cab, and then distributed down to 4g to the amp. The fuse goes in a inline fuse holder or fused distribution block as close to the amplifier as possible, no further than 18" from the B+ terminal on the amp. You still need an under hood fuse, because it protects your vehicle in case a large power wire shorts to ground. In my P/u the under hood fuse was actually a circuit breaker, 200Amp. The under hood fuse or CB has to be rated correctly for the gauge of wire that you will use. I would consult a certified installer in your area, or start doing research.

I know it sucks to have something, and not be able to start using it right away, but trust me, you are risking damaging both your amp and the ride by using under sized cable, and increasing the fuse size. IIRC, 10g wire is only rated for approximately 33 amps. Even if you get the amp to work with it, you will have circumvented the fuse protection by then, and you will melt that wire and start a fire.

I will continue in a moment, I gotta do some work.

Later,
J

okay so get some 4 gauge.. and there should be two fuses on it? one near the battery, and one near the amp?

yeaph, never run less than 4 gauge, in the future u may add more amps etc., i run a 0/1 gauge form battery(fused within 18") to the back of the vehicle, then goes into a distribution block that allows me to have four 4 gauge power outputs(lets call them, then the 4gauge power(fused there too),-( for each amp), goes out and into each amp- always use 4gauge wire on any pg amp, no matter what model-but for 1200 watts , i thinku should have 0/1 gauge at least from battery to the back-good luck!!)

i went to cicuit city for some stuff... oops =[ My brother works at the stereo shop too so most of that suff should be free.

ferrariboy150 wrote:okay so get some 4 gauge.. and there should be two fuses on it? one near the battery, and one near the amp?

Yes, exactly. Somewhere around the TI line, PG quit putting internal fuses in the amps. So, in order to protect the amp itself, you need to externally fuse it.

Okay, 8g is a little better, but still not good enough. 8g is capable of carrying about 50 amps. At this point, with a 60 amp fuse in it, the cable can and will start a fire before the fuse can blow. You would be advised to wait to run it for when you get the larger wire. These are BIG BIG BIG "IFS", but IF you put a 50amp fuse in the wire and get rid of the 60a one, IF you do not run the amp at anything more than low to low mid volumes, and IF you keep the bass boost turned all of the way down and your loudness control on the deck off, and all signal processing flat, THEN you should be relatively safe until you get bigger power and ground wires. If you blow the 50a fuse, turn the subs down, don't put in a larger fuse. If the power or ground wire gets warm at all, turn it down or stop using it.

The reason that you can damage an amp running undersized power wire is simply this: The wire is rated to carry a certain amount of current for it's size because it has resistance. The larger the wire, the lower the resistance. If you try to pull more current than the wire can support, the voltage will drop to maintain the current needed. The voltage drop can be very significant. More than a 5 volts in bad cases. The amp can still run at reduced voltage, however, it will try to draw even more current to make up for it. Increased current causes increased temperature. Eventually the amplifier will destroy itself trying to draw enough current to do it's job properly. That is, if it doesn't melt the power wire and catch the whole vehicle on fire first.

Now, on to wiring it. There should be a fuse or circuit breaker as close to the battery as possible. It should be rated for a little less current than the gauge of wire can support. 4 gauge is typically good for somewhere around 130a. It should be fused at the battery with a fuse value of approximately 125a. This protects the whole length of wire from the fuse back to the amplifiers. If the insulation breaks on the wire, or something cuts it and it shorts to the vehicle, then the fuse will blow and keep you from catching your wheels on fire. It needs to be as close to the battery as possible because the short piece of wire from the battery to the fuse holder will not be protected. This wire should be as short as it can be, and as well routed and protected as possible so it doesn't get pinched, chaffed or broken.

At the amplifier end, the 80a fuse is to protect the amp from similar scenarios to what I outlined above. If something goes wrong internally in the amp, the fuse will blow before it can cause a catastrophic end. If the amp is trying to draw more current because of an inadequate ground, or undersized wire, it will blow the fuse as well. If you roll w/o it, and a channel fails in the amp, the internal damage will be 100x worse than it would be with the fuse.

The ground wire is equally important. It must be the same size or larger than the power wire. What goes in must also go back out.

Another thing you could do to get by for now until you get larger power wire, is this: You could wire your subs in series, giving you an equivalent of an 8 ohm load to the amp. The amp will likely only put out 2-300 watts RMS in this scenario, but I think the power wire would be adequate temporarily.

Later,
Jason

okay heres how i got it so far today... 4 gauge solid ground with 4 gauge power wire still just with the 60 amp fuse near the bayttery

I still thinks he needs to go with 0 gauge wire. You're starving the amp for power which in turn can cause tremendous damage. There's a picture floating around here of a T1200.1 that looks like some one blew it up with dynamite, reason it blew was because they were using 8 gauge wire.

How far is the run from your battery to your amps?

fifteen feet is how much wire i got and i used it all

According to PG's chart you are using too small of power wire for that distance from battery.

Actually the chart is for Class AB amps, 4g is sufficient for a single Class D (T) amp of this size. If he ever adds another amp, he will have to upgrade again.

The manual for the Tantrum 1200.1 specifies 4g as well.

BTW, I am pretty sure that I have the other 1200.1 that you speak of. It was in very rough shape, but I fixed it It is currently running the stroker in my p/u.

Later,
Jason