Full Version: Sony X-plod
I just got an amp and 10" sub for x-mas. Sony x-plod 800w max power 125w x 2 @ 4 ohms. (amp). 1100w peak power 300w rated power 4 ohm X-plod sub. The paper work doesn't say the word "bridgeable" but shows a monaural wiring option for the sub, and in a different section says something about 800w @ 2 ohms. My questions are, is this amp bridgeable? If so will it become an 800w 2 ohm and blow up my sub? Is there a way to make the 125w x 2 a 250 x 1? Finally is this amp too much, not enough, or useable? Bear in mind I am putting this system in an old "73" Ford F-100 and allready have two 6"x9" and two 6" round Sony X-plodes so I don't really need any thing huge. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.
Can you give me the model number of the amp. I cant tell you how to wire untill then. But I can say, that amp will work with that sub. You will theoretically get 200W RMS from the amp. Just dont blast it, because you will get distortion. And distortion = Blown Amp. Truset me, Iv done it, and it sucks seeing 2 $200 subs not work.
Well, the model number wouldd be useful.
A couple of things though.
1. Most car amplifiers, (Certainly the Sony Xplod line) are only stable to 2 ohms per channel, and in many cases, that's pushing it. When you bridge an amplifier, each channel only sees 1/2 the load, so a 2 ohm sub becomes a 1 ohm per channel load. The amp probably won't die pushing this at moderate levels, but it might. You'd be overdrawing what the power supply is capable of producing, plus generating more heat in the output transistors, which can fry them. Of course, this only applies if you connect a single 2 ohm sub to the amplifier. If you connect a single 4 ohm sub to the amplifier, each channel sees a 2 ohm load, and power will be approximately halved. (Though probably not, because there's no way at all that I can see an Xplod amp having a PSU which can keep pushing that kind of power.)
2. Wattage doesn't kill speakers, distortion kills speakers. True that too high a wattage will, in time, cause the speaker's voice coil to fail, in practice, you can drive a LOT of power into a subwoofer, and it'll be fine. Also, the wattage that the amplifier CAN produce and the wattage that it DOES produce may be different things. It certainly will be unless you drive aroud with the stereo at top volume all the time. With that for a sub and amp, I'd bet that you wouldn't really want to. This isn't real high end stuff, and isn't going to sound very good if pushed too hard.
3. Wattage ratings on most amps are a load of crap. until you get into high end stuff, the wattage ratings on most amplifiers means NOTHING. It's more a marketing number than an actual measure of performance. I'd put my old amp (Rated for 30WX2) against that, and I'd bet that mine would be both louder and clearer. As of 2006, there's a voluntary standard for measuring an amplifier's output which does make some of these ratings BETTER, but they allow a THD (Total Harmonic Dostortion) factor which is MUCH higher than any I'd be willing to put up with, so a company that's willing to push those limits can still pump up their marketing claims, whereas a company which puts out high quality products will come out understated. It's also a voluntary system, so not all manufacturers are even adhering to it. (Sony is, at least.) However, these ratings are always at 4 ohms per channel. As soon as you start talking bridged, or lower impedance, the rules go out the window, and people start making outrageous claims.
If you had an infinite power supply, and created an amp that made 100W into 8 ohms (Or 50W/channel into a pair of 4 ohm loads, which is the same thing.) and then started reducing the load, at 4 ohms, you would get 200W. At 2 ohms, you'd get 400W.
Let's look at this with your amp. It's original spec says 125W X2 @ 4 Ohms. That's 250W at 8 ohms. 500W at 4 ohms, or 1000W at 2 ohms. Impressive, right? But that wattage has to go through the power supply, and then through the output transistors. These can only handle so much, and if they're overspec enough to handle 1000W, (or 800W even) then they're spending a lot of money on components that they didn't "need" to. Also, every time you increase wattage by reducing load, you increase distortion. It's unavoidable. If they're already pushing the distortion figures to start with, the result is unlistenable.
It's not that bad though. The speaker's impedance is nominal. The actual impedance changes with frequency, and is typically higher than nominal at anything that you can actually hear. The result is that the amp doesn't sound that bad when pushed -- at least not until you've heard something signifigantly better.
It seems like you have realistic goals for what this has got to do, so you should be able to go ahead and install it as is, and hopefully get some low end reinforcement for your tunes.
A couple of things though.
1. Most car amplifiers, (Certainly the Sony Xplod line) are only stable to 2 ohms per channel, and in many cases, that's pushing it. When you bridge an amplifier, each channel only sees 1/2 the load, so a 2 ohm sub becomes a 1 ohm per channel load. The amp probably won't die pushing this at moderate levels, but it might. You'd be overdrawing what the power supply is capable of producing, plus generating more heat in the output transistors, which can fry them. Of course, this only applies if you connect a single 2 ohm sub to the amplifier. If you connect a single 4 ohm sub to the amplifier, each channel sees a 2 ohm load, and power will be approximately halved. (Though probably not, because there's no way at all that I can see an Xplod amp having a PSU which can keep pushing that kind of power.)
2. Wattage doesn't kill speakers, distortion kills speakers. True that too high a wattage will, in time, cause the speaker's voice coil to fail, in practice, you can drive a LOT of power into a subwoofer, and it'll be fine. Also, the wattage that the amplifier CAN produce and the wattage that it DOES produce may be different things. It certainly will be unless you drive aroud with the stereo at top volume all the time. With that for a sub and amp, I'd bet that you wouldn't really want to. This isn't real high end stuff, and isn't going to sound very good if pushed too hard.
3. Wattage ratings on most amps are a load of crap. until you get into high end stuff, the wattage ratings on most amplifiers means NOTHING. It's more a marketing number than an actual measure of performance. I'd put my old amp (Rated for 30WX2) against that, and I'd bet that mine would be both louder and clearer. As of 2006, there's a voluntary standard for measuring an amplifier's output which does make some of these ratings BETTER, but they allow a THD (Total Harmonic Dostortion) factor which is MUCH higher than any I'd be willing to put up with, so a company that's willing to push those limits can still pump up their marketing claims, whereas a company which puts out high quality products will come out understated. It's also a voluntary system, so not all manufacturers are even adhering to it. (Sony is, at least.) However, these ratings are always at 4 ohms per channel. As soon as you start talking bridged, or lower impedance, the rules go out the window, and people start making outrageous claims.
If you had an infinite power supply, and created an amp that made 100W into 8 ohms (Or 50W/channel into a pair of 4 ohm loads, which is the same thing.) and then started reducing the load, at 4 ohms, you would get 200W. At 2 ohms, you'd get 400W.
Let's look at this with your amp. It's original spec says 125W X2 @ 4 Ohms. That's 250W at 8 ohms. 500W at 4 ohms, or 1000W at 2 ohms. Impressive, right? But that wattage has to go through the power supply, and then through the output transistors. These can only handle so much, and if they're overspec enough to handle 1000W, (or 800W even) then they're spending a lot of money on components that they didn't "need" to. Also, every time you increase wattage by reducing load, you increase distortion. It's unavoidable. If they're already pushing the distortion figures to start with, the result is unlistenable.
It's not that bad though. The speaker's impedance is nominal. The actual impedance changes with frequency, and is typically higher than nominal at anything that you can actually hear. The result is that the amp doesn't sound that bad when pushed -- at least not until you've heard something signifigantly better.
It seems like you have realistic goals for what this has got to do, so you should be able to go ahead and install it as is, and hopefully get some low end reinforcement for your tunes.
QUOTE (SupraGuy @ Feb 4 2009, 05:05 PM) 
X-Plode
Hmmmm....very appropriate name...
Seriously, if you want to really plush out the deep end , you should try some bass shakers. They are cheap, easy to install, and enforce the sub range very well, without having to add a bunch of noise.
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