just installed a woofer...

[vpwgn]

gday. ive just installed a woofer and an amp and have a few questions. firstly wat sorta wiring are you meant to run from the amp to the sub? i just used stuff that i found at home and it works and stuff. secondly, its in a wagon and ive earthed it to the bolt that the seatbelts runs over (the bolt on the pillar that is next to your head when your sitting on the right hand side in the backseat) is this is an alright place to earth too or is there a better place? thirdly, theres a setting a dial for the LPF that has 50hz and at the other extreme it says 200hz, where shuld it be? ive got it at half atm. And lastly ive set the gane to about 60%. is this ok? it sounds good and i dont think its making life too hard for the amp. Oh and also is it true you have "run in" your sub for a wk or two before crankin it? this is wat ppl at BCS told me wen i got my 6". is this true? well any help would be fantastic thanks. Sory for the long post.
Nick

PS its a pioneer 12" 800watt woofer and a Boss 400watt 2 channel amp in case neway was wondering.

 

[Bax]

Yeah your sposed to run in your sub.. Can't remember the procedure, I just think you take it easy for a while.

 

[2_SeeK_U]

Yeah,u do have to run in your sub... doesn't take a week though if you do it right!!

As for the cabbling, you should have roughy an 8 gauge wire for your power, as for speakers, just use a well shielded speaker wire (Not your typical home theater cables). As for the setup, just set it to what ever sounds good.

 

[ViperVp]

With the earthing, as long as its a good contact too the body its a prefect eath.

 

[vpwgn]

Yeah,u do have to run in your sub... doesn't take a week though if you do it right!!

What the right way? do i just not crank it for like a week or sumfin? does it matter if ive had it pretty loud a cpl of times? how do i know wen its been "run in"? will it sound different?
Nick.

 

[MoSkA]

WHY WAS I NEVER NOTIFIED OF THIS!?!

I never ran my subbie in (Boss 12" 1000w) and she went good for 4-5 months, I absolutely hammer it though. It's on it's way out ATM but I won't replace the one in the FORD. Cuz once I get my P's I'll use my Commie and my mum will never use the subbie in the FORD (EWWWWWWWW, I'm starting to feel a little ill just saying it)

 

[vpcrappadoor]

i aint ever run any of my subz in i crank em straight out to tune em in on me amp...got a 15"pioneer and a mono block rockford fosgate power punch 50.1 ITS CHROME i mean polished

 

[cyan_eyed]

Power cable

You should probably use thicker than 8ga for the power wire. I'm using 8ga on an amp rated at a very modest 200W. Its stated power handling is 40A. With an 800W sub and 400W/channel amp, presumably you have the sub bridged over both channels. That's 66A at 12 volts at the sub's power max. 4ga would probably be better. Also, if you use 4ga, you can get more screw-on parts (like terminals, power distribution blocks, etc) which sounds trivial but if you've tried to crimp 8ga... Now that I've written that I'm assuming that's all RMS power you're talking. If that's 400w ptp, 8ga should be ok.

Regarding the filter settings, it depends on your box as well. The best way to check is to spend a few hours testing different filter settings. You'll know if you have the gain up too high cos you'll get distortion.