Ok, so in terms of bass when discussing things breaking, how much is too much? Does anyone know if theres a limit to how much bass things like the rear hatch can take before cracking or breaking?

Right now I have a small 175wrms JL Audio amp and a single 12" JL sub. It hits decent, but I want to go big time and possibly enter a local competition or 2. My thinking was adding 2 Power Acoustik **** 12" subs rated at 1500wrms each and mate them up to an MB Quart RA1500.1 amp which puts out 1500wrms, so each sub will only see half of their actual rated power (I always like to shoot low for safeties sake)

I plan on having the typical well box, so the subs will be firing up into the bottom of the hatch. I have watched a few youtube videos of cars with the **** series subs installed and they have some crazy body flex going on. I'd hate to shatter the rear hatch by flexing it too much.

Any thoughts?

 

It would take a lot to break it.

When I was young and dumb, I have 4 12" Infinity Kappa Perfects in a sealed box in the back of a Grand Cherokee. Firing right at the hatch with over 1000 watts RMS.

Never broke the glass.

My hearing on the other hand, has suffered long term.

I think its a waste of time and effort these days, and really wish I had been smarter. 33 years old with permenent hearing damage sucks.

But I won some competitions though right?

The 3rd gen f body does not lend it self well to good cabin acousitcs.

If you are serious about stereo competition, get a wagon, or a van, or some other boring car.

JMHO.

 

Well, I certainly appreciate your honesty. A lot of things could be considered a waste of time and effort though. For me building a 700+ horsepower car seems like a waste of money to me because you will hardly ever use that sort of power legally on the street. A purpose built drag car, then sure, but street cars that almost never see the track? Whats the point?

Same goes for these insanely huge stereos. You cant use it all the time. Im fortunate enough that at 35, I havent suffered from any hearing loss, but on the flip side, I dont crank my system constantly either. Not saying you did either, just am grateful that I came out on the good side of things. But getting back on track... Just like a purpose built track car, theres a time and a place for that sort of thing.

I know after having a Chevy Blazer that a Camaro isnt the best for pure car audio, but Im not going to drive a Blazer as my daily either. I take the Camaro to local cruise ins and to a few Camaro specific shows, which is where the sound competition is held. I dont have any aspirations of entering IASCA events or SPL drag racing, I'll leave that to the guys with much bigger wallets than me. This years winner at the Camaro Rally was a 2011 6cyl with 2 15" MMATS Dreadnaughts that were running free air into the trunk pushing 3000wrms. I know I wont beat that with what im planning, but Id at least like to show up on stage and put up a little fight. I just dont want the rear glass to explode in the process.

 

I had 2- 12" subs in a built-in fiberglass box with 1200W in mine back in the day. I would wonder the same thing. The only thing I broke was my rear view mirror tab falling off the windshield a bunch, lol.

 

How far is too far? Subs. Subs are too far. There is no logical reason for putting sub woofers in a Camaro. You won't win any competitions thanks to the Camaro's design and listening to music at a reasonable volume is the way music should be listened to, not a battle between your eardrums and your audio. IT'S A CAMARO. IT IS MEANT TO BE FAST, not have "gangsta" music bellowing out of it.

 

Not every car with a stereo tries to win competitions, nor do they all play gangsta rap. I played just as much Metallica and Iron Maiden as I did DJ Magic Mike. My setup was aimed more towards sound quality but when I needed it I had the extra bass to rock the filings out of your teeth.

To each his/her own!

 

The thrid gen F-body has one of the BEST designs for bass recreation of any car I've installed a system in. There are literally thousand of cars and systems I've installed, did it professionally for about 20 years.

The design of the hatch creates a horn loaded design when the subs are installed in the well, and helps acoustically amplify the output of the sub-woofer(s).

Two 12s with 1500 watts powering them will not break the glass, unless there was already a fracture in the glass.

For anyone that says subs are "too much" or not worth obviously doesn't care about good sound quality, and having the ability to reproduce the entire audible spectrum. Subwoofers when used in a sound quality system add a lot to the over sound. They don't need to be overpowering.

Also the idea of underpowering speakers to save them is false. Power is not what kills speakers, distorted signal to the speakers does, especially when a signal is clipped (over driven). Many times overpowering speakers helps. I will always try to overpower subs when I can, you can pretty much guarantee that the signal will not be clipped when doing so, with the gains set properly.

The 3rd gen F-body is actually a pretty decent platform for a sound quality system as well, due to it's low wide layout, speakers can be installed very far forward in the kicks and create an excellent sound stage. There have been a number of 3rd gen F-bodies over the years compete and win in sound quality competitions. Less are known for SPL competitions, because, once you start installing the subs forward of the well in the hatch, the gain caused by the shape of the hatch starts to interfere with create large output. If serious output is desired a wall is usually employed, and then the rear hatch design is also negated at that point, and most any car could be used.

 

You know I find most funny about this comment? The it's meant to be fast. So all the 4 and 6 cyls were also meant to be fast. Along with that is the presumption that a large stereo system adds so much weight that you are will be slowed down to a crawl. The girl who owned the winning 5th gen at this years rally also drag races and autocrosses her car. She says she is now running faster in both areas with the additional weight in the trunk and has the time slips to back it up.

Im not looking to blow up the world with my car. I listen to a wide variety of music and dont crank up my stereo to max volume every time I turn the key... in fact I have never turned it up higher than 3/4 with music playing ever. It starts to distort at anything over 54 (out of 63) Even at the first Camaro rally where I actually did enter the sound comp, I ran it at 54 with my little 175 watts and got praise from the judges for how clean and balanced it sounded. I came in dead last and a bunch of the crowd were snickering, but I knew I was on the right track.

To those who actually had some experience with larger wattage systems in these cars, I thank you for the input and setting my mind at ease knowing that I wont be picking glass chunks from the carpet for years to come.

 

Yes, I stand by my statement that they were MEANT to be fast. Sometimes it seems that purpose grew distorted at GM....anyways good luck with your waste of mon-I mean system.

 

Once again... a waste of money in one persons opinion. In my opinion, having a super fast car is a waste of money. I drive my Z28 daily. My morning commute is 12.5 miles. It takes me 40 minutes in stop and go traffic. Do the math, it's a horrible average speed. My car is just as fast as the car in front of me, the car on the side of me and the car behind me. It doesnt matter if I have a 383 stroker or an Iron Duke, the extra power has no purpose.

So should I take my $125 for that one sub and spend it on handling? Why? I live in Florida. All the roads here are straight, so thats also a waste of money to a point (upgrades are never a complete waste of money, but some are more wasteful than others) Maybe I should just installl a nitrous fogger system in place of the subs... the car was meant to be fast afterall.

My biggest question is... why did you even bother posting in this thread? There are hundreds of threads on this forum asking about amps and subs and whatnot. By your logic, every single one of us is just wasting money and time, so why not preach to all of them too? Instead you come into the thread with the guy spending a very low dollar amount ($125 per sub, $250 for the amp) and state a very biased opinion that had nothing to do with actual question in the original post... is 1500 watts of power too much for the hatch glass to handle? Congratulations on being a very sucessfull troll. I bit on it, hook, line and sinker.

 

This post was in the new posts board. I needed to check if people could view my posts as my former account seemed to not be able to.

 

Now couldnt the same be said about properly setting gains on a small amp? For example... if I use my little JL Audio amp with its 175 watts of power and hook it up to a 1500 watt speaker. I know the gains are set to put out 175 watts rms @ 4ohms right now (measured 26.5v AC with a 50hz test tone at 3/4 volume). The current signal does not clip at all. Putting a higher wattage speaker with the same impedence shouldnt suddenly cause clipping if nothing else has changed correct?

 

Yes and no.

While you would think that just because the speaker attached is different it wouldn't affect the set-up of the amplifier, it will. Different loads react differently and cause different properties of the output of an amplifier. Manufacturers go to great extents to reduce this effect, but it is still there. Remember speakers specs as published by the manufacturer are only nominal specs, and the actual unit you have can have very different properties, but still within a margin of spec.

The issue with a small amp is that people always want more, and if they tweak the gain just a smidge, they will get a little more, and then they tire of that and so the gain gets tweaked just another smidge until it's too far and you get clipping. I say that and also that as long as there is no clipping, the damaged caused from clipping will not be there, but the danger is higher with a smaller amplifier than it is with a larger amplifier.

There's also the issue that a speaker designed to take a real 1500 watts, not just what it says on the box will take some serious power just to play well with the rest of the system. So a mismatch of a 1500 watt capable speaker being driven by a 150 watt amplifier will surely give you less than happy results.