I was thinking aBout it right now and what I can do is

put the sony 8 back to he surround sound system

then get a plate amp and use that for my kicker 12 and my other m2 12 sub

ill be running all 3 subs in my room and it shouldn't be too bad on any of my amps!

damn that's a freakin sweet idea!
ill put the 8 in the frnt and the 2 12s at the corners of the room behind me.

wow!
I can't wait

does that sound good?

o and

why is some saying a 500 amp plate ok for a 350rms sub

but others say its bad for the sub?

I think you're mixing up what brian was saying about peak watts vs rms watts.

If both those values are rms, the amp could blow out the sub. If the amp is rated at 500w peak, then you should be ok to power a 350w RMS sub.

Actually, I always speak in rms terms. And it is better to run a higher power amp than the sub can technically handle because of the duty cycle of the signal; where you only run max rms power for about 10% of the time, and MUCH lower power on average. For movies or any other dynamic media, you want some headroom. If you are running 200w to the sub during normal listening, then a car explosion hits, the sub will want more power for that time then the amp can deliver and will clip. It's much healthier for the sub to see clean power than dirty clipped power.

ya thats what i thought.

it just makes more sence to me.

well.... then..... If you are going to run two 12" car subs off a plate amp there is something you need to consider, speaker impedance. Most car subs are 4 ohm impedance, but some are 2, 8, 6, or even dual voice coil models which have two impedance values. It should say, "4 ohm" or something similar on the magnet of the woofer. Lets assume they are both 4 ohm subs- you can either wire them in series for an 8 ohm load, or in parallelfor a 2 ohm load. Those are your options for wiring 2 subs to a single channel plate amp. Most home audio amps are rated at 8 ohms, so the 8 ohm in series example would work, but a 500 watt rms amp would only give 250 watts to each sub, power is split equally. A 2 channel amp rated for 4 ohm operation would also work, I just thought you should keep this in mind when selecting an amplifier.

hmmmmm... well.

idk what im going to do yet. i guess ill see how it goes when i get my 12 hitting harder.

also i was thinking right now...

how do i connect the sub to run at the same speed/time or w/e as all the other speakers? since it is being ran by a separate unit how would i do that?

First, what is the power rating and impedance of the sub? Is it dual voice coil? If so, what is the impedance of each coil?

I really don't get the second question. Plate amps usually have hi-level inputs that you can route your main speaker wires through and it picks up the signal from that. Also, they usually have a low-level signal jack (RCAs) if your receiver has those types of outputs. There shouldn't be any kind of delay worth considering since the signal is not being carried by squirrels or something like that. :wink:

well what im saying is thatttt
usually when u have an amp you hook it up to the player and you run all the speakers ad everything through the one amp

with this one I need to run the plate amp to the other amp without using any power from that amp.
I didn't know if there were just rca cords to connect
ill see when I get it though

usually just an rca cord, you don't have to worry about delay, it will all be up to speed

I'm curious about current plate amps now, I've been out of the audio loop for awhile, BrianG- got any good links for amps??

When I first read your post on setting up three subs, that was my number one concern. Yes, you'll have bass up the wazzzooo, but its all going to be out of phase and sound like crap unless you have crossovers (do plate amps have these built in?). If they dont, then you need to purchase them, and add them to the circuit. For your front subs - you can purchase a RCA "sub splitter jack" - basically allows for one in and two out. Run your sub out to it, then individual RCA's to each sub. (my M&K has "networking" built in for running subs in series or parrallel?) For the rear surround sub - I'd look for a plate amp that allows you to run both your R and L surround speaker wires into it, and has sub out, and R/L audio out. I dont have a clue if they even make such a thing, but in that scenario, your sub would be carrying the low bass for both the surrounds.

whoa, whoa, whoa, we're talking about a sony reciever in a "hang out" room here, not a stack of krell components in a classical music playing reference system. Unless he mixes up red for black the speakers wont be out of phase, a crossover would be nice, but he just wants more boom. I think he's on the right track and as his audio taste and knowledge grows, maybe then we can get into crossovers and timbre matching and speaker placement, but for a boombox in a gameroom how in depth do we have to get? I guess we should ask t-maxxracer. Hey t-maxxracer- do you want the best of the best in an audiophile style system, or do you just want more boom for you room? The sky is the limit when it comes to audio, makes r/c's seem cheap, I do miss my denon/b&w/martin logan home theatre setup, but the $10,000 was better used elsewhere!

Actually, multiple subs that are not colocated will not be in phase at the listening position.

PartsExpress is where I shop at for fairly inexpensive DIY parts. You might find cheaper stuff elsewhere so shop around. For plate amps, this is what they have.

Looks like the 240w version is about the max you'll get for a relatively low price of $100. It gets expensive for more power than that, and they don't have speaker in/out terminals. And usually, if the amp has speaker in/out terminals, it includes a crossover to limit the low frequencies to your main speakers. The 240w version is the output rating at 4 ohms. If using an 8 ohm sub, it's 170w. So impedance does play a role here, which is why it's important to know what you plan to run on the amp.

In case your sub is dual voice coil:
- If each coil is 2 ohms, hook them in series for 4 ohms total
- If each coil is 4 ohms, hook them in series for 8 ohms total. Hooking them in parallel gets you 2 ohms and that's too low for most amps and the amp would be unstable.
- If each coil is 8 ohms, hook them in parallel for 4 ohms total.

Hookup of a plate amp is as simple as cutting out an opening in your sub box, hooking up the sub's wires, screwing the plate into the hole, and hooking to 120v and to your system. If your receiver has sub RCA outputs, use those. If not, route your main speaker wire to the sub speaker inputs and then to your speakers.

And about the phasing issue: Yes, it can make a difference, but he's not running high end stuff to make a difference. Usually, simply using the phase reverse switch on the sub amp to adjust to 0* or 180* is adequate. Ideally, you'd want all your speakers to be mounted on the same vertical plane for proper phasing, but then your sub response might not be the best in that location. Higher-end sub amps have adjustable phase control for this, but those are more expensive and I'm sure cost is an issue here.